Latin Lover (2014)
Director: Cristina Comencini
Length: 104 mins
Cast: Virna Lisi, Marisa Paredes, Angela Finocchiaro, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi
Genre: Comedy
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
This charming new offering from acclaimed writer/director Cristina Comencini (Don’t Tell) tells the story of the life and secrets of great Italian star, Saverio Crispo, a “Latin Lover” (played seductively by Francesco Scianna, Baaria). Saverio was Italy’s most beloved movie star of the Golden Era and a prolific ladies’ man. To mark the anniversary of his passing, his five daughters from ranging relationships with five different women gather in his hometown to piece together the puzzle of the man they’ve known only as an icon.
The international cast features a contemporary ensemble which brings this comedy to an amusing new pitch. Most notably, it includes Pedro Almodóvar veterans Candela Peña, Lluís Homar, and Marisa Paredes, and especially poignant turns from three-time David di Donatello winner Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (Human Capital) and the late Virna Lisi (Queen Margot) in her final screen appearance.
NOMINATED
- Best Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Make-Up, Best Hair Design – David di Donatello Awards 2015
- Best Comedy, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Costume, Best Editing, Best Casting - Nastro d’Argento Awards 2015
SCREENINGS
Opening Night - Latin Lover has sold out! We are now going to screen 2 additional films. Book tickets below to 'The Wonders' & 'Those Happy Years'.
Thursday 2 June - 8.15pm One of the OPENING NIGHT films. ($30 ticket price includes drinks (Peroni, Carpineto Wines, San Pellegrino) and light snacks from La Bella Italia. As the 2016 Festival is dedicated to Le Donne - the first 50 women through the door receive an Italian Regalo.
Arrivals invited from 7.30pm - The Film Screening starts at 8.15pm. The other films screening on Opening Night are: The Wonders & Those Happy Years.
Thursday 9 June - 8.15pm
Friday 10 June - 12.00pm
Lighthouse, Petone
Sunday 5 June - 8.00pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Wednesday 15 June - 7.45pm OPENING NIGHT ($30 ticket price includes drinks and light snacks. As the 2016 Festival is dedicated to Le Donne - the first 40 women through the doors will receive an Italian Regalo on the night)
Wednesday 22 June - 12.30pm
p
the conformist (1970)
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
Length: 107 mins
Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda, Pierre Clementi, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio
Genre: Drama
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
A political thriller set in Mussolini’s Italy, The Conformist is an incisive portrait of the self-loathing, repressed Marcello (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who is drawn to Fascism. Aching to fit in in 1938 Rome, he is despatched to Paris to murder his former, anti-fascist college professor. A furious energy is contained in the film’s truly unforgettable scenes: a wedding night on a train, Marcello’s wife Stefania Sandrelli and her lover Dominique Sanda dancing the tango, a limousine ambushed in a wintry forest. Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro’s lens transforms every street and room into a catalytic baroqueness and decadence, resulting in a bludgeoning indictment and critique of politics and class.
This new release is the result of a new digital restoration from original source materials, supervised by Storaro himself and approved by Bertolucci.
NOMINATED
- Best Film – Academy Awards 1970
WINNER
- Best Film – David di Donatello Awards 1971
- Journalists' Special Award, Interfilm Award - Berlin Film Festival 1970
SCREENINGS
The Empire, Wellington
Saturday 4 June - 12.00pm
Sunday 5 June - 8.15pm
Lighthouse Cuba, Wellington
Friday 3 June - 7.45pm
Lighthouse Petone
Monday 6 June - 8.00pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Saturday 18 June - 12.30pm
wondrous boccaccio (2015)
Director: Paolo & Vittorio Taviani
Length: 121 mins
Cast: Kim Rossi Stuart, Riccardo Scamarcio, Paola Cortellesi, Carolina Crescentini, Vittoria Puccini, Kasia Smutniak, Jasmine Trinca
Genre: Historical Comic Drama
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
Veteran auteurs Paolo and Vittorio Taviani’s adaptation of Boccaccio’s The Decameron focuses on five of the 100 stories in the classic Italian masterpiece and boasts stunning locations and a gorgeous all-star cast including Riccardo Scamarcio, Kim Rossi Stuart, Jasmine Trinca, Vittoria Puccini, Flavio Parenti and Carolina Crescentini.
