Lost and Beautiful by Pietro Marcello, in competition at Locarno
- Other Italian films selected and being shown out of competition include Genitori by Alberto Fasulo, I sogni del lago salato by Andrea Segre, and Romeo e Giulietta by Massimo Coppola
Pietro Marcello will be representing Italy in the International Competition of the 68th Locarno Film Festival (5-15 August 2015). The Caserta-born director, who won the Award for Best Film with The Mouth of the Wolf [+see also:
film review
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interview: Pietro Marcello
film profile] at the Turin Film Festival in 2009, will compete for the Golden Leopard with his new film, Lost and Beautiful [+see also:
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interview: Pietro Marcello
film profile]. Produced by Avventurosa in cooperation with Rai Cinema and supported by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, the film is an on-the-road story about the Italian province of Caserta, filmed on photographic film: from the bowels of Vesuvius, Pulcinella is sent to Campania to grant the final wishes of the shepherd Tommaso, that is, to save a young buffalo by the name of Sarchiapone. Pulcinella finds the little buffalo in the Carditello palace, an abandoned Bourbon residence buried deep in the heart of the land of fire, and takes it with him to the North, embarking on a long journey through a beautiful and lost Italy, at the end of which they fail to find what they were hoping to. The film will be distributed by Istituto Luce Cinecittà.
Four more Italian films have been selected for screening out of competition at Locarno. First up is Parents [+see also:
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film profile] by Alberto Fasulo (who won the Award for Best Film at the Rome International Film in 2013 for Tir [+see also:
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interview: Alberto Fasulo
film profile]), which tells the story of a group of parents of disabled children who have been meeting every two weeks for 16 years to talk about their difficult everyday lives; the film was produced by Nefertiti Film in cooperation with Rai Cinema. The winner of the 2012 Lux Prize for Shun Li and the Poet [+see also:
film review
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interview: Andrea Segre
interview: Andrea Segre
film profile], Andrea Segre, will be attending Locarno with Dreams of the Salt Lake [+see also:
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interview: Andrea Segre
film profile], a documentary produced by Ambleto with Rai Cinema and filmed in Kazakhstan, a country in the grips of the euphoria of oil and gas-based development whose fate is strongly tied to the Italian economy. The third Italian film being screened out of competition at Locarno is Romeo e Giulietta [+see also:
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film profile] by Massimo Coppola, the director of Hai paura del buio [+see also:
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film profile] (which was selected for Venice in 2010). The film, which was produced by Standard Films and Indigo Film, stars Coppola himself along with Valerio Mastandrea, Nino Smith, Mary Monrovich and Hasib Omerovic. Last but not least is the debut film of Fabio Leli: Living the High Life [+see also:
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film profile] (a Human Tree production), a docufilm about the invasion of legal gambling in Italy, which was made with funds raised through crowdfunding.
Signs of Life, the section of the Locarno Film Festival dedicated to films that experiment with new narrative models, will feature L’infinita fabbrica del Duomo [+see also:
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film profile] by Italian duo Martina Parenti and Massimo D’Anolfi, the directors behind acclaimed documentaries such as Il castello (2011) and Dark Matter [+see also:
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film profile] (2013). Their new film, which documents the complex restoration of the Duomo of Milan over one calendar year, has been produced by Montmorency Film with Rai Cinema. As a special event to close the Festival, there will also be a screening of Asino vola by Paolo Tripodi and Marcello Fonte, a first film for children produced by tempesta with Rai Cinema, starring Luigi Lo Cascio with the voices of Maria Grazia Cucinotta and Lino Banfi.
Then, when the Golden Leopard is awarded, the debut feature film of Marco Bellocchio, Fist in His Pocket (1965), will be screened in Piazza Grande, 50 years on from its first screening at Locarno; screenings of some of the famous director’s other films, My Mother’s Smile [+see also:
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film profile], Good Morning, Night [+see also:
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interview: Marco Bellocchio, director …
film profile] and Vincere [+see also:
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interview: Cannes 2009
Marco Bellocc…
interview: Filippo Timi - actor
film profile], will also be held. Finally, Pastorale cilentana, a short film by Mario Martone made for Expo in Milan, will be screened in its international premiere in Piazza Grande: the film is a story of humanity told through the relationship between man and agriculture, and is a Palomar production.
(Translated from Italian)