Cinema, Italian Style: Made in Italy hits big screens in LA

by Vittoria Scarpa

20/10/2011 - A very young Dino De Laurentiis, at that time a student at the Experimental Film Centre, is taking his first steps in the film world as an actor. An uncut snippet from Batticuore, shot in 1939 by Mario Camerini, in which the great Italian producer who passed away a year ago, appears dressed as a postman delivering a bunch of roses to the film’s main character Assia Noris. This will open the eighth edition of Cinema Italian Style, the yearly conference for new Italian cinema, which will be held in Los Angeles from November 10 - 15.

The screen of the Eyptian Theatre will then light up with images from Emanuele Crialese’s Terraferma [trailer, film focus], Italian contender for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, thereby officially launching the film’s campaign for the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. The other ten titles selected to represent Italian film of the last year over the Atlantic are: Mario Martone’s We Believed [trailer, film focus], Nanni Moretti’s We Have a Pope [trailer, film focus], Cristina Comencini’s When the Night [trailer], Alice Rohrwacher Corpo celeste [trailer, film focus], Gianni Di Gregorio’s The Salt of Life [trailer, film focus], Sergio Castellitto’s La bellezza del somaro [trailer], Paolo Genovese’s Immaturi [trailer], Giuseppe Gagliardi’s Tatanka [trailer], Francesco Bruni’s Scialla! [trailer] and Ricky Tognazzi’s Il padre e lo straniero [trailer]. "A selection that takes into account different authors and genres but also the success and recognition achieved at festivals", explains the journalist Laura Delli Colli, who looked after the selection.

Apart from Crialese and the stars of Terraferma (Donatella Finocchiaro, Giuseppe Fiorello and Filippo Pucillo), the Italian delegation who will bring the selected films to Los Angeles includes actors Vittoria Puccini and Pierfrancesco Favino, attesting to the event’s new edition, as well as Barbora Bobulova and Francesca Inaudi. "The new generation of actors is the best means for promoting Made in Italy cinema abroad", maintains Cinecittà Luce president Roberto Cicutto. And so, the various initiatives of the gala’s programme include meetings between Italian actors and casting directors from the famous American talent agency William Morris Endeavour, as well as a photo session with famous celebrity photographer Douglas Kirkland and appointments in the universities.

LA’s Italian Cultural Institute will also hold a meeting organized by Anica between representatives of Italian producers and American colleagues on the new fiscal incentives which make it more profitable to shoot audiovisual products in Italy. Finally, director and American author who has acquired British nationality, Terry Gilliam, who shot short film The Wholly Family in Naples, produced by Garofalo, will be awarded the Cinema Italian Style BVLGARI Award, reserved to someone who has promoted the coming together of Italian and international cinema.

Cinema Italian Style is organised and produced by Cinecittà Luce and the American Cinematheque with support from the MiBAC, in collaboration with the General Italian Consulate, the National Institute for International Trade and the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles.

(Translated from Italian)