SUNDAY FEBRUARY 17
11:00am > THE AVIATOR
by Martin Scorsese - 170’
This is the story of how young Howard Hughes transformed a small fortune into a massive one. Howard Hughes became a Hollywood film producer, where he helped launch the career of Jean Harlow and other starlets, and producing such classics as Hell’s Angels, The Front Page and Flying Leathernecks. Hughes’ legend came not from focusing on just Hollywood, however, as he simultaneously branched into industry after industry, including aviation in 1932 and during WWII. The movie also focuses on Hughes’ romances with Hollywood stars like Katharine Hepburn and Ava Gardner.
by Franklin J. Schaffner – 110’
Luciano Pavarotti plays an Italian opera singer by the name of Giorgio Fini. The story begins in a very picturesque Italian village, where Giorgio sings at a friend’s wedding and is then given a rousing sendoff by the townsfolk, who gather adoringly around his Rolls-Royce. From there, he is off to America, where a concert tour is scheduled. In America Giorgio loses his voice, and is treated by a female throat specialist with whom he falls in love.
Commissioned by ENI, Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, the documentary consists of three parts. The first, shot in Iran, highlights the places where oil springs from. The second tracks the long route marked by the black gold, collecting narrative and cultural hints as well as cinematographic cues along its way. The third is a diary of a South American journalist, whose European tour on the oil route elicits a deep meditation about history, literature and cinema.
by Federico Moccia – 105’
Alex is a 37-year-old man who has just been left by Elena, his all-time girlfriend. He works as a copywriter, but his job is threatened by a new colleague. One day he meets Niki, a 17-year-old girl who is beautiful, funny and intelligent. Their friendship soon becomes love, but Elena comes back and tells Alex she wants to marry him. Alex falls into a deep crisis…
9:45pm > UPAYA
Romina Power
Hans, a German medical attendant, receives a letter from a dying patient, who makes him promise to deliver it in India. Hans keeps his promise and leaves for India to look for the addressee, Baba Prem. After long and useless researches, he falls ill of a mysterious disease that causes him fever and unusual visions. In more than one vision, Hans hears Baba Prem’s voice, that invites him to a spiritual rebirth. Once healed, he will follow Baba Prem’s indications, and will reach an Himalayan monastery up the river Ganges.
(La Masseria delle Allodole)
by Paolo e Vittorio Taviani - 122’
An Armenian family redecorate a lark farm to host a few relatives who moved to Italy and who are coming back to visit them in Armenia. Unfortunately they will never meet these relatives because of the war. As a matter of fact, their relatives have been involved in the Armenian genocide.
MONDAY FEBRUARY 18
by Terry Gilliam - 126’
The fantastic tale of a 17th century aristocrat, his talented henchmen and a little girl in their efforts to save a town from defeat by the Turks. Being swallowed by a giant sea-monster, a trip to the moon, a dance with Venus and an escape from the Grim Reaper are only some of the improbable adventures.
by Marco Carlucci - 106’
The town of Rome is the stage for the story that, in the form of a ‘social tale,’ moves tangled and present-day threads that will lead Riccardo Simeoni (a.k.a. Ricky), the main character, to give up his job as a comedian and to face, with courage and passion, a greater challenge: entering politics as the driving force behind a sudden and impetuous popular push towards change.
by Francesco Falaschi - 88’
Sergio is an architect in his forties, who lives with his 17-year-old son, Valerio, after he got divorced from his wife, Valeria. Valerio and his three teenage friends escape to Marocco for a holiday. Valeria soon finds out what happened and leaves to Marocco with her former husband. For all of them, the trip will prove a life-changing experience.
By Franco Battiato - 75’
The characters of this movie find themselves gathered in the same house to discuss about those questions that actually don’t have a definite answer. An atheist and a believer in a house comparing notes on the fundamental questions that no one can escape and to which no one can give a definitive answer. As though on a stage, the protagonists take up an apparently unreal path, going against all prevailing fashions of today, such as emptiness and possession- in search of spirituality.
