How can it be that no one I ask, here in Ohio, knows Marco Bellocchio, the man who the Venice Film Festival is calling “one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of recent decades”?
I’m going to assume that if you are reading a blog called “I Love Italian Movies” you’ve heard of him, but just in case, Bellocchio is an Italian filmmaker who will be honored at the Venice Film Festival this year with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
His career is stunning with over 3 dozen films beginning with a movie that some here in America know, the 1965, Fists in the Pocket, that he made with money from his family. The film centers on a disturbed young man who decides to kill members of his family and if you remember, I saw the recent staged version of it in Rome. I loved seeing it, but I have to say that the word “disturbed” is an understatement.
His film “Sorelle Mai” (sisters never), shot over 10 years and starring his family, was presented last year at Venice, out of competition. The experimental film stars also Donatella Finocchiaro (Angela) and Alba Rohrwacher (Io Sono L’amore) and debuted in a shorter version at the Rome Film Festival in 2006. The family members play themselves, with the exception of Donatella Finocchiaro, and the reviews use words like “sad”, “morbid”, and “bordering on incest”, which might not surprise you if you have seen any of his other films, but I also see it called “funny”.
Bellocchio is obviously someone who America should know, so let’s take the weekend and look at some of his work. I’m also working on an interview with him about “Sorelle Mai” that I’ll post as soon as I finish.
I Love Italian Everything 