Toni Servillo, who played Roman socialite Jep Gambardella in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning “The Great Beauty,” will star in a drama about Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro, dubbed “the last godfather” directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”).
Also starring in the hotly-anticipated drama titled “Iddu” – which means “Him” in Sicilian dialect – is Italian A-list actor Elio Germano, winner of a Cannes best actor prize for Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life” in 2010 and more recently of Italy’s 2021 David di Donatello Award for Giorgio Diritti’s “Hidden Away.”
The roles respectively being played by Servillo and Elio Germano are being kept under wraps.
After being on the run for three decades, Messina Denaro was arrested in mid-January 2023 outside an upscale medical facility in Palermo, where he had been undergoing cancer treatment for a year under false identity. The top mafioso, convicted of masterminding some of Italy...
Also starring in the hotly-anticipated drama titled “Iddu” – which means “Him” in Sicilian dialect – is Italian A-list actor Elio Germano, winner of a Cannes best actor prize for Daniele Luchetti’s “Our Life” in 2010 and more recently of Italy’s 2021 David di Donatello Award for Giorgio Diritti’s “Hidden Away.”
The roles respectively being played by Servillo and Elio Germano are being kept under wraps.
After being on the run for three decades, Messina Denaro was arrested in mid-January 2023 outside an upscale medical facility in Palermo, where he had been undergoing cancer treatment for a year under false identity. The top mafioso, convicted of masterminding some of Italy...
- 1/18/2024
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Beta Film has announced a half-dozen sales to European public broadcasters on high-end period drama “La Storia,” which is Italian pubcaster Rai’s biggest event show of the year and is world premiering at the Rome Film Fest.
The sweeping eight-episode saga, set in Italy during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath, is based on a globally bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante, whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference.
Set mostly in Rome between 1940 and 1948, “La Storia” looks at fascism and Italy’s early postwar period through a female prism. Ida, a half Jewish widow with a teenage son named Nino, is raped by a drunken German soldier and gets pregnant with Useppe. The tale is centered on how she survives her predicament.
Ahead of the Rome Film Fest premiere of its first two episodes on Friday,...
The sweeping eight-episode saga, set in Italy during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath, is based on a globally bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante, whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference.
Set mostly in Rome between 1940 and 1948, “La Storia” looks at fascism and Italy’s early postwar period through a female prism. Ida, a half Jewish widow with a teenage son named Nino, is raped by a drunken German soldier and gets pregnant with Useppe. The tale is centered on how she survives her predicament.
Ahead of the Rome Film Fest premiere of its first two episodes on Friday,...
- 10/20/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italian production designer Tonino Zera, whose credits include Roman Polanski’s upcoming drama The Palace, will be feted with the Campari Passion Award at the 80th edition of Venice Film Festival, running from August 30 to September 9.
The prize, which was launched at the 75th Venice Film Festival, pays tribute to cinema crafts professionals who have made a “remarkable contribution” to the films on which they have worked.
Previous recipients span U.S. film editor Bob Murawski, Italian cinematographer Luca Bigazzi, U.S. jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, UK production designer Marcus Rowland, and U.S. artist and costume designer Arianne Phillips.
Zera will be presented with the award on September 2 ahead of the Out of Competition world premiere of The Palace in the Sala Grande.
“To receive the prestigious Campari Passion for Film Award during the Venice Film Festival is not only a personal honor, it is also a...
The prize, which was launched at the 75th Venice Film Festival, pays tribute to cinema crafts professionals who have made a “remarkable contribution” to the films on which they have worked.
Previous recipients span U.S. film editor Bob Murawski, Italian cinematographer Luca Bigazzi, U.S. jazz trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, UK production designer Marcus Rowland, and U.S. artist and costume designer Arianne Phillips.
Zera will be presented with the award on September 2 ahead of the Out of Competition world premiere of The Palace in the Sala Grande.
“To receive the prestigious Campari Passion for Film Award during the Venice Film Festival is not only a personal honor, it is also a...
- 8/10/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Italian production designer Tonino Zera will receive the Campari Passion for Film Award at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Zera — whose works include production design for Giuseppe Tornatore’s The Unknown Woman (2006), Paolo Virzì’s Like Crazy (2016) and Michele Placido’s Caravaggio’s Shadow (2022) — most recently created the sets for Roman Polanski’s The Place, which will have its world premiere at the 80th Venice Film Festival next month. The dramedy, set in a luxurious Swiss hotel on a fateful New Year’s Eve in 1999, stars Oliver Masucci, Fanny Ardant, John Cleese, Luca Barbareschi and Mickey Rourke. It will screen out of competition in Venice.
Zera will receive his award Sept. 2 ahead of The Palace premiere.
“To receive the prestigious Campari Passion for Film Award during the Venice Film Festival is not only a personal honor, it is also a recognition of the importance of set design in the world of cinema,...
Zera will receive his award Sept. 2 ahead of The Palace premiere.
“To receive the prestigious Campari Passion for Film Award during the Venice Film Festival is not only a personal honor, it is also a recognition of the importance of set design in the world of cinema,...
- 8/10/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Beta at MipTV has unveiled a visually dazzling first trailer for period drama “La Storia” that will be Italian pubcaster Rai’s biggest event show this year.
The sweeping eight-episode saga is based on a globally bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante – whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference – set during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath in Italy.
Dierected by Francesca Archibugi (“The Hummingbird”), the high-end show stars Italian A-list actor Jasmine Trinca – who last year was a member of the Cannes jury – as Ida, a single mother of two sons, who hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution. The cast also comprises Asia Argento (“xXx – Triple X”), Elio Germano (“Leopardi”) and Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”).
Set mostly in Rome between 1940 and 1948 “La Storia” looks at fascism, World War II and Italy...
The sweeping eight-episode saga is based on a globally bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante – whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference – set during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath in Italy.
Dierected by Francesca Archibugi (“The Hummingbird”), the high-end show stars Italian A-list actor Jasmine Trinca – who last year was a member of the Cannes jury – as Ida, a single mother of two sons, who hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution. The cast also comprises Asia Argento (“xXx – Triple X”), Elio Germano (“Leopardi”) and Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”).
Set mostly in Rome between 1940 and 1948 “La Storia” looks at fascism, World War II and Italy...
- 4/18/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
On a cobblestone-paved square in the ancient town of Tivoli, north-east of Rome, in late September, a large crew is prepping to shoot a key scene in Italian period drama “La Storia,” which will be pubcaster Rai’s biggest event show next year.
Based on a bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante – whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference – “La Storia” is set during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath in Italy.
The eight-episode series, being unveiled by Beta Film to buyers at Rome’s Mia content market, stars Italian A-list actor Jasmine Trinca – who earlier this year was a member of the Cannes jury – as Ida, a single mother of two sons, who hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution.
The Tivoli square, where costumed extras are taking their positions, is a...
Based on a bestselling novel by the late great Elsa Morante – whom “My Brilliant Friend” author Elena Ferrante often cites as her primary literary reference – “La Storia” is set during the final years of World War II and its immediate aftermath in Italy.
The eight-episode series, being unveiled by Beta Film to buyers at Rome’s Mia content market, stars Italian A-list actor Jasmine Trinca – who earlier this year was a member of the Cannes jury – as Ida, a single mother of two sons, who hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution.
The Tivoli square, where costumed extras are taking their positions, is a...
- 10/14/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Beta Film has come on board to co-produce eight-part Italian period drama series “La Storia,” based on Elsa Morante’s bestselling novel, continuing its successful partnership with Picomedia. Shooting for the production has started in Rome under the helm of director Francesca Archibugi (“Romanzo famigliare”), before moving to Naples and Lazio later in the year. Beta handles world sales.
The cast is led by Jasmine Trinca (“The Gunman”), starring as Ida, a single mother of two sons, who hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution during the end of World War II and post-war Rome. Also starring are Asia Argento (“xXx – Triple X”), Elio Germano (“Leopardi”) and Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”).
The series adapts one of the most critically acclaimed novels of the 20th century, published in two dozen languages. Morante is a landmark figure of feminist literature and the literary role model of Italian star author Elena Ferrante,...
The cast is led by Jasmine Trinca (“The Gunman”), starring as Ida, a single mother of two sons, who hides her Jewish heritage and fights against poverty and persecution during the end of World War II and post-war Rome. Also starring are Asia Argento (“xXx – Triple X”), Elio Germano (“Leopardi”) and Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”).
The series adapts one of the most critically acclaimed novels of the 20th century, published in two dozen languages. Morante is a landmark figure of feminist literature and the literary role model of Italian star author Elena Ferrante,...
- 6/30/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God” and Gabriele Mainetti’s “Freaks Out” lead the pack at the David di Donatello Awards this year with 16 nominations each.
Here’s the complete list of nominees:
Picture
“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo
“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino
“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore
“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti
“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone
Director
“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo
“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino
“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore
“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti
“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone
Debut Director
“The Bad Poet,” Gianluca Jodice
“Maternal,” Maura Delpero
“Small Body,” Laura Samani
“Re Granchio” (The Legend of King Crab), Alessio Rigo De Righi, Matteo Zoppis
“Una Femmina” (The Code of Silence), Francesco Constabile
Producer
“A Chiara,” Jon Coplon, Paolo Carpignano, Ryan Zacarias, Jonas Carpignano (Stayblack Productions) — Rai Cinema
“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Carlo Cresto...
Here’s the complete list of nominees:
Picture
“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo
“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino
“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore
“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti
“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone
Director
“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Leonardo Di Costanzo
“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino
“Ennio,” Giuseppe Tornatore
“Freaks Out,” Gabriele Mainetti
“Qui Rido Io” (The King of Laughter), Mario Martone
Debut Director
“The Bad Poet,” Gianluca Jodice
“Maternal,” Maura Delpero
“Small Body,” Laura Samani
“Re Granchio” (The Legend of King Crab), Alessio Rigo De Righi, Matteo Zoppis
“Una Femmina” (The Code of Silence), Francesco Constabile
Producer
“A Chiara,” Jon Coplon, Paolo Carpignano, Ryan Zacarias, Jonas Carpignano (Stayblack Productions) — Rai Cinema
“Ariaferma” (The Inner Cage), Carlo Cresto...
- 4/30/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
He’s been announced as the recipient of the Campari Passion for Film award
Production designer Marcus Rowland, who has worked on films including Last Night In Soho, Rocketman, Baby Driver, Shaun Of The Dead and Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, will receive the Campari Passion for Film award at the 78th Venice Film Festival (September 1-11).
