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VENICE 2014 In competition and out of competition / Italy

A great many Italians at the Venice Film Festival

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- Martone, Costanzo and Munzi in competition. Guzzanti, Salvatores, Ferrario and De Angelis out of competition. A dash of Italy included in the films of Akin, Ferrara and Gitai

A great many Italians at the Venice Film Festival
Mario Martone (© Marco Ghidelli)

Three films in competition, four out of competition and three prestigious co-productions: excellent numbers representing Italy in the official selection of the 71st Venice Film Festival, which will take place from 27 August to 6 September 2014.

In competition we have Mario Martone with Il giovane favoloso, about the short life of Giacomo Leopardi, from his father's library in Recanati to Naples during the cholera epidemic. The poet will be played by Elio Germano (best actor at Cannes 2010 for Our Life [+see also:
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]
). Alongside him, playing the friend from Naples is Antonio Ranieri, Michele Riondino (the two had already acted together in The Past Is a Foreign Land [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), and then Massimo Popolizio, Anna Mouglalis, Valerio Binasco and Isabella Ragonese. Produced by Palomar with Rai Cinema, the film will be released in Italian cinemas on 16 October 2014 with 01 Distribution. Director of photography is Renato Berta.

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The second Italian movie in competition is Black Souls by Francesco Munzi, an Italian-French co-production (Cinema Undici and Babe Films with Rai Cinema and the support of MiBACT) starring Marco Leonardi, Peppino Mazzotta, Fabrizio Ferracane, Anna Ferruzzo and Barbora Bobulova. Freely based on Gioacchino Criaco's novel by the same name, the film is portrayed as a modern-day western centred on a Calabrian criminal family: three brothers, sons of shepherds, involved with the ‘ndrangheta (Calabrian mafia), divided and torn. Good Films will distribute the movie in cinemas from 18 September 2014; international sales have been entrusted to Rai Com. 

Another movie based on a novel (“Indigo child” by Marco Franzoso) is Hungry Hearts [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Saverio Costanzo
film profile
]
from Saverio Costanzo, the third Italian in competition. Produced by Wildside with Rai Cinema and supported by MIBACT, this is a low budget movie filmed in New York with two actors, Adam Driver and Alba Rohrwacher. Jude and Mina are a couple. Mina wants to keep their son pure and protect him from the pollution of the outside world. Out of love, Jude goes along with her, until he discovers one day that their son isn't growing and his life is in danger. Thus begins a private battle between the couple to find a solution. The film will be distributed by 01.

Of the 18 titles out of competition, four are Italian. Perez, with Luca Zingaretti and Marco D’Amore, is the second film by Edoardo De Angelis (Mozzarella Stories [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
), produced by Tramp Limited, O’Groove and Zocotoco in collaboration with Medusa, which will distribute it in cinemas. Perez is a barrister whose career never took off because of his fear. But when danger comes creeping into his home, and threatens his daughter, he finds himself breaking all the rules and the laws too. The Devil's Soup by Davide Ferrario is instead a documentary that focuses on the utopia of progress which existed during a large part of the 20th century; made with archive footage from big Italian businesses (from the National Industry Film Archive) that show the often irresponsible energy that went hand in hand with the industrialisation process in Italy. A Rossofuoco production with Rai Cinema, international distribution by Rai Com, Italian distribution by Microcinema.

From amateur movies this time we have Italy in a Day, the impressive project directed by Gabriele Salvatores (a Ridley Scott idea) that tells the story of a particular day in the life of Italians: 26 October 2013 (read the news). An Indiana Production production with the unfailing Rai Cinema and in association with Scott Free (01 distributes).  Then we have La trattativa (negotiations) the new film from the hard-fighting Sabina Guzzanti (Viva Zapatero! [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Draquila [+see also:
trailer
Interview Sabina Guzzanti [IT]
film profile
]
), that focuses on the complex relationship between politics and mafia. In La trattativa a group of actors depict the most significant events of the affair known as “State-Mafia negotiations”, impersonating mafiosi, secret service agents, high officials, magistrates, victims, assassins and Masons. The film will be distributed in cinemas by BiM on 2 October 2014.

Lastly, a co-production (Urania Pictures) and an Italian cast for Pasolini [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Abel Ferrara
film profile
]
, Abel Ferrara's film in competition that will see, alongside Willem Dafoe as lead, the presence of Riccardo Scamarcio, Ninetto Davoli and Valerio Mastandrea. Italy is also participating in Amos Gitai's Tsili (out of competition, co-produced by Citrullo International, Microcinema distribution) as well as The Cut [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fatih Akin
interview: Tahar Rahim
film profile
]
from Fatih Akin (competition, distr. BiM).

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(Translated from Italian)

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