30/09/2003

More than 60 years of Italian cinema will be taking centre stage in Brussels from October 9 to November 11. The review called "The Past and Present of Italian Cinema" is being promoted as part of the Europalia Festival, the event that is part of Cinedays, which, every year, presents the entire culture of a selected country to people in Belgium . To coincide with the Italian term as president of the European Union, it’s Italy’s turn again this year, the country was last featured in the first edition of the event, in 1969.

There are 60 films on the programme, divided into three sections. The "Triumphs of Italian Cinema" section, put on with contributions from Cinecittà Holding, is a selection of some of the internationally award winning films spanning from 1946 to the present day, films that have won the Golden Lion, Palm d'oro, Golden Bear and Oscars. The "Today’s Cinema" section, overseen by Italia Cinema, is dedicated to the most representative productions from the 2002-2003 season, with special attention being paid to new talent. Finally there’s the "Tribute to Luchino Visconti", a complete retrospective showing works restored by the SNC-CSC.

The honour of opening the review goes to A Heart Elsewhere. The director Pupi Avati will be going to Brussels for the screening. Today he was at the presentation of the review held in Rome, along with Gianni Profita and ambassador Antonello Pietromarchi, the commissioner general of Europalia - as well members of the cast of his film, Neri Marcorè, Vanessa Incontrada and Nino D’Angelo. For Profita, the director general for cinema, the positive season has been reiterated by the quota of the national market taken by Italian films, now at 30% as compared with the 15% in the past, "this moves us closer to the French figures, a country we use as a role model".