Dear Ivano, congratulations on finally getting your film into Italian theaters. Now work on getting it into American ones.
Filmed in 2009 but, for complicated legal reasons that director Ivano De Matteo doesn’t like to talk about, La Bella Gente (The Beautiful People) finally arrives in Italian theaters on Thursday.
“The majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism – are forced, indeed, so to spoil them.” Oscar Wilde said it and Ivano De Matteo made a movie about it, but Italians didn’t get a chance to see it – until now, this coming Thursday. It was presented at the Torino Film Festival, it was a winner at Annecy, and it was distributed with great success in France, but because of a series of distribution issues that either a) Ivano De Matteo doesn’t want to talk about or b) my Italian’s just not good enough to understand, it took all of De Matteo’s energy and will-power to bring it, finally, to Italy.
In La Bella Gente, the husband, Alfredo (Antonio Catania) is an architect and his wife Susanna (Monica Guerittore) is a psychologist. In their fifties, they are left-wingers that did alright for themselves, having made plenty of money and are living a cushy lifestyle. On vacation at their country house, they witness a very young prostitute being brutalized by her pimp, and they decide to step in to help her.
Their altruism is a beautiful thing for these beautiful people, as long it doesn’t interfere with their beautiful lifestyle (and I’m guessing it does.)
Stars: Antonio Catania, Myriam Catania, Iaia Forte, Elio Germano, Giorgio Gobbi and Monica Guerritore
While we in the USA will have to wait for La Bella Gente, we can finally see Ivano’s latest film, I Nostri Ragazzi (The Dinner, based on the book by Herman Koch).
And there are so many reasons to watch for ‘The Dinner’ in your city. First of all, the cast is amazing. The two couples at the infamous dinner are played by Luigi Lo Cascio (Il Meglio Gioventù) and Giovanna Mezzogiorno (Vincere); Alessandro Gassman (Il Nome Del Figlio) and Barbora Bobulova (Anime Nere). The kids are Rosabell Laurenti Sellers(Game of Thrones and Jacopo Olmo Antinori (Io e Te).
Playing at US theaters and film festivals and available to members and non-members November 24 from
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