Contemporary art films the focus in Italian film fest
FOR ITS fourth year, the Moviemov Italian Film Festival is presenting a selection of art films at the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) Cinematheque in Manila.
The festival opened on April 23 and runs until April 26.
The eight films being shown this week will be introduced by Italian actors, directors, and film critics including actor Lorenzo Richelmy who presented the opening film, Una Questione Privata (2017) by director Paolo e Vittorio.
Mr. Richelmy played Giorgio, one of the persons involved in an ill-fated love triangle set in Italy’s partisan resistance during the Second World War. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Beppe Fenoglio and was presented in the Masters section of the Toronto Film Festival.
Also to be shown in the festival lineup is Il Cratere (2017), directed by Luca Bellino and Silvia Luzi, which tells the story of a frustrated fairground huckster who becomes obsessed with turning his adolescent daughter’s singing talent into a lucrative career.
The film’s directors will be presenting the film which screens on April 25.
Selfie (2019), a documentary by Agostino Ferrente — who will be in attendance during the film’s presentation on Wednesday — is a slice-of-life seen through the lens of two 16-year-olds from Naples. The film will be screened on April 24.
Il Figlio, Manuel (2017) by Dario Albertini, meanwhile, is about a young man who leaves an education center where he was placed after his mother was jailed. The film will be screened on April 24.
The Dreamers (2003) by Bernardo Bertolucci is, a romantic drama based on the novel by Gilbert Adair, The Holy Innocents. Set during the 1968 Paris student riots, it revolves around an American university student in Paris who meets a brother and sister with whom he engages in an erotic triangle. It will be screened on April 25.
Saremo Giovani E Belissimi (2017) by Letizia Lamartire is a film set in the 1990s and follows an 18-year-old singer who keeps singing for 20 years in small town bars while blaming her son for stunting her career.
The film’s star, Federica Sabatini, will present the film during the April 25 screening.
C’e Tempo (2019) by Walter Vetroni, which screens on April 26, is about half-brothers, one a rainbow researcher and the other a young film lover who embark on a journey after meeting each other for the first time after the death of their father.
Troppa Grazia (2018) by Gianni Zanasi is about a woman juggling motherhood with romance and career who suddenly encounters a woman who tells her that the building she’s working on poses hazards. It screens on April 26
Finally, the festival ends its 2019 run with La Paranza dei Bambini (2019) by Claudio Giovanessi, based on the novel Piranhas by Roberto Saviano. The film follows a group of 15-year-old boys from Naples who dream of gaining power and easy money and make their way into a world of crime.
The film won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival.
The festival runs until April 26 at the FDCP Cinematheque, 855 Kalaw Ave., Ermita, Manila. Entrance is free.
For more information visit www.philippineitalianassociation.org. — Z.B. Chua
