Cinecittà, the French Institute in London and The Italian Cultural Institute are delighted to announce the full line-up of films for the 14th edition of CINEMA MADE IN ITALY, London’s favourite film festival highlighting the best Italian cinema from the past year, which returns to Ciné Lumière in South Kensington from 20 to 24 March 2024.
CINEMA MADE IN ITALY features ten new releases and one classic film, all curated by Adrian Wootton OBE. Audiences will have the chance to catch the cutting edge of Italian cinema, with several films having their UK premiere as part of the festival, as well as enjoying a classic of Italian cinema and taking part in Q&As with filmmakers.
The full programme line-up is listed below with synopses for each film.
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COMANDANTE* by Edoardo De Angelis
20 March at 7.30pm (Opening Film) Followed by a Q&A with director Edoardo De Angelis
At the start of WWII, Salvatore Todaro commands the Italian Royal Navy submarine Cappellini. One dark night in October 1940, while navigating in the Atlantic, he comes upon an armed merchant ship sailing with lights out. He shoots his cannons at the ship and sinks it. At that moment, the Commander makes a decision that was destined to go down in history: he saves the 26 shipwrecked Belgians who otherwise would have drowned in the middle of the ocean and disembarks them at the nearest safe harbour, as prescribed by the law of the sea. To make room for them on board his submarine, he is forced to navigate on the surface of the water for three days, visible to the enemy forces and endangering his life and that of his men.
OCEANS ARE THE REAL CONTINENTS (GLI OCEANI SONO I VERI CONTINENTI)* by Tommaso Santambrogio
21 March at 6.00pm Followed by a Q&A with director Tommaso Santambrogio
Alex and Edith, young couple in their 30s, live their relationship made up of small gestures and everyday life among the ruins of Cuban buildings. Milagro, a retired old lady, tries to survive by selling ‘mani’ (typical Cuban peanut cones) and by illegally raising piglets in her backyard. Alain and Frank, two nine-year-old boys, go to school and dream of emigrating together to the United States to become Major League Baseball players. These three narrations and their respective worlds develop in the setting of San Antonio De Los Baños, a town in the Cuban inland, where time has frozen. This scenario incarnates a picture of our times that comes to life thanks to the memory of the characters; it is in this place that the spectre of separation unveils itself, real scourge of the Cuban society.
NOWHERE (INVELLE)* by Simone Massi
21 March at 8.40pm
Three different epochs through the gaze of three children: Zelinda, who loses her mother to the Spanish Flu during World War I and sees the spectre of Nazism loom; Assunta, who lives during the Nazi occupation between bombings, raids, and executions; Icaro, who abandons the countryside during the Years of Lead (“Anni di Piombo”) and accepts a new life. A story across the difficulties and the troubles of the 20th century between memories, affection, nostalgia, and gratitude.
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BEAUTIFUL SUMMER (LA BELLA ESTATE)* by Laura Luchetti
22 March at 6.00pm Followed by a Q&A with director Laura Luchetti
Turin, 1938. Young Ginia has just moved from the countryside and the future seems to offer her endless possibilities. Desperate for adventure, Ginia begins an electric affair with a painter she meets in the dazzling artists world. The woman who leads her into the bohemian quarters is Amelia. Sensual and provocative, Amelia is not much older than Ginia, but different from anyone she has ever met and ready to shake her certainties.
During her “beautiful summer”, Ginia will surrender to her first great love. She will finally give in to her overwhelming feelings, celebrating the courage to be truly herself.
I TOLD YOU SO (TE L’AVEVO DETTO)* by Ginevra Elkann
22 March at 8.35pm Followed by a Q&A with director Ginevra Elkann
It’s a January weekend in Rome, when a sudden heat wave arrives disrupting the peace. In this surreal climate, people and animals start losing control. It’s the beginning of a whole new chapter: suddenly, people are confronted with the things they have been carefully avoiding through their ordinary daily routines, be it food, sex, drugs, religion, or excessive romance. They can no longer escape – they must push through the heat, be transformed by it in its own voice and pace.
ADAGIO* by Stefano Sollima
23 March at 5.30pm
Manuel, an impressionable 16-year-old who lives with his ailing father, is blackmailed into securing some highly incriminating evidence at a party. When things don’t go to plan and Manuel goes on the run, he finds himself tangled up in an increasingly dangerous chain of events, leaving him no choice but to seek the help of two of his father’s criminal acquaintances.
THERE IS STILL TOMORROW (C’E’ ANCORA DOMANI)* by Paola Cortellesi
23 March at 8.30pm Followed by a Q&A with director Paola Cortellesi
All Delia has ever wanted was to be a wife and mother. She lives in Rome in the late 1940s – a city divided between the positive thrust of liberation and the miseries of the war that has just ended – with her husband, Ivano, and their three children. Ivano may be a harsh master; his father even more so. However, Delia has a best friend with whom to share moments of levity, and her daughter is about to get married. She accepts her fate – the good with the bad – until a mysterious letter arrives.
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HOLIDAY* by Edoardo Gabbriellini
24 March at 4.35pm Followed by a Q&A with director Edoardo Gabbriellini
During the height of the summer holidays on the Italian Riviera, 20-year-old Veronica returns to the family-owned hotel after her release from prison. Despite having been acquitted of the brutal murders of her mother and her lover, Veronica must endure the scrutiny from the press and everyone in this small tourist town. With Veronica’s openly turbulent relationship with her demeaning mother, very few are convinced of her innocence. The only two people in Veronica’s life who believe her are her loving father and her best friend Giada. Or do they?
LA CHIMERA by Alice Rohrwacher
24 March at 7.00pm (Closing Film)
Everyone has their own Chimera, something they try to achieve but never manage to find. For the band of tombaroli, thieves of ancient grave goods and archaeological wonders, the Chimera means redemption from work and the dream of easy wealth. For Arthur, the Chimera looks like the woman he lost, Beniamina. To find her, Arthur challenges the invisible, searches everywhere, goes inside the earth – in search of the door to the afterlife of which myths speak. In an adventurous journey between the living and the dead, between forests and cities, between celebrations and solitudes, the intertwined destinies of these characters unfold, all in search of the Chimera.
ANIMATION (CINEFAMILY)
CHICKEN FOR LINDA! (LINDA VEUT DU POULET!)* by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach
23 March at 1.30pm
Paulette feels guilty after unjustly punishing her daughter Linda and would do anything to make it up to her. She would even make chicken with peppers, although she doesn’t know how to cook. But how will she find a chicken on the day of a general strike?
BELLISSIMA by Luchino Visconti – restored 4K version
24 March at 2.00pm
Maddalena sacrifices her marriage and her savings so that her daughter can become the next star of Cinecittà…. A critical reflection on the famous new cinema of the post-war period and an ode to the Italian neorealist legend, Anna Magnani.
THE RESTORATION
On the 50th anniversary of Anna Magnani’s death, the Cineteca Nazionale presented the restoration of Beautiful (Bellissima) by Luchino Visconti (1951) – one of the most representative works of the great actress’ art – as a world premiere in the Venice Classics section of the 80th Venice International Film Festival (2023).
The restoration has been realized starting from the elements provided by Compass Film, the rights holder. The original nitrate negative was scanned in 4k and then digitally restored in the attempt to eliminate all the usual defects of a period negative (scratches, stains, lines, image instability, etc.). Then the grading and the color correction were made in order to return the film’s original photographic tone. As for the soundtrack, a period positive was used, again carrying out digital restoration with the elimination of defects (disruptions, crackles, disturbances in the soundtrack, etc.). All the processes were carried out at the laboratory Studio Cine S.r.l.
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