Even without a Palme D’Or, 3X10 minutes of applause is a full half hour for Italian cinema.
No Italian film is an official selection for the big prizes, (maybe they should have been?) but Italy is showing France what it can do, never-the-less, in the Director’s Fortnight Section.
It was 10 minutes of applause for Claudio Giovannesi’s Fiore (Flower). Starring Aniello Arena (Reality) and Valerio Mastandrea, Fiore is Giovannesi’s long-awaited third film love story set in a Southern Italian juvenile detention center that is sex-segregated. I was a huge fan of his Alì Ha Gli Occhi Azzuri (Alì Blue Eyes), at Tribeca in 2013.
Another 10 minutes in the life of the Cannes Film Festival went to applause for Marco Bellocchio’s Fai Bei Sogni (Sweet Dreams). Also starring Mastandrea, Fai Bei Sogni (Sweet Dreams) are the last words a boy ever hears from his mother.
Would Bellocchio rather have been in competition? “I’m not answering; I’m out of this game, it’s not my first time at the festival. This is a serious work that luckily the film will be out in the fall and we’ll see what the reaction is there.”
And yet another 10 minutes (do they cut it off at 10?) for Paolo Virzì’s La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy). Starring the Mrs, Micaela Ramazzotti with Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, it’s a comedy in which the two women play mental patients.
I Love Italian Everything 