Italian Film Festival

October 9 through 14

by in Arts & Culture

Foreign film aficionados are eagerly awaiting the Italian Film Festival, back for its sixth year with the biggest and best of Italian cinema! The Festival debuts at Regal Cinemas South Beach on Thursday, October 9, with Roberto Faenza’s I Vicere, followed by an exciting opening night party at SET, one of Miami’s hottest and most luxurious VIP lounges.

Italian Film Festival passes are available online. Ticket types and prices are as follows:

VIP Passport $250 Entrance to the Opening Night film, Official After-Party, all
film screenings during the festival, Closing Dinner Party at
The Forge and Awards Ceremony.
Opening Night Pass $75 Entrance to the Opening Night film and Official After-Party.
Movie Pass $60 Entrance to all films during the festival.
Single Ticket $10 Available for purchase at Regal Cinemas South Beach the
day of the film screening.

Festival Schedule

Thursday, October 9

7:30 p.m. Opening Night Film: I Vicere, Directed by Roberto Faenza

In the mid 1800s, in the last years of the Bourbon reign in Sicily, and on the eve of Italian reunification, the funeral of Princess Teresa brings together the members of the Uzeda family, descendants of the Viceroys of Spain. Through the eyes of a boy, Consalvo, the last heir to the Uzeda dynasty, the mysteries, intrigues and complex personalities of the other family members, all prey to grand obsessions and passions, are brought to light. Constantly at each other’s throats, the family fights over the inheritance of the Princess who has just died, each searching to satisfy his contrasting desires. Little Consalvo grows up in a family always at war, ruled over by a domineering father from whom he desperately seeks to break away. But to survive, he winds up paying a very high price: he becomes just like the rest of his family.

Immediately following the screening: Official After Party at SET, located just blocks from the theater at 320 Lincoln Road. Open to VIP Passport holders and Opening Night Pass holders for a festive evening of cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.

Friday, October 10

8 p.m. Carnera (The Walking Mountain), Directed by Renzo Martinelli

During the years leading up to World War II, a common man hero, Primo Carnera, a.k.a. The Walking Mountain, was to become one of the most surprising sports legend in history. Through most of the 20’s Carnera never relinquished his determination and fought against all odds to be the best. First spotted by a flamboyant carnival owner, Ledudal, and later taken under the wing of a corrupt and evil manager, Leon See, Carnera experienced a meteoric rise to the top. Driven by love, honor and an incredible dose of grit, he willed an impossible dream to come true. In 1933 in Madison Square Garden in New York City, Carnera defeated Jack Sharkey in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. Suddenly, the ordinary working man from a small town in Italy had become a mythic athlete.

Saturday, October 11

5 p.m. I Vicere, Directed by: Roberto Faenza

7 p.m. Notte prima degli esami, Directed by Fausto Brizzi

Italian writer-cum-director Fausto Brizzi’s nostalgic teen comedy Notte prima degli esami unfolds in Italy in the mid-1980s. High school student Luca brazenly insults his literature professor but fails to anticipate the teacher’s participation in his oral exams. He thus makes a concerted effort to win the prof over, while pining for the class sex kitten whom he soon realizes, is the offended professor’s daughter! Luca will try everything to win back Professor Martinelli’s admiration and the two of them begin meeting after school under the excuse that he needs revising for the exams. They eventually start to meet because they have become… well almost… friends. The filmmakers sprinkle the soundtrack with ’80s europop hits by such groups as Duran Duran and Queen, and fill the frame with a myriad of references to the era.

9 p.m. Tutta la vita davanti, Directed by Paola Virzì

Director Paolo Virzì draws inspiration from Michela Murgia’s popular novel to compose this surreal and bittersweet snapshot of life in contemporary Italy. Marta is a cum laude college graduate who has finally entered into the real world. Though she’s eager to land a job in publishing, a series of dead end interviews ultimately prove so disheartening that Marta winds up working as a live-in babysitter for anxious single mom Sonia. During her down time, Marta begins temping at a call center run by a merciless micro-manager with an eagle eye for details. At first Marta was fairly forgiving of her humorless boss, catty co-workers, and pushy customers, though before long the reality of her misery becomes much too obvious to deny. Later, Marta crosses paths with a fiery union worker whose passion and charisma inspires the disgruntled worker to divulge all of the company’s unsavory business practices.

Sunday October 12

5 p.m. Cardiofitness, Directed by Fabio Tagliava

An irrepressible passion blossoms between 27 year-old aspiring writer Stefania, and Stefano, a 15 year-old high school student. After an injury on the baseball field, Stefano joins a health club for his rehab therapy and it just so happens that Stefania works out at the same gym. It is love at first sight; however, although neither of them is initially aware of the age gap, they will only briefly be discouraged by it. Their unusual relationship obviously baffles friends and relatives of both components of the unusual couple. Can their feelings withstand their own fears and the pressure of society?

