MANUAL OF LOVE
(Manuale d’Amore – Year of production: 2005)
Director: Giovanni Veronesi.
Country of origin: Italy. Language spoken:
Italian. Genre: Drama/Comedy.
Production: DADA Film; Filmauro S.r.l.
World Sales: Filmauro S.r.l.
Awards: David di Donatello Awards 2005
(Best Supporting Actor: Carlo Verdone; Best Supporting Actress: Margherita
Buy).
Admissions (Italy): 2,344,689 (up to 6 Sept.); opening
weekend (18-20 March): 446,986.
Box Office (Italy): € 14,012,718 (up to 6 Sept.);
opening weekend: € 2,811,442. (Source: Cinetel).
European Distributors: Filmauro S.r.l., Italy (18 March
2005); Switzerland (7 April 2005, German speaking region); Odeon, Greece
(23 September 2005); Notro Films, Spain (January 2006); Constantin Film,
Germany (9 February 2006); Paradise Film Distribution Company, Russia
(2006).
Synopsis
Manual of Love is a comedy about the elusive, sometimes painful,
always painfully funny nature of Love, divided into four episodes, all
featuring Italy’s best contemporary performers. The innocent,
dreamlike stage of falling in love is depicted through the romance of
a young couple (Silvio Muccino and Jasmine Trinca); the heartwrenching
phase of the mid-life crisis (Sergio Rubini and Margherita Buy); the
impulsive and frenetic epiphany of a betrayal (Luciana Littizzetto and
Dino Abbrescia); and the lonesome, tragic but, in the end revitalizing
free-fall of being abandoned (Carlo Verdone).
PERSONA NON GRATA
(Persona Non Grata – Year of production: 2005)
Director: Krzysztof Zanussi.
Country of origin: Italy/Russia/Poland. Language
spoken: Polish. Genre: Drama.
Production: Sintra, Istituto Luce, Studio Filmowe TOR,
Three T Production, Kairos, Telewizja Polska S.A., Canal +, Agencja
Produkcji Filmowej.
European Distributors: Istituto Luce, Italy (7 October
2005); Vision Film Distribution Company, Poland (9 September 2005),
Karo Premier (Russia).
Synopsis
Since the death of his wife, Helena, the diplomat Wiktor is no longer
able to adhere to the strict code of conduct expected in the Polish
embassy he heads up in Uruguay. He is involved in double crossing games
with the Russian and arm sales, slotted in between international conferences,
and he no longer has any faith in anyone. He is convinced his friends
are insincere and that Helena had betrayed him. When Wiktor discovers
all his suspicions were unfounded, he leaves his job as ambassador and
goes back to being a simple man.
SACRED HEART
(Cuore Sacro – Year of production: 2005)
Director: Ferzan Ozpetek.
Country of origin: Italy. Language spoken:
Italian. Genre: Drama.
Production: R&C Produzioni.
World Sales: Celluloid Dreams.
Awards: David di Donatello Awards 2005
(Best Actress: Barbora Bobulova; Best Production Design: Andrea Crisanti).
Admissions (Italy): 553,058 (up to 7 Sept.); Opening
Weekend (25-27 February): 142,782.
Box Office (Italy): 3,183,292 (up to 7 Sept.); Opening
Weekend: € 885,236. (Source: Cinetel).
Official Website: www.cuoresacro.com
European Distributors: Medusa Distribuzione, Italy
(25 February 2005); Spi International, Poland, Hungary, Czech, Slovak;
Abc Distribution, Belgium; Audio Visual Enterprises s.a., Greece; Abc
Distribution, The Netherlands; Intercinema XXI Century, Russia and CIS
(Home Video).
Synopsis
Irene is an unscrupulous successful business woman. In her hands the
family enterprises continue to expand and profit. But when two of her
friends commit suicide following her buyout of their company, her self-confidence
begins to crack. She retreats to Rome, to her family residence and learns
the secrets of the last years of her mother’s life – before
she succumbed to insanity. She meets Benny, a street smart little girl,
a thief and a liar who is a constant challenge to her life and values.
Benny inspires her to change direction. Captivated by her, Irene learns
to confront herself and starts to perceive the world and people around
her in a new light.
THE TIGER AND THE SNOW
(La Tigre e La Neve – Year of production: 2005)
Director: Roberto Benigni.
Country of origin: Italy. Language spoken:
Italian. Genre: Comedy.
Production: Melampo Cinematografica. Executive Producer:
Elda Ferri - Jean Vigo Italia.
World Sales: Focus Features.
European Distributors: 01 Distribution, Italy (14 October
2005); Pathé, France (December 2005).
Synopsis
The story of a poet, Attilio De Giovanni, madly in love with lyrics,
but even more, with a woman named Vittoria. Unfortunately his love is
unrequited, and so Attilio who is an exuberant and extravagant man to
try and win over his belle, and not hesitate in getting into the most
absurd and hilarious situations.
But things will not work out as he had planned, and during these strange
sentimental twists, the two of them will find themselves in Iraq, right
at the beginning of the conflict. There, Attilio who does not speak
a word of Arabic, will find himself forced to fight his own personal
battle against the hell of destruction, armed only with his poetry...
SPECIAL VENICE
2005
The Italian movies in competition at the 62nd Venice International Film
Festival
THE DAYS OF ABANDONMENT
(I Giorni dell’Abbandono – Year of production: 2005)
Director: Roberto Faenza.
Country of origin: Italy. Language spoken:
Italian. Genre: Drama.
Production: Elda Ferri - Jean Vigo Italia, Medusa Film.