The stories are set against the backdrop of a 14th century, black plague-stricken Florence, where ten young men and women have escaped the Black Death by relocating to a country villa where, one by one, they take turns telling stories of love, fate, and resurrection. Wondrous Boccaccio is a poetic tribute to the stories that emerged from one of the darkest periods in Italian history, and the imaginations that fuelled them. Stunningly shot in several castles, towers and medieval ruins in Tuscany and Lazio, this visual gem is a luscious Taviani style feast for the eyes.
NOMINATED
- Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Hair Design/Styling – David di Donatello Awards 2015
OFFICIAL SELECTION
- Opening Film – Beijing International Film Festival 2015
- Spotlight - Munich Film Festival 2015
- Horizons - Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 2015
- Spotlight - Tribeca Film Festival 2015
SCREENINGS
The Empire, Wellington
Wednesday 8 June - 12.00pm
Sunday 12 June - 8.15pm
Lighthouse, Petone
Friday 3 June - 7.45pm
Wednesday 8 June - 8.15pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Wednesday 22 June - 7.45pm
Saturday 25 June - 7.45pm
greenery will bloom again (2014)
Director: Paolo & Vittorio Taviani
Length: 78 mins
Cast: Claudio Santamaria, Alessandro Sperduti, Francesco Formichetti, Andrea Di Maria, Camillo Grassi, Niccolo Senni, Domenico Benetti
Genre: War Drama
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
Auteur Ermanno Olmi, whose six decade career spans masterpieces like Il Posto and The Tree of Wooden Clogs, again demonstrates he is among Italy’s most masterful directors, as he evokes the terror of war in this short but stunningly effective and hypnotising film, reminiscent of Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line.
Claudio Santamaria delivers an intense and subtle performance as a Major who arrives with bad news for a group of bedraggled soldiers in a bunker on the North-eastern front, close to the Austrian trenches. So close, in fact, that when a Neapolitan soldier stands on a hill at night singing piercing love songs, both armies can hear. The outpost is buried in deep snow and the dirty, sickly men are forced to sleep on boards in the freezing cold. The Major’s instructions for a senseless suicide mission causes an unthinkable face-off. The tension rises palpably scene-by- scene in this work made with devastating simplicity and painful realism; a poignant memorial to Italian soldiers.
OFFICIAL SELECTION
- Grand Prix – Golden Globes Italy 2015
- Berlinale Special - Berlinale 2015
- Special Presentation - Beijing International Film Festival 2015
- Focus Italy - Shanghai Film Festival 2015
SCREENINGS
The Empire, Wellington
Friday 3 June - 12.00pm
Sunday 5 June - 4.30pm
the dinner (2014)
Director: Ivano De Matteo
Length: 92 mins
Cast: Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessandro Gassman, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Barbora Bobulova
Genre: Drama
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
Ivan De Matteo adapts Herman Koch's best-seller with an all-star cast, including Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Luigi Lo Cascio and Alessandro Gassmann. These actors are some of the finest working in Italian Cinema, and here they are given challenges worthy of their talents.
The ‘dinner’ is a regular event in which two brothers, paediatrician Paolo (Luigi Lo Cascio) and lawyer Massimo (Alessandro Gassman), meet with their wives at an expensive restaurant despite the women’s mutual dislike. However, when Paolo’s son and Massimo’s daughter appear to have been involved in a serious crime, resentments boil to the surface. Ivano de Matteo has brilliantly expanded on elements of the novel and altered some aspects, such as the children being a boy and a girl instead of two boys, resulting in heightened complexities in the characters and a slow burn tension that builds to a surprising climax. The outstanding cast also features Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Barbora Bobulova who give unforgettable performances that linger long after the lights go up.
