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Aprile
Morreti casts himself, wife and friends in a documentary lampoon about Italian politics. What could be irritatingly self-indulgent turns out to be a funny, charming perspective on Italian life. Following the general election of 1994, won by the centre-right coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi, Moretti is encouraged by a journalist friend to make a documentary…
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Gomorra
Gomorra caused quite a buzz on release in the US and across Europe. The gritty realism used in telling the story of Naples much bigger and wealthier version of the Mafia, the Camorra, explodes the myth of Hollywood’s treatment of mob drama, which often suffuses the violence with a romantic glow of period nostalgia or…
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Mid-August Lunch
Middle-aged Giovanni is down on his luck. He lives in a poor part of Rome with his demanding mother and seeks comfort in increasingly regular drinks on credit at the local bar. As the annual holiday of August 15 (ferragosta) approaches, Giovanni has no plans to leave the sweltering city to escape to the countryside…
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Bicycle Thieves
This classic neorealist masterpiece brings poetry to a poor family mans struggle to find work in post war Italy. Antonio Ricci is an unemployed man supporting a wife and two children. He is delighted to at last get a good job hanging up posters, but on the sole condition that he has a bicycle which…
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The Battle Of Algiers
This cinematic masterpiece of political drama is so convincing that director Pontecorvo announces at the beginning that no newsreel or documentary footage has been used in the making of the film. The Battle of Algiers tells the story of the early years of Algeria’s National Liberation Fronts fight for independence from the French in the…
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Polisse
A critically acclaimed French film, winner of the Cannes Jury Prize 2011 and 13 Cesar Awards also earning international praise. Yet some critics found it manipulative and likened it to TVs The Wire when a film splits critics like this its usually well worth the watch. The Paris Police Departments Juvenile Protection Unit has a…
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Human Capital
This biting and stylish economic crisis murder mystery is based on Stephen Amidon’s prescient 2004 novel set in Connecticut, with the action transplanted to prosperous Milan. The destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve. Writer/producer/director Paolo Virzi…
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Youth
Sorrentino’s follow up to The Great Beauty sees an ageing conductor with his old friend in an Alpine spa. Together they reflect on life while fending off an envoy from the Queen to stage a royal gala. “A beautiful ode to music and cinema. … There are elements of Fellini and Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero…
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The Mafia Kills Only in Summer
Putting an irreverent rom-com spin on the organized crime genre, this deceptively sunny rites-of-passage drama marks the big-screen debut of Pierfrancesco “Pif” Diliberto (b. 1972), best known in Italy as a television host and current-affairs satirist. Taking its title from one of the myths that the film’s young hero is taught to believe, The Mafia…
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The Ciambra
A moving crime-drama in the Italian neo-realist style written and directed by Jonas Carpignano. A 14 year old Romany boy moves between the Italian, African and Romany communities in a small town in Italy’s far south. He’s had to grow up fast and he’s learning to be one street-smart teenager, when adult responsibility falls on…
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