Wednesday, November 16, 2011

The Moviemov: Italian Cinema Now Experience Part 3

The Second Night


I had a blast during the opening of the Moviemov: Italian Cinema Now and I couldn’t fathom not ever going back despite a very busy week for me. I knew that I had to return for more since I wanted to catch a film screening on the second day and a cast member from the film personally invited me to do so during the opening. So after attending a violin masterclass and an opening of an exhibition, I hurriedly made my way to the Greenbelt 3 Cinema hoping that I make it on time. Fortunately, I did make it with ample time for me to refresh myself.

Passione


Right after the press conference, I’ve read the booklet of film synopses that was included in the press kit and Passione practically screamed at me. And then I also found out that, Pietra Montecorvino, who appears in the film would be arriving as well. Without any hesitation, I decided to come back and thankfully, my schedule for the next day cooperated with this one so everything went well.

The main draw for me in this film was the music. I’ve experienced the music of southern Italy through Eugenio Bennato and the Taranta Power and I’ve had the rare opportunity to play with them when they were here during the Italian National Day Event. Since then, I’ve wanted to learn and experience more of this kind of music and the screening of this film was the perfect opportunity for me. The film, directed by John Turturro, simply describes the city of Naples or Napoli but through the music that came out of it. For some, what came out next might seem to be an extended music video, but for me, it was a quenching of my thirst for this type of music. The music, just like the title of the film suggests is passionate, seductive, penetrating and like it’s always spiked with alcohol. After watching the film, I told Pietra on how moved I was with the music and she told me that I have a Neapolitan heart. And I didn’t even understand most of the lyrics since I was drawn more to the melody and the rhythm of the songs performed by Mina, Spakka-Neapolis 55, Avion Travel, Misia, Massimo Ranieri, Lina Sastri, M’barka Ben Taleb, Gennaro Cosmo Parlato, Peppe Barra, Angela Luce and of course, Pietra Montecorvino,  already one of the darlings of the festival who did an impromptu performance inside the cinema before the screening of the film. I was a bit surprised when I saw Max Casella in the film and it made me realize how long it was since his Doogie Howser, M.D. days.

RAd with Pietra Montecorvino

I was tired when I came to watch this film but I had no regrets since the music invigorated me for about half an hour and Passione was the film that I couldn’t miss. And it was always a pleasure seeing Pietra Montecorvino and Marta Gastini once again. Too bad that a couple of orchestra performances for the next two days prevented me for attending the next two days of the festival but I was able to return on the last day.

Marta Gastini

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