email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

CANNES 2014 Italy

Rohrwacher and Argento: an all female Italy to take on the greats

by 

- Le meraviglie by Alice Rohrwacher is the Italian film in competition. Incompresa by Asia Argento selected in the Un Certain Regard section

Rohrwacher and Argento: an all female Italy to take on the greats
Le meraviglie by Alice Rohrwacher

Le meraviglie [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Rohrwacher
interview: Tiziana Soudani
film profile
]
, a second film by young Italian director Alice Rohrwacher, is in competition for a Palme d’Or at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, running on May 14-25. Asia Argento’s film The Misunderstood [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Gabriel Garko has been selected for the Un Certain Regard section.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Alice Rohrwacher started at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011 with Corpo celeste [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Rohrwacher
film profile
]
, selected during Directors’ Fortnight, then going on to more international film festivals including Sundance, London, New York, Rio and Karlowy Vary. The film was nominated for a best emerging director David di Donatello in 2012 and won the Ingmar Bergman Award for best international debut and a Nastro d’Argento and a Ciak d’Oro for best Italian debut. It was distributed in the UK, the US, France, Switzerland, Australia, South America and Portugal.

Le meraviglie sees the director’s sister, Alba Rohrwacher, star with Monica Bellucci, Maria Alexandra Lungu, Sam Louwyck, Sabine Timoteo and Agnese Graziani. The story traces the summer of four sisters, headed by Gelsomina, the oldest, as they inherit a small and strange piece of land their father has built on in order to save them from the world “which is about to end.” The summer is an extraordinary one, where rules keeping the family together loosen. Martin, a German boy in a rehabilitation programme enters their life and a television programme headed by icon Milly Catena is being filmed in the area. 

Just like her first film, Le meraviglie is produced by Carlo Cresto-Dina with Tempesta Film, in collaboration with Rai Cinema and coproduced with Switzerland and Germany: AMKA Films Productions and POLA PANDORA Film Produktions with RSI, Radiotelevisione Svizzera SRG SSR, ZDF / Das kleine Fernsehspiel, in collaboration with ARTE and with support from the Federal Culture Office (DFI) and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. It will be distributed in Italy on May 22 by BIM, and international sales will be done by The Match Factory.

Incompresa by Asia Argento, in the competition section Un Certain Regard, was written by the director herself and filmed during the autumn between Rome and Turin. It is Argento’s third film - returning behind the camera after ten years, after Scarlet Diva and Ingannevole è il cuore più di ogni cosa, based on the novel by J. T. Leroy. Set in 1984, the film tells the story of a 9-year-old girl played by Giulia Salerno, who has a dream: to be loved by her parents, played by Charlotte Gainsbourg and Gabriel Garko. The cast includes Gian Marco Tognazzi. Incompresa is an Italian French coproduction by Wildside by Lorenzo Mieli and Mario Gianani with Paradis Films and Eric Heumann, and international sales will be taken care of by Other Angle Pictures.

The Cinéfondation programme also includes an Italian film, selected among the 1,631 sent in from film schools around the world. The film is called Lievito madre by Fulvio Risuleo, produced by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Another Italian short, A passo d'uomo by Giovanni Aloi, was initially announced in the short competition but was then taken out by the festival because it would have “gone against the rules of selection.”  

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from Italian)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy