A vibrant community celebrating the prominent achievements of Italian cinema — from Neorealism to the present.
Summertime and the living is easy…so why not enjoy a summer masterpiece from Lina Wertmüller who started her career as an assistant director in Fellini’s 1962 film 81/2? The film, is by no means your typical summer movie, weaves together issues of sex, politics, male-female, poor-rich, relationships into comedy turned drama.
Right from the choice of the title - The Ricotta - Pasolini kicks off an onslaught of symbols to convey his dissatisfaction with the dull consumerism of Italian society during the economic boom of early 60’s. To his belief, the government along with the church banded together to exploit the poor. A prophet ahead of his time, but the way he expressed his ideas alienated people left and right, secular or religious. Pasolini and Welles on the set. Interestingly Welles at the time had no clue who Pasolini was.
In this film, director Franco Brusati brings to life a common theme in 70’s cinema, packaged in commedia all'italiana film genre; the struggle to find your own identity in a foreign land. It’s a universal theme we can find in today’s challenges of immigrants.
As part of my visit to Rome's International Film Festival, I figured it only makes sense to pay a visit to the birthplace of Italian cinema - Cinecitta' Studios, It's about 40 minutes from the center of Rome, going through some suburbs that later my guide informed me are not considered great places to hang out. Entrance.
Individualism vs. determinism is it truly up to the individual to change his destiny or is it all predetermined?
These days YouTube is overflowing with rare cinematic gems like this short film by Luigi Filippo D'Amico Guglielmo il dentone, which is part of a triptych film named I Complessi with the other two shorts directed by Dino Risi and Franco Rossi. I searched for the other two on YouTube, with no luck.
This short film is part of "Per Fiducia" ("Through Trust"), an ambitious project that unites three award-winning directors Ermanno Olmi, Gabriele Salvatores, and Paolo Sorrentino in cooperation with Intessa Sanpaolo – to answer a simple, yet timely question:
It's August in Rome and it seems like the whole town has a single mission – go to the beach! You can watch this charming, time-capsule of a movie below (76 minutes, no English subtitles, though).