The ceremony for the award will take place on September 4 in Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema) before the out-of-competition screening of Last Night In Soho, a film Rowland worked on with his frequent collaborator, director Edgar Wright, and stars Anya Taylor-Joy and the late Diana Rigg.
Production designer Marcus Rowland, who has worked on films including Last Night In Soho, Rocketman, Baby Driver, Shaun Of The Dead and Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, will receive the Campari Passion for Film award at the 78th Venice Film Festival (September 1-11).
The ceremony for the award will take place on September 4 in Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema) before the out-of-competition screening of Last Night In Soho, a film Rowland worked on with his frequent collaborator, director Edgar Wright, and stars Anya Taylor-Joy and the late Diana Rigg.
- 8/6/2021
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Oscar-nominated French actor Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”) has joined Pierfrancesco Favino (“The Traitor”), Nanni Moretti, and the Italian cast of romantic drama “Il Colibrì,” which has started shooting in Rome.
Fandango Sales is launching sales at the virtual Cannes market on this high-profile drama directed by Francesca Archibugi (“A Question of the Heart”) based on the eponymous novel by Sandro Veronesi, winner of Italy’s top literary prize, the Premio Strega 2020. The book is now set for translation in 25 countries, including the U.S.
Domenico Procacci’s Fandango, which is producing the €7.85 million ($9.3 million) film with Rai Cinema, has set it up as an Italian-French co-production by teaming up with Anne-Dominique Toussaint Paris-based Les Films des Tournelles. The two companies previously collaborated two decades ago on Emanuele Crialese’s Sicily-set “Respiro,” which in the early aughts made an international splash.
“Colibrì,” which translates literally as “Hummingbird,” is set over several decades.
Fandango Sales is launching sales at the virtual Cannes market on this high-profile drama directed by Francesca Archibugi (“A Question of the Heart”) based on the eponymous novel by Sandro Veronesi, winner of Italy’s top literary prize, the Premio Strega 2020. The book is now set for translation in 25 countries, including the U.S.
Domenico Procacci’s Fandango, which is producing the €7.85 million ($9.3 million) film with Rai Cinema, has set it up as an Italian-French co-production by teaming up with Anne-Dominique Toussaint Paris-based Les Films des Tournelles. The two companies previously collaborated two decades ago on Emanuele Crialese’s Sicily-set “Respiro,” which in the early aughts made an international splash.
“Colibrì,” which translates literally as “Hummingbird,” is set over several decades.
- 6/18/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Terence Blanchard, Oscar and BAFTA-nominated for Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman,” and a Grammy winner for the “Blood and Soil” track from the film’s original soundtrack, will receive the Venice Film Festival’s Campari “Passion for Film” award this year.
Blanchard also composed the score for Lee’s Netflix film “Da 5 Bloods” and Regina King’s “One Night in Miami,” which is playing out of competition at Venice.
The award, instituted two years ago at the 75th Venice Film Festival, seeks to highlight the contribution of the director’s closest collaborators to the fulfilment of the artistic project that each film represents.
American film editor Bob Murawski, Oscar and BAFTA-winner for “The Hurt Locker,” won the inaugural award while Italian cinematographer Luca Bigazzi (“The Grand Beauty”) won last year.
“Not only is Terence Blanchard one of the most important jazz trumpeters of all time, he is also one of...
Blanchard also composed the score for Lee’s Netflix film “Da 5 Bloods” and Regina King’s “One Night in Miami,” which is playing out of competition at Venice.
The award, instituted two years ago at the 75th Venice Film Festival, seeks to highlight the contribution of the director’s closest collaborators to the fulfilment of the artistic project that each film represents.
American film editor Bob Murawski, Oscar and BAFTA-winner for “The Hurt Locker,” won the inaugural award while Italian cinematographer Luca Bigazzi (“The Grand Beauty”) won last year.
“Not only is Terence Blanchard one of the most important jazz trumpeters of all time, he is also one of...
- 8/27/2020
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
In today’s Global Bulletin, San Sebastian announces it will screen all eight episodes of Luca Guadagnino’s “We Are Who We Are” and finalizes its competition sections; Venice selects legendary composer Terence Blanchard as its third Campari Passion for Film winner; Big Light Productions gets a new COO; Small World International licenses “Big in Japan” in Russia; and Fugitive signs on as Topic’s international distribution representative.
Festivals
HBO has doubled down at this year’s San Sebastian, with Luca Guadagnino’s “We Are Who We Are” set to world premiere alongside HBO España’s original drama series “Patria.” An HBO-Sky co-production, all seven hours and 50 minutes of “We Are Who We Are” will screen at San Sebastian in the festival’s Special Screenings section.
The series was originally selected for the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Cannes but had to be delayed when the festival was cancelled. Two episodes will broadcast before San Sebastian,...
Festivals
HBO has doubled down at this year’s San Sebastian, with Luca Guadagnino’s “We Are Who We Are” set to world premiere alongside HBO España’s original drama series “Patria.” An HBO-Sky co-production, all seven hours and 50 minutes of “We Are Who We Are” will screen at San Sebastian in the festival’s Special Screenings section.
The series was originally selected for the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs at Cannes but had to be delayed when the festival was cancelled. Two episodes will broadcast before San Sebastian,...
- 8/24/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
The Venice Film Festival, kicking off September 2, will present composer Terence Blanchard with its Passion for Film Award, which recognizes the contribution given to a director’s closest collaborators.
Blanchard is noted for his collaborations with Spike Lee, from Malcolm X to Inside Man, BlacKkKlansman, and recently Da 5 Bloods. He also composed the score for Regina King’s One Night In Miami, which screens Out of Competition at Venice this year. Alongside his film work, Blanchard is a renowned jazz trumpeter.
First inaugurated two years ago, recipients of the prize to date have been American film editor Bob Murawski and Italian cinematographer Luca Bigazzi.
“Not only is Terence Blanchard one of the most important jazz trumpeters of all time, he is also one of the most prolific and sought-after composers of film scores,” said Venice director Alberto Barbera. “His artistic career is distinguished by vigorous musical creations inspired by...
Blanchard is noted for his collaborations with Spike Lee, from Malcolm X to Inside Man, BlacKkKlansman, and recently Da 5 Bloods. He also composed the score for Regina King’s One Night In Miami, which screens Out of Competition at Venice this year. Alongside his film work, Blanchard is a renowned jazz trumpeter.
First inaugurated two years ago, recipients of the prize to date have been American film editor Bob Murawski and Italian cinematographer Luca Bigazzi.
“Not only is Terence Blanchard one of the most important jazz trumpeters of all time, he is also one of the most prolific and sought-after composers of film scores,” said Venice director Alberto Barbera. “His artistic career is distinguished by vigorous musical creations inspired by...
- 8/24/2020
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
Italian A-listers Alba Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazzaro”), Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”) and Silvio Orlando (“The Young Pope”) are set to star in a high-profile prison drama to be directed by Leonardo di Costanzo, who is best known for social-realist drama “The Intruder.”
Di Costanzo crossed over from documentary to feature filmmaking first with “The Interval,” which went to Venice, and then with “The Intruder” which in 2017 made a splash in Cannes. His latest project is working-titled “Dall’Interno” (From the Inside).
Producer Carlo Cresto–Dina (pictured) describes “From the Inside” as “an important step in the journey” that his Tempesta film company is making with Di Costanzo, going from narrative documentaries and fiction films featuring non-pro actors, to what is now the director’s first film with a star-studded cast.
“Like all of Leonardo’s movies this one takes place in a confined space, which is a jail,” Cresto-Dina told Variety.
Di Costanzo crossed over from documentary to feature filmmaking first with “The Interval,” which went to Venice, and then with “The Intruder” which in 2017 made a splash in Cannes. His latest project is working-titled “Dall’Interno” (From the Inside).
Producer Carlo Cresto–Dina (pictured) describes “From the Inside” as “an important step in the journey” that his Tempesta film company is making with Di Costanzo, going from narrative documentaries and fiction films featuring non-pro actors, to what is now the director’s first film with a star-studded cast.
“Like all of Leonardo’s movies this one takes place in a confined space, which is a jail,” Cresto-Dina told Variety.
- 7/20/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
The title is Italian for them, as in the movers, shakers, petty crooks and parasites who hover around power like moths to a flame. (Place an apostrophe in the right place, and you get l’oro: the gold.) But Loro, director Paolo Sorrentino’s gorgeously gaudy, chalice-runneth-over satire, is really about one person: Silvio Berlusconi. The first time you see the Prime Minister is by proxy, via a lower back tattoo of his face on a young woman. When the man, played by Italian cinema’s reigning chameleon Toni Servillo,...
- 9/27/2019
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Paolo Sorrentino, who won Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards for the Fellini-esque “The Great Beauty,” returns for another visual feast of beautiful people and places on display. Below, check out a clip of Sorrentino’s new film “Loro” — which is now finally in U.S. theaters after a release in Italy more than a year ago — exclusive to IndieWire.
“Loro” offers a colorful history of Silvio Berlusconi (played by the wonderfully expressive Toni Servillo), the Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy and was driven by all manner of appetites. The populist leader began running for office in 1994, and spent nearly two decades at the epicenter of Italian politics. He famously remained involved in his business holdings despite conflicts of interest, and was brought down on charges of bribery, child prostitution, and tax fraud.
The film looks at Berlusconi through the eyes of Sergio Morra,...
“Loro” offers a colorful history of Silvio Berlusconi (played by the wonderfully expressive Toni Servillo), the Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy and was driven by all manner of appetites. The populist leader began running for office in 1994, and spent nearly two decades at the epicenter of Italian politics. He famously remained involved in his business holdings despite conflicts of interest, and was brought down on charges of bribery, child prostitution, and tax fraud.
The film looks at Berlusconi through the eyes of Sergio Morra,...
- 9/26/2019
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Acclaimed Italian cinematographer Luca Bigazzi will be honored with this year's Campari Passion Award, a prize handed out by the Venice International Film Festival to honor below-the-line film talents, such as cinematographers, editors, composers and set and costume designers.
A versatile and adaptable filmmaker, Bigazzi has worked with a wide range of directors, including Iranian helmer Abbas Kiarostami (Certified Copy) or Italy's Michele Placido (Romanzo Criminale) and Silvio Soldini (Bread and Tulips). But he is best know for his long-running collaboration with Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, having lensed Sorrentino's Il Divo, Youth and The Great Beauty, among others.
Bigazzi also ...
