European Film was celebrated in a grand way yesterday as the 25th European Film Awards were handed out at the Mediterranean Conference Centre.
Veteran director Giuliano Montaldo’s career will be spotlighted throughout the festival
The run-up to the awards undoubtedly re-ignited interest in films from the continent, and the forthcoming Italia Film Festival should continue to spark that interest.
The Italia Film Festival forms part of an international festival entitled Così Vicini Così Lontani: la Sicilia del Sud Est e Malta (So Close So Far: Southeastern Sicily and Malta), which is now in its 10th edition.
The festival celebrates the best of recent Italian film releases together with some classics of past decades with a series of movie screenings.
Moreover, as in previous years, audiences will also have the opportunity to meet some of the actors and directors of the films on the programme.
The career of veteran Italian director Giuliano Montaldo, who started working as an actor before going on to become one of Italy’s most beloved directors, will be spotlighted throughout the festival, while the director himself will be in Malta to take part in a number of events throughout.
On December 11 at 6.30pm at the Old University in Valletta, the film L’industriale, directed by Montaldo will be screened, followed by a panel discussion featuring the director himself, film critic and director Marco Spagnoli and festival coordinator Gloria Lauri Lucente.
Montaldo, Spagnoli and Lauri Lucente will also present a discussion the next day at 10.15am at Sir Temi Zammit Hall at the University, following a screening of Montaldo’s film Sacco e Vanzetti, the Palme d’Or winner at Cannes in 1971.
That same evening, Spagnoli will launch his documentary Giuliano Montaldo: Quattro volte vent’anni, which takes a look at the professional and personal life of the director. The presentation will take place in the presence of Spagnoli and his wife Vera at the Italian Cultural Institute in Valletta at 6pm.
On December 13 at 10am, at the Bir Mula Heritage Museum in Cospicua, Montaldo, Arturo Mingardie and Spagnoli will be the protagonists of a live performance, in which they present their own experiences through improvisation, interaction with the audience and extracts from their film works. Giuliano, Arturo, Marco: Quattro, Tre, Due Volte Vent’Anni promises to be an innovative experience.
St James Cavalier in Valletta will once again play host to the numerous films chosen for the festival; from December 14 to 16, the centre will screen a number of Montaldo’s films. In Gli occhiali d’oro (1987), which stars Philippe Noiret, Rupert Everett, Valeria Golino and Stefania Sandrelli, a Jewish family and a homosexual doctor suffer persecution in Fascist Italy.
Gli intoccabili (1969) is a crime drama starring Peter Falk, John Cassavetes, Britt Ekland and Florinda Balkan. Montaldo’s Giordano Bruno (1973) takes a look at the last few years in the life of the 16th-century Dominican friar and philosopher, with Gian Maria Volonte in the titular role; I demoni di San Pietroburgo (2007) stars Miki Manojlovic, Anita Caprioli and Carolina Crescentini and is set against the backdrop of Imperial Russia.
Other films being shown in the festival include La kryptonite nella borsa, a 2012 film directed by Ivan Cotroneo and starring Valeria Golino, Cristiana Capotondi, Luca Zingaretti. The film tackles the life of a seven-year-old boy and his dysfunctional family.
Egidio Veronesi’s 2011 film Il cacciatore di anatre, a film set in 1940 about a group of friends pursuing their dreams, stars Federico Mazzoli, Francesca Botti and Giorgio Paltrinieri; finally, Posti in piedi in paradiso is an ensemble comedy directed by popular director Carlo Verdone.
All films are in Italian with English subtitles. Films being screened at St James cost €3. Entrance to all other events is free. For more information, call the Italian Cultural Institute on 2124 1944.