31/10/2007

Placing their trust in holiday audiences of All Saints’ Day, several Italian distributors have decided to release their films today and tomorrow (instead of Friday).

First up is Medusa, who for Halloween is giving Dario Argento fans the last charter of a trilogy begun 30 years ago with Suspiria and followed up by Inferno.

His latest, The Third Mother [+see also:
film review
film profile], presented at the RomeFilmFest (after its world premiere at Toronto), stars Asia Argento and Daria Nicolodi (the daughter and ex-wife, respectively, of the master of horror) and was produced by Claudio Argento per Opera Film with Medusa (which is releasing it on 313 screens), in collaboration with Sky.

Fantasy (and a few touches of horror, including the embalming of Jeff Bridges) also figures in Terry Gilliam’s Tideland [+see also:
trailer
film profile], out in Italy two years after its FIPRESCI win at San Sebastian. The ex-Monty Python member, soon going into production with a new film, worked with UK producer Jeremy Thomas (and his Recorded Picture Company) on the adaptation of the Mitch Cullin novel, to create (with the help of his trusted Italian DoP Nicola Pecorini) a dark fairy tale that is reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland in more ways than one.

Distributed throughout Europe, Tideland comes out in Italy through Officine Ubu (a small, Milan-based company that also produces) on 20 screens.

The traditional Friday release is still being reserved, however, for the third European title of the week, A Private Man (see news). In competition at Rome, the seventh feature by the not very prolific Emidio Greco is a thriller in search of metaphor rather than suspense, and depicts modern-day Italy through the portrait of a reserved university professor (Tommaso Ragno). Istituto Luce is releasing it on 30 screens.

(Translated from Italian)