by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi   ‘It Was The Son’ uses Daniele Ciprì’s acid humour to tell a multilayered tale about a Sicilian family tragedy populated with grotesque characters. The film, based on a novel by Roberto Alajmo, is a story within a story narrated by Old Busu, about the Ciraulo family boy who killed his  [ Read More ]

by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi     Giovanna Taviani, follows in the footsteps of the Taviani Brothers – her father (Vittorio) and uncle (Paolo) – and investigates in ‘The Rescue’ (or ‘Redemption’), the life and rebirth of Salvatore Striano, the ex-prisoner of Rebibbia prison who played the role of Brutus in Taviani brothers’ ‘Caesar Must Die.’  [ Read More ]

by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi     ‘Handmade Cinema,’ is a loving tribute to the craftsmen and artisans whose invisible hands help create the magic of cinema. The documentary written by Laura Delli Colli and Guido Torlonia, and directed by the latter, is at the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema Film Festival at Lincoln Center in  [ Read More ]

by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi   ‘Dormant Beauty’ (to be exact it would be Sleeping Beauty) introduces three interrelated stories that discuss the right to euthanasia: a senator (Toni Servillo) with a passionately pro-life daughter (Alba Rohrwacher) preparing to cast his vote on the issue; a retired actress and devout Catholic (Isabelle Huppert) who tends to  [ Read More ]

  the Jury will award the Golden Lion and other official prizes at the 70th Venice Film Festival (28 August > 7 September 2013) Bernardo Bertolucci has been selected to chair the International Jury for the Competition of the 70th Venice International Film Festival (28 August – 7 September 2013), which will award the Golden  [ Read More ]

Abdellatif Kechiche‘s  Blue is the Warmest Colour (La Vie d’Adèle – chapitre 1 & 2) received lots of consents at the Cannes FF 2013. Here the press conference report: Abdellatif Kechiche on the graphic novel I was very affected by the story of an encounter that turns the character’s life upside down and makes her  [ Read More ]

Daniel Noah, director of Max Rose, a feature film being presented in a Special Screening, as well as the film’s actors, including the great Jerry Lewis, took part with in the customary excercise of the press conference amid general hilarity. Selected extracts below. Daniel Noah, on the film’s origins: The character of Max was inspired  [ Read More ]

J.C. Chandor has come to present his second feature film, All is Lost, Out of Competition, together with Robert Redford, the film's only actor.   Robert Redford, on his performance: It's a very big challenge being alone, with no crutch, no dialogue, no words. It's a challenge that attracted me a lot as an actor.  [ Read More ]

From Cannes Festival website Selected in Special Screenings, Frank Simon's documentary Weekend Of A Champion, will be shown in the presence of the film's two central characters: former Formula 1 World Champion, Jackie Stewart and film-maker Roman Polanski, who is also In Competition this year with La Vénus à la fourrure. Between 1965 and 1973,  [ Read More ]

Julian, an American fugitive from justice, runs a boxing club in Bangkok as a front for his drug business. His mother, the head of a vast criminal organization, arrives from the US to collect the body of her favorite son, Billy. Julian’s brother has just been killed after having savagely murdered a young prostitute. Crazy  [ Read More ]

Steven Soderbergh, Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Richard LaGravenese and producer Jerry Weintraub attended the press conference for the biopic about Valentino Liberace: Behind The Candelabra. Selected extracts. About Valentino Liberace Jerry Weintraub : I am the only one old enough at this table to have known him personally. He led an extraordinary life. There was  [ Read More ]

As I Lay Dying is the first major film and first Selection at Cannes by actor, producer and scriptwriter James Franco, who first made a name for himself in the role of Harry Osborn, Spider-Man’s nemesis in the Sam Raimi trilogy. Tell us how your film came about. My father recommended As I Lay Dying  [ Read More ]

The Italian director Paolo Sorrentino and the entire team from his film, The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza), presented in Competition, answered questions from the press. Selected highlights. Paolo Sorrentino on the origins of his film: I’ve known Rome for quite some time. I first went there to work then moved there. I’ve been able  [ Read More ]

