I’m going to be very busy at the Venice Film Festival this year.
The Italians In Competition for the GOLDEN LION:
Questi Giorni (These Days), from director Giuseppe Piccioni
Giuseppe Piccioni is a sentimental favorite with two decades of films like Luce Dei Miei Occhi (Light Of My Eyes) and Giulia Non Esce La Sera (Giulia Doesn’t Date At Night).
Questi Giorni stars Margherita Buy, Marta Gastini, Laura Adriani, Maria Roveran, Caterina Le Caselle and Filippo Timi and is about four small town girls travel to Belgrade and wait for a mysterious friend and a dubious job opportunity.
Fun facts about the cast: Margherita Buy has won more best actress awards in Italy than even Sophia Loren. Filippo Timi’s performance in Marco Bellocchio’s ‘Vincere’ was called one of the best of 2009 that wouldn’t win an Oscar. Maria Roveran charmed me at Venice 70 with her outstanding debut performance as Luisa in ‘Piccola Patria’ (Small Homeland).
Piuma from director Roan Johnson
Roan Johnson may not seem Italian but he is; the 42-year-old director has a British dad and was born in London, but his mom is Italian, he was raised in Pisa, and these days he lives in Rome.
Piuma (Feather) is about Ferro and Cate, 18-year-olds during the stormiest nine months of their lives “even if they didn’t know the storm was coming” and stars Luigi Fedele, Blu Yoshimi Di Martino, Sergio Pierattini, Michela Cescon, and Francesco Colella.
Fun fact about the cast: Blu Yoshimi Di Martino played the little girl in Nanni Moretti’s ‘Caos Calmo’.
And a documentary, Spira Mirabilis, L’infinita fabbrica del Duomo (The Never Ending Factory of the Duomo), from directors Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti
Spira Marabilis is about the duomo in Milano.
Fun facts about the Duomo: It has the most statues of any other Italian cathedral, and though it was consecrated in 1418, the construction isn’t finished even today!
I Love Italian Everything 