WINNER
- Cinecibo Award, Best European Film, Special Mention Pasinetti Award – Venice Film Festival 2014
- Best Actor - Nastro d'Argento Awards 2015
NOMINATED
- Best Director – David di Donatello Awards 2015
SCREENINGS
The Empire, Wellington
Wednesday 8 June - 8.15pm
Lighthouse, Petone
Tuesday 7 June - 12.30pm
Thursday 9 June - 8.00pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Tuesday 21 June - 7.45pm
The mafia kills only in summer (2013)
Director: Pierfrancesco Diliberto aka 'Pif'
Length: 90 mins
Cast: Cristiana Capotondi, Pif, Alex Bisconti, Ginevra Antona, Claudio Gioe, Ninni Bruschetta, Barbara Tabita, Rosario Lisma, Enzo Salomone, Maurizio Marchetti
Genre: Comedy
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
"Pierfrancesco Diliberto does a remarkable job negotiating the delicate balance between humor and heartrending emotion in his terrific feature debut ... There are moments when audiences will wonder if laughing about gangland whackings isn't in bad taste, yet it becomes increasingly clear that the director-scripter is using humor to cut Mafia bosses down to size, thereby turning an accusatory glare at an Italy that granted these people power." - Jay Weissberg, Variety
Hilarious, smart & thought-provoking, Italian comedian and satirist Pierfrancesco 'Pif' Diliberto makes a hugely auspicious and entertaining film with this semi-autobiographical romantic comedy of childhood and first love, set in the tumultuous world of 1970's Italy.
Adored by local critics & audiences, THE MAFIA KILLS ONLY IN SUMMER became a huge sleeper hit at the Italian box office, and was the most popular film at the 2014 Lavazza Italian Film Festival in Australia.
WINNER
- Best European Comedy – European Film Awards 2014
- Best New Director - Italian Academy Awards 2014
The Empire, Wellington
Friday 3 June - 5.45pm
Monday 6 June - 7.45pm
Lighthouse, Petone
Thursday 9 June - 12.30pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Sunday 19 June - 7.45pm
the art of happiness (2013)
Director: Alessandro Rak
Length: 82 mins
Cast: Leandro Amato, Nando Paone, Riccardo Polizzy Carbonelli
Genre: Animation Drama
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
Two brothers. Two continents. Two lives. One single soul. Under a gloomy sky, between apocalyptic premonitions in a Naples at its utmost decay, Sergio, a taxi driver, receives shocking news. Nothing will be the same as before. Now Sergio looks himself in the mirror and what he sees is a forty-year-old man who has turned his back on music and got lost in the limbo of his city. While a storm is raging outside, a crowd of memories, hopes, regrets and presences begins to populate his cab. Sooner or later the rain will stop and the sky will open up again. And the end will come. Or the music will be back.
WINNER
- FEDIC Award, Young Cinema Award – Venice Film Festival 2013
- Best First Feature - Raindance Film Festival
SCREENINGS
Lighthouse Cuba, Wellington
Saturday 4 June - 12.30pm
Saturday 11 June - 12.30pm
zoran, my nephew the idiot (2013)
Director: Matteo Oleotto
Length: 106 mins
Cast: Giuseppe Battiston, Teco Celio, Rok Prasnikar
Genre: Comedy Drama
Language: In Italian & Slovenian with English subtitles
Synopsis
Collecting award after award at film festivals internationally, Zoran is a charming and funny feature set among the vineyards of the Friuli region close to the border with Slovenia, complemented with plenty of regional cappella singing.
A forty something loser, Paolo (superbly played by Giuseppe Battiston, The Human Factor) spends his days in a dead end job and nights drinking vast quantities of local wine. He clearly hasn’t moved on since his marriage fell apart, though he loses few opportunities to take advantage of the good will of his ex’s new hubby, Alfio (Roberto Citran). News of the death of an aunt across the border brings visions of a juicy inheritance. Instead, all he receives is her ashes, a porcelain dog and his nephew Zoran, a nerdy 16 year-old. Paolo is not happy – until he witnesses Zoran’s talents for darts. Sensing an opportunity to cash in, he hustles a local darts club and makes plans for the World Championships.
WINNER
- Best Debut Film – Italian Golden Globes 2014
- International Critic's Week Audience Award, Schermi di Qualita Prize FEDIC Award - Venice Film Festival 2014
SCREENINGS
The Empire, Wellington
Friday 3 June - 8.15pm
Monday 6 June - 12.00pm
Lighthouse Cuba, Wellington
Friday 10 June - 8.30pm
Lighthouse Petone
Tuesday 7 June - 8.15pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Sunday 19 June - 3.00pm
Friday 24 June - 12.30pm
blame it on freud (2013)
Director: Paolo Genovese
Length: 120 mins
Cast: Vittoria Puccini, Stephen Baldwin, Carlo Verdone, Paolo Genovese, Nick Mancuso, Enrico Bridnano
Genre: Comedy
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
A beautiful story about human relationships: a psychoanalyst father struggling with his three daughters, their problems, their loves, their mistakes on their path to becoming independent and strong women.