Cannes Film Festival's Directors' Fortnight Starring: Bill Sage, Ambyr Childers, Julia Garner, Wyatt Russell, Nick Damici, Jack Gore, Michael Parks and Kelly McGillis – Directed by Jim Mickle Jim Mickle's suspenseful horror thriller WE ARE WHAT WE ARE comes full circle. Acquired by eOne for U.S. theatrical rights off of the film's critically acclaimed world  [ Read More ]

Guillaume Canet © FDC / LOB Guillaume Canet, Clive Owen, Marion Cotillard, and the rest of the team of Blood Ties, presented Out of Competition, answered the journalists’ questions. Selected extracts. Guillaume Canet talking about how his film came about: When Tell No One came out, I received various offers to make a film in  [ Read More ]

A revenge film equally suited for art house cinephiles and die-hard genre fans. IT’S ABOUT A BEACH BUM, whose quiet life is upended by dreadful news. He sets off for his childhood home to carry out an act of vengeance but proves an inept assassin and finds himself in a brutal fight to protect his  [ Read More ]

Three armed men, one of them a priest, are out hunting in the woods. The prey they are after is under their very feet: a man, unshaven and sordid, who sleeps in an underground dug-out of his own making. Borgman has just woken up when his attackers stick a spear into the ground that narrowly  [ Read More ]

Third Person is the upcoming movie by Award winner Paul Haggis, starring superstars Mila Kunis, James Franco, Liam Neeson, Adrien Brody, Olivia Wilde and Kim Basinger. It follows three inter connected love stories of three couples in three cities, looking from the beginning to the middle era step to the end of a relationship. In  [ Read More ]

Lars Ulrich has presented at the Cannes FF 2013 the upcoming docu-film about Metallica's world, “Metallica Through the Never“. We met him at the beach in Cannes for a short interview about his life in music. “Sex and drugs and rock'n'roll? Oh, you know, I've become too old for all of them. Yes for sex  [ Read More ]

Great World has to be saved! Here's the aim of Rob Stewart's work as a videomaker, here at Cannes FF 2013 to spread the absolutely amazing documentary Revolution, already presented and winner at Toronto FF and Vancouver FF, and produced by Gus Van Sant. REVOLUTION is a film about changing the world, going for it,  [ Read More ]

Jia Zhang-Ke presents a picture of contemporary China, through four interrelated portraits: four individuals from four different corners of China, confronted with the country's growing inequalities and new aspirations for democracy and freedom.     A miner who is exasperated by corruption, a man who is forced to migrate to another region to find work,  [ Read More ]

  Lee Tamahori (Wellington, 1950) is the famous director from New Zeeland who Started his carreer as a filmmaker with Once Were Warriors (1994), to jump into thriller with Mulholland Falls (1996), just before his success The Edge (1997) and Die Another Day (2002), the twentieth James Bond movie with Pierce Brosnan. After directing too  [ Read More ]

INteRVIew wIthFRANçoIs ozoN What was the catalyst forYOUNG & BEAUTIFUL? Directing Ernst Umhauer and Bastien Ughetto for INTHE HOUSEwas such a pleasure I wanted to work with young actors again. Myearly shorts and features explored adolescence, but from UNDERTHE SAND on, I’ve worked essentially with older actors. SoYOUNG & BEAUTIFUL started with my desire to  [ Read More ]

  Estela is a 12 year old girl who has just fallen crazy in love with a young policecadet who wants to run away with her and get married. Trying to achieve thisdream, her family will have to live the violence that is devastating the region. INTERVIEW WITH AMAT ESCALANTE HELI is your third movie  [ Read More ]

CANNES FF 2913 OUT OF COMPETITION The Great Gatsby Twelve years after Romeo+Juliet, based on Shakespeare’s tragedy, Baz Lurhmann set out to adapt the famous novel by Francis Scott Fitzgerald in an attempt to reveal its unspoken side. Three film versions of The Great Gatsby have been made since the novel, considered a major work  [ Read More ]

