Italy Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Just when it seemed like Al Gore couldn't reassert his international stature any further comes word that An Inconvenient Truth is getting turned into an opera. Seriously. Currently in planning stages for the 2011 season at Italy's Milan opera house, the new work will undoubtedly carry the same tone of global peril that the erstwhile vice president enforces in the film, although one imagines they'll probably do away with some of the dry Power Point material. It's not the most practical choice for an adaptation, that's for sure: The way it's assembled in the film, Gore's lecture manages to engage a diverse audience, while the guy comes off as assertive and witty, which makes you wonder what sort of president he would have made -- but that singular charm doesn't necessarily translate into the sort of theatrics demanded by a massive stage spectacle.

It's too early to get any sense for the final product, but for now, the conceit sounds like ridiculous fodder for a Saturday Night Live sketch, and it's hard to envision anything but a parody of the source (consider the infamous case of Jerry Springer: The Opera). Personally, I can see the revamped An Inconvenient Truth taking a cue from Wagner's Ring Cycle and setting the stage ablaze around the main character in a horrific look-what-might-happen finale as a team of green-friendly celebrities chant "Give us Gore" from stage left, their pathetic words drowned out by a deafening orchestral surge ... but maybe that's pushing it.

Normally, comparing a film to a television program's intended as a slight, a knock against a film that didn't have the sweep and scope you'd expect to witness on the big screen, but when I compare director Matteo Garrone's Gomorra to The Wire, I hope you'll recognize I mean it as a compliment. Set in the provinces around Naples, where the crime organization known as the Camorra is not parallel to the everyday workings of society but instead is the everyday workings of society, Gomorra's a sweeping, stirring film that has the shoot-and-loot tension of the best crime cinema but also has the scope and serious intent of great drama.

Based on the novel by Roberto Saviano, Gomorra follows five separate stories through the slums and streets in the provinces near Naples. Don Ciro is the local clan bagman, dispensing payouts to families affiliated with the clan. He's a civilized criminal, and the uncivilized times are beginning to wear on him. Marco and Ciro are young, dumb and eager to be independent criminals, heads full of dreams of glory and quotes from Scarface. Roberto finds a patronage position assisting Franco in toxic waste disposal, a lucrative business for the Camorra, especially as it involves poisoning the province's wide-open spaces and passing the savings on to their customers. Totò is 13, and eager to take part in the community and opportunities offered by low-level drug dealing work. Pasquale works as a tailor, helping Camorra-linked businesses make couture knockoffs, and he's offered an opportunity that may leave him set for life or marked for death.

Back when Clint Eastwood debuted his two Iwo Jima-set films (Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima), there was some controversy surrounding the fact that no African American soldiers were featured, even though plenty were there fighting alongside their fellow countrymen. It now appears this was part of the reason why Spike Lee has decided to direct his own World War II drama which, according to Variety, will be based on Walter McBride's novel Miracle at St. Anna. Lee, who announced the project while in Italy, informed a newspaper there that he had "met a black veteran who fought at Iwo Jima, and he told me how disappointed he was that there was not even one Afro-American (soldier) in Clint Eastwood's two films."

Thus, as part of a joint project with Italian producers Luigi Musini and Roberto Cicutto, Lee will bring the true story of the U.S. army's 92nd division of all-black soldiers to the big screen; a film that will certainly prove to be his most ambitious to date. McBride, who will also write the screenplay, details how in 1944 the division became trapped in a Tuscan village and were forced to not only deal with their idiotic racist commanders, but also a whole slew of Nazis out for blood. Currently, no actors have signed on to star, but Musini told Variety that the "big-budget project will feature a mostly American cast." No word yet on when the film will go into production; aside from this flick, Lee has a number of other gigs lined up -- including a sequel to Inside Man, a James Brown biopic and a film about the L.A. riots.

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.

I forgive readers for not reading completely through my post on international box office. It was a very long post, and at least one commenter decided that its information was boring. But if you did make it to the bottom, you may have seen a story that I thought to be slightly interesting, if not significant: Consumer groups in Italy were protesting the all-ages rating stamped to Apocalypto.

It didn't seem too important because consumer complaints are made all the time. But now it is more significant because the consumer groups have won, at least temporarily. An Italian court has overruled the Italian censors by placing an age restriction on the film. At least until a hearing commences on January 17, children under the age of 14 will not be allowed to see the film. According to the country's censors, the violence in the movie is historical, artistic and "a way of life" and therefore not inappropriate, but the one consumer group that brought the case to court thought differently (our own James thinks the violence is "clammy and silly stuff -- boring and blood-soaked and incredibly obvious"). Here in the States the rating was R, and similarly restrictive ratings were placed on the film in other markets. After this ruling, only Russia still lacks an age limit for admission.

Roman mayor Walter Veltroni doesn't seem to be your run of the mill public servant. He lunches with celebrities, writes best-selling books and has even done some cartoon voice work.

Variety announced that Veltroni has made deals for film versions of four of his books; three features and one documentary about Africa have been planned for 2007. The first will be the doc God Isn't Feeling Well and is based on Veltroni's own diaries during a trip to Africa. Veltroni's collection of short stories Senza patricio, which is set in Argentina, was also optioned and will be directed by Gianni Amelio. Other projects include a biography of Italian Jazz great Luca Flores (who played with Chet Baker) with Kim Rossi Stewart in the lead and a thriller about international terrorism based on the best-seller La scoperta dell'alba. There have been some grumblings that Veltroni uses a ghostwriter for his books, but Veltroni (a former editor of the lefty Italian daily L'Unita) claims the books are entirely his own creation.

