PlaytownRoma Cultural Association, headed by festival directors Fabia Bettini and Gianluca Giannelli, with the support of the Direzione Generale per il Cinema, the Italian Ministry for Culture, in collaboration with the Philippine Italian Association, the Film Development Council of the Philippines, the Italian Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines, and under the auspices of the Embassy of Italy to the Philippines, bring back to the MOVIEMOV, the Italian Film Festival happening online on March 31-April 4, 2022.
Now on its 11th edition, this year's festival sees 8 contemporary Italian movies in the Showcase section, with most of the screenings to be followed by a talk with the director and/or cast. Another highlight for this edition is the tribute to Italian author and director Pier Paolo Pasolini via the screening of 2 films and a masterclass to be participated in by various colleges and universities in the country.
Taking the role of Festival Godfather this year is actor Lorenzo Richelmy. He will present Diario di spezie, a film which he stars in that will be premiering at the festival. Also scheduled to participate at the festival are actors Carlotta Antonelli, Paolo Calabresi, Anna Ferruzzo, and Antonia Truppo and directors Renzo Carbonera and Hleb Papou who will join the talks of their respective films.
The film screenings and talks will be streamed online for free via the https://www.mymovies.it/ondemand/moviemov/ portal. All films will be in their original language with English subtitles. The films are only available for viewers in the Philippines and in Thailand.
Here is the film line up for the 11th edition of MOVIEMOV.
Ariaferma/The Inner Cage (2021)
Director: Leonardo Di Costanzo
Cast: Toni Servillo, Silvio Orlando, Fabrizio Ferracane
An old prison built in the 19th century, located in a remote and unspecified part of the Italian territory, is being decommissioned. As a result of bureaucratic holdups the transfers have been blocked and a dozen inmates are left, along with a few guards, waiting to be sent to new destinations. In a suspended atmosphere, the rules that keep them separate are slackened and new forms of relationship emerge among the remaining men.
Diario di spezie/Diary of Spices (2021)
Director: Massimo Donati
Cast: Lorenzo Richelmy, Fabrizio Ferracane, Fabrizio Rongione
Just what is the strange bond between Luca Treves, a famous chef and spice connoisseur, and Andreas Dürren Fischer, renowned restorer of Flemish paintings? Luca and Andreas belong to two different worlds, art and cuisine, and they are complete opposites. Yet when Luca meets Andreas, he senses the time has finally come to make a radical career change. The art restorer’s invite to accompany him on a short business trip to Germany represents the perfect occasion for Luca to meet new clients and say goodbye to the restaurant in the provinces that gives him security, true, but prevents him from taking his career to another level. So Luca takes Andreas up on his offer, little knowing that the affable art restorer is hiding unspeakable secrets and that he himself will be sucked into a private hell that makes short work of his morality and forces him to make appalling choices. The only thing he can latch on to as a way to preserve his sanity is his diary, the one where he jots down notes on spices and keeps his recipes.
Futura (2021)
Directors: Pietro Marcello, Francesco Munzi, Alice Rohrwacher
Futura is a truly collective work, where collectiveness is at the service of a whole project. It explores what boys and girls from 15 to 20 think about the future, through a series of interviews filmed during a long journey across Italy. It is a portrait of the country, as seen through the eyes of a group of teens who talk about the places they live in, their dreams, expectations, desires and fears.
Il legionario/The Legionnaire (2021)
Director: Hleb Papou
Cast: Germano Gentile, Maurizio Bousso, Marco Falaguasta, Félicité Mbezelé
Daniel is the only African-Italian officer in the flying squad in Rome, tasked with evicting 150 families from an apartment building that they have taken over. One of the families is his own.
Mamma Roma (1962)
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Cast: Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo
After years spent working as a prostitute in her Italian village, middle-aged Mamma Roma has saved enough money to buy herself a fruit stand so that she can have a respectable middle-class life and reestablish contact with the 16-year-old son she abandoned when he was an infant. But her former pimp threatens to expose her sordid past, and her troubled son seems destined to fall into a life of crime and violence.
Marx può aspettare/Marx Can Wait (2021)
Director: Marco Bellocchio
Through this film with its enigmatic title, the filmmaker attempts to understand, humbly and retrospectively, his twin borther's suicide at the age of 29. A family tragedy that he has never really recovered from, both a source of guilt and inspiration. Blending excerpts from his films and conversations with people close to him, Bellocchio investigates this fraternal figure that never ceases to haunt his filmography.