6:15pm > THE RAGE (La Rabbia)
by Louis Nero - 100’
A young director lives with a girl. Active part of the Intellectual society, he represents perfectly the union between fear and determination, that changes deeply his way of understanding the world that surrounds him. His only aim is to leave a footstep of his presence on this world realizing a film. However, to be part of this huge cinema machine he needs money to let his dream becomes true. He also has to face the tough reality of distribution and finds himself alone with a final question: Is it right to fight for your personal ideas or is it better to follow the easy-money way?
by Ilaria Borrelli - 85’
Sveva, an energetic 35-year-old-woman, dreams about producing the Rubro, a wine made from an ancient vineyard she discovers at her mother’s winery, who died ten years before. The only hope to save the winery, which has huge debts, is for this promising wine to obtain the best review by a well-known wine guide written by famous Italian sommeliers.
by Rosario Errico – 15’
Ballerina dreams about becoming a famous dancer, but she is sold for 2000 euros to a pimp, who forces her to become a prostitute. Ballerina, runs away from a client who pretends to help her, but she gets caught again by her pimp. He brings her back to his house where another prostitute, who is trying to calm her down, gives her to much drugs and kills her. Her corpse is thrown in a dump; her hand is still holding an image of Jesus that Ballerina always had with her.
This story opens in 1938 in Rome, where Marcello has just taken a job working for Mussollini and is courting a beautiful young woman who will make him even more of a conformist. Marcello is going to Paris on his honeymoon and his bosses have an assignment for him there. Look up an old professor who fled Italy when the fascists came into power. At the border of Italy and France, where Marcello and his bride have to change trains, his bosses give him a gun with a silencer. In a flashback to 1917, we learn why sex and violence are linked in Marcello’s mind.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 19
(Il Te nel Deserto) - 138’
The American artist couple Port and Kit Moresby travels aimless through Africa, searching for new experiences that could give new sense to their relationship. But the flight to distant regions leads both only deeper into despair.
by Michele Placido – 85’
Matteo is a 35-year-old doctor who is tired of his life. His relationship with his wife, Emma, has lost all romance. His career and money do not matter to him anymore. One day he meets Elena, a young emergency services volounteer and feels immediately drawn to her. At the same time, Emma is beginning an affair with Leonardo who works with both her and Matteo. One night, the ambulance that Matteo and Elena are driving is hit and pushed over a bridge by Leonardo’s car. This accident will bring Matteo face-to-face with death, from where he will rediscover the meaning of love.
by Francesca Del Sette – 83’
Carlo Lizzani’s voice off recounts his memories, from his childhood (in the 30s) to his debut (1951). The leit- motif of the “voyage” accompanies us along a path where intersections, arrivals and returns alternate in the fusion between present and past, leaving us in the end with an all around view of the director and closing the tale with his masterpiece, his debut film, Achtung! Banditi! An arrival to where, 60 years ago, there was an important beginning.
by Citto Maselli - 80’
The stories of three different people who lived and are still living on the border. How come that some people end up living a life with no rules, patterns or even a house? Emigration is the core of the this film. In the first story, Stella is a young Ethiopian who moves to Italy seeking her fortune. In the second story, Nina is an immigrant with no papers, who is helped out by two old ladies. The third story is about Giuliano and his past life selling fruit at Campo de’ Fiori in Rome.
by Claudio Fragasso - 95’
Turi Arcangelo Leofonte, accountant for the Mafia, accepted to collaborate with the police and after 11 years of jail, is ready to leave and reach his final destination, abroad, where he will get a new identity and be a free man. Old Scalia, who has been arrested thanks to him, died in prison, but his son Rocco, who has found out that Leofonte is about to be freed, is determined to get his father’s money back.
by Marco Martani - 102’
Diego, while driving his scooter, brakes a the side mirrors of a few cars stucked in traffic. Unluckily among those cars there’s the “Primario”’s car, who cannot stand his act, especially while is checking out the area where he will be selling drugs. He obsessively looks for the guy. The “Primario” always gets what he wants, and one night he gets Asia, Diego’s girlfriend, after meeting her in the restaurants where she works. Diego is now determined to find who hurt his Asia.
