Marco Bellocchio excels at grand gestures. The Italian title of the filmmaker’s latest, Kidnapped, appears on screen in large, blood-red letters, like the screaming headline of a tabloid news article. Yet it’s placed over a deceptively serene scene, circa the late-1850s, of servant woman Anna Morisi (Aurora Camatti) strolling into a store across the street from her Bologna-residing employers, the Jewish Mortara family. The clashing juxtaposition of words and images is apt, for none of the characters suspects that history is about to be made.
The Mortara case is one of the most egregious stains on the legacy of the Catholic Church. It captured the world’s attention at a particularly fraught moment, right as the Papal States (occupied Italian territories that had for centuries been under the direct rule of successive popes) were close to permanent dissolution, and global antisemitism was on a genocidal rise.
In...
The Mortara case is one of the most egregious stains on the legacy of the Catholic Church. It captured the world’s attention at a particularly fraught moment, right as the Papal States (occupied Italian territories that had for centuries been under the direct rule of successive popes) were close to permanent dissolution, and global antisemitism was on a genocidal rise.
In...
- 9/8/2023
- by Keith Uhlich
- Slant Magazine
Solid, stately and — like the collapsing Papal States of the Italian Peninsula in the late 1800s — just a little too tradition-bound for its own good, Marco Bellocchio’s “Kidnapped,” based on a 19th-century case of religious abduction, opens with an eavesdrop. Anna (Aurora Camatti), the Catholic servant to the Jewish Mortara family of Bologna, pauses on the stairs after a tryst and spies her employers, Momolo Mortara (Fausto Russo Alesi) and his wife Marianna (Barbara Ronchi), murmuring a blessing in Hebrew over their newborn baby boy. It is not clear yet why the sight should make her stop in her tracks, but over the course of over two sedate but mostly absorbing hours, the veteran director follows its repercussions with a singleminded, narrow dedication that sits strangely at odds with the film’s immaculately expansive production design.
Six years later, the Mortara family has itself expanded greatly. The boy, Edgardo...
Six years later, the Mortara family has itself expanded greatly. The boy, Edgardo...
- 5/23/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Twice a month Joe Lipsett will dissect a new Amityville Horror film to explore how the “franchise” has evolved in increasingly ludicrous directions.
While it’s easy to appreciate the grounded, almost stoic nature of the original, it’s hard not to enjoy the outright campiness of Amityville 2: The Possