Tickets go on sale may 22 for a most remarkable opportunity for Americans who love Italian film. Open Roads: New Italian Cinema. (June 5-12)
Come to New York’s Lincoln Center and see films not otherwise available in the US, in most cases with either the directors or actors participating in fascinating Q&As after the screenings.
This year, the films are:
Those Happy Years (Anni Felici)
Daniele Luchetti | 2013 | 100 mins
Opening Night
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Daniele Luchetti at 6:30pm screening.
Luchetti’s warm-hearted, bittersweet autobiographical account of his childhood as a budding filmmaker captures a family’s radical transformations through a son’s brand-new Super-8 camera.
Thursday, June 05
1:00pm, 6:30pm
The Administrator (L’Amministratore)
Vincenzo Marra | 2013 | 83 mins
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with actor Umberto Montella at both screenings.
In this lively and absorbing documentary set in Naples, a building administrator’s dealings with his larger-than-life tenants provide a tough-minded yet affectionate look at an Italy mired in crisis.
Monday, June 09
6:30pm
Tuesday, June 10
1:30pm
The Fifth Wheel (L’Ultima Ruota del Carro)
Giovanni Veronesi | 2013 | 113 mins
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Giovanni Veronesi at June 6 screening.
Veronesi’s irresistible romantic comedy journeys through four decades of recent Italian history on the back of a good-hearted, honest middle-class guy who always finds himself a step behind.
Friday, June 06
6:30pm
Wednesday, June 11
1:00pm
Happy to Be Different (Felice chi è diverso)
Gianni Amelio | 2014 | 93 mins
A moving and enlightening work of oral history, Amelio’s new documentary is a chronicle of gay life in Italy from the fall of Fascism through the early 1980s.
Tuesday, June 10
9:00pm
Wednesday, June 11
4:00pm
The Human Factor (La Variabile Umana)
Bruno Oliviero | 2013 | 82 mins
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Bruno Oliviero on June 6.
Rendered darkly beautiful as a noir setting, Milan is the electric backdrop for this story of a troubled detective investigating the murder of a high-profile member of the city’s seedy nightlife.
Thursday, June 05
4:00pm
Friday, June 06
9:30pm
I Can Quit Whenever I Want (Smetto Quando Voglio)
Sydney Sibilia | 2014 | 100 mins
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with actress Valeria Solarino at both screenings.
A band of brilliant un(der)employed academics turn to a life of crime in order to survive in this biting parody on the plight of the Italian middle class in the aftermath of the economic crisis.
Friday, June 06
3:30pm
Sunday, June 08
9:00pm
A Lonely Hero (L’Intrepido)
Gianni Amelio | 2013 | 104 mins
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Gianni Amelio on June 5.
Amelio’s deadpan parable follows a small everyday hero from Milan who throws himself at a wide array of “substitute” jobs with a deep moral consistency as he reinvents himself from day to day.
Thursday, June 05
9:15pm
Tuesday, June 10
6:30pm
Long Live Freedom (Viva La Libertà)
Roberto Andò | 2013 | 93 mins
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Roberto Andò on June 7.
His party in decline, a seasoned politician (Toni Servillo) flees to Paris to hide out with his ex-girlfriend (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) in Andò’s scathing yet comic critique of Italian political dynamics.
Friday, June 06
1:00pm
Saturday, June 07
9:00pm
The Mafia Only Kills in Summer
Pierfrancesco Diliberto | 2013 | 89 mins
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Pierfrancesco “Pif” Diliberto on June 7.
In Pierfrancesco “Pif” Diliberto’s irreverent feature debut, a young boy’s obsession with the Mafia surpasses even his passion for the beautiful schoolmate who remains his main love interest until adulthood.
Saturday, June 07
3:30pm
Thursday, June 12
4:00pm
Quiet Bliss (In Grazia di Dio)
Edoardo Winspeare | 2014 | 127 mins
Q&A with filmmaker Edoardo Winspeare and actress Laura Licchetta at both screenings.
Three generations of women seek refuge in their family’s Salento olive grove after their small textile business collapses in this warm and vibrant drama set against the radiant southern Italian landscape.
Saturday, June 07
6:00pm
Monday, June 09
1:00pm
The Referee (L’Arbitro)
Paolo Zucca | 2013 | 96 mins
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with actor Jacopo Cullin at both screenings.
A third-league Sardinian soccer team goes on a sudden winning streak while conflict erupts over archaic sheep-breeding codes in the lush black-and-white world of Zucca’s utterly distinctive first feature.
Tuesday, June 10
4:00pm
Wednesday, June 11
9:00pm
Sacro GRA
Gianfranco Rosi | 2013 | 93 mins
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi at both screenings.
The first documentary to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Rosi’s latest reveals the sheer diversity of life bubbling around the margins of the 43.5-mile highway that encircles the Rome.
Sunday, June 08
6:30pm
Monday, June 09
4:00pm
Small Homeland (Piccola Patria)
Alessandro Rossetto | 2013 | 111 mins
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Alessandro Rossetto on June 8.
Best friends Luisa and Renata long to escape their stifling provincial town in northeastern Italy, working as maids in a hotel and supplementing their income with sex work and a dubious blackmail plot.
Sunday, June 08
3:30pm
Thursday, June 12
8:45pm
South Is Nothing (Sud È Niente)
Fabio Mollo | 2013 | 86 mins
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Fabio Mollo at both screenings.
A teenage tomboy who hasn’t spoken a word since the death of her beloved brother runs away from home and ends up on a quest to find the truth about her lost sibling and also herself.
Sunday, June 08
1:00pm
Monday, June 09
9:00pm
A Street in Palermo (Via Castellana Bandiera)
Emma Dante | 2013 | 92 mins
U.S. Premiere
The first film by theater director Emma Dante takes place almost entirely in a narrow alleyway in a run-down neighborhood of Palermo, where two carloads of stubborn characters face off over their refusal to back up.
Wednesday, June 11
6:30pm
Thursday, June 12
1:30pm
Tir
Alberto Fasulo | 2013 | 83 mins
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Alberto Fasulo on June 7.
A former teacher from Bosnia takes a job driving a tractor trailer (“tir”) through Europe, immersing the viewer in the sounds, the landscape, and the longing for company that goes with life on the road.
Saturday, June 07
1:00pm
Thursday, June 12
6:30pm
I Love Italian Everything 