Just arrived yesterday to charming Taormina, aptly named because it’s perched royally on mount Tauro overlooking mount Etna. The town is not packed as I was initially afraid of but contains a healthy dose of tourists that happily savor the holy trinity: pasta-espresso-ice cream. I decided to kick off the festival with the short films [...]

Have plans for New Year? Not yet? Well…now you do! Get your loved-one or no one and celebrate it with The Crush, an adorable short film (49 minutes) by Ermanno Olmi. The kind people at Criterion Collection included this fine featurette in the DVD of Il Posto, another gem I have recently covered. The film [...]