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FESTIVALS Italy

Amelio debuts as Turin director

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“There’s always a first time,” says director Gianni Amelio about his debut as artistic director of the 27th Turin Film Festival (November 13-21), after Nanni Moretti helmed it for two years. A drop in media attention was inevitable but to make up for it Turin proposes a rich programme, perhaps the fullest – at least in the number of films, over 250 – of recent years.

The heart of the festival remains the International Competition (whose jury is presided over by Italian screenwriter Sandro Petraglia), which features two Italian titles: Pietro Marcello’s La Bocca del lupo, a love story halfway between documentary and visual poem, and Santina by Gioberto Pignatelli, who was partly inspired by Elsa Morante’s La Storia and here blends cinema, theatre, music and the figurative arts.

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There are another 14 titles in competition, all first or second films, with the exception of Le Roi de L’évasion, the third film by France’s Alain Guiraudie. It is moreover the only comedy in a rather dark selection, among post-apocalyptic scenarios (although with some traces of humour, such as in Hungarian filmmaker Roland Vranik’s Transmission) and existential failure (Calin Netzer’s Medal of Honor).

The section Festa Mobile offers melodramas – like Tetro by Francis Ford Coppola, one of this year’s two recipients of the Turin Grand Prize (along with Emir Kusturica) – and auteur films (including Francois Ozon’s Le Refuge and Christophe Honoré’s Non Ma Fille, Tu n’Iras Pas Danser), as well as genre cinema, such as German horror flick Record 12 by Mario Conte and Simone Wendel.

There are also many musically inspired films: the festival opens with Nowhere Boy (UK), artist Sam Taylor Wood film’s debut on John Lennon’s childhood, and closes with Oskar Roehler’s Lulu & Jimi (Germany).

This year’s edition of Turin features numerous documentaries and experimental work, with news films by duo Yervant Gianikian/Angela Ricci Lucchi (Diario 1989 “Dancing in the Dark”) and Portugal’s Pedro Costa (Ne Change Rien).

Turin 27

Transmission - Roland Vranik (HU, 2009, 95’)

Baseco Bakal Boys - Ralston Jover (PH 2009, 93’)

La Bocca Del Lupo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pietro Marcello
film profile
]
- Pietro Marcello (IT, 2009, 67’)

Chi L’ha Visto - Claudia Rorarius (DE, 2009, 88’)

Crackie - Sherry White (CA, 2009, 94’)

Get Low - Aaron Schneider (USA, 2009, 101’)

Guy And Madeline On A Park Bench - Damien Chazelle (USA, 2009, 82’)

Medal of Honor [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Calin Netzer (RO, 2009, 105’)

La Nana - The Maid - Sebastián Silva (CL, 2008, 94’)

North [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rune Denstad Langlo
film profile
]
- Rune Denstad Langlo (NO, 2009, 78’)

Le Roi De L’évasion [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Alain Guiraudie (FR, 2009, 97’)

Santina - Gioberto Pignatelli (IT, 2009, 78’)

Torso - Yamazaki Yutaka (JP, 2009, 104’)

Van Diemen’s Land - Jonathan Auf Der Heide (AU, 2009, 104’)

You Wont Miss Me - Ry Russo-Young (USA, 2009, 81’)

Jalainur - Zhao Ye (CN, 2008, 92’)

Festa Mobile

À L’ouest De Pluton - Henry Bernadet E Myriam Verreault (CA, 2008, 95’)

Beautiful Kate - Rachel Ward (AU, 2009, 100’)

La Bella Gente [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Ivano De Matteo (IT, 2009, 98’)

The Blind - Nathan Silver (USA, 2009, 72’)

Bomber [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Paul Cotter (UK, 2009, 84’)

Breaking Upwards - Daryl Wein (USA, 2009, 89’)

Chan Mat – Claustrophobia - Ivy Ho (HK, 2009, 100’)

La Cosa Giusta - Marco Campogiani (IT, 2009, 93’)

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wes Anderson (USA, 2009, 87’)

Gigante [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Adrián Biniez (UY/DE/AR, 2009, 90’)

My Only Sunshine - Reha Erdem (TK/GR/BG, 2008, 121’)

Kinatay [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Brillante Mendoza (FR/FH, 2009, 110’)

Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Shane Meadows (UK, 2009, 71’)

The Loved Ones - Sean Byrne (AU, 2009, 84’)

Lulu & Jimi [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Oskar Roehler (DE, 2008, 94’)

Made In Hungaria - Gergely Fonyo (HU, 2009, 109’)

New Denmark - Rafaël Ouellet (CA, 2009, 73’)

Non Ma Fille, Tu N’iras Pas Danser [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Christophe Honoré (FR, 2009, 105’)

Nowhere Boy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Sam Taylor Wood (UK, 2009, 96’)

Pink Subaru - Ogawa Kazuya (IT/JP, 2009, 96’)

Police, Adjective [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Corneliu Porumboiu
film profile
]
- Corneliu Porumboiu (RO, 2009, 113’)

Pontypool - Bruce Mcdonald (CA, 2009, 96’)

Record 12 - Mario Conte E Simone Wendel (DE, 2009, 63’)

Le Refuge [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- François Ozon (FR, 2009, 90’)

La Straniera - Marco Turco (IT, 2009, 108’)

Welcome [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Philippe Lioret
film profile
]
- Philippe Lioret (FR, 2009, 110’)

Yang Yang - Yu-Chieh Cheng (TW, 2009, 111’)

Zion and His Brother [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Eran Merav (IL/FR, 2008, 84’)

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(Translated from Italian)

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