Love is at the center of their lives: that of the father for his daughters, that of the daughters for the men and women they encounter, that of the people around them.
All set with a bright and beautiful Rome in the backdrop.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
- Official Selection – Toronto Italian Contemporary Film Festival 2014
- Special Screening - Los Angeles Italia 2014
- Winner of the Ciak D'Oro for Best Original Song 2014
sCREENINGS
The Empire, Wellington
Friday 10 June - 8.15pm
Lighthouse, Petone
Saturday 11 June - 12.30pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Sunday 19 June - 12.00pm
Thursday 23 June - 7.45pm
the fifth wheel (2013)
Director: Giovanni Veronesi
Length: 113 mins
Cast: Elio Germano, Ricky Memphis, Alessandra Mastronardi, Virginia Raffaele, Alessandro Haber, Sergio Rubini, Francesca D'Aloja
Genre: Comedic Drama
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
The Fifth Wheel is a film about a young man who wants to work, who rejects illegal shortcuts, and exhibits the charm of a young boy who never grows up. Set against the backdrop of a 'normal' Roman family, the story takes places in a country that went from economic boom to terrorism, from the confrontation of a corrupt political season to the arrival of a wave of moralising.
Giovanni Veronesi recounts with style, irony and presence the story of 'poor Ernesto'.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
- Official Selection – Rome Film Festival 2013
SCREENINGS
The Empire, Wellington
Saturday 11 June - 8.15pm
Lighthouse, Petone
Saturday 4 June - 12.30pm
Friday 10 June - 12.30pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Friday 24 June - 7.45pm
the wonders (2014)
Director: Alice Rohrwacher
Length: 110 mins
Cast: Monica Bellucci, Maria Alexandra Lungu, Sam Louwyck, Alba Rohrwacher, Sabine Timoteo
Genre: Coming of Age
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
Winner of the Grand Prix Award at Cannes, Le Meraviglie / The Wonders is a poignant semi-autobiographical coming of age story set in the countryside of Umbria. An ecological film where a back-to-nature lifestyle wins out over the world of reality TV.
A film charged by intimate performances, female camaraderie and stunning cinematography.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
- Grand Prize of the Jury – Cannes Film Festival 2014
screenings
The Empire, Wellington
Opening Night in Wellington
Thursday 2 June - 8.15pm One of the OPENING NIGHT films. ($30 ticket price includes drinks (Peroni, Carpineto Wines, San Pellegrino) and light snacks from La Bella Italia. As the 2016 Festival is dedicated to Le Donne - the first 50 women through the door receive an Italian Regalo.
Arrivals invited from 7.30pm - The Film Screening starts at 8.15pm.
Lighthouse Cuba
Friday 10 June - 12.30pm
Lighthouse Petone
Saturday 11 June - 8.00pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Thursday 16 June - 7.45pm
Thursday 23 June - 12.30pm
quiet bliss (2014)
Director: Edoardo Winspeare
Length: 127 mins
Cast: Celeste Casciaro, Laura Licchetta, Barbara De Matteis, Anna Boccadamo, Gustavo Caputo
Genre: Drama
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
This film is a kind of 'good life' that is rendered with equal parts pathos, insight and humour. Three women seek refuge in their family's traditional Salento olive grove, after their small textile business collapses. Against all expectations, they discover that cultivating the soil and selling or bartering their produce provides the chance for a new beginning.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
- Official Selection – Berlin Film Festival 2014
- WINNER, Grand Prix - Italian Golden Globes 2014
screenings
The Empire, Wellington
Sunday 5 June - 12.00pm
Friday 10 June - 5.45pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Monday 20 June - 12.30pm
the devil's soup (2014)
Director: Davide Ferrario
Length: 78 mins
Genre: Documentary
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
Fifty years later, it's the best definition to describe the ambiguous nature of the utopia of industrial progress in the 21st century. This is the theme of La Zuppa Del Demonio.
This film, made with footage from the Archivio Nazionale del Cinema d’Impresa in Ivrea, sets out to tell the story of progress in Italy. From the early years of the 20th century until the beginning of the seventies, when environmentalism and the first major oil crisis marked the divide between a before and an after. From the great works of the second decade of the century to the rush to electrification to permit the development of large-scale industry. Fascism and the wartime production of FIAT, reconstruction after the war and the emergence of new industries in the fifties, the city in the factory and the Piedmontese models of FIAT and Olivetti, the search for new sources of energy in Italy and abroad in the sixties and the pioneering work in the fields of computer science and nuclear power.
