Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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Open Roads: New Italian Cinema At Lincoln Center June 4-11, 2015

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OPENING NIGHT FILM LATIN LOVER

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Opening Night:
Latin Lover
Cristina Comencini, Italy, 2015, DCP, 104m
Italian with English subtitles
It’s been 10 years since the passing of Saverio Crispo, Italy’s most beloved movie star and most prolific ladies’ man. He left behind five daughters, each from a different relationship in a different part of the world. To mark the anniversary of his passing, mothers and daughters alike gather in his hometown to piece together the puzzle of the man they’ve known only as an icon. The international cast of Latin Lover features Almodóvar veterans Candela Peña, Lluís Homar, and Marisa Paredes, and especially poignant turns from three-time David di Donatello winner Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (Human Capital) and the late Virna Lisi (Queen Margot) in her final screen appearance. North American Premiere
Thursday, June 4, 6:30pm (Q&A with Cristina Comencini)
Monday, June 8, 1:30pm

9 x 10 Novanta
Marco Bonfanti, Claudio Giovannesi, Alina Marazzi, Pietro Marcello, Sara Fgaier, Giovanni Piperno, Costanza Quatriglio, Paola Randi, Alice Rohrwacher & Roland Sejko, Italy, 2014, DCP, 94m
Italian with English subtitles
In honor of the Istituto Luce’s 90th anniversary, 10 young Italian filmmakers (two working as a pair) completed nine 10-minute shorts using footage from its archives. As each director gives their personal spin on the past, their collective effort emphasizes the striking contrasts that comprise Italy’s recent history: from wartime to peace, from ruins to reconstruction, and from Fascism’s lost promised futures to the present day. Startling, moving, and, above all else, inventive, this omnibus reshapes and gives light to rare material unseen for decades. Includes a short by Alice Rohrwacher, writer-director of The Wonders (NYFF52). North American Premiere
Tuesday, June 9, 6:30pm

Chlorine / Cloro
Lamberto Sanfelice, Italy, 2015, DCP, 98m
Italian with English subtitles
Seventeen-year-old Jenny (Salvo’s Sara Serraiocco) dreams of becoming a synchronized swimmer, but when her mother dies unexpectedly and her father suffers a nervous breakdown, she’s forced to sacrifice her goals to keep the family together. Uprooting from the coastal town of Ostia to the mountains of Abruzzo, Jenny takes a job as a hotel maid, her salary going to support her father and 9-year-old brother. Co-starring Ivan Franek (The Great Beauty) as the ski-lift operator with whom she becomes romantically involved, the sensitive Chlorine was nominated for the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.
Sunday, June 7, 6:15pm (Q&A with Lamberto Sanfelice)
Tuesday, June 9, 4:15pm


Lamberto Sanfelice's Chlorine

The Dinner / I nostri ragazzi
Ivano De Matteo, Italy, 2014, DCP, 92m
Italian with English subtitles
Affectionate pediatrician Paolo (Luigi Lo Cascio) and businesslike lawyer Massimo (Alessandro Gassman) are brothers who seemingly enjoy all the trappings of bourgeois success, dutifully meeting once a month for dinner with their wives at an expensive restaurant despite the women’s mutual dislike. However, when a security tape reveals that Paolo’s son and Massimo’s daughter have brutally beaten a homeless man into a coma, resentments boil to the surface. This adaptation of Herman Koch’s best seller meticulously ratchets up the tension and brilliantly expands upon elements from the book, and the all-star cast (also featuring Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Barbora Bobulova) give unforgettable performances that linger long after the lights go up. Winner of four prizes at last year’s Venice Film Festival. A Film Movement release.
Friday, June 5, 6:30pm (Q&A with Ivano De Matteo)
Tuesday, June 9, 2:00pm

Greenery Will Bloom Again / Torneranno i prati
Ermanno Olmi, Italy, 2014, DCP, 80m
Italian with English subtitles
Throughout a six-decade career that spans masterpieces like Il Posto and The Tree of Wooden Clogs, Ermanno Olmi has earned the title “Poet of Silence.” With measured pacing and sparse dialogue, Olmi crafts films that are hypnotizing in their patient alertness. At age 83, he turns his attention to the First World War. But instead of making a combat film, he chooses to capture a single snowy night on the Italian front, as soldiers burrowed in trenches confront their loneliness and find pockets of hope where they can. Reminiscent of Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line in its ethereality and focus on inner thoughts, Olmi’s haunting meditation features actual World War I footage and is dedicated to the director’s father, who told him tales of the war as a child. North American Premiere
Saturday, June 6, 6:30pm
Monday, June 8, 4:00pm