World Sales: Medusa Film.
European Distributor: Medusa Film, Italy (23 September
2005).
Synopsis
Olga, a still young woman, tranquil and satisfied, is all of a sudden
abandoned by her husband and falls into a bottomless vortex. The days
of abandonment are the endless hours of losses, inflicted and suffered,
the times of hard emotions and feelings that devastate her, of the love
sickness that suffocates her. Shot mainly from a subjective point of
view and accompanied by the narrating first person of the main character,
a plot is developed that one could define a “thriller of the soul”,
loaded with astonishment and fury. Olga’s is a disastrous fall
that takes your breath away, a trial that captures and drags you to
the darkest and most painful end of decline and female experience.
From the Elena Ferrante's novel, translated into 12 languages.
DON’T TELL
(La Bestia Nel Cuore) Year of production: 2005
Director: Cristina Comencini.
Country of origin: Italy/UK/France/Spain. Language
spoken: Italian.
Genre: Drama.
Production: Cattleya, Rai Cinema, Aquarius Films, Alquimia
Cinema, Babe (Paris).
Producers: Riccardo Tozzi, Marco Chimenz, Giovanni
Stabilini.
World sales: TF1 International.
European Distributor: 01 Distribution.
Synopsis:
Sabina is beautiful, enjoys her job and loves her boyfriend, but is
she truly happy? For some time now strange nightmares have tormented
her, and finding herself pregnant forces open a disquieting window onto
her own inner life: her memories, her adolescence, her family, bourgeois
rituals at once both strict and reassuring. But these are only the surface.
From deeper down something much darker and more disturbing is about
to be revealed.
From the novel by Cristina Comencini, with the same name.
THE SECOND NIGHT OF HONEYMOON
(La Seconda Notte di Nozze – Year of production: 2005)
Director: Pupi Avati.
Country of origin: Italy.
Language spoken: Italian. Genre: Comedy.
Production: Antonio Avati per Duea Film, Rai Cinema.
World Sales: Rai Trade.
European Distributor: 01 Distribution, Italy (11 November
2005).
Synopsis
Italy, at the end of the second world war. Liliana, a widow, is forced
to leave her hometown Bologna, along with her son Nino, because of severe
financial hardships. The two of them move to Puglia, and go live in
her brother-in-law Giordano’s farmhouse. Giordano, the brother
of Liliana’s late husband, had in his youth been madly in love
with her. Their arrival wreaks havoc in the life of the fragile Giordano,
and upsets the usual farmstead routine, it also awakens the bitterness
in the souls of his two elderly aunts, Suntina and Eugenia, who still
bear an intense grudge against Liliana’s family...
MARY
(Mary – Year of production: 2005)
Director: Abel Ferrara.
Country of origin: Italy/Usa.
Language spoken: English. Genre: Drama.
Production: Roberto De Nigris per Baraonda, Central
Films, Associated Filmmakers Inc Production in association with Wild
Bunch.
World Sales: Wild Bunch.
European Distributor: Mikado (Italy); Pan Européenne
Distribution (France, 2005); Paradiso (Belgium, 2006).
Synopsis
Three characters linked by the mythical Maria Maddalena.
Tony Childress, an infamous, egotistical and obsessive actor/director
is playing the lead role of Jesus in his controversial new film This
is My Blood. When the shoot wraps, Marie Palesi, his lead actress, is
left alone in Jerusalem, drained, empty. 'Selfless'. Into the void within
her is poured the spirit of Mary Magdalene, and Marie embarks on a profound
journey towards enlightenment.
Meanwhile, in New York City, tv journalist Ted Younger begins his own
quest for spiritual truth through his documentary about the life of
Christ.
When the premiere of Tony's film becomes the target of bomb threats
by the vengeful religious Right, the lives and paths of these three
characters come dramatically together.
I’M NOT SCARED
(Io Non Ho Paura – Year of production: 2003)
Director: Gabriele Salvatores.
Country of origin: Italy/Spain/UK. Language
spoken: Italian. Genre: Drama/Mystery/Thriller.
Production: Colorado Film, Cattleya, Alquimia Cinema,
The Producers Film, Medusa.
World Sales: Capitol Films.
Awards: David di Donatello Awards 2004 (Best photography:
Italo Petriccione); Nastri d’argento 2003 (Director:
Gabriele Salvatores; Photography: Italo Petriccione; Best non-leading
actor: Diego Abatantuono).
Admissions (Italy): 742,238 (up to 31 August 2005);
opening weekend: 129,763 (14-16 March 2003).
Box Office (Italy): € 4,245,110 (up to 31 August
2005); opening weekend: € 805,927. Fonte: Cinetel.
European Distributors: Medusa Distribuzione (Italy,14
March 2003); Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden, 3 October 2003); Kinowelt
Filmverleih (Germany, 18 December 2003); Paradiso Entertainment (The
Netherlands, 25 March 2004), Paradise Film Distribution Company (Russia,
2004); TFM Distribution (France 3 August 2005).
Synopsis
Based on Niccolò Ammanniti's international best seller, the movie
is set in Southern Italy during the staggeringly hot summer of 1978.
Corn fields cover the hills in every direction like an undulating sea
of gold against the deep blue sky. At the centre of it all is a tiny
community of five houses. While the adults shelter indoors from the
blistering heat, six children venture out on their bicycles across the
scorched deserted countryside. Hidden amongst the vast sea of corn nine-year-old
Michele discovers a secret so momentous and so terrible that he dare
not tell anyone about it. To confront it he must depend on the power
of his youthful imagination and the courage he does not yet know he
has.