07/10/2010

Their intention is clear: to be an antidote to the “catatonic flattening of contemporary mainstream media”, says Mario Sesti, head of the section Extra, the “festival-within-a-festival”, which continues to hunt out unconventional languages and formats from throughout the world.

There are two main focuses this year: one looks at the proudly independent America, of those who continue making films but are perhaps “forced” to go to the UK (such as John Landis, to mak Burke and Hare, a black comedy that marks the return in grand style of the director of The Blues Brothers). The other proposes, says Sesti, “a never-before-seen look at feminine sexuality”, with titles such as Roberto Garzelli’s Le Sentiment de la chair (France), a Cronenberg-esque story of a radiologist and a woman brought together by their attraction for the human body and its internal organs.

At the heart of the section lies the documentary, and its international competition. The European titles almost all travel to faraway lands, including Roberto Orazi’s A Mao e a Luva, set in northeastern Brazil; Bruno Bigoni’s Il colore del vento, a captain’s log that spans the Mediterranean from Istanbul to Barcelona; Diol Kadd. Vita, diari e riprese in un villaggio del Senegal, a portrait of everyday African life by Gianni Celati; Norwegian title Facing Genocide by David Aronowitsch and Staffan Lindberg, on the Khmer Rouge regime; and Dutch film Rainmakers by Floris-Jan van Luyn, an original look at Chinese ecology.

Out-of-competition documentaries include Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Bergé - L’amour fou [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Pierre Thoretton, who brings to the big screen the life of the great designer (the film will be distributed in Italy by BIM), but there are also many features, from Ad ogni costo by the Amanda Flor collective, to Antoine Blossier’s French film Proie, an environmental horror film featuring genetically modified boars.

Extra will also hold its regular Q&A discussions, including with Margherita Buy and Silvio Orlando; as well as the “Criminal lesson” held by Gabriele Salvatores and Giancarlo De Cataldo; masterclasses by John Landis and Alexandre Rockwell; and a tribute to great actors, with the presentation of the Acting Award to Julianne Moore.

(Translated from Italian)