Film Archive

“Radici” is the story of “us” new immigrants of the millennium. Three generations to compare, each one with a distinct path of life yet dependent from one another.

North American premiere.

The director is in attendance and there will be a Q&A after the movie.

Central Italy, 1860: a poor farmer by the name of Terenzio Grossi leads a band of outlaws in local rebellion against the newly formed Piedmont State. Disillusioned with politics, hungered by ever-increasing taxes and unwilling to participate in the mandatory military draft, the gang will seize the Pesaro and Urbino Province with the help of a  restless and angry population.

In two years of violent unrest, the gang assumes the upper hand against timorous and ill-equipped local authorties. Only one soldier will pick up the fight and stand fearless in the line of duty: a brigadier of the Reali Carabinieri is determined to capture Terenzio and his gangmates at any cost.  This independently produced historical gangster film brings to life a turbulent and under-examined period in Italian history.

North American premiere.

A Q&A with the director Claudio Ripalti  will follow the movie.

The mountains surrounding Lombardy’s Lake Iseo are the backdrop to the Mona Lisa. In 2016 they became the setting for another stunning art work, Christo’s long-cherished dream “The Floating Piers”, a golden jetty that allowed visitors to walk across the lake. This fascinating documentary (in English and Italian) captures the tension, angst and inspiration as the project came to fruition, bringing together artist, engineers, bureaucrats, volunteers, and thousands of the general public.

Director Gabriele Muccino (whose credits include Will Smith’s Seven Pounds and The Pursuit of Happyness, as well as the international hit The Last Kiss) returns with an emotionally expansive ensemble drama set on a beautiful island, home to a couple celebrating their 50^th wedding anniversary in the company of children, grandchildren, and children’s ex-wives…  Inclement weather extends the party beyond breaking point, as ex partners quarrel, singles pair off, and teenagers fall in love…  Keeping farce at arm’s length, Muccino treats heartache with sincerity and sensitivity, and casts a sympathetic eye on the failings and foibles of a family not so different from any other.

Bertolucci’s first film was based on a story by Pier Paolo Pasolini, with whom Bernardo had apprenticed a year before. In a scenario similar to Kurosawa’s Rashomon, the film is based around a series of police interviews with suspects who were scene late at night in a park in Rome, the scene of the murder of a prostitute. The interviewees’ accounts are often contradicted by flashbacks. Bit by bit, Bertolucci builds up a picture of the shady activities taking place in this corner of the city at night.

Rome. Today. 72 years since his death, Benito Mussolini inexplicably reappears in Piazza Vittorio. The war is over and everything seems changed. Yet il Duce is not one to shirk a challenge, and given what he sees around him, the time seems ripe for the plucking. With an opportunistic documentarian in tow – his own Boswell, or Sancho Panza, Mussollini sets out to retake Italy…

Luca Miniero’s comedy is an astute and troubling satire on the reemergence of fascism powered by a ferociously charismatic performance from Massimo Popolizio (The Great Beauty; Il Divo). Miniero depicts the crass commercial realities of today’s popular culture (a reality framed by Berlusconi’s television stations of course) as the perfect conduit for Duce-esque rants about migrants and unemployment, and imagines a populace ready to tune out its moral qualms in favour of a quick and dirty political fix.

"Very enjoyable... The Guest is very perceptive about how the generation of people in their late 30s and early 40s are afraid of commitment, and even decision-making in general, something that of course frustrates the laws of all romantic stories." Boyd van Hoeij, Hollywood Reporter

Guido (Daniele Parisi, Ears) is thrown into a midlife crisis when his longstanding girlfriend tells him she’s weighing moving to Canada – alone. A week of couch surfing with friends and family doesn’t exactly reaffirm his faith his relationships; it seems like everyone is on the verge of breaking up, cheating, or alternatively – like his parents – mired in cozy disgruntlement and recrimination. This very likeable comedy earns plentiful laughs with wry observation and engaging performances.

Cinematographer Gianni di Venanzo’s masterful use of Technicolor transforms Juliet of the Spirits, Fellini’s first color feature, into a kaleidoscope of dreams, spirits, and memories. Giulietta Masina plays a betrayed wife whose inability to come to terms with reality leads her along a hallucinatory journey of self-discovery.

“Entertaining and scary” Soundvenue

Banned from state TV and shunning the Berlusconi media empire, Italian comedian and political activist, Beppe Grillo, turns to the streets and the internet to fight political arrogance and corruption. His popular protest movement, Movimento 5 Stelle, vows to send all politicians home and bring the people to power. They win a stunning 25% of the vote to become the single largest party in Italy, and send 163 ordinary people into Parliament.

"It’s hard to think of a more remarkable tribute to the resilience of the human spirit than the one Umberto D. puts on the screen." Kenneth Turan, LA Times

This neorealist masterpiece by Vittorio De Sica follows an elderly pensioner as he strives to make ends meet during Italy’s postwar economic recovery. Alone except for his dog, Flike, Umberto struggles to maintain his dignity in a city where human kindness seems to have been swallowed up by the forces of modernization. His simple quest to satisfy his basic needs—food, shelter, companionship—makes for one of the most heartbreaking stories ever filmed, and an essential classic of world cinema.