A versatile and adaptable filmmaker, Bigazzi has worked with a wide range of directors, including Iranian helmer Abbas Kiarostami (Certified Copy) or Italy's Michele Placido (Romanzo Criminale) and Silvio Soldini (Bread and Tulips). But he is best know for his long-running collaboration with Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, having lensed Sorrentino's Il Divo, Youth and The Great Beauty, among others.
Bigazzi also ...
Acclaimed Italian cinematographer Luca Bigazzi will be honored with this year's Campari Passion Award, a prize handed out by the Venice International Film Festival to honor below-the-line film talents, such as cinematographers, editors, composers and set and costume designers.
A versatile and adaptable filmmaker, Bigazzi has worked with a wide range of directors, including Iranian helmer Abbas Kiarostami (Certified Copy) or Italy's Michele Placido (Romanzo Criminale) and Silvio Soldini (Bread and Tulips). But he is best know for his long-running collaboration with Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, having lensed Sorrentino's Il Divo, Youth and The Great Beauty, among others.
Bigazzi also ...
A versatile and adaptable filmmaker, Bigazzi has worked with a wide range of directors, including Iranian helmer Abbas Kiarostami (Certified Copy) or Italy's Michele Placido (Romanzo Criminale) and Silvio Soldini (Bread and Tulips). But he is best know for his long-running collaboration with Italian director Paolo Sorrentino, having lensed Sorrentino's Il Divo, Youth and The Great Beauty, among others.
Bigazzi also ...
The European Film Academy has revealed eight prize winners ahead of the 31st European Film Awards (December 15) in Seville, including Cold War, U – July 22 and Dogman. Scroll down for the list of winners.
An eight-member jury convened in Berlin to decide on the winners in the categories for cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, hair & make-up, composer, sound design and, for the first time, visual effects. The members of the jury were: Luca Bigazzi, cinematographer, Italy; Dasha Danilova, editor, Russia; Dadi Einarsson, visual effects supervisor, Iceland; Mattias Eklund, sound designer, Sweden; Marcelle Genovese, hair & make-up artist, Malta; Malina Ionescu, costume designer, Romania; Monica Rottmeyer, production designer, Switzerland; and Christopher Slaski, composer, UK.
The eight winners are:
European Cinematographer 2018 – Prix Carlo Di Palma:
Martin Otterbeck for U – July 22 (UTØYA 22. Juli)
European Editor 2018:
Jarosław Kamiński for Cold War (Zimna Wojna)
European Production Designer 2018:
Andrey Ponkratov for The Summer (Leto)
European...
An eight-member jury convened in Berlin to decide on the winners in the categories for cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, hair & make-up, composer, sound design and, for the first time, visual effects. The members of the jury were: Luca Bigazzi, cinematographer, Italy; Dasha Danilova, editor, Russia; Dadi Einarsson, visual effects supervisor, Iceland; Mattias Eklund, sound designer, Sweden; Marcelle Genovese, hair & make-up artist, Malta; Malina Ionescu, costume designer, Romania; Monica Rottmeyer, production designer, Switzerland; and Christopher Slaski, composer, UK.
The eight winners are:
European Cinematographer 2018 – Prix Carlo Di Palma:
Martin Otterbeck for U – July 22 (UTØYA 22. Juli)
European Editor 2018:
Jarosław Kamiński for Cold War (Zimna Wojna)
European Production Designer 2018:
Andrey Ponkratov for The Summer (Leto)
European...
- 11/15/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Kelley Dong and Daniel Kasman.MouthpieceDear Danny, It is a pleasure to be here; though I share your sadness. I miss Fernando very much! You write of the demands that this festival is expected to fulfill, and its striving to maintain a possible harmony between private industry players and members of the public. But I am most intrigued—and a bit perplexed—by how these pressures interact within the context of Tiff's steadily increasing public profile as a film festival aligned with tenets of social justice. A survey of this year's lineup solidifies what appears to be an overarching spider diagram of hot topics and urgent matters, scattered across nearly three-hundred titles: police brutality, homophobia, white supremacy, refugees and migrants, indigenous sovereignty, et cetera.Indeed, unlike its international counterparts, at Tiff, parity and diversity are established as institutional norms.
- 9/8/2018
- MUBI
Weaver, Giuseppe Tornatore and Pierre Bismuth to particpate in ‘Close Encounters’ event in October
Sigourney Weaver, director Giuseppe Tornatore and French artist, filmmaker and Oscar-winning co-writer of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Pierre Bismuth, will participate in the ‘Close Encounters’ talks series of the Rome Film Festival to be held October 18 -28.
They join Martin Scorsese who will be at the festival for two days to receive its lifetime achievement award, as announced earlier this month. Scorsese will also take part in a Close Encounters event, said artistic director Antonio Munda who hosted a press conference to unveil the...
Sigourney Weaver, director Giuseppe Tornatore and French artist, filmmaker and Oscar-winning co-writer of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind Pierre Bismuth, will participate in the ‘Close Encounters’ talks series of the Rome Film Festival to be held October 18 -28.
They join Martin Scorsese who will be at the festival for two days to receive its lifetime achievement award, as announced earlier this month. Scorsese will also take part in a Close Encounters event, said artistic director Antonio Munda who hosted a press conference to unveil the...
- 6/25/2018
- by Gabriele Niola
- ScreenDaily
Martin Scorsese will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award and take part in an interview about his career and Italian cinema at this year’s Rome Film Festival (October 18-28).
The iconic director will present the restored version of an as-yet undisclosed Italian classic film and serve as the subject of an in-conversation session with festival director Antonio Monda. His award will be presented to him by Italian director Paolo Taviani.
Also among the festival’s Close Encounters interview program will be Sigourney Weaver, Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore, artist and screenwriter Pierre Bismuth, acclaimed Italian DoP’s Luca Bigazzi and Arnaldo Catinari as well as feted editors Giogiò Franchini and Esmeralda Calabria.
Rome is also revealing snippets of its film lineup today, including Notti Magiche by Paolo Virzì, retrospectives of Peter Sellers and Maurice Pialat, the restoration of Italiani Brava Gente by Giuseppe De Santis and an exhibition on Marcello Mastroianni.
The iconic director will present the restored version of an as-yet undisclosed Italian classic film and serve as the subject of an in-conversation session with festival director Antonio Monda. His award will be presented to him by Italian director Paolo Taviani.
Also among the festival’s Close Encounters interview program will be Sigourney Weaver, Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore, artist and screenwriter Pierre Bismuth, acclaimed Italian DoP’s Luca Bigazzi and Arnaldo Catinari as well as feted editors Giogiò Franchini and Esmeralda Calabria.
Rome is also revealing snippets of its film lineup today, including Notti Magiche by Paolo Virzì, retrospectives of Peter Sellers and Maurice Pialat, the restoration of Italiani Brava Gente by Giuseppe De Santis and an exhibition on Marcello Mastroianni.
- 6/25/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The first teaser trailer is out for Academy Award-winning director Paolo Sorrentino's new film Loro (Them) about Italy's billionaire media mogul and four-time prime minister.
In typical Sorrentino fashion, the movie features loud music, richly saturated cinematography from Luca Bigazzi and his favorite co-conspirator, Toni Servillo, playing Silvio Berlusconi.
Berlusconi's infamous "Bunga Bunga" parties play throughout the trailer. Elena Sofia Ricci portrays Berlusconi's estranged wife Veronica Lario. Ricky Memphis and Riccardo Scamarcio also star in the film.
In the trailer, a voiceover asks the former politician, "What did you expect: that you could be the richest man in the country, be prime minister...
In typical Sorrentino fashion, the movie features loud music, richly saturated cinematography from Luca Bigazzi and his favorite co-conspirator, Toni Servillo, playing Silvio Berlusconi.
Berlusconi's infamous "Bunga Bunga" parties play throughout the trailer. Elena Sofia Ricci portrays Berlusconi's estranged wife Veronica Lario. Ricky Memphis and Riccardo Scamarcio also star in the film.
In the trailer, a voiceover asks the former politician, "What did you expect: that you could be the richest man in the country, be prime minister...
- 3/13/2018
- by Ariston Anderson
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Movie directors and their cinematographers continue to migrate to TV for greater visual storytelling. This season, the Wachowskis got bolder in the second installment of their Netflix sci-fi mind-bender, “Sense8,” with Oscar-winning Dp John Toll (“Legends of the Fall,” “Braveheart”), and Paolo Sorrentino and Jean-Marc Vallée improved HBO’s slate with “The Young Pope” and “Big Little Lies,” assisted by their go-to DPs, Luca Bigazzi and Yves Bélanger.
While all three cinematographers were honored with Emmy nominations, they had to make certain adjustments to the production demands of their shows. Yet they persevered through a combination of ever-increasing tech availability and insightful aesthetic choices.
Getting in Tune with “Sense8”
In “Sense8,” created by J. Michael Straczynski and Lana and Lilly Wachowski, eight seemingly disparate people from around the globe become linked through telepathy and astral projection. It’s all about empathy and evolution, and Toll’s eye-popping imagery relies on...
While all three cinematographers were honored with Emmy nominations, they had to make certain adjustments to the production demands of their shows. Yet they persevered through a combination of ever-increasing tech availability and insightful aesthetic choices.
Getting in Tune with “Sense8”
In “Sense8,” created by J. Michael Straczynski and Lana and Lilly Wachowski, eight seemingly disparate people from around the globe become linked through telepathy and astral projection. It’s all about empathy and evolution, and Toll’s eye-popping imagery relies on...
- 7/28/2017
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
“The Young Pope” explores faith and doubt, with Jude Law as a rogue American Pope driven to shake up the system. To that end, director Paolo Sorrentino and his long-time cinematographer Luca Bigazzi overturned visual convention for their first TV series together.
“From my very first meeting with Paolo we said that the film should have strong contrasts, contrasts almost antithetical to the TV style,” said Bigazzi. “Extremely strong lights, almost blinding, and extreme darkness, bordering on the limits of visibility. Our approach didn’t only want to be a sterile challenge against the age-old and now outdated conventions of television (which in Italy are still the rule), but mainly wanted to be a visual way of interpreting a story that talks about holiness, perdition, transparency, mystery, unspeakable secrets and revealed truths.”
Opening up the Vatican
“The Young Pope” is set mainly in the inaccessible Vatican in Rome. Therefore, visual...