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 20
by Neil Jordan - 123’
It hadn’t even been a year since a plantation owner named Louis had lost his brother, and now he had lost his will to live. A vampire named Lestat takes a liking to Louis and offers him the chance to become a creature of the night: a vampire. Louis accepts, and Lestat drains Louis’ mortal blood and then replaces it with his own turning Louis into a vampire. Louis must learn from Lestat the ways of the vampire.
by Andrea Porporati - 98’
The film, spread over a period of 20 years, tells the tale of Saro Scordia, a smart boy growing up in Sicily who is seduced by the power and quick money joining the Mafia can bring. After his father is killed in a prison riot, Saro becomes the protege of a local clan chief and gradually works his way up the ladder of Cosa Nostra.
by Carlo Lizzani
Rome, June, 1944. The city has just been freed: Roberto Rossellini and Sergio Amidi decide to shoot a film that tells the true, dramatic conditions of the people from Rome under the German invasion. They are about to shoot “Open City”. They have a lot of problems, their ideas are often different, but the awareness of the importance of the project unites Anna Magnani, Aldo Fabrizi, a young Fellini and an American soldier.
by Citto Maselli – 110’
A group of leftist radicals get together for a little ping-pong, a lot of sangria, and ultimately, some fierce ideological debate. A phone call is received and it’s announced that a major newspaper has requested the group share its opinion regarding the war in Vietnam. Believing that their views on the subject won’t actually be published, a letter is written in which the leftists volunteer to fight alongside the Vietnamese against U.S. military forces. When, much to their surprise, the letter is published in another newspaper, those who drafted the letter are confronted with their own political beliefs.
by Marcello Garofalo - 87’
On an empty stage, in front of a video camera, three different women- a retired elementary teacher, a former movie-goer nun and an extravagant painter- tell the public how the world reached its moral degeneration. What does the word “moral” means for the contemporary youth? What are the new ideals? Three interviews to three sage women.
by Pupi Avati - 100’
The Hideout is a mystery- thriller about an Italian woman who moves to Davenport to opena restaurant. After her husband commits suicide, she spends 15 years recovering at a Minnesota mental hospital. When she builds herself up enough to open another restaurant, she discovers that a murder took place there 50 years earlier. She decides to investigate and finds out a secret plot.
by Francesco Apolloni- 110’
The vivisection of the love affairs of a group of Thirtysomethings. Twelve people meet and quarrel, break up and fall back in love with each other during one single day which happens to be February 14th, Saint Valentine’s.
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 21
by Franco Zeffirelli - 130’
Hamlet returns to Denmark when his father, the King, dies. His mother Gertrude has already married Hamlet’s uncle Claudius, the new King. They urge Hamlet to marry his beloved Ophelia. But soon the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears and tells Hamlet that he was murdered by Claudius and Gertrude. Hamlet must choose between passive acquiescence and the need for a vengeance which might lead to tragedy.
by Aurelio Grimaldi - 90’
Brasil. Anita is an 18-year-old-girl who, after her father death, has to live in Laguna, the small town where her mother works. She wishes for a better life and tries desperately to change her present. The film is inspired to the figure of Aninha Ribeira de Silva, the girl Giuseppe Garibaldi met in Brasil in 1839 and whom he married three years later.
by Citto Maselli – 117’
Francesco Maselli takes us by the hand through the events, and his own involvement with them, that have marked the culture and arts of the past century. He is a privileged observer, his family relationship with Luigi Pirandello and the Maselli family’s artistic and intellectual salon affording him the position of witness to events, and then mainly as a protagonist along with so many others. Friends from then and now talk about these times in ways that renders their memories particularly vividly, and conjures up the feelings of yeasteryear.
by Michele Placido - 130’
‘The Lebanese’ has a dream: to conquer the underworld of Rome. To carry out this unprecedented feat, he puts together a ruthless and highly organized gang. Their progress and changes in leadership take place over twenty-five years and are inseparably intertwined with the dark history of modern Italy. Throughout these years, Police Lieutenant Scialoia sticks to the gang’s trail, trying both to bring them to justice and to win the heart of Patrizia.
by Carlo Lizzani - 115’
How will the Germans react to the armistice of the 8th of September 1943, due to which Italy betrays them and sides with the allied forces? This is the distressing questions that a group of 16 Italian - Greek Jews evacuated at The Meina Hotel - ask themselves. The uncertainty is broken by the arrival of an SS detachment conducted by Krassler. The sixteen Jews are kept in isolation in the hotel and the never ending wait begins full of uncertainties, despair, fear and hope.
by Fulvio Wetzl - 123’
Italy, at the beginning of the sixties. In a little village in Lucanie, a little region in the south, four children live in a situation of absolute poverty, but with their plays in the street succeed in living in happiness. In the air the menace and, in the same time, the hope of a telephonic convocation by their relatives, already at work in coalmines in Belgie, in the mine district of Limburg. Two of our children leave with their families, to reach the numerous Italian community of Flandres. The children will have a lot of problems, in the school and with the language, to integrate in a hostile ambient, but, at the end the will succeed.
