PAOLO Sorrentino’s “The Great Beauty”
After a one-year absence, the Moviemov Italian Film Festival returns with no less than an Oscar and Bafta winner as centerpiece.
In lieu of the fest last year, organizers had joined relief efforts for the survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.”
“We brought Italian doctors and relief goods to Tacloban City and other hard-hit areas,” recalled Alfonso Tagliaferri, first secretary/deputy head of mission of the Embassy of Italy in Manila.
Major coup
PAOLO Virzi’s “Human Capital”
Major coup for this year’s event is Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Great Beauty,” 2014 winner of the Academy Award, Golden Globe and Bafta for best foreign language film. A Cannes 2013 entry, “The Great Beauty” earlier swept the European Film Awards.
“The Great Beauty,” which has thus won at least 34 trophies, leads Moviemov’s lineup of the most acclaimed films produced in Italy last year.
To be showcased for free, from today till Sunday at Shang Cineplex of Shangri-La Plaza mall, are nine contemporary and three classic Italian films.
Ferzan Ozpetek’s “Fasten Your Seatbelts” was featured at the 2014 Seattle International Film Festival; Carlo Verdone’s “Sotto Una Buona Stella,” at the 2014 ICFF Italian Contemporary
ETTORE Scola’s “The Dinner”
Film Festival.
Paolo Virzi’s “Human Capital” was screened at the Seattle, Sydney and Tribeca fests. (Valeria Bruni won best actress at Tribeca). It beat “The Great Beauty” for best film at the David Di Donatello awards, the Italian Oscars. It has won 21 awards so far.
First-time filmmaker Sydney Sibilia’s “I Can Quit Whenever I Want” was part of the Bari, Brussels, Open Roads and Shanghai fests and won the Globi D’Oro (Italian Golden Globe) for best comedy.
Well-traveled
DANIELE Luchetti’s “Those Happy Years”
Other well-traveled films on the list: Massimo Andrei’s “Benur: Un Gladiatore in Affitto” (New Italian Cinema in Warsaw, Cinema Italia in Miami/Atlanta/San Juan, Rome International Film Festival); Fabio Mollo’s “South is Nothing” (Turin, Toronto, Rome, Berlin), and Daniele Luchetti’s “Those Happy Years” (Tokyo, Toronto, BFI London, Hong Kong).
Acquiring these celebrated films can be costly but, Tagliaferri noted, festival artistic director Goffredo Bettini spared no expense to deliver the best of Italian cinema.
After retrospectives on Dario Argento and spaghetti Westerns in previous fests, Moviemov now presents three works by master filmmaker Ettore Scola: “The Pizza Triangle” (1970), “We
FABIO Mollo’s “South is Nothing”
All Loved Each Other So Much” (1974) and “The Dinner” (1998).
Making its world premiere in the fest is actor Andrea Bosca’s directorial debut, the short film “A Tutto Tondo”—a wistful love letter to the Philippines, Tagliaferri explained. “Instead of partying, Andrea insisted on seeing Smokey Mountain and Tondo when he visited the Philippines two years ago for Moviemov.”
The short film is about an Italian man’s encounter with an overseas Filipino worker’s family in Rome.
Said Tagliaferri, “Andrea was moved by the Filipinos’ warmth and resilience. Through the short film, he has established a fund-raising project for the children of Smokey Mountain.”
MASSIMO Andrei’s “Benur: Un Gladiatore in Affitto”
Tagliaferri pointed out, “The biggest population of Filipinos in continental Europe, 180,000, is in Italy. Filipinos and Italians can learn about their similarities and bridge their differences through cinema.”
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