7 p.m. Giorni e nuvole, Directed by Silvio Soldini

Well-to-do, sophisticated couple, Elsa and Michele, have a 20 year-old daughter, Alice, and enough money for Elsa to leave her job and fulfill an old dream of studying art history. After she graduates, however, their lives change. Michele confesses he hasn’t worked in two months and was fired by the company he founded years ago. Elsa overcomes her initial shock by pouring extra energy into facing the crisis while Michele, exhausted by an unsuccessful job hunt, lets himself go, alternating between vivacity and apathy. The growing distance between them eventually leads to a break-up. Only when they apart will they realize that they risk losing their most precious possession: the love that binds them.

9 p.m. Notturno Bus (Night Bus), Directed by Davide Marengo

Night Bus concerns a microchip with potentially damning evidence against a Polish magnate. An ex-secret service agent, Carlo Matera, receives an enormous sum of cash from the fellow to bring the chip home, but it falls into the mitts of a cutthroat nightclub owner, Andrea. He is hustled, in turn, by the femme fatale at the story’s center, Leila, a con artist and a professional liar. She walks off with the dough, and must subsequently evade a host of seedy goons and thugs all clamoring for the funds, meanwhile attempting to use a naive, gambling-addicted bus driver, Franz, for a convenient, cross-country getaway.

Monday, October 13

7 p.m. Jimmy della collina, Directed by Enrico Pau

Sarroch (southwestern Sardegna)is a sleepy town of port sirens and factory smokestacks – Jimmy who is almost eighteen, and who belongs to a blue collar family, has lived there his whole life. In this world privy of shared hopes and points of reference, Jimmy will find himself often breaking laws and living recklessly. It is then that the doors of the juvenile prison will swing wide open and he will find himself in a world of anguish and violence. However his redemption will be close at hand set in the delightful hills that surround the juvenile prison where the young prisoners will be taught how to live a better future and lead an alternative way of life. Yet often, most young men like Jimmy will find it easier to stick to their life leading toa form of auto destruction, instead of looking for a way out. Jimmy one night, will find himself having to make a decision which will forever change his life. From the novel by Massimo Carlotto, with the same name.

9 p.m. Prendimi l’anima, Directed by Roberto Faenza

In 1905 a nineteen-year-old girl from Russia is admitted into a psychiatric hospital in Zurich. The girl’s condition is desperate, she suffers from a severe form of hysteria and refuses to eat. A young doctor, Carl Gustav Jung, takes her under his care and, for the first time ever, experiments with the psychoanalytical method of his teacher, Sigmund Freud. The treatment is successful, but the two eventually engage in a love affair that displeases Carl’s wife. Thus is born a sweeping story of love and passion, of body and soul, which soars to the heights but also plunges to the most terrible depths of the last century. The cured Sabina moves back to the Soviet Union. The film uses the framing device of a modern-day scholar investigating what happened to Sabina Spielrein after her move.

Tuesday, October 14

7 p.m. Closing Film: Saturno Contro, Directed by: Ferzan Ozpetek

Somewhere between The Boys In the Band and The Big Chill, this witty and eccentric drama invites us into a group of old friends, gay and straight, who are tangled together and pulled apart by death, adultery, and a need to quit smoking. At the center of it all is a couple so much in love it hurts: Davide, a kind-hearted older writer, and his intoxicatingly beautiful younger boyfriend, Lorenzo. The Almodovar-esque circle around them includes a straight couple in the midst of a strangely civil marital implosion, a dreamy-eyed but melancholy junkie, and a jovial old queen who calls himself a faggot because he’s “old fashioned.” When tragedy hits, they all handle it in their own oddball ways, but they all, more or less, stay together.

Immediately following the screening: Closing Dinner and Awards Ceremony
The Forge Ballroom, 432 Arthur Godfrey Road, Miami Beach

VIP Passport holders will enjoy a cocktail reception and three-course dinner at The Forge, a Miami icon. The 2008 film festival award winners will be honored. The Closing Party is sponsored by Peroni Beer and Roberto Cavalli Vodka.

The Italian Film Festival promotes the best in Italian cinema and touches all aspects of the industry, including image, design, and style. The festival and its President and Artistic Director Claudio Di Persia are committed to screening high quality movies, in line with the cultural, aesthetic and industrial roots that are typically Italian.

For further information, please visit the Italian Film Festival website.

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