The Ice Forest / La foresta di ghiaccio
Claudio Noce, Italy, 2014, DCP, 99m
Italian with English subtitles
When Pietro (Domenico Diele), a young repairman, journeys to an electrical station located in a remote village on the Italian-Slovenian border, he soon gets wrapped up in a mystery involving foul play, human trafficking, and his own past. Meanwhile, Lana (Ksenia Rappoport), a Slovenian investigator posing as a bear expert, struggles against the climate and the hardened ways of the men (including one played by Emir Kusturica) who live and work there to get to the truth. Shot with a swooping grace befitting its majestic Alpine setting, director Claudio Noce proves himself to be a master of suspense with this heart-pounding thriller. North American Premiere
Thursday, June 4, 3:30pm (Q&A with director Claudio Noce & actor Adriano Giannini)
Sunday, June 7, 3:30pm (Q&A with director Claudio Noce & actor Adriano Giannini)

The Invisible Boy / Il ragazzo invisibile
Gabriele Salvatores, Italy/France, 2014, DCP, 100m
Italian with English subtitles
Veteran director Gabriele Salvatores (I’m Not Scared) uses the superhero genre as a jumping-off point to reach the greater truths of adolescence, harkening back to 1980s adventure classics like The Goonies. Michele (Ludovico Girardello), who lives with his single mother (the superb Valeria Golino) in Trieste, is an unpopular kid who doesn’t seem to be good at anything. Constantly bullied, he sees his lovely classmate Stella (Noa Zatta) as the only bright spot in his life. One day, Michele discovers that he has the ability to become invisible, and suddenly finds himself drawn into a series of increasingly strange events involving Russian children who also have supernatural powers. North American Premiere
Sunday, June 7, 1:00pm
Thursday, June 11, 2:30pm


Eleonora Danco's N-Capace

An Italian Name / Il nome del figlio
Francesca Archibugi, Italy, 2015, DCP, 96m
Italian with English subtitles
The hit French farce What’s in a Name?, released to great success in 2012, is transposed to Italy while retaining its crowd-pleasing core. David di Donatello Award winners Alessandro Gassman and Micaela Ramazzotti play Paolo and Simona, a glamorous couple with a child on the way. They invite another couple and a quirky musician friend to dinner, expecting a benignly pleasant evening, but things take a turn for the volatile when the issue of the child’s name is broached. Featuring acclaimed international actor and director (of the festival favorite Honey) Valeria Golino, An Italian Name is an uproariously un-PC variation on Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. North American Premiere
Saturday, June 6, 9:00pm (Q&A with Francesca Archibugi)
Tuesday, June 9, 8:45pm

The Lack
MASBEDO, Italy, 2014, DCP, 76m
In an attempt to bridge the gap between the worlds of video art and narrative filmmaking, Nicolò Massazza and Iacopo Bedogni (aka MASBEDO) have created The Lack, a radical, poetic work of pure cinema. Six women from six different countries—Eve (Lea Mornar), Xiu (Xin Wang), Anja (Giorgia Sinicorni), Nour (Ginevra Bulgari), Greta (Emanuela Villagrossi), and Sarah (Cinzia Brugnola)—navigate separate, barren Aeolean Islands by themselves. Working through their pasts, each of their journeys investigates the theme of a “lack,” including one that overtly references Antonioni’s L’Avventura. As visually dazzling as it is deeply emotional, MASBEDO’s experiment is worth every second. North American Premiere
Thursday, June 4, 9:15pm (Q&A with MASBEDO)
Thursday, June 11, 4:45pm

Leopardi
Mario Martone, Italy, 2014, DCP, 144m
Italian with English subtitles
Writer-director Mario Martone (We Believed) again returns to the 19th century in this sensitive, exquisitely shot portrait of the cherished Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi. The son of a domineering count who prizes knowledge over all else, Giacomo (a brilliant Elio Germano) is locked away in a library to study. Yet Giacomo yearns to see the world, and his struggles with social and familial obligations color his Romantic writings about the human condition. When he is finally able to leave the family estate and becomes the toast of Florence’s literary circles, ill health and poor finances stymie his happiness. Shot on the Leopardi estate!
Monday, June 8, 6:00pm
Wednesday, June 10, 1:00pm

Money Buddies / La buca
Daniele Ciprì, Italy/Switzerland, 2014, DCP, 90m
Italian with English subtitles
Better Call Saul, Italian-style! Veteran ambulance chaser Oscar (Sergio Castellitto) gets bitten by a dog and decides to make some cash by suing its owner. However, this turns out to be Armando (Rocco Papaleo), a penniless man just released from jail after 30 years for a crime he didn’t commit, shunned by everyone—except his dog. Oscar sees the potential of getting millions in compensation from the state, and the two fifty-somethings team up in search of clues (along with the help of a friendly barista, played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi). A timeless and fun buddy comedy shot on 35mm. North American Premiere
Thursday, June 4, 1:00pm
Saturday, June 6, 4:00pm


