Italian cinema Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Death of a President Dropped by Italian Theaters
Filed under: Documentary », Drama », Independent », Newmarket », Celebrities and Controversy », Exhibition », Cinematical Indie »
The controversial fake doc Death of a President came and went in America, where it earned only half a million bucks at the box office (it is still running every weekend at NYC's Pioneer Theater, if you're still interested), but it is still making its way around the globe. It will open this Friday in Italy, though on 30% fewer screens than originally planned. Lucky Red, which is distributing the film there claims that some exhibitors have bailed on their booking in order to avoid trouble. In addition to the cancellations, Lucky Red is also dealing with the fact that its ads for the film, which features a tombstone with President Bush's name inscribed, are disappearing all over Rome. Apparently people are tearing the posters down either for a souvenir or to protest (I say the former is more likely). The main issue for exhibitors actually has little to do with protests regarding George Bush. In fact, the cancellations seem to be out of respect less for our current President than for their former prime minster, Aldo Moro, who was assassinated in 1978. It turns out that Lucky Red accidentally and coincidentally scheduled the release of DoaP on the 29th anniversary of Moro's kidnapping by the terrorist group The Red Brigades (they killed him nearly two months later). Of course, exhibitors should have been looking for an excuse to get out of their bookings anyway since the movie is not very good and it hasn't been performing well in other markets. After bans from theater chains may have helped DoaP flop in America, it can be expected that the same will happen in Italy.
Open Roads Review: Quo Vadis, Baby?
Filed under: Drama », Foreign Language », Thrillers », Theatrical Reviews », Festival Reports », Other Festivals », Cinematical Indie »
Open Roads is an all-too-brief survey of new Italian cinema presented annually by New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center. Now in it sixth year, the series offers a wide selection of films, most of which will never see distribution in the US; this year's festival runs from May 31 until June 9, and further details (including ticket information) can be found on the Open Roads website.
Quo Vadis, Baby? opens promisingly enough, with a female photographer spying on a trysting couple in a hotel room from a lofty perch in what appears to be a skyscraper in mid-construction. The woman mutters angrily at the far-away couple to position themselves better for her lens, and complains to herself about the freezing weather. She is Giorgia (Angela Baraldi), a private investigator who appears to make her living entirely from tracking down and exposing cheating spouses, and has successfully made herself invulnerable to the feelings of her often broken-hearted clients. That evening, a box of tapes arrives at Giorgia's flat, sent by a friend of Ada (Claudia Zanella), her late sister who shocked everyone by committing suicide sixteen years earlier. The tapes are revealed to be video diaries kept by Ada during the final year of her life, a year she spent living in Rome, pursing her dream of being an actress; with the aid of strong liquor and hand-rolled cigarettes, Giorgia immerses herself in them, and in her sister's secret life.
Despite that tantalizing opening, however, the movie dissolves into a mass of stereotypes and missed opportunities. Its clumsy plotting and even more awkward characterizations are surprising and, coming from director Gabriele Salvatores -- the man who gave us the gracious, charming Mediterraneo -- deeply disappointing.
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