Saturday, March 31, 2012

ATL Italian Film Fest -- my picks

The 6th Annual Atlanta Italian Film Festival starts next week. I published the schedule (see below) and now I'm listing my choices for the top picks. I know it may be hard to get to all of the films so I think these two are your best bets.

1. "20 Sigarette"

(Info courtesy of the Atlanta Italian Film Festival)

20 Sigarette
20 Cigarettes
Director: Aureliano Amadei
April 5th at 6:00 PM

Aureliano is a 28 year old youth with a passion for film. Awaiting his golden opportunity he spends his time as an amateur filmmaker in small Social Centers. His one chance comes from director Stefano Rolla who offers to send him to Iraq as assistant director on a film about the Italian military "peace mission”.




2. "La Bellezza del Somaro"

La Bellezza del Somaro
Love and Slaps
Director: Sergio Castellitto
April 5th at 9:00 PM

A house, a modern family, a group of family friends, a grandmother, a foreign maid, a cross section of our society, a micro world. Parents and children are discovered and rediscovered in the unexpected provocation of a daughter, still a minor for a few weeks.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Italian Film Fest in Atlanta April 5-7

Here's the press release about Georgia State University's Italian Film Fest:

The 6th Annual Atlanta Italian Film Festival in collaboration with the Italian Film Festival of Miami announces all seven films! Please join us as we celebrate the best of contemporary Italian film as well as the beloved classic The Bicycle Thief to be shown on April 7th at 9:00pm.

All films are shown at the Rialto Center for the Arts on the campus of Georgia State University.

The festival is sponsored by The Center for Collaborative and International Arts.

The entire festival is FREE and open to the public.


20 Sigarette
20 Cigarettes
Director: Aureliano Amadei
April 5th at 6:00 PM

Aureliano is a 28 year old youth with a passion for film. Awaiting his golden opportunity he spends his time as an amateur filmmaker in small Social Centers. His one chance comes from director Stefano Rolla who offers to send him to Iraq as assistant director on a film about the Italian military "peace mission”.

La Bellezza del Somaro
Love and Slaps
Director: Sergio Castellitto
April 5th at 9:00 PM

A house, a modern family, a group of family friends, a grandmother, a foreign maid, a cross section of our society, a micro world. Parents and children are discovered and rediscovered in the unexpected provocation of a daughter, still a minor for a few weeks.

Basilicata Coast to Coast
Basilicata Coast to Coast
Director: Rocco Papaleo
April 6th at 6:00 PM

Nicola, Salvatore, Rocco, and Franco were members of a band when they were young but now each one of them has different jobs such as teacher, actor, etc. Sharing their common passion for music, they decide to attend together a music festival held in Southern Italy that will reunite them for the first time in the last ten years.

Matrimoni e Altri Disastri
Weddings and Other
Disasters
Director: Nina Di Majo
April 6th at 9:00 PM

Forty year old Nana runs a small bookstore in Florence. Despite the constant nagging of her well-to-do family, she has no intention of making anything more of her life. As for her sentimental interests, though secretly in love with Bauer a self centered novelist who takes advantage of her feelings to obtain small professional favors, she has pretty much given up on finding her Prince Charming and living happily ever after.

Il Padre e lo Straniero
The Father & the Foreigner
Director: Ricky Tognazzi
April 7th at 4:00 PM

In a Rome with echoes of the Middle East, a friendship develops between two very different men, the Italian Diego and the Arab Walid. The two men bond through the shared love for their disabled sons who both attend the same rehabilitation centre.

Immaturi
The Immature
Director: Paolo Genovese
April 7th at 6:00 PM
Six ex-best friends find each other again on the verge of turning 40 when a notification from the Ministry of Education informs them that their SATs have been voided and they will have to take them again.