ItalianCinema 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.
Italian Film Industry in Trouble, Too
Filed under: Foreign Language », Newsstand », Cinematical Indie »
The Italian industry has declined significantly since the glory days of Cinecitta, when Roberto Rossellini, Federico Fellini, and Vittorio De Sica were known the world over. Today, only about 3500 people have full-time TV or film jobs in Italy. In an effort to kick-start the
industry, Cinecitta has been producing live TV shows and renting space
to foreign productions: parts of The Passion of the Christ were filmed
there, and HBO's Rome series will be shot entirely at Cinecitta. When
HBO leaves, the studio plans to leave their massive sets in place,
hoping to will attact other productions.Sadly for the domestic industry, Italian audiences clearly perfer to see (dubbed) American films than almost anything made in Italy. Theatrical profits in Italy actually rose 10% last year - the problem is that about 65% of the roughly million euro profit ended up in American hands. In fact, during the past year, more American films (about 150) were exhibited in the country than those made domestically (about 100). I'm ashamed to admit that I don't think I saw an Italian film last year - I have no idea if the films coming out of there are any good at all. Has anybody seen anything new out of Italy lately? What did you think?
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