Luckily Veltroni says he is an insomniac -- which is a good thing -- because between his new career in the movie business and his political ambitions, it looks like he is going to be a busy man in the new year.

If you enjoy a good serial killer flick as much as the next person, then this might be the movie for you. The Italian best-selling novel I Kill (io uccido) by Giorgio Faletti is being adapted for the big screen. The book has been a huge hit in Italy and the father-and-son team of Aurelio De Laurentiis and Luigi De Laurentiis Jr. think they can make a movie version that will be just as big of a success.

Variety announced that Jon Avnet has been hired to direct the film version of the novel for Laurentiis' Flimauro productions. Avnet has a pretty extensive TV resume, but he is probably best known for directing Fried Green Tomatoes. Avent will also be reworking the script originally written by Davide Ferrario. I Kill focuses on a serial killer who develops a "rapport" with a call-in radio DJ to request songs that reflect the crime he is about to commit.

The film is due to start shooting next year on the Cote d'Azur, which is definitely one of the more glamorous locations for a serial killer flick I've seen in a while. No casting announcements have been made yet, but Filmauro is going to be keeping busy with their production of Empire of The Dragon, another adaptation of a novel by Massimo Manfredi about Roman militia in the service of an exiled Chinese prince.

It's been awhile since we've seen the debate over release-windows. Maybe now that the Box Office Slump of '05 has long since past, and the issue with day-and-date releases has made the debate almost obsolete, theaters just aren't complaining as much. At least in America, anyway. Last week, distributors and exhibitors throughout Italy were furious about Universal's plan to release Miami Vice on DVD exactly two months after its release in cinemas there. The movie, based on the '80s TV-show, opened in the country on October 6 via United International Pictures and it was planned to be out on video December 6. The head of the Italian exhibitors' association ANEC threatened legislative intervention and Warner Village Cinemas actually stopped playing the pic.

All the protesting and boycotting helped. On Friday it was announced that Universal would change the DVD date to January, which would lengthen the window to the usually honored three months. Unfortunately, the win by distributors and exhibitors probably won't change the success of the movie at the box office. In its first four weeks, Miami Vice made only a little more than $4 million. Comparatively, in the same amount of time Woody Allen's Scoop made almost $5 million, World Trade Center has made $6.5 million and The Devil Wears Prada has made close to $15 million. And obviously, Miami Vice didn't even figure into the top 20 this past weekend thanks to it being pulled from so many screens. So, maybe, just maybe, Italians aren't that into the movie, and it wouldn't really matter if the DVD came out next week. Or, it could be the matter of it opening so late, since in countries like the UK and France, where it opened closer to its release in the U.S., grosses were pretty decent.

[via In Focus Magazine Newswire; box office numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo]

As the Shadow's main character is Claudia (impressive newcomer Anita Kravos) a drifting, unfocused woman in her late thirties. She works at a travel agency in Milan, and is taking Russian in an apparent effort to improve her usefulness at work. Despite keeping her in frame for virtually the entire film, director Marina Spada refuses to let us get to know Claudia, holding us at a distance both physically and emotionally. On the rare occasions that we are allowed to see her interacting with her friends or spending time with a very casual boyfriend, we are always watching from across the street, through a window, or around a closed door. We can see their affection, but hear nothing. And when Claudia talks to her sister, it's clear they're close, but the words they exchange give us very little sense of what Claudia is like inside, apart from a bit cynical about the world around her (a trait she likely shares with much of her generation).

Out of boredom as much as anything else, she attempts to initiate a relationship with her Russian professor (Boris, played by Paolo Pierobon), a native of Ukraine who claims to have once taught Italian at a university in Kiev. Despite -- or, more like, because of -- his refusal to get involved with her (he is, he says, her professor, and it wouldn't be appropriate), the two nevertheless retain an indistinct closeness, and during the summer holidays Boris visits, seemingly interested in rekindling their nascent relationship. It turns out, however, that he wants something from Claudia: His distant cousin Olga (Karolina Dafne Porcari) is coming to visit and needs somewhere to stay for a few days. Utterly unpersuaded by Boris' embarrassingly transparent attempt at seduction, Claudia nevertheless agrees to take Olga in, mostly out of the idle hope that something interesting might happen as a result.

The other day I posted a Vintage Image of the Day of Gregory Peck from the movie The Paradine Case. The woman in the photo was Alida Valli. Little did I know I'd have cause to look for photos of her again, so soon. Sadly, the Italian actress died on Saturday at age 84.

Valli's first movie, Three-Cornered Hat, was released in 1937. She made movies in Hollywood from the late 1940s to the early 1950s, as well as taking a notable role in The Third Man, then returned to Italy. Horror-film fans may remember Valli as Miss Tanner in Dario Argento's film Suspiria, or perhaps as the assistant Louise in the 1959 French thriller Eyes Without a Face. Those fans of her later character-actor work might recognize her in the above photo as Kira Argounova in Noi Vivi, the 1942 Italian adaptation of Ayn Rand's We the Living.

GreenCine Daily linked to a lovely Alida Valli tribute site, full of photos of the actress throughout the years. You have your choice of languages: French, Italian, or German. Even though I'm not much good at anything but English, I had no trouble browsing the site.