04/01/2007

In early 2006 it was already the revelation of the year, with over €15m at the box office. Now, Fausto Brizzi’s Night Before Finals is continuing, but with a prequel rather than sequel. Actually, the director has called it a "newquel", coining a new phrase for a new story set contemporarily with the same characters that made his debut film so successful.

The cast of Night Before Finals: Today includes Giorgio Panariello and Carolina Crescentini, along with lead actor Nicolas Vaporidis. The film was produced by I.I.F., Aurora and RAI Cinema and will be released by 01 Distribution on February 14.

Eugenio Cappuccio, on the other hand, will be coming out with his fifth film, after the excellent Volevo solo dormirle addosso (presented at the 2004 Venice Film Festival). With his new Uno su due [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (lit. “One in Two”), which screened at the debut edition of the RomeFilmFest, the director once again chooses as his main character an ambitious young man going through a profound moment in life.

While the previous film was about a manager of a multi-national company forced to fire 25 colleagues in exchange for a luminous career, the new story is about a lawyer forced to face a sudden and horrible illness. Starring Fabio Volo and Anita Caprioli , Uno su due will also be distributed by 01

The Istituto Luce line-up includes a small film produced in 2004 by Indigo Film, Apnea [+see also:
trailer
film profile], featuring Claudio Santamaria (Romanzo criminale [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michele Placido
film profile]) and directed by Roberto Dordit, a young filmmaker who has worked in France making commercials documentaries. The film tells the story of a sports journalist and previously outstanding fencer who investigates the death of his friend, a former fencing champion.

Coming to Italy after having debuted in France right before Christmas with 1.35m admissions in just five days is Arthur and the Invisibles [+see also:
trailer
film profile] , the ambitious new children’s film by Luc Besson (a €65m budget and five years in the making). The film mixes real actors with 3D animation, as the “invisibles” in the title are Minimoys, gentle creatures just three millimetres tall.

Other noteworthy European titles on release include Black Book [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Paul Verhoeven, who returned to his native Holland after 20 years to make an engaging film of Dutch resistance against the Nazi occupation of WWII (to be distributed by DNC on February 2), as well as British director Anthony Minghella’s US/UK co-production Breaking and Entering [+see also:
trailer
film profile], an ambiguous and intimate story set in today’s contradictory and multi-ethnic London, featuring Jude Law and Juliette Binoche (February 9, Buena Vista International).

(Translated from Italian)