“From my very first meeting with Paolo we said that the film should have strong contrasts, contrasts almost antithetical to the TV style,” said Bigazzi. “Extremely strong lights, almost blinding, and extreme darkness, bordering on the limits of visibility. Our approach didn’t only want to be a sterile challenge against the age-old and now outdated conventions of television (which in Italy are still the rule), but mainly wanted to be a visual way of interpreting a story that talks about holiness, perdition, transparency, mystery, unspeakable secrets and revealed truths.”
Opening up the Vatican
“The Young Pope” is set mainly in the inaccessible Vatican in Rome. Therefore, visual...
- 6/26/2017
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
Working alongside writer/director Paolo Sorrentino—one of Italy’s most revered cinematic talents, nominated six times for the Palme d’Or—for nearly 15 years, The Young Pope cinematographer Luca Bigazzi feels that their collaboration has taught him a lot, spurring the evolution of his craft by virtue of Sorrentino’s unrelenting ambition. Having never worked on a television series, Bigazzi initially had reservations about the project Sorrentino was pitching, though the…...
- 6/19/2017
- Deadline TV
Strand will focus on the history of Cannes for the festival’s 70th anniversary.
Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28) has unveiled the line-up for this year’s Classic programme, with 24 screenings set to take place alongside five documentaries and one short film.
Documentaries about cinema including Filmworker - which focuses of Stanley Kubrick’s right hand man Leon Vitali, who played a crucial role behind the scenes of the director’s films - as well as Cary Grant doc Becoming Cary Grant, are set to feature.
This year’s selection is also set to focus on the history of the festival itself, with prize-winning films such as Michelangelo Antonioni Grand 1966 Prix winning film Blow-Up and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) from 1952 screening.
Nagisa Oshima’s 1976 film Ai No Korîda (In The Realm Of The Senses/L’Empire Des Sens), Luis Buñuel’s 1967 classic Belle De Jour (Beauty Of The Day...
Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28) has unveiled the line-up for this year’s Classic programme, with 24 screenings set to take place alongside five documentaries and one short film.
Documentaries about cinema including Filmworker - which focuses of Stanley Kubrick’s right hand man Leon Vitali, who played a crucial role behind the scenes of the director’s films - as well as Cary Grant doc Becoming Cary Grant, are set to feature.
This year’s selection is also set to focus on the history of the festival itself, with prize-winning films such as Michelangelo Antonioni Grand 1966 Prix winning film Blow-Up and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) from 1952 screening.
Nagisa Oshima’s 1976 film Ai No Korîda (In The Realm Of The Senses/L’Empire Des Sens), Luis Buñuel’s 1967 classic Belle De Jour (Beauty Of The Day...
- 5/3/2017
- ScreenDaily
While Cannes Film Festival premieres some of the best new films of the year, they also have a rich history of highlighting cinema history with their Cannes Classics line-up, many of which are new restorations of films that previously premiered at the festival. This year they are taking that idea further, featuring 16 films that made history at the festival, along with a handful of others, and five new documentaries. So, if you can’t make it to Cannes, to get a sense of restorations that may come to your city (or on Blu-ray) in the coming months/years, check out the line-up below.
From 1946 to 1992, from René Clément to Victor Erice, sixteen history-making films of the Festival de Cannes
1946: La Bataille du Rail (Battle of the Rails) by René Clément (1h25, France): Grand Prix International de la mise en scène and Prix du Jury International.
Presented by Ina.
From 1946 to 1992, from René Clément to Victor Erice, sixteen history-making films of the Festival de Cannes
1946: La Bataille du Rail (Battle of the Rails) by René Clément (1h25, France): Grand Prix International de la mise en scène and Prix du Jury International.
Presented by Ina.
- 5/3/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Five episodes were provided to us prior to broadcast.
Whether religious or otherwise, HBO’s latest miniseries The Young Pope will provoke a reaction out of you. Silly, sensational, stylistic and quite often sublimely sacrilegious, writer/director Paolo Sorrentino’s daring, astounding, contemporary, deeply erratic-but-defiantly bold television program is the type of devilish, tongue-in-cheek dramedy that’ll either become your latest unholy addiction or the fiendish destain of your local church gatherings. Maybe it’ll be both? It certainly won’t be neither. It’ll for sure be controversial though, and it’ll most definitely be discussed, both with praise and scorn. But God help you if you don’t have fun watching its ferocious temptations come ablaze.
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. The Young Pope might be one of the most scandalously marvelous original television programs of the new year and I gave into the seduction. It’s splashy,...
Whether religious or otherwise, HBO’s latest miniseries The Young Pope will provoke a reaction out of you. Silly, sensational, stylistic and quite often sublimely sacrilegious, writer/director Paolo Sorrentino’s daring, astounding, contemporary, deeply erratic-but-defiantly bold television program is the type of devilish, tongue-in-cheek dramedy that’ll either become your latest unholy addiction or the fiendish destain of your local church gatherings. Maybe it’ll be both? It certainly won’t be neither. It’ll for sure be controversial though, and it’ll most definitely be discussed, both with praise and scorn. But God help you if you don’t have fun watching its ferocious temptations come ablaze.
Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. The Young Pope might be one of the most scandalously marvelous original television programs of the new year and I gave into the seduction. It’s splashy,...
- 1/12/2017
- by Will Ashton
- We Got This Covered
Italian director Paolo Virzi set to make English-language debut with Us-set vintage camper van road movie.
Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland are set to co-star in Italian director Paolo Virzi’s English language debut The Leisure Seeker as a couple who set off on a cross-country journey in a vintage camper van.
It will be Virzi’s next film after Like Crazy – starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramazzotti as two women who hit the road after escaping a secure psychiatric clinic – which premieres in Director’s Fortnight at Cannes this year.
Fabrizio Donvito, Benedetto Habib, Marco Cohen are producing for Indiana Production, the Rome, Milan and Los Angeles-based production house which also produced Virzi’s Golden Globe nominated The First Beautiful Thing and Human Capital.
Alessandro Mascheroni, Daniel Campos Pavoncelli, and Dov Mamann are executive producers. The film is being produced with Rai Cinema.
David Grumbach and Mathieu Robinet at Paris-based Bac Films are co-producing in a second...
Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland are set to co-star in Italian director Paolo Virzi’s English language debut The Leisure Seeker as a couple who set off on a cross-country journey in a vintage camper van.
It will be Virzi’s next film after Like Crazy – starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramazzotti as two women who hit the road after escaping a secure psychiatric clinic – which premieres in Director’s Fortnight at Cannes this year.
Fabrizio Donvito, Benedetto Habib, Marco Cohen are producing for Indiana Production, the Rome, Milan and Los Angeles-based production house which also produced Virzi’s Golden Globe nominated The First Beautiful Thing and Human Capital.
Alessandro Mascheroni, Daniel Campos Pavoncelli, and Dov Mamann are executive producers. The film is being produced with Rai Cinema.
David Grumbach and Mathieu Robinet at Paris-based Bac Films are co-producing in a second...
- 5/12/2016
- ScreenDaily
Italian director Paolo Virzi set to make English-language debut with Us-set vintage camper van road movie.
Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland are set to co-star in Italian director Paolo Virzi’s English language debut The Leisure Seeker as a couple who set off on a cross-country journey in a vintage camper van.
It will be Virzi’s next film after Like Crazy – starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramazzotti as two women who hit the road after escaping a secure psychiatric clinic – which premieres in Director’s Fortnight at Cannes this year.
Fabrizio Donvito, Benedetto Habib, Marco Cohen are producing for Indiana Production, the Rome, Milan and Los Angeles-based production house which also produced Virzi’s Golden Globe nominated The First Beautiful Thing and Human Capital.
Alessandro Mascheroni, Daniel Campos Pavoncelli, and Dov Mamann are executive producers. The film is being produced with Rai Cinema.
David Grumbach and Mathieu Robinet at Paris-based Bac Films are co-producing in a second...
Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland are set to co-star in Italian director Paolo Virzi’s English language debut The Leisure Seeker as a couple who set off on a cross-country journey in a vintage camper van.
It will be Virzi’s next film after Like Crazy – starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramazzotti as two women who hit the road after escaping a secure psychiatric clinic – which premieres in Director’s Fortnight at Cannes this year.
Fabrizio Donvito, Benedetto Habib, Marco Cohen are producing for Indiana Production, the Rome, Milan and Los Angeles-based production house which also produced Virzi’s Golden Globe nominated The First Beautiful Thing and Human Capital.
Alessandro Mascheroni, Daniel Campos Pavoncelli, and Dov Mamann are executive producers. The film is being produced with Rai Cinema.
David Grumbach and Mathieu Robinet at Paris-based Bac Films are co-producing in a second...
- 5/12/2016
- ScreenDaily
Right after the Critics' Choice Awards nominations were announced, two more critic groups revealed their picks and Tom McCarthy's "Spotlight" emerged as the top winner of both the San Francisco Film Critics Circle and the Southeast Film Critics Association. "Spotlight" is the film to beat this awards season.
Here's the complete list of winners of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle:
Best Picture: Spotlight
Best Director: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Actor: Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
Best Actress: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Shannon, 99 Homes
Best Supporting Actress: Mya Taylor, Tangerine
Best Screenplay, Original: Love & Mercy, Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner
Best Screenplay, Adapted: Brooklyn, Nick Hornby
Best Cinematography: Mad Max: Fury Road, John Seale
Best Production Design: Carol, Judy Becker and Heather Loeffler
Best Film Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road, Margaret Sixel
Best Animated Feature: Anomalisa
Best Foreign Language Picture: Son of...
Here's the complete list of winners of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle:
Best Picture: Spotlight
Best Director: George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Actor: Paul Dano, Love & Mercy
Best Actress: Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Shannon, 99 Homes
Best Supporting Actress: Mya Taylor, Tangerine
Best Screenplay, Original: Love & Mercy, Oren Moverman and Michael Alan Lerner
Best Screenplay, Adapted: Brooklyn, Nick Hornby
Best Cinematography: Mad Max: Fury Road, John Seale
Best Production Design: Carol, Judy Becker and Heather Loeffler
Best Film Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road, Margaret Sixel
Best Animated Feature: Anomalisa
Best Foreign Language Picture: Son of...
- 12/14/2015
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
The collaborations of director Paolo Sorrentino and cinematographer Luca Bigazzi have produced some of the most visually resplendent films of recent times including the 2013 Oscar winner for Best Foreign-Language Film, "The Great Beauty." In our recent podcast chat (listen below), the Dp spoke extensively about their latest outing, “Youth,” which finds two old friends (Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel) reflecting on their pasts and contemplating their futures while on vacation. -Break- Subscribe to Gold Derby Breaking News Alerts & Experts’ Latest Oscar Predictions “The pictorial beauty is the beauty of the Swiss Alps,” Bigazzi says humbly, giving much of the credit to the gorgeous landscapes against which the film was shot. Yet it wasn’t always the intention of the filmmakers to embrace those landscapes. “This is exactly the kind of thing you’d like to avoid,”...
