03/01/2007

With Italian holiday films still in cinemas – as well as After the Wedding [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sisse Graum Jørgensen
interview: Susanne Bier
film profile] by Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier and French titles Private Fears in Public Faces [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Alain Resnais, Change of Address [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Emmanuel Mouret and Patrice Leconte’s My Best Friend [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – a host of new Italian and European films have been announced for January.

First up is the highly anticipated, low budget debut feature by Alessandro Angelini, L'aria salata [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alessandro Angelini
film profile], starring one of Italy’s hottest young actors at the moment, Giorgio Pasotti. However, the Best Actor award that the film picked up at the RomeFilmFest went to Giorgio Colangeli, better known among theatre-goers than film lovers.

In the film, the director, who has previously made documentaries, tackles the themes of family and prison live with biting authenticity. L'aria salata will be released on January 5 by 01.

On the other side of the spectrum is the follow-up to one of the most successful films at the 2005 Italian box office, Manual of Love. Directed once again by Giovanni Veronesi, Manual of Love: The Following Chapters takes on new themes in a comical tone: from eroticism to maternity, from marriage to separation.

The cast is once again spearheaded by Carlo Verdone, who is this time flanked by Monica Bellucci, Riccardo Scamarcio and Barbora Bobulova. The film will be released by Filmauro on January 19.

On January 26, Medusa Film is bringing to theatres the new film by Pupi Avati, La cena per farli conoscere, featuring Vanessa Incontrada, Ines Sastre and Violante Placido as three sisters who, feeling sorry for their lonely father (Diego Abatantuono), set out to find him a companion.

There will also be a documentary arriving in cinemas in January: Primo Levi’s Journey [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Davide Ferrario. This “road movie without actors", as the director called it, retraces the route that renowned author Primo Levi followed in his 1963 book The Truce, in returning from Auschwitz to Turin through Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldavia, Romania, Hungary, Austria and Germany. The film will be distributed by 01 Distribution

on January 19. European films – besides the UK/US co-production Casino Royale [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (January 5, Sony Picture Releasing Italia) – include two other British titles: noted British director Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (also a US co-production) and I>Flushed Away [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the first CGI animated film by the creators of Wallace & Gromit, out on December 22 through UIP.

Another US co-production is Spanish title Goya's Ghosts [+see also:
trailer
film profile], directed by maestro Milos Forman (who wrote the film with Jean-Claude Carrière) and starring Javier Bardem, Natalie Portman and Michael Lonsdale. It will be released on January 19 by Medusa Film.

Tired of “political” cinema, messages and sermons, Lars von Trier has made the comedy The Boss of it All [+see also:
trailer
film profile] in the hopes that "it makes people laugh, nothing more". The social satire, which centres around Peter Gantzler as the owner of a computer company intent on selling everything, will be in theatres on January 5, distributed by Lucky Red.

After screening at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, Lights in the Dusk [+see also:
trailer
film profile], written, directed and produced by Finnish master director Aki Kaurismäki, is coming to Italian cinemas (January 5, BIM Distribuzione) . As in Kaurismaki’s previous The Man Without a Past, the main character is this film is a lonely man searching for company and love: naïve night guard Koistinen falls for the charms of a seductive blond and is framed for a jewellery store heist committed by the woman’s pimp.

(Translated from Italian)