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 22
by Federico Fellini - 120’
The two main characters of the film, Ivo Salvini and the judge Gonnella, travel across the Padana plain, following their dreams and listening to the voice of the moon that arises from the wells. When the villagers capture a slice of the moon, they organize a huge party called “Gnoccata”, during which all the dreams will be destroyed. Salvini, in the end, will be the only one to have a clearer vision of the world.
After her mother commits suicide, nineteen year old Lucy Harmon travels to Italy to have her picture painted. However, she has other reasons for wanting to go. She wants to renew her acquaintance with Nicolo Donati, a young boy with whom she fell in love on her last visit four years ago. She also is trying to solve the riddle left in a diary written by her dead mother, Sara.
by Alessandro d’Alatri – 108’
Mario Bettini, a provincial accountant, has a dream: To open a nightspot with his friends. To do that, he runs up against the comic existence of the bureaucracy, filled with sandbagging, dirty tricks, sly rules, mediocrity and humiliation. Only love, the true kind, and the poetry of life, will be able to transform his dream of a nightspot into that of a free country, where people are judged on the basis of their skills, and where sewing one’s seed means nothing more than working hard to obtain the hood harvest.
by Mimmo Calopresti - 100’
Gabriele, Marco and Nicola are three youngsters, who would like to shoot a movie. So they decide to travel to Rome. Here, they end up getting involved in the TV showbiz rather than cinema, and realize it’s not that bad after all. However, they meet Amelie, a French girl, who seems to be interested in their intent, and tells them she will mention it to Gerard, her fiancé, who actually turns out to be Gerard Depardieu, the renowned French actor... Could this be the turning point for them?
By Wilma Labate - 95’
The film centres on Emma Martano, who is born to a family from Southern Italy and emigrates to Turin. Emma is close to graduating in mathematics and works for FIAT. Wanting to escape her origins and rise above her social class, she decides to marry Silvio, an older manager at the car company, a widower with a daughter. Everything seems to be going as planned until in September 1980 FIAT lays off 15,000 workers, which leads to a 37- day strike. Emma’s life is turned upside down.
by Andrea Jublin – 15’
The arrival of an unusual newcomer galvanizes the students in a high school classroom. What lies beneath the strange behaviour of the supply teacher? A comedy about the teen world and the existential confusion of grown-up people. A film about nostalgia for youth and the virtues of courage. It’s never too late to withstand a dull life.
by Stefano Calvagna - 102’
Just married, Carlo and Laura live a quiet life trying to face economical instability and uncertain future. When Carlo looses his job together with his friends and family’s esteem, he gets lost in the brutal world of usury. In order to follow a real estate investment which will turn out to be e huge swindle, Carlo borrows money from and old school friend, Stefano Missiroli. Apparently benevolent, Stefano will now on push Carlo and his family to the edge of distress. Carlo will be force to buy a gun and use it to vindicate his wife and family.
by Martin Donovan – 100’
K. is a criminal who grew up and became famous in Venice. The film tells the story of his life for over twenty years, from the early 60s to the end of the 70s. From his difficult childhood – his mother was a prostitute – to his adult life, as a criminal who escaped from jail. K. has an affair with Clara, but this outlaw relationship will have disastrous consequences on their lives.
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 23
Set in Italy, the film follows the lives and interactions of two boys/men, one born a bastard of peasant stock, the other born to a land owner. The drama spans from 1900 to about 1945, and focuses mainly on the rise of Fascism and the peasants’ eventual reaction by supporting Communism, and how these events shape the destinies of the two main characters.
by Giulio Base - 180’
The story of the humble capuchin friar, Padre Pio from St. Giovanni Rotondo, from the day he got the stigmata, in September 1918, to the building of the “Casa del Sollievo della Sofferenza” (House of the Relief from Suffering). The mysteries, the miracles, the envy of his fellow friars are told through his spiritual daughter Emilia Sanguinetti’s words and memories. Padre Pio felt that God had given him a lot of suffering to bare, so that he could better understand other people’s pain.