26/09/2005

They are part of Italian film legend, working for Fellini, Risi, Monicelli and Comencini. With their fantastic faces, their wit and jokes, they acted with the greatest movie stars of the 40's, 50's and 60's. Minor actors were great "characters", and the 9th Terra di Siena Film Festival (26 September – 2 October) underlines it with a large retrospective, in collaboration with the national Cineteca of the Experimental Film Centre.
'These great "characters", says the actor and director Carlo Verdone, head of the festival, have greatly contributed to drama and comedy, especially from 1945 to1965, since they were more than just faces: they embodied a certain social condition with great realism.' Besides the retrospective, a conference will celebrate the importance of these 'small parts' and debate their gradual disappearance from the scripts. 'Since the 1980's, new comics and the absolute figure of the actor-director-scriptwriter have prevailed over small characters. TV is also responsible for this change, since it does not need "characters" but simple ad hoc protagonists who are not half as good.'

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In international competition, the festival will screen a very fine selection of European films (chosen by Giovanni Bogani) with a point in common, the youth of the actors. The public will discover fast and furious Swedes in Babylosjukan - The Babylon Disease by Daniel Espinosa (Sweden, 2004), a young out and happy gay guy in Cachorro - Bear Cub by Miguel Albaladejo (Spain); lost Crash Test Dummies filmed by Jorg Kalt (Austria, 2005); a German and a Yemeni friend in Fremder Freund by Elmar Fischer (Germany, 2003); a hopeless football substitute in El penalti màs largo del mundo by Roberto Santiago (Espagne, 2005); the supporters of Sparta Prague in Non plus Ultras by Jakub Sluka (Czech Republic, 2004); confused provincial youngsters in Texas by Fausto Paravidino (Italy, 2005).

(Translated from Italian)