    Acclaimed Danish film director Thomas Vinterberg is the winner of the 2013 European Union Prix MEDIA. The prize is awarded to the best new film project with box-office potential eligible for support from the EU MEDIA programme for cinema. The award will be presented to Vinterberg by Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education,  [ Read More ]

Cannes FF 2013, may 15th – 25th       IN COMPETITION Opening Film Baz LUHRMANN THE GREAT GATSBY (H.C.) 1h45 *** Valeria BRUNI-TEDESCHI UN CHÂTEAU EN ITALIE 1h44 Ethan COEN, Joel COEN INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS 1h45 Arnaud DESPALLIÈRES MICHAEL KOHLHAAS 2h05 Arnaud DESPLECHIN JIMMY P. (PSYCHOTHERAPY OF A PLAINS INDIAN) 2h Amat ESCALANTE HELI  [ Read More ]

DOCUMENTA MADRID presents the first titles of the Official Selection. The Oscar nominated documentary “The Gatekeepers”, the best European documentary “Winter Nomads”, the winner of Panorama Berlin “The Act of Killing” and the sequel to the famous hit “The Staircase” directed by the Oscar-winning Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, shall take us in a fantastic voyage from  [ Read More ]

By Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi   Milan’s latest Design Week has “shed light” on an exceptional master of illumination. Thierry Dreyfus is an art director, photographer and artist since 1985, when he first started experimenting with light inside theatres and operas.   Over the past 30 years, Dreyfus has sculpted, drawn, and projected light onto prints,  [ Read More ]

FROM CANNES FF 2013 website: http://www.festival-cannes.fr It is on The Great Gatsby by Australian director Baz Luhrmann, that the curtain will rise at the inauguration of the 66th Festival de Cannes, on Wednesday 15th May, in the Grand Théâtre Lumière of the Palais des Festivals, out of Competition in the Official Selection. Adapted from the  [ Read More ]

By Francesco Cerea (Academician of Italian Cuisine) and Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi According to the Latins Dulcis In Fundo, i.e. we save the sweet/best for last, but during the Art&Pastry Festival the sweet is served before, during and after. The city of Lugano, Switzerland, has hosted on the 2nd and 3rd of March the first edition  [ Read More ]

Berlinale Residency 2012 filmmakers   Tuesday, February 12   The Berlinale Residency programme supports writer/directors from around the world, who have already enjoyed their first festival and cinema successes, in developing their new fiction, documentary film or cross-media projects. The first Berlinale Residency took place from September – December 2012. The selected filmmakers stayed in  [ Read More ]

by Chiara Spagnoli Art&Pastry is the first edition of a festival that informs on the art of fine pastry, through a program that embraces workshops, tastings, panels, exhibitions and competitions. The festival will take place in the Swiss venue of Palazzo dei Congressi in Lugano, on the 2nd and 3rd of March. On the first  [ Read More ]

The Berlin International Film Festival is celebrating its opening tomorrow, on February 7, 2013 at 7.30 pm. After a few words of greeting from Minister of State for Cultural and Media Affairs Bernd Neumann and Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit, the Festival will be officially opened by Jury President Wong Kar Wai (Hong Kong,  [ Read More ]

Film producers who are looking for exciting literary material for the screen should be in their element at “Books at Berlinale” on February 12, 2013. Ten novels that might make good movies will be presented at this year’s “Books at Berlinale” within the scope of the Berlinale Co-Production Market. At the breakfast following the pitch,  [ Read More ]

Quartet the movie review by Chiara Spagnoli We are accustomed to seeing Mr Dustin Hoffman in front of the camera ever since he played the young Benjamin Braddock seduced by the sensuous Anne Bancroft-Mrs Robinson in ‘The Graduate’. Today at age 75, Hoffman has decided to step behind the camera for his directorial debut in  [ Read More ]

                  “Hip Hop Hassid” by Francesca Pagani by Chiara Spagnoli Shneur Hasofer has chosen DeScribe as nome de plume. He’s a very unique artist as he’s probably the only known rapper to be Jewish. The Hasidic performer lives in Brooklyn, combining his music with his spiritual call,  [ Read More ]