Today we look in horror at the images showing excavators clearing centennial olive trees to make room for Tarant's steel plant and the dream of unfettered progress.
A film that is both art and testimony, at once poetic, real and unique.
SCREENINGS
Lighthouse Cuba, Wellington
Sunday 5 June - 12.30pm
Sunday 12 June - 12.30pm
sacro gra (2013)
Director: Gianfranco Rosi
Length: 93 mins
Genre: Documentary
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
This beautifully crafted documentary takes us into the lives of intriguing individuals who live and work around Rome's ring road, the Grande Raccordo Anulare (GRA). It was the first documentary to be awarded the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival.
Venice Film Festival jury president Bernardo Bertolucci singled it out for its "poetic force".
A rare documentary with equal parts pathos, drama, poeticism, laugh-out-loud humour and a touch of the tragic.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
- Official Selection – BFI London Film Fest 2013
- WINNER, Golden Lion - Venice Film Festival 2013
- WINNER Silver Giraldillo - Sevilla European Film Festival 2013
- Screen International Critics' Choice - Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2013
screenings
Lighthouse Cuba, Wellington
Saturday 4 June - 8.30pm
Thursday 9 June - 8.30pm
Saturday 11 June - 8.30pm
Bella vita (2014)
Director: Jason Baffa
Length: 82 mins
Genre: Documentary
Language: In English with some Italian
Synopsis
Surfer, artist and environmentalist, Chris Del Moro takes us on a very personal pilgrimage back to his ancestral homeland to explore a culture where old-world conventions and traditional craftsmanship have matured into a modern surf lifestyle and destination.
This film is a visual epic, captured in stunning 35mm. An intimate and powerful story.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
- Best Surf Film - Cologne German 2012
- Viewers Choice Award - London International Surf Film Festival 2013
- Cinematography Award - Nor/Northwest Surf and Skate Festival 2014
- Cinematography Award - Anglet Surf Festival France 2014
- Audience Choice Award - Costa Rica International Film Festival 2014
- Best Feature - Highline Festival of Surfing 2014
screenings
The Empire, Wellington
Saturday 11 June - 6.30pm
Lighthouse Cuba, Wellington
Sunday 5 June - 8.30pm
Sunday 12 June - 8.30pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Saturday 25 June - 12.30pm
those happy years (2013)
Director: Daniele Luchetti
Length: 100 mins
Genre: Drama
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
Fragmented family memories come alive in the Roman sun and at the Mediterranean coast of Camargue. An autobiographical reckoning, Daniele Luchetti is recalling a turning point in his childhood. The film glistens with the best kind of nostalgia in the details and expands into wider socio-political threads. Summer of 1974.
Kim Rossi Stuart plays Guido, an artist who feels undervalued and misunderstood. Serena (Micaele Ramazotti), Guido's wife and mother of their two boys, struggles with his unfaithfulness, her place in his world and the world in general. When her husband's art dealer, gallery owner Elke (an excellent Martina Gedeck, the female lead from Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film The Lives of Others), invites her and the children to go on vacation to France at a kind of feminist resort, power dynamics start to shift.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
- Official Selection – BFI London Film Fest 2013
- Special Presentation - Toronto International Film Festival 2013
screenings
The Empire, Wellington
Opening Night
Thursday 2 June - 8.15pm One of the OPENING NIGHT films. ($30 ticket price includes drinks (Peroni, Carpineto Wines, San Pellegrino) and light snacks from La Bella Italia. As the 2016 Festival is dedicated to Le Donne - the first 50 women through the door receive an Italian Regalo.
Arrivals invited from 7.30pm - The Film Screening starts at 8.15pm.
Saturday 11 June - 12.00pm
Lighthouse Petone
Saturday 4 June - 8.00pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Friday 17 June - 7.45pm
Tuesday 21 June - 12.30pm
Crossing rachmaninoff (2014)
Director: Rebecca Tansley
Length: 79 mins
Genre: Documentary
Language: In English & Italian with some Italian subtitles
Synopsis
In Rebecca Tansley's documentary Crossing Rachmaninoff we follow aspiring pianist, Flavio Villani through his preparation of Rachmaninoff's famous Piano Concerto No.2, for his first ever performance with an orchestra. But Flavio is also returning to Italy to reconnect with his family. Villani is immediately likable and engaging with his gentle manner that belies a passion, dedication and drive.