Sabina Guzzanti's The State-Mafia Pact

N-Capace / N-Able
Eleonora Danco, Italy, 2014, DCP, 80m
Italian with English subtitles
A sparklingly imaginative autobiographical story in the spirit of Fellini’s 8 ½, playwright, director, and actress Eleonora Danco dons a toga to stage—and agonize over—key moments in her life, presenting them as theatrical tableaux. Shot in her seaside hometown of Terracina, Danco involves the townsfolk through interviews (reminiscent of Pasolini’s Love Meetings) and by encouraging them to participate in the drama: people of all ages sing, dance, and wear masks of their younger selves. However, the most inventive and incisive scenes come from her interactions with her tight-lipped 83-year-old father, which, even at their lightest, belie a deep poignancy. North American Premiere
Friday, June 5, 1:30pm
Wednesday, June 10, 6:30pm

Natural Resistance
Jonathan Nossiter, Italy/France, 2014, DCP, 86m
Italian with English subtitles
Liquid Memory: Why Wine Matters author and Mondovino director Jonathan Nossiter returns with a fresh look at small-scale Italian vintners who eschew pesticides and chemicals. Drawing parallels between organic wine farming and film restoration, Nossiter intersperses strong testimony from four farmers in their vineyards in Piedmont, Tuscany, and Emilia with clips from silent comedies and newsreels. Preserving centuries-old traditions in the face of globalization (and crooked politics), their stories of resistance and environmentalism prove a strong vintage. A must-see for any foodie, wannabe sommelier, or even the casual wine fan, who will be hard-pressed to not buy organic after watching. U.S. Premiere
Monday, June 8, 9:15pm

Short Skin
Duccio Chiarini, Italy, 2014, DCP, 86m
Italian with English subtitles
In this endearing and hilarious coming-of-age tale, Edoardo (Matteo Creatini) has a congenital problem with his foreskin, and now at age 17, starts to feel the desire (and social pressure) to lose his virginity, either with his best friend Bianca (Francesca Agostini) or a bewitching singer in a band (Miriana Raschilla). Meanwhile, his family is wrapped up in sexual issues of their own: his parents are struggling with infidelities, and his little sister is obsessed with finding a mate for their dog. Never cloying or trivial, Duccio Chiarini’s film manages to capture the true euphoric and tormented spirit of adolescence. North American Premiere
Friday, June 5, 9:00pm (Q&A with Duccio Chiarini)
Wednesday, June 10, 8:30pm


Duccio Chiarini's Short Skin

So Far So Good / Fino a qui tutto bene
Roan Johnson, Italy, 2014, DCP, 80m
Italian with English subtitles
Winner of multiple prizes at the Rome International Film Festival, including the People’s Choice Award for Best Italian Movie, Roan Johnson’s bittersweet dramedy So Far So Good explores three days in the lives of five friends at a crossroads. Living together as students, they’ve shared much more than an apartment—they’ve pooled their joys and sorrows, and come to depend on one another. But now their education is complete and these young men and women must go their own ways. Over one last weekend they face an uncertain future and the choices that will lead them on separate journeys. Johnson’s perceptive character study (which he co-wrote) is sure to resonate with anyone who’s faced the terrifying prospect of life outside a safe and protective cocoon. North American Premiere
Friday, June 5, 4:00pm
Saturday, June 6, 1:30pm

The State-Mafia Pact / La trattativa
Sabina Guzzanti, Italy, 2014, DCP, 108m
Italian with English subtitles
Disgraced former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is only the tip of the sleazy iceberg in this bombshell hybrid documentary, a detailed account of widespread government-mafia corruption. Both formally and factually engaging, this film by Sabina Guzzanti (Viva Zapatero!, Sympathy for the Lobster) was inspired by Elio Petri’s Three Hypotheses on the Death of Giuseppe Pinelli. Talking-head interview subjects give evidence about the collaboration between officials and the Cosa Nostra during the early 1990s, and then reenact certain events with the help of a green screen. Guzzanti herself plays Berlusconi, hilariously nailing his bluster. North American Premiere
Sunday, June 7, 8:45pm
Wednesday, June 10, 4:00pm

Photo Exhibit:
Looking with Michelangelo Antonioni
An exhibition of Renato Zacchi’s rare photographs of Antonioni taken during the shoot of one of his final documentaries (Sicily, 1997). Event organized by EVOL Design.
June 1-10 (Frieda & Roy Furman Gallery)

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.


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