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Italian Cinema Worldwide

 

 

 

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.