Lizzani and Ruzowitzky remind us not to forget
As we near January 27, the International Day of Commemoration honouring the victims of the Holocaust, Italian distributors are releasing two films tomorrow that share a commitment to passing on several, little-known events of Nazi fascism.
The more anticipated of the two, due in part to its recent nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, is The Counterfeiter [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Viennese director Stefan Ruzowitzky (see interview). The Austrian/German co-production distributed on approximately 70 screens by Lady Film reconstructs (based upon the memoirs of Adolf Burger, one of the protagonists of the event) the largest-scale counterfeiting operation in history, undertaken by the Third Reich to destabilise the economies of the Allied nations.
Set in the same period, Hotel Meina by Carlo Lizzani (Mikado, 30 screens) brings to light a tragic moment of German occupation in Italy when, as recounted in the eponymous book by Marco Nozza, 16 Jewish guests of the hotel in question were killed and thrown into the waters of Lake Maggiore.
For the 85 year-old Lizzani, the film marks a return not only to a historical period he has tackled in the past – in celebrated films such as The Gold of Rome and Attention! Bandits! – but, above all, to subjects less and less frequently portrayed in recent Italian cinema. “Only us old people speak of these events,” he notes bitterly. “Television should do more, perhaps broadcast old masterpieces”.
While the future of Hotel Meina holds educational school screenings, some controversy was already sparked with the recent presentation in a Rome high school of Scusa ma ti chiamo amore [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (see news), which Federico Moccia adapted from his own novel (Medusa, 500 screens). The film starring Raoul Bova is most eagerly awaited by Italian teenagers, who in recent years have been behind the overwhelming success of two titles – Three Steps Over Heaven and Ho voglia di te [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – based on the writer-director’s earlier books.
Other new titles on offer all come from the US. 20th Century Fox is distributing the Oscar-nominated The Savages by Tamara Jenkins and the horror film (restricted to minors) Alien vs. Predator 2 by Colin Strause. BIM is releasing Into the Wild by Sean Penn (an award-winner at the latest RomeFilmFest), Moviemax the Dustin Hoffman vehicle Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium by Zach Helm and Warner Bros. is counting on the duo Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman in Rob Reiner’s The Bucket List.
(Translated from Italian)
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