05/01/2006

2006 promises to be the year of the comeback of Italian thoroughbreds. Auteur cinema will return to theatres by way of films by important directors such as Marco Bellocchio, Nanni Moretti and Gianni Amelio, who will probably aspire to represent Italy at the next Berlin, Cannes and Venice Film Festivals. Some surprises will certainly also come from Giuseppe Salvatores, Roberta Torre, Davide Ferrario, Gabriele Muccino and Pupi Avati, and also of note are the directorial debuts of two well-regarded actors, Kim Rossi Stuart and Fabrizio Bentivoglio.

Very much anticipated for March is Il caimano [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jean Labadie
interview: Nanni Moretti
film profile] (TN: The Caiman) by Nanni Moretti, in the director’s words, "a fiction film in the best tradition of socially committed Italian cinema, just like Francesco Rosi’s Hands Over the City was, for example, in his time". The only thing known for certain about the film is that the subject is current president Silvio Berlusconi. “My goal, however, is not to make a film that will change voters’ minds about Berlusconi,” said Moretti, “nor to reassure a certain kind of leftist audience of its certainties. I don’t like those kinds of films as a director, nor as a spectator. On the contrary, I hope that Il caimano will simply stir up some doubts ". The cast features Silvio Orlando, Margherita Buy and Jasmine Trinca.

Also anticipated for the spring is Marco Bellocchio’s Il regista di matrimoni (TN: The Wedding Director). Bellocchio once again casts Sergio Castellitto in the lead, as a director going through a crisis who finds out that his daughter wants to marry a fervent Neocatechumenal Catholic, so he decides to leave for Sicily, where he meets a man who makes his living shooting wedding films. The film is produced by Film Albatros, Dania, Immagine, and RAI Cinema.

Six years after Malèna, Oscar-winner Giuseppe Tornatore is back, with La sconosciuta, a complex web of emotions and mystery set in Trieste and due out in cinemas next September. Produced by Medusa Film, together with Miramax, with a budget of 8m euro, the Sicilian director’s noir cast includes Michele Placido, Margherita Buy and young Russian television star Xenia Rappoport in the lead role.

For his The Missing Star (o.t. La stella che non c’è), inspired by Ermanno Rea’s novel La dismissione, Gianni Amelio went all the way to China with his quixotic main character, a steelworker played by Sergio Castellitto. The film, produced by Cattleya, RAI Cinema, Babe Productions and Carac Film, will be distributed by 01 Distribution. (to be continued)

(Translated from Italian)