- 12/6/2015
- Gold Derby
Paolo Sorrentino makes movies the way musicians create music—lingering themes swirl together with short spurts of philosophical flirtation and bawdy jokes, placid imagery routinely collides with florid representation and the occasional heavily laden visual metaphor. But they also have an ephemeral quality which suggests a certain resistance to the rigidity of interpretation, that the experience of the way the images and sounds come together (or don’t) is the primary attraction. And it’s all seemingly colored by an underlying suspicion that whether it’s the devil or the divine in the details, to resist luxuriating in them would be to risk missing the overarching emotional pull Sorrentino’s movies are capable of, which for all their intellectual dabbling is what ends up being their most potent and meaningful quality.
A movie like The Great Beauty seems itself to sing, its techno-blasted party-at-the-edge-of-eternity vibe in contrapuntal balance with the...
A movie like The Great Beauty seems itself to sing, its techno-blasted party-at-the-edge-of-eternity vibe in contrapuntal balance with the...
- 12/4/2015
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Oh, Youth and Beauty!: Sorrentino’s Shows Softer Side in Switzerland
Following the success of the snide yet undeniably eloquent 2013 title The Great Beauty, which ended up snatching the Best Foreign Language statue at the Academy Awards, Paolo Sorrentino takes a second dip in English following 2011’s This Must Be the Place with Youth. Tender, sweet, and more emotional than his last film, Sorrentino is once again pontificating on the last chapter of life, this time through the vessels of a retired composer and aged film director, as portrayed by Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel. Threaded with the auteur’s usual flashes of visual inspiration, this time around he seems less bombastic and potentially meditative with characters contemplating a last hurrah as they remember highs and lows.
At an isolated hotel in the foothills of the Alps, two old friends return to spend another vacation period. Retired composer Fred...
Following the success of the snide yet undeniably eloquent 2013 title The Great Beauty, which ended up snatching the Best Foreign Language statue at the Academy Awards, Paolo Sorrentino takes a second dip in English following 2011’s This Must Be the Place with Youth. Tender, sweet, and more emotional than his last film, Sorrentino is once again pontificating on the last chapter of life, this time through the vessels of a retired composer and aged film director, as portrayed by Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel. Threaded with the auteur’s usual flashes of visual inspiration, this time around he seems less bombastic and potentially meditative with characters contemplating a last hurrah as they remember highs and lows.
At an isolated hotel in the foothills of the Alps, two old friends return to spend another vacation period. Retired composer Fred...
- 12/2/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
I’ve been teasing it out for a few weeks, but I absolutely adored Youth. Paolo Sorrentino’s film is a beautiful feast for the eyes, incredibly well acted by the quartet of Michael Caine, Paul Dano, Jane Fonda, and Harvey Keitel, not to mention incredibly poignant. Reviews out of the Cannes Film Festival had been mostly positive, but I was very nearly blown away by how great this was. Not only is it among the top dozen things I’ve seen this year, I think it has a good chance to be an under the radar Oscar contender in the acting categories, among other places. I’d watch out for Youth, which opens in limited release on Friday… The movie is a drama with comedic tinges. We follow retired orchestra composer Fred Ballinger (Caine) as he spends an annual holiday at a resort in the Alps. He’s joined,...
- 11/30/2015
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Photo by Gianni Fiorito. © 2015 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved
From Paolo Sorrentino, the director of Italy’s Oscar foreign language winner The Great Beauty comes Youth, about two longtime friends vacationing in the Swiss Alps.
Oscar winning actor Michael Caine plays Fred, an acclaimed composer and conductor, who brings along his daughter (Rachel Weisz) and best friend Mick (Harvey Keitel), a renowned filmmaker.
While Mick scrambles to finish the screenplay for what he imagines will be his last important film, Fred has no intention of resuming his musical career. The two men reflect on their past, each finding that some of the most important experiences can come later in life.
Fox Searchlight has released an emotional new clip from the upcoming movie.
The film features an original score by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, who first met Sorrentino when his composition “I Lie” was used in The Great Beauty.
From Paolo Sorrentino, the director of Italy’s Oscar foreign language winner The Great Beauty comes Youth, about two longtime friends vacationing in the Swiss Alps.
Oscar winning actor Michael Caine plays Fred, an acclaimed composer and conductor, who brings along his daughter (Rachel Weisz) and best friend Mick (Harvey Keitel), a renowned filmmaker.
While Mick scrambles to finish the screenplay for what he imagines will be his last important film, Fred has no intention of resuming his musical career. The two men reflect on their past, each finding that some of the most important experiences can come later in life.
Fox Searchlight has released an emotional new clip from the upcoming movie.
The film features an original score by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, who first met Sorrentino when his composition “I Lie” was used in The Great Beauty.
- 11/18/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Youth
It’s hard to articulate just what makes Youth so special. Fresh off his Academy Award win for The Great Beauty, Sorrentino turns his attention towards two men, one a retired composer, and the other, a film director whose career has been in the decline for some time. Sorrentino is not exactly old by any stretch of the imagination, but he seems drawn on reflective works. Youth, his second English-language film, continues this trend with strong performances from Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel. If there is another commonality between Sorrentino’s latest works it would be the beauty that is captured within every frame. Luca Bigazzi once again handles cinematography for Sorrentino and records every unique encounter and beautiful set piece. With stunning camera work and unique characterization, Youth is easily a much watch endeavor.
Anomalisa
From the strange mind of Charlie Kaufman comes his latest film on loneliness and dreams.
It’s hard to articulate just what makes Youth so special. Fresh off his Academy Award win for The Great Beauty, Sorrentino turns his attention towards two men, one a retired composer, and the other, a film director whose career has been in the decline for some time. Sorrentino is not exactly old by any stretch of the imagination, but he seems drawn on reflective works. Youth, his second English-language film, continues this trend with strong performances from Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel. If there is another commonality between Sorrentino’s latest works it would be the beauty that is captured within every frame. Luca Bigazzi once again handles cinematography for Sorrentino and records every unique encounter and beautiful set piece. With stunning camera work and unique characterization, Youth is easily a much watch endeavor.
Anomalisa
From the strange mind of Charlie Kaufman comes his latest film on loneliness and dreams.
- 9/23/2015
- by Max Covill
- SoundOnSight
Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino is poised to return to theatres with a new film.
Titled Youth, the film is Sorrentino’s first since 2013. As with his other films, Sorrentino takes on both directing and screenplay writing duties, working with a cast this time around that includes Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Jane Fonda, and Paul Dano.
The film’s synopsis is as follows:
Fred and Mick, two old friends, are on vacation in an elegant hotel at the foot of the Alps. Fred, a composer and conductor, is now retired. Mick, a film director, is still working. They look with curiosity and tenderness on their children’s confused lives, Mick’s enthusiastic young writers, and the other hotel guests. While Mick scrambles to finish the screenplay for what he imagines will be his last important film, Fred has no intention of resuming his musical career. But someone wants at...
Titled Youth, the film is Sorrentino’s first since 2013. As with his other films, Sorrentino takes on both directing and screenplay writing duties, working with a cast this time around that includes Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Jane Fonda, and Paul Dano.
The film’s synopsis is as follows:
Fred and Mick, two old friends, are on vacation in an elegant hotel at the foot of the Alps. Fred, a composer and conductor, is now retired. Mick, a film director, is still working. They look with curiosity and tenderness on their children’s confused lives, Mick’s enthusiastic young writers, and the other hotel guests. While Mick scrambles to finish the screenplay for what he imagines will be his last important film, Fred has no intention of resuming his musical career. But someone wants at...
- 8/27/2015
- by Deepayan Sengupta
- SoundOnSight
Personally I think Paolo Sorrentino is too young to be ruminating on age. But to listen to Harvey Keitel and Michael Caine as they face the hurdles of growing old is a treat. And in the end, this is a film about youth, not old age.
In the 1980s producers Hisami Kuroiwa and Peter Newman created the two hit films “Smoke” and “Blue in the Face” in which Harvey Keitel played a younger version of himself while living in Brooklyn in a working class neighborhood. Now in “ Youth”, he is a director of some note, planning his next production to star the great “Brenda” (Jane Fonda) while holing up with his crew in an A level sanitorium (spa) somewhere in the Swiss Alps. La Fonda is superb as a brassy, vulgar star who in her sneering way causes Harvey to lose hope in the future. Future is an attribute of Youth.
While memory shows the past forgotten and far away, it is the future that looks so close and that keeps us young. Harvey Keitel demonstrates this to his crew by having them look though the different ends of a telescope. The demonstration of the different views captures the essence of this film as it looks out upon the beautiful clean mountain nature of the Swiss Alps.
Michael Caine, a retired composer and conductor, and his daughter played by Rachel Weisz, are superb as only a father and daughter of their high caliber could be. While Caine refuses to appear before the Queen to conduct his simple tunes created and sung only by his deceased wife, he is able to conduct nature and its noises divinely and is able to reconstruct a future for himself and his daughter.
This Pathe-sold, Pathe coproduction between Italy, France , Great Britain and Switzerland, looks like the sequel to “A Great Beauty” and like most sequels, it falls short of its model. Part Fellini and party Thomas Mann (Magic Mountain) the visuals and the music almost exceed the film itself. However, the cast holds the entity together and like life on Magic Mountain, the audience must allow itself to sink into the posh comfort while dealing with the distinct discomforts of life’s aging processes.
In the press conference, a large dias with Paulo Sorrentino, Paul Dano
Harvey Keitel, Michael Caine, Rachel Weisz and Jane Fonda, in a smallish press room spoke of what made them work on this film; what past roles they, like the actor in the film, could not shake off; their thoughts on aging, how it is to work in Hollywood with Hollywood mores.
Watch the press conference here:
http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/mediaPlayer/15329.html
Jane said, “This film is not a satire on Hollywood, it is very true to life. The relationship between the actress Brenda, and her producer-director is very true to life, ‘a la Sorrentino’, that is, somewhat surreal.”
Michael Caine’s response to the question of working in Hollywood and the relationships among actors, directors and producers was that “Making movies is the same everywhere, only [in Hollywood] you get more money for it.”