As a subject he is a gift, with his openness and ease he talks about himself and his musical development. His enthusiasm and his obvious love for this music sweeps us along with him. Complementing the musical richness of this story, the cinematography of Simon Raby is outstanding.
Crossing Rachmaninoff is not only well crafted, but also emotionally compelling.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
- World Premiere – New Zealand International Film Festival 2015
- Official Competition - Festival International des Programmes Audiovisuels 2016
screenings
The Bridgeway, Auckland
Thursday 12 May - 4.00pm
Saturday 14 May - 1.30pm
Rialto, Tauranga
Tuesday 24 May - 11.00am
The Empire, Wellington
Tuesday 7 June - 12.00pm
Sunday 12 June - 4.30pm
Lighthouse Cuba, Wellington
Tuesday 7 June - 8.30pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Saturday 25 June - 3.00pm
orphans & kingdoms (2013)
Director: Paolo Rotondo
Cast: Colin Moy, Calae Hignett-Morgan, Hanelle Harris, Jesse James Rehu Pickery
Length: 78 mins
Genre: Drama
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
Italian cinema has influenced in no small measure the subject, aesthetics and approach to this film. The political and social nature of Orphans & Kingdoms has more in common with Italian Cinema than contemporary Kiwi films. The stunning musical score was entirely composed in Rome by Giovanni Rotondo, a former student and now colleague of the Oscar-winning, Ennio Morricone.
Orphans & Kingdoms is a moving drama set entirely on Waiheke Island. It tells the story of wealthy architect, Jeremy (Colin Moy) who returns to his home to find it has been taken over by three fugitive teenagers. Over the course of a tumultuous night, the tables turn and a tenuous bond begins to grow between them.
The performances from the actors have been attracting praise on the world stage. A deceptively simple film complemented by Simon Raby's rich-textured cinematography.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
- Best Feature Film - Anchorage International Film Festival 2015
- Outstanding Achievement to Giovanni Rotondo - Silver Global Music Award 2015
- Best Editor to Cushla Dillon - MOA New Zealand Film Awards 2014
- Best Cinematography - Las Cruces International Film Festival, New Mexico 2016
OFFICIAL SELECTION
- LoneStar Texax International Film Festival
- All Lights - India International Film Festival
- Boston International Film Festival
- NZ International Film Festival
- Newport Beach Film Festival
- Manhattan Film Festival
- New Zealand Film Festival in China - Beijing, Qidong, Shenzhen
- Special Presentation - Toronto International Film Festival 2013
misunderstood(2014)
Director: Asia Argento
Cast: Giulia Salerno, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Gabriel Garko, Gianmarco Tognazzi
Length: 108 mins
Genre: Drama
Language: In Italian with English subtitles
Synopsis
Charlotte Gainsbourg and Italian television idol, Gabriel Garko play warring parents as Asia Argento returns to the director's chair after a 10-year absence. Set in a dysfunctional family of creative artists, focusing on a little girl named Aria, it is not hard to make the autobiographical connections with Asia and her famous art/horror director father Dario Argento.
It is 1984, and corporal punishment is still in vogue, along with cruel teachers and heartlessly mean kids. The rollicking black humour allows a cruel story to be surprisingly universal and enjoyable. Charlotte Gainsbourg's popularity is fully earned here as a ferociously mean but somehow likable mother. The audience can only laugh nervously at the parents' monstrous egoism and blatant disregard for the kids.
Giulia Salerno as Aria is astonishing. The soundtrack is retro-cool and far-ranging, including rock, punk and Mozart. Some of the songs are even written by Argento herself.
FESTIVALS AND AWARDS
- Official Selection Un Certain Regard - Cannes Film Festival 2014
- Official Selection - New York Film Festival 2014
screenings
The Academy, Auckland
Friday 13 May - 9.15pm
Sunday 15 May - 11.00am
Monterey, Howick
Monday 9 May - 7.45pm
Rialto, Tauranga
Sunday 22 May - 3.45pm
The Empire, Wellington
Saturday 4 June - 8.15pm
Lighthouse Cuba, Wellington
Wednesday 8 June - 8.30pm
Lighthouse Petone
Monday 6 June - 12.30pm
Academy Gold, Christchurch
Saturday 18 June - 12.30pm