Looking for a chance to keep the momentum after the David di Donatello awards Gianfranco Galan, Italy’s minister of culture, said that he hopes for “a long wave (of winners) all the way from Cannes to the Lido (Venice Film Festival).” Commenting that’s been it’s been a kind of dry period for Italy, the minister is looking ahead encouraged, and there is reason to be.
The selections for Venice haven’t even been made,but the rumors have already started to fly about Italian films that are likely to go to the world’s oldest film festival.
The Tidal wave of illegal immigration from Africa has inspired a few films that look pretty good. One, “Il Villaggio di Cartone” (cardboard village) by Ermanno Olmi and another from Emanuele Crialese (The Golden Door) about Sicilian fishermen encountering the immigrants. This one stars Donatella Finocchiaro and it’s called “Terraferma” (dry land).
There’s a biography of the singer Vasco Rossi that is getting a little bit of a buzz – and should be interesting considering his colorful life. And there’s a new one from Cristina Comencini based on her book, “L’illusione del Bene”, (the illusion of good) about an extreme leftist who gets a little bummed out over the fall of the Berlin Wall until he meets a young Russian woman who shows him what it was like to live behind the iron curtain.
Pupi Avati’s “Il Cuore Grande delle Ragazze” looks good – it’s the story of a responsible young woman who plans to marry an irresponsible man. And finally, a new one with Toni Servillo, “E’ Stato il Figlio”, (it was the son), in which a poor Palermo family’s son becomes the innocent victim of a drive by shooting.
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