It has been 49 years since Michael Caine was in Cannes. “Alfie” 50 years ago won in Cannes, but he did not, and so he never came back. This time however he loves the film so much that he would go with it anywhere for free. “If any of us gests an award we all [the cast] should get awards.”
Someone asked Sorrentino about his choice of the Norwegian group. He looked a bit confused and said he did not choose them. His music supervisor and composer, David Lang did it all.
His Dp, Luca Bigazzi, and he have been friends for a very long time and Sorrentino’s own vision and the Dp’s are very close to the same. It is the visuals which are always most outstanding in his films and within such a framework, the characters he studies are rigorously tested by the high level of circumstances in which they must perform. This is literal for the actors as well as for the characters who find themselves in the top, almost god-like position.
When asked, “Have any roles stuck to them longer perhaps than they would like?”
· La Fonda immediately spoke up naming “Barbarella” which has stuck to her and said she, she is conflicted by it.
Harvey answered “no”. · Rachel said “The Mummy”. “I don’t regret it at all, but young people are always saying, ‘Oh you’re from ‘The Mummy’. I like it.”
· Michael Caine said “Alfie” and commented on Alfie being a womanizer whereas he has been married to the same woman for 46 years.
Why is Sorrentino so interested in the passage of time?
“This is the only thing that interests people”, he said, “me at least. The theme fascinates me. I am passionately interested in the future which gives us freedom. The future gives us the feeling of youth. Optimistically, it dispels our fears.”
The question arose about how Sorrentino got such a wonderful ensemble:
Harvey: “Everyone of us has personal reasons for working in this film. We all have feelings about time.”
Paul Dano: “For me, it comes from the writing. I pore over it and figure out how we’ll do what we do. Paulo’s writing is wonderful.”
Rachel agrees with both but for her it’s all about the director, unifed in turn by a piece of music. How a director directs gives a point of view. If another director directed this movie, it would be an entirely different movie.
Michael Caine, who already cited the fact that both he and Harvey Keitel were soldiers though at different times, but that they share a soldierly bond in their long-time friendship, again cited being a soldier, going into an extremely dangerous situation in which you try to keep everyone alive. This was his experience with “Youth”.
Paolo added that “Music and cinema are two forms of art, two forms of beauty that will never disappear and is constantly changing”
On aging:
Jane spoke of her obvious make up in her scene, showing her vulnerability to aging.
Michael Caine spoke of showing his aging body.
Jane answered, “Yes one is vulnerable playing an old woman putting up the mask of makeup. When she removes it (and the wig) she becomes very vulnerable and that is fun to play.”
How does Jane Fonda define youth?
“Age is very much a question of attitude. If you have passion in your life, you are young. You remain young and vital in mind when you have passion in your life. I do and the film does.”...
In the 1980s producers Hisami Kuroiwa and Peter Newman created the two hit films “Smoke” and “Blue in the Face” in which Harvey Keitel played a younger version of himself while living in Brooklyn in a working class neighborhood. Now in “ Youth”, he is a director of some note, planning his next production to star the great “Brenda” (Jane Fonda) while holing up with his crew in an A level sanitorium (spa) somewhere in the Swiss Alps. La Fonda is superb as a brassy, vulgar star who in her sneering way causes Harvey to lose hope in the future. Future is an attribute of Youth.
While memory shows the past forgotten and far away, it is the future that looks so close and that keeps us young. Harvey Keitel demonstrates this to his crew by having them look though the different ends of a telescope. The demonstration of the different views captures the essence of this film as it looks out upon the beautiful clean mountain nature of the Swiss Alps.
Michael Caine, a retired composer and conductor, and his daughter played by Rachel Weisz, are superb as only a father and daughter of their high caliber could be. While Caine refuses to appear before the Queen to conduct his simple tunes created and sung only by his deceased wife, he is able to conduct nature and its noises divinely and is able to reconstruct a future for himself and his daughter.
This Pathe-sold, Pathe coproduction between Italy, France , Great Britain and Switzerland, looks like the sequel to “A Great Beauty” and like most sequels, it falls short of its model. Part Fellini and party Thomas Mann (Magic Mountain) the visuals and the music almost exceed the film itself. However, the cast holds the entity together and like life on Magic Mountain, the audience must allow itself to sink into the posh comfort while dealing with the distinct discomforts of life’s aging processes.
In the press conference, a large dias with Paulo Sorrentino, Paul Dano
Harvey Keitel, Michael Caine, Rachel Weisz and Jane Fonda, in a smallish press room spoke of what made them work on this film; what past roles they, like the actor in the film, could not shake off; their thoughts on aging, how it is to work in Hollywood with Hollywood mores.
Watch the press conference here:
http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/mediaPlayer/15329.html
Jane said, “This film is not a satire on Hollywood, it is very true to life. The relationship between the actress Brenda, and her producer-director is very true to life, ‘a la Sorrentino’, that is, somewhat surreal.”
Michael Caine’s response to the question of working in Hollywood and the relationships among actors, directors and producers was that “Making movies is the same everywhere, only [in Hollywood] you get more money for it.”
It has been 49 years since Michael Caine was in Cannes. “Alfie” 50 years ago won in Cannes, but he did not, and so he never came back. This time however he loves the film so much that he would go with it anywhere for free. “If any of us gests an award we all [the cast] should get awards.”
Someone asked Sorrentino about his choice of the Norwegian group. He looked a bit confused and said he did not choose them. His music supervisor and composer, David Lang did it all.
His Dp, Luca Bigazzi, and he have been friends for a very long time and Sorrentino’s own vision and the Dp’s are very close to the same. It is the visuals which are always most outstanding in his films and within such a framework, the characters he studies are rigorously tested by the high level of circumstances in which they must perform. This is literal for the actors as well as for the characters who find themselves in the top, almost god-like position.
When asked, “Have any roles stuck to them longer perhaps than they would like?”
· La Fonda immediately spoke up naming “Barbarella” which has stuck to her and said she, she is conflicted by it.
Harvey answered “no”. · Rachel said “The Mummy”. “I don’t regret it at all, but young people are always saying, ‘Oh you’re from ‘The Mummy’. I like it.”
· Michael Caine said “Alfie” and commented on Alfie being a womanizer whereas he has been married to the same woman for 46 years.
Why is Sorrentino so interested in the passage of time?
“This is the only thing that interests people”, he said, “me at least. The theme fascinates me. I am passionately interested in the future which gives us freedom. The future gives us the feeling of youth. Optimistically, it dispels our fears.”
The question arose about how Sorrentino got such a wonderful ensemble:
Harvey: “Everyone of us has personal reasons for working in this film. We all have feelings about time.”
Paul Dano: “For me, it comes from the writing. I pore over it and figure out how we’ll do what we do. Paulo’s writing is wonderful.”
Rachel agrees with both but for her it’s all about the director, unifed in turn by a piece of music. How a director directs gives a point of view. If another director directed this movie, it would be an entirely different movie.
Michael Caine, who already cited the fact that both he and Harvey Keitel were soldiers though at different times, but that they share a soldierly bond in their long-time friendship, again cited being a soldier, going into an extremely dangerous situation in which you try to keep everyone alive. This was his experience with “Youth”.
Paolo added that “Music and cinema are two forms of art, two forms of beauty that will never disappear and is constantly changing”
On aging:
Jane spoke of her obvious make up in her scene, showing her vulnerability to aging.
Michael Caine spoke of showing his aging body.
Jane answered, “Yes one is vulnerable playing an old woman putting up the mask of makeup. When she removes it (and the wig) she becomes very vulnerable and that is fun to play.”
How does Jane Fonda define youth?
“Age is very much a question of attitude. If you have passion in your life, you are young. You remain young and vital in mind when you have passion in your life. I do and the film does.”...
- 6/16/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Cannes — Awards season is no stranger to Cannes. From "Amour" to "The Tree of Life" to "No Country For Old Men" to "The Pianist" to "The Piano," every year there seems to be a player or two that pokes its head out from the crowded Croisette and into Oscar's waiting arms. This year's potential players may not include a true Best Picture contender, but they are evidence enough that the festival's presence will be felt throughout the upcoming campaign. Before you start second guessing which films have a shot and which don't, remember the actions of this year's Hollywood-influenced competition jury. The Coen brothers, Jake Gyllenhaal, Sienna Miller and the Guillermo Del Toro, among others, awarded some interesting prizes that will absolutely affect the race. The critical kudos are important, too (as are those of us who cover the beat on a regular basis and took in this year's slate...
- 5/25/2015
- by Gregory Ellwood
- Hitfix
Cannes — Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino has already dipped his toe into the familiar genre of characters of a certain age reminiscing about the good old days with 2013's "The Great Beauty." He even won an Oscar for it. Two years later he returns to the Cannes Film Festival with "Youth," a follow-up that stands besides "Great Beauty" thematically while also presenting a decidedly different point of view. “Youth” starts off with The Retrosettes Sister Band performing a cover of “You Got the Love," interpreted in a retro style and a twist on the old adage “everything old is new again.” In this case, everything new is old again, a theme that may or may not apply to the central characters in Sorrentino’s cinematic opera. The movie centers on Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine), a legendary British composer and conductor, and Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel), a famous American film director. Friends for 60 years,...
- 5/22/2015
- by Gregory Ellwood
- Hitfix
"The Great Beauty," Paolo Sorrentino's splashy valentine to Roman high society, was the most lauded foreign-language film of the last awards season -- it ruled the European Film Awards, and scooped Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Oscars. (At all but the last of these, it beat out its Cannes conqueror, "Blue is the Warmest Color.") So you'd think it'd be a shoo-in at Italy's own Academy Awards, right? Wrong. At yesterday's David di Donatello Awards, handed out annually by the Academy of Italian Cinema, Sorrentino's film was the night's biggest winner in terms of numbers -- taking nine awards, including Best Director and Best Actor for Toni Servillo. But its other wins were limited to below-the-line categories -- trust the Italians to have separate awards for Best Makeup and Best Hairstyling -- as Paolo Virzi's "Human Capital" took Best Picture. Virzi's film, a blend...
- 6/11/2014
- by Guy Lodge
- Hitfix
Exclusive: Wild Bunch and StudioCanal take rights to the Italian director’s follow up to Oscar-winner The Great Beauty.
Wild Bunch and StudioCanal have both boarded rights to Paolo Sorrentino’s next feature Youth, which is proving a hot commodity at the Marche.
Wild Bunch has taken rights in Germany and Spain from Pathe International while StudioCanal has struck a deal for UK with the film’s producers.