    ROME FILM FESTIVAL FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE DEL FILM DI ROMA   Friday January 4th Lifetime Achievement Award to Quentin Tarantino and Django Unchained gala screening   The 7th Rome Film Festival (Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma) will confer its Lifetime Achievement Award to Quentin Tarantino. The American director, screenwriter, actor, and producer, winner  [ Read More ]

THE PRIZES AWARDED TO THE FILMS IN COMPETITION The International Jury, chaired by Jeff Nichols and composed of Timur Bekmambetov, Valentina Cervi, Edgardo Cozarinsky, Chris Fujiwara, Leila Hatami and P.J.Hogan, has conferred the following awards: – Golden Marc’Aurelio for Best Film: Marfa Girl by Larry Clark – Best Director Award: Paolo Franchi for E la  [ Read More ]

Presented at the end of the Rome Film Festival 2012, in MAXXXI competition, “Tar” is a movie adapted by James Franco and the students in the class he teaches at New York University, as a compilation of ten short films each directed by a student, based on a book of poems titled Tar by Pulitzer  [ Read More ]

  Based on writer & musician Willy Vlautin first novel (dated 2005), The Motel Life is an intense and dramatic movie directed by Alan Polsky and Gabriel Polsky, starring Emile Hirsch, Stephen Dorff and Dakota Fanning. Full of emotion, realism and centered on the sad story of two brothers, inspired on writing on Charles Bukowski’s books  [ Read More ]

“A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III“, by Roman Coppola, is the story about Charles Swan III (Charlie Sheen) has it all. He’s an eccentric and highly successful graphic designer whose fame, money and devilish charm have provided him with a seemingly perfect life. But when his true love, a perplexing beauty named  [ Read More ]

        Epic and magical adventure about the story of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and Jack Frost, legendary characters with previously unknown extraordinary abilities. When an evil spirit known as Pitch lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal Guardians must join forces to protect  [ Read More ]

A supernatural love story set in the South, “Beautiful Creatures” tells the tale of two star-crossed lovers: Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich), a young man longing to escape his small town, and Lena (Alice Englert), a mysterious new girl. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town. Oscar nominee Richard LaGravenese  [ Read More ]

Captain Zhang (Sun Honglei) and his team will stop at nothing to track down drug criminals. When drug lord Timmy Choi (Louis Koo) is captured, a deal to help Zhang bust a major cocaine ring could save him from the death penalty. But Captain Zhang doesn’t trust Timmy Choi is truly betraying his partners. He  [ Read More ]

  “Le Guetteur is like a French version of my Crime Novel“. Italian Director Michele Placido told us about his upcoming movie, 'Le Guetteur', presented at the Rome Film Festival 2012 out of competition. An extremely strong spy story about killers, bandits and policemen, in Paris, with co-production by Rai Cinema, RTBF, Canal+, Cine+ and  [ Read More ]

Lucca Comics 2012 Rebecca Dautremer Amazingly suspended between modern surrealism and childhood stories, we met French artist Rebecca Dautremer during Lucca Comics and Games 2012, where she has a special exhibition at Lucca's Palazzo Ducale, with some of the most important illustrations and paintings from her productin, from Alice in Wonderland to Cyrano. “Wow! I  [ Read More ]

From Death Note to Bakuman, headmaster in manga-world Maestro Takeshi Obata, told us about his masterpieces in comics and his art. “During the inspirations session in creating Death Note, I've been hardly inspired by one of my trips in Rome. It's an amazing city, that gave me lots of input informations for my project. I've  [ Read More ]

  From the typical Argentinian comics tradition toward Italy and Sergio Bonelli's Tex: master comic hero Enrique Breccia, since 1970's pop-comic icon, illustrated King's Road something on his amazing art, also concerning his great exhibition at Lucca Comics & Games 2012. “Comics and paintings are two completely different parts of my work. I can consider  [ Read More ]

Road to Ruins Film Fest 2012 October 11th-14th 2012 Nuovo Cinema Aquila in Rome One of the annual venues when cinema meets music is back! ROAD TO RUINS, praised by the accomplished SXSW American festival, has been for 12 editions an important international festival of Rock n’Roll. In 2011 it has broadened to the movie  [ Read More ]