Qui rido io/The King of Laughter (2021)
Director: Mario Martone
Cast: Toni Servillo, Maria Nazionale, Cristiana Dell’Anna, Antonia Truppo, Eduardo Scarpetta, Roberto De Francesco, Lino Musella, Paolo Pierobon, Gianfelice Imparato, Iaia Forte
At the beginning of the 20th century, in Belle Époque Naples, theatres and the cinema were thriving. The great comic actor Eduardo Scarpetta was the king of the box office. Of humble origin, he made his reputation with his comedies and the character of Felice Sciosciammocca. The theatre was his life and around the theatre gravitated the whole of his peculiar family, composed of wives, partners, lovers and legitimate and illegitimate children, including Titina, Eduardo and Peppino De Filippo. In 1904, at the height of his popularity, Scarpetta took a great risk: he staged a parody of La figlia di Iorio, a tragedy written by the greatest Italian poet of the day, Gabriele D’Annunzio. The evening of its première in the theatre all hell broke loose: the performance was interrupted by boos and catcalls and Scarpetta ended up being sued for plagiary by D’Annunzio himself. It was the beginning of the first ever lawsuit on copyright in Italy. The years that the case took would be draining for him and his whole family. Everything in Scarpetta’s life seemed to be falling apart, but with the act of a great thespian he would take his fate into his own hands and win in the end.
La rabbia di Pasolini (1963/2008)
Directors; Pier Paolo Pasolini, Giuseppe Bertolucci
An attempt to reconstruct the complete version of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s segment of La rabbia.
Takeaway (2021)
Director: Renzo Carbonera
Cast: Libero De Rienzo, Carlotta Antonelli, Primo Reggiani, Paolo Calabresi, Anna Ferruzzo, Camillo Grassi, Camillo Ventola, Ivan Polidoro
Maria is ambitioned in professional sports, she is a walker. Johnny, a past career as medical assistant in the GDR Olympic team, helps her with illegal substances backed by her parents. As they encounter Tom, whose health Johnny ruined through doping, it comes to a showdown.
La tana/The Den (2021)
Director: Beatrice Baldacci
Cast: Irene Vetere, Lorenzo Aloi, Helénè Nardini
In the summer of his nineteenth year, Giulio has decided not to go away: he will spend his vacation at home, helping his parents with their work in the vegetable garden. In the house next door, empty for some time, arrives Lia, a twenty-year-old girl. Giulio would like to get to know her, but she is sullen and introverted. One day Giulio is swimming in the lake and Lia plays at drowning him. Giulio is a regular guy, sensitive and polite to a fault. Attracted to her, he starts thinking about her day and night. Lia initiates him into strange and increasingly dangerous “games.” The girl won’t talk about herself though. She has told him she came alone to spend her vacation in the old family home, where she hadn’t been since she was a child. But Lia has secrets to keep and won’t let anyone set foot in the old and abandoned house
Here is the schedule of the screenings, talks, and masterclass.
March 31, 2022
11:00 AM Mamma Roma
4:30 PM Qui rido io
7:00 PM Festival Opening Encounter with Lorenzo Richelmy (actor, Diario di spezie/Festival Godfather), Antonia Truppo (actress, Qui rido io), Carlotta Antonelli (actress, Takeaway) Anna Ferruzzo (actress, Takeaway) and Paolo Calabresi (actor, Takeaway).
April 1, 2022
4:30 PM Il legionario
6:30 PM Encounter with Hleb Papou (director, Il legionario)
7:30 PM Marx può aspettare
April 2, 2022
4:30 PM Takeaway
6:30 PM Encounter with Renzo Carbonera (director, Takeaway) and Anna Ferruzzo (actress, Takeaway)
7:30 PM La tana
April 3, 2022
4:30 PM Futura
7:30 PM Ariaferma
April 4, 2022
11:00 AM La rabbia di Pasolini
6:30 PM Masterclass on Pier Paolo Pasolini
7:30 PM Diario di spezie
In the Philippines, MOVIEMOV is organized under the auspices of the Embassy of Italy to the Philippines; in collaboration with The Philippine Italian Association, the Film Development Council of the Philippines, the Italian Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines; in partnership with the Film Institute of the University of the Philippines Diliman, Ateneo de Manila University, Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan, the MINT College, College of St. Benilde-School of Design and the Arts (Digital Filmmaking program), Asian Institute of Maritime Studies (School of Heritage), Lyceum University of the Philippines Cavite, University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines (Office of Arts and Culture), Far Eastern University, University of the Philippines Los Baños, University of the Cordilleras (College of Arts and Sciences), University of San Carlos, Ateneo de Naga University Press, Savage Mind, Ateneo Association of European Studies Students, UP Euro-Filipino Understanding and Relations Organization, and Communication Program Council of the University De La Salle of Dasmariñas; in media partnership with Art+ magazine and The Philippine Business and News.