Rachel Weisz, Harvey Keitel and Paul Dano recently joined Michael Caine on Sorrentino’s follow-up to his Oscar-winner The Great Beauty.
Written by Sorrentino, the drama is produced by Sorrentino’s longtime producers Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima and Carlotta Calori, partners at Rome’s Indigo Film. Sorrentino’s regular DoP Luca Bigazzi is also on board.
Co-producers are Pathe, who also have French rights, Bis Films, Switzerland’s C-Films and London-based Number 9 Films.
Italian distributor Medusa/Mediaset co-finances.
The film follows two elderly men - one a long retired...
Wild Bunch and StudioCanal have both boarded rights to Paolo Sorrentino’s next feature Youth, which is proving a hot commodity at the Marche.
Wild Bunch has taken rights in Germany and Spain from Pathe International while StudioCanal has struck a deal for UK with the film’s producers.
Rachel Weisz, Harvey Keitel and Paul Dano recently joined Michael Caine on Sorrentino’s follow-up to his Oscar-winner The Great Beauty.
Written by Sorrentino, the drama is produced by Sorrentino’s longtime producers Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima and Carlotta Calori, partners at Rome’s Indigo Film. Sorrentino’s regular DoP Luca Bigazzi is also on board.
Co-producers are Pathe, who also have French rights, Bis Films, Switzerland’s C-Films and London-based Number 9 Films.
Italian distributor Medusa/Mediaset co-finances.
The film follows two elderly men - one a long retired...
- 5/19/2014
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
Tim here. The recent release of Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty on a DVD/Blu-Ray combo from the Criterion Collection means that most of us in North American finally have our first decent chance to see the most recent winner of the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. And by “decent chance”, I mean two things: one is that if you live outside of any of the usual big urban centers that get little foreign releases, The Great Beauty hasn’t been remotely near your home before now. The other is that even if you live in one of those places, The Great Beauty isn’t likely to have played in any of the best & shiniest multiplexes, but in the dogged little art theaters that don’t have the money to do much besides show movies in a more or less tolerable environment. Where I live in Chicago, for example,...
- 4/4/2014
- by Tim Brayton
- FilmExperience
In Paolo Sorrentino’s lavishly received Italian crime potboiler Il Divo, the stage is set with a world building montage that places us in a blood-bathed Rome ruled by politically backed hit men, and finally settles in, dollies up, and asks it’s leading man, Toni Servillo giving his best dead-eyed Giulio Andreotti impression, to stare straight into the camera and speak directly on how others seem to perceive him. Bizarrely, The Great Beauty begins almost the exact same way, but this version of Rome is not one of physical violence and political intimidation, but one solely focused on aristocratic appearances and the reciprocation of surface relationships.
Servillo, this time living in the skin of a facetiously jaded, secretly sulking part-time journalist and eternal socialite named Jep Gambardella, is found standing in the midst of his own lavish 65th birthday party, once again staring into the camera, memories of what...
Servillo, this time living in the skin of a facetiously jaded, secretly sulking part-time journalist and eternal socialite named Jep Gambardella, is found standing in the midst of his own lavish 65th birthday party, once again staring into the camera, memories of what...
- 3/25/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
We love to go on and on when the Academy gets it wrong, especially in the notoriously flawed Documentary and Foreign Language categories. And so we should give them a pat on the back when they get it right. Yes, “Blue is the Warmest Color” deserved more attention but my vote still would have gone to Paolo Sorrentino’s masterful “The Great Beauty,” released today on Blu-ray and DVD from The Criterion Collection. It’s one of the best films of the last several years; a mesmerizing ode to the diversionary quality of excess. Don’t miss it.
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Sorrentino opens his film with three long, complementary sequences: A man drops dead while on a tour group visit through a site of former Roman excess; dozens of beautiful, rich people dance the night away at a rooftop party; the city wakes up as a convent comes to life and locals walk their dogs.
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Sorrentino opens his film with three long, complementary sequences: A man drops dead while on a tour group visit through a site of former Roman excess; dozens of beautiful, rich people dance the night away at a rooftop party; the city wakes up as a convent comes to life and locals walk their dogs.
- 3/25/2014
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza), Italy’s Submission for the Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film
Inspirational and awe-inspiring are the words that come to mind first when I think about the great movie just out of Italy, The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) from acclaimed director Paolo Sorrentino ( Il Divo, The Consequences of Love, This Must be the Place) with a screenplay by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello.
I could watch this film over and over again and still be inspired by the beauty of Rome and the depth of its flaneur, the hero of this film, journalist Jep Gambardella as played by the incomparable Toni Servillo (Gomorrah, Il Divo). In fact, after interviewing Paolo Sorrentino recently at the Chateau Marmont, I feel compelled to watch it again in order to understand the ending’s reference to what might have been the subject of the original and only book Jeb ever wrote which was perhaps (according to Paolo) “about the love he had for the girl -- and you can see that at the end of the movie”.
During my interview, I tried not to discuss how the film carries echoes of the classic works of Federico Fellini as Sorrentino had already gone on record stating that, “Roma and La Dolce Vita are works that you cannot pretend to ignore when you take on a film like the one I wanted to make. They are two masterpieces and the golden rule is that masterpieces should be watched but not imitated. I tried to stick to that. But it’s also true that masterpieces transform the way we feel and perceive things.”
A dazzling tour through modern day Rome through the eyes of Jep Gambardella gives us feelings for grandeur whose beauty can lead to death, to dangerous adventures leading nowhere and to a certain level of sadness. When his 65th birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
The stripper daughter of his old friend and nightclub owner represents a simpler normality as does his housekeeper. Both are touchstones to a reality he has abandoned since becoming a permanent fixture in Rome’s literary and social circles after the legendary success of his one and only novel. Armed with a roguish charm, he has seduced his way through the city's lavish night life for decades.
As an interviewer for popular press, his curiosity about everything is satisfied and dissatisfied at the same time. He finds his yearning for simplicity is sparked when he rather cynically interviews a saintly nun and more importantly, he finds the seed for his next book in the simple, normal lives of ordinary people and in the fragility of those snobbish, superficial, gossiping “friends” with whom he has spent too much time weaving a uselessly complicated life of nothingness, living in a world which makes no sense.
There are many literary references in the film – Flaubert who wanted to write a book about nothing, Proust whose masterpiece “capitalizes on his own biography”, Celine whose opening line to his novel Journey to the End of the Night is also the film’s opening line.
This quote from Celine is a declaration of intent that I followed in turn in the film. It comes down to saying: there’s reality, but everything is invented too. Invention is necessary in cinema, just to attain the truth.
What is it about the Flaubert references?
Flaubert said he wanted to write a book about nothing. This gave him the right to write about the frivolous, gossip, nothing and it acquired a literary standing. Nothingness becomes life. It takes on a life of its own and life’s nothingness is its beauty.
Jeb is living it among awkward, weak people, even hateful people. This is life and all of it belongs to The Great Beauty. The immediacy of the beauty of Rome is obvious, but the subterranean part – like these horrible people around him, you realize they are are also so vulnerable and fragile and that gives them and him the redeeming grace of beauty. The communist writer is emblematic.
Are you an intellectual?
I don’t like to think that I am. I do read a lot. I read more than I watch movies.
What do you do in your free time?
I hibernate. I hibernate until the next project takes shape in my mind. I watch a lot of football. And I tend to my family. I have two children aged 10 and 16 who keep me very busy.
Do you find that the Italian character is theatrical?
In my hometown (Naples), the people are extraordinarily theatrical. Orson Welles himself, on seeing Neapolitan actor Eduardo de Felipo said that he was the greatest actor in the world.
Whatever you say about it, Italy has an extraordinary pool of actors of every sort. They are all very different, from many different backgrounds, but all with often under-exploited potential, all just waiting to find good characters.
Tony Servillo is also from Naples, like I am. He is an actor I can ask anything of, because he is capable of doing absolutely everything. I can now move forward with him with my eyes closed, not only as far as work goes, but also in terms of our friendship, a friendship which over time becomes more joyful, lighter yet deeper at the same time.
Tony Servillo is quoted as saying about Sorrentino:
We have something in common which we both cultivate, and that’s a taste for mystery. That has something to do with esteem, with a sense of irony and self-mockery, with certain similar sources of melancholy, and certain subjects or themes of reflection. These affinities are renewed each time we meet, as if it were the first time, without there being any need for a closer relationship between one film and the next. We meet and it’s as if we’ve never been apart. And that means there’s a deep friendship between us, and that’s what so great.
Thank you Paolo for this interview. I wish you all the luck in winning not only the Nomination but also the prize of the Academy Award.
I also want to draw the reader’s attention to the fabulous photography of cinematographer Luca Bigazzi and the music of Lele Marchitel, who juxtaposes original music with repertory music of sacred and profane, pop music reflecting the city itself and to the extraordinary pool of actors, Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli, Carlo Buccirosso, Iaia Forte, Pamela Villoresi and Galatea Ranzi, Massimo de Francovich, Roberto Herlitzka and Isabella Ferrari.
Manohla Dargis of the New York Times called this visually spectacular film “an outlandishly entertaining hallucination”, and according to Variety’s Jay Weissberg it’s an “astonishing cinematic feast”.
This rapturous highlight of this year's Cannes Film Festival, where it played in Competition was acquired for U.S. by Janus Films who will release it theatrically in N.Y. on November 15, L.A. on November 22, expanding to other cities on November 29, with a home video release from the Criterion Collection.
“We were swept away by this gorgeous, moving film at Cannes”, said Peter Becker, president of the Criterion Collection and a partner in Janus Films. “Sorrentino is one of the most exciting directors working today, and Toni Servillo gives another majestic, multilayered performance.”
The deal to distribute Sorrentino’s film in the U.S. was struck with international distributor Pathé. “Janus has over the years become a valued partner in the promotion of Pathé’s heritage in the U.S. through its releases of our library titles, and we are, of course, thrilled to once again partner up with this company for the release of this film which represents the finest of Italian cinema today and at the same time pays a respectful homage to its nation’s cinematic past”, said Muriel Sauzay, Evp, International Sales.
