Italian cinema is experiencing a moment of grace. This is the summary of ben's participation in the competition five Italian films, a record number, at the next 2021 Venice International Film Festival. As the director of the Festival, Alberto Barbera, this "It is the photograph of a moment of grace, in which already established filmmakers seem to be able to express themselves to the best of their abilities, while others confirm themselves as essential points of reference for the cinema of today and tomorrow ". A more consistent number than usual that is not a homage to national production nor a way to meet the difficulties of the moment. Rather, it is the recognition of quality production. As if to say that Italian cinema exists.
Sorrentino, Martone, Mainetti, the twins D'Innocenzo and Frammartino the Italian directors in competition
Immediately then the Italian films in competition selected for the Venice Film Festival number 78 to be held on the Lido from 1 to 11 September. These are highly anticipated and prestigious films. Let's start from It was the hand of God by the Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino who returns to his Naples to tell, is a film dedicated to his life, the story of a boy in Naples in the eighties when the football legend arrives Diego Armando Maradona. In the cast Toni Servillo, Luisa Ranieri, Filippo Scotti. Mario Martone competes in Venice with the film Qui laugh io, a tribute to the Neapolitan actor and playwright Eduardo Scarpetta (1815-1925) who will be played in the film by Toni Servillo.
Freak out by Gabriele Mainetti tells a story set in Rome in 1943. With Claudio Santamaria, Aurora Giovinazzo, Pietro Castellitto and Giancarlo Martini, it is together, the director explains to Ansa, "an adventure story, a coming-of-age novel, a reflection on diversity ". Always in competition Latin america by the twins Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo, starring Elio Germano, “a love story and like all love stories a thriller”. The hole, by Michelangelo Frammartino, tells of the discovery by a group of speleologists of one of the deepest caves in the world in the Pollino plateau. The only witness, an old shepherd. These are the five Italian films in competition. But There are about twenty Italian films that will arrive at the Lido for the next Film Festival, out of competition and other sections.
American films, majors and many stars return to the Venice Film Festival 2021
American cinema and the majors are also back in force with all their outline of stars and darlings / darlings of the public. There are few notable absences, perhaps China which, however, as the director of the Festival explained, "is present with two shorts and some co-productions". Many expected and much announced names and also many discoveries by young authors. To confirm, despite everything, "the extraordinary vitality of contemporary cinema". The film, by Pedro Almodòvar, will open the Festival, Parallel Mothers. Particular attention to the films related to music with films about Leonard Cohen, Ezio Bosso, Fabrizio De André. Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to Roberto Benigni, Lifetime Achievement Award also to Jamie Lee Curtis. Godmother of the Festival will be the actress Serena Rossi.
The program of the Festival, a rich and quality program
There are 21 films in competition, two more than last year. Ten days of Festival with important artistic and thematic contents, with an intense program, very Italian and of excellent quality, as its director Alberto Barbera wanted to underline. "Bound", as last year, to the safety rules to avoid contagions that will perhaps be even more stringent. However, the cinema goes on. This year the Venice Film Festival has chosen for the image of the official poster "two characters who film each other in a sort of dance ... under the spotlight of a set ... Looks in comparison could be called ... in a period in which the gaze gains strength as a new relationship between people". Word of the Italian author and illustrator Lorenzo Mattotti who signs the poster and also the initials of the Venice Biennale International Film Festival.
(ph credit: Venice Biennale fb page)
Well done 👏