Via Castellana Bandiera – A Street in Palermo (Emma Dante – 2013)

It’s that time of the year, an absolute treat. I am obviously talking about the annual Italian Cinema festival, Open Roads, that takes place every June at Lincoln Film Center. It’s a rare opportunity to get access to some of the freshest voices in Italian cinema with veteran as well as new surprises. This year, unfortunately, I was not able to attend all the films I had planned, part of the reason is that some were scheduled midweek during business hours and that was tough – a note for organizers.

2014/06/14DramaSicilyFestivals

Mafioso (Alberto Lattuada – 1962)

It's that great excitement you get when you come across a truly rewarding film by a director you have never seen much of his work when everything seems to work exactly how you'd want it to be. And Mafioso by Neorealist director, Alberto Lattuada is simply that perfectly fun film. It's the same sad story, these cinematic gems have limited distribution anywhere and are hard to come by. Unless the film is within the programming roadmap of the great people at The Criterion Collection, which is the case here.

2008/07/27ComedyDramaPolitical