For more information on the film visit Here
La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) also screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and was recently award the European Film Academy award for its editing by Cristiano Travaglioli. Since its Cannes debut, it has sold to Australia - Palace Films , Austria - Filmladen , Benelux - Abc - Cinemien , Brazil - Mares Filmes Ltda. , Canada - Mongrel Media, Métropole Films Distribution , Czech Republic - Film Europe, Denmark - Camera Film A/S , Estonia -Must Käsi, France - Canal + , Germany - Dcm , Greece - Feelgood Entertainment, Hong Kong (China) - Edko Films Ltd , Israel - United King Films, Italy - Medusa Distribuzione, Norway - As Fidalgo Film Distribution , Portugal - Lusomundo, Russia - A-One Films , Slovak Republic - Film Europe (Sk) , Switzerland - Pathe Films Ag , United Kingdom - Curzon Film World...
Inspirational and awe-inspiring are the words that come to mind first when I think about the great movie just out of Italy, The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) from acclaimed director Paolo Sorrentino ( Il Divo, The Consequences of Love, This Must be the Place) with a screenplay by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello.
I could watch this film over and over again and still be inspired by the beauty of Rome and the depth of its flaneur, the hero of this film, journalist Jep Gambardella as played by the incomparable Toni Servillo (Gomorrah, Il Divo). In fact, after interviewing Paolo Sorrentino recently at the Chateau Marmont, I feel compelled to watch it again in order to understand the ending’s reference to what might have been the subject of the original and only book Jeb ever wrote which was perhaps (according to Paolo) “about the love he had for the girl -- and you can see that at the end of the movie”.
During my interview, I tried not to discuss how the film carries echoes of the classic works of Federico Fellini as Sorrentino had already gone on record stating that, “Roma and La Dolce Vita are works that you cannot pretend to ignore when you take on a film like the one I wanted to make. They are two masterpieces and the golden rule is that masterpieces should be watched but not imitated. I tried to stick to that. But it’s also true that masterpieces transform the way we feel and perceive things.”
A dazzling tour through modern day Rome through the eyes of Jep Gambardella gives us feelings for grandeur whose beauty can lead to death, to dangerous adventures leading nowhere and to a certain level of sadness. When his 65th birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
The stripper daughter of his old friend and nightclub owner represents a simpler normality as does his housekeeper. Both are touchstones to a reality he has abandoned since becoming a permanent fixture in Rome’s literary and social circles after the legendary success of his one and only novel. Armed with a roguish charm, he has seduced his way through the city's lavish night life for decades.
As an interviewer for popular press, his curiosity about everything is satisfied and dissatisfied at the same time. He finds his yearning for simplicity is sparked when he rather cynically interviews a saintly nun and more importantly, he finds the seed for his next book in the simple, normal lives of ordinary people and in the fragility of those snobbish, superficial, gossiping “friends” with whom he has spent too much time weaving a uselessly complicated life of nothingness, living in a world which makes no sense.
There are many literary references in the film – Flaubert who wanted to write a book about nothing, Proust whose masterpiece “capitalizes on his own biography”, Celine whose opening line to his novel Journey to the End of the Night is also the film’s opening line.
This quote from Celine is a declaration of intent that I followed in turn in the film. It comes down to saying: there’s reality, but everything is invented too. Invention is necessary in cinema, just to attain the truth.
What is it about the Flaubert references?
Flaubert said he wanted to write a book about nothing. This gave him the right to write about the frivolous, gossip, nothing and it acquired a literary standing. Nothingness becomes life. It takes on a life of its own and life’s nothingness is its beauty.
Jeb is living it among awkward, weak people, even hateful people. This is life and all of it belongs to The Great Beauty. The immediacy of the beauty of Rome is obvious, but the subterranean part – like these horrible people around him, you realize they are are also so vulnerable and fragile and that gives them and him the redeeming grace of beauty. The communist writer is emblematic.
Are you an intellectual?
I don’t like to think that I am. I do read a lot. I read more than I watch movies.
What do you do in your free time?
I hibernate. I hibernate until the next project takes shape in my mind. I watch a lot of football. And I tend to my family. I have two children aged 10 and 16 who keep me very busy.
Do you find that the Italian character is theatrical?
In my hometown (Naples), the people are extraordinarily theatrical. Orson Welles himself, on seeing Neapolitan actor Eduardo de Felipo said that he was the greatest actor in the world.
Whatever you say about it, Italy has an extraordinary pool of actors of every sort. They are all very different, from many different backgrounds, but all with often under-exploited potential, all just waiting to find good characters.
Tony Servillo is also from Naples, like I am. He is an actor I can ask anything of, because he is capable of doing absolutely everything. I can now move forward with him with my eyes closed, not only as far as work goes, but also in terms of our friendship, a friendship which over time becomes more joyful, lighter yet deeper at the same time.
Tony Servillo is quoted as saying about Sorrentino:
We have something in common which we both cultivate, and that’s a taste for mystery. That has something to do with esteem, with a sense of irony and self-mockery, with certain similar sources of melancholy, and certain subjects or themes of reflection. These affinities are renewed each time we meet, as if it were the first time, without there being any need for a closer relationship between one film and the next. We meet and it’s as if we’ve never been apart. And that means there’s a deep friendship between us, and that’s what so great.
Thank you Paolo for this interview. I wish you all the luck in winning not only the Nomination but also the prize of the Academy Award.
I also want to draw the reader’s attention to the fabulous photography of cinematographer Luca Bigazzi and the music of Lele Marchitel, who juxtaposes original music with repertory music of sacred and profane, pop music reflecting the city itself and to the extraordinary pool of actors, Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli, Carlo Buccirosso, Iaia Forte, Pamela Villoresi and Galatea Ranzi, Massimo de Francovich, Roberto Herlitzka and Isabella Ferrari.
Manohla Dargis of the New York Times called this visually spectacular film “an outlandishly entertaining hallucination”, and according to Variety’s Jay Weissberg it’s an “astonishing cinematic feast”.
This rapturous highlight of this year's Cannes Film Festival, where it played in Competition was acquired for U.S. by Janus Films who will release it theatrically in N.Y. on November 15, L.A. on November 22, expanding to other cities on November 29, with a home video release from the Criterion Collection.
“We were swept away by this gorgeous, moving film at Cannes”, said Peter Becker, president of the Criterion Collection and a partner in Janus Films. “Sorrentino is one of the most exciting directors working today, and Toni Servillo gives another majestic, multilayered performance.”
The deal to distribute Sorrentino’s film in the U.S. was struck with international distributor Pathé. “Janus has over the years become a valued partner in the promotion of Pathé’s heritage in the U.S. through its releases of our library titles, and we are, of course, thrilled to once again partner up with this company for the release of this film which represents the finest of Italian cinema today and at the same time pays a respectful homage to its nation’s cinematic past”, said Muriel Sauzay, Evp, International Sales.
For more information on the film visit Here
La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) also screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival and was recently award the European Film Academy award for its editing by Cristiano Travaglioli. Since its Cannes debut, it has sold to Australia - Palace Films , Austria - Filmladen , Benelux - Abc - Cinemien , Brazil - Mares Filmes Ltda. , Canada - Mongrel Media, Métropole Films Distribution , Czech Republic - Film Europe, Denmark - Camera Film A/S , Estonia -Must Käsi, France - Canal + , Germany - Dcm , Greece - Feelgood Entertainment, Hong Kong (China) - Edko Films Ltd , Israel - United King Films, Italy - Medusa Distribuzione, Norway - As Fidalgo Film Distribution , Portugal - Lusomundo, Russia - A-One Films , Slovak Republic - Film Europe (Sk) , Switzerland - Pathe Films Ag , United Kingdom - Curzon Film World...
- 3/3/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grande Bellezza” (The Great Beauty) (2013)
Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty has two small yet important facets in common with Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. Both films begin with a profound quote that provides a key to the viewer for a full understanding of the film that follows. Both films use the music of “Dies Irae” (Requiem for my Friend, which includes Lacrimosa 2) by Zbigniew Preisner (the talented composer of Kieslowski’s Dekalog and The Three Colors trilogy) and Henryk Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony.
Just as Mallick used an interesting quote from the Book of Job, the opening quote for The Great Beauty is from Sorrentino’s favorite author Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night.
The quote is “To travel is very useful, it makes the imagination work, the rest is just delusion and pain. Our journey is entirely imaginary,...
Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty has two small yet important facets in common with Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. Both films begin with a profound quote that provides a key to the viewer for a full understanding of the film that follows. Both films use the music of “Dies Irae” (Requiem for my Friend, which includes Lacrimosa 2) by Zbigniew Preisner (the talented composer of Kieslowski’s Dekalog and The Three Colors trilogy) and Henryk Gorecki’s 3rd Symphony.
Just as Mallick used an interesting quote from the Book of Job, the opening quote for The Great Beauty is from Sorrentino’s favorite author Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night.
The quote is “To travel is very useful, it makes the imagination work, the rest is just delusion and pain. Our journey is entirely imaginary,...
- 2/24/2014
- by Jugu Abraham
- DearCinema.com
Sorrentino’s Cannes hit wins at Tallinn’s Black Nights Film Festival.
Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) was awarded the $13,500 (€10,000) EurAsia Grand Prix in the main international competition of this year’s Black Nights Film Festival (Nov 15-Dec 1) in Tallinn.
Italy’s Oscar entry also received the Best Cinematographer award for Luca Bigazzi’s camerawork which the international jury described as being “musically dynamic”.
The jury, which included The White Ribbon’s DoP Christian Berger, Armenian director Harutan Khacahtryan and German actress Franziska Petri, gave its Best Director award to the Japanese director Koji Fukada for Au revoir l’été for its “sensitively observed scenes”.
The Best Acting awards went to Russian actor Maksim Sukhanov for his performance in Konstantin Lopushansky’s The Role and to Juliette Binoche for her role in Camille Claudel 1915.
The jury decided to award the Special Jury Prize ex aequo to two films:
Taiwanese film-maker Tsai Ming-Liang...
Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) was awarded the $13,500 (€10,000) EurAsia Grand Prix in the main international competition of this year’s Black Nights Film Festival (Nov 15-Dec 1) in Tallinn.
Italy’s Oscar entry also received the Best Cinematographer award for Luca Bigazzi’s camerawork which the international jury described as being “musically dynamic”.
The jury, which included The White Ribbon’s DoP Christian Berger, Armenian director Harutan Khacahtryan and German actress Franziska Petri, gave its Best Director award to the Japanese director Koji Fukada for Au revoir l’été for its “sensitively observed scenes”.
The Best Acting awards went to Russian actor Maksim Sukhanov for his performance in Konstantin Lopushansky’s The Role and to Juliette Binoche for her role in Camille Claudel 1915.
The jury decided to award the Special Jury Prize ex aequo to two films:
Taiwanese film-maker Tsai Ming-Liang...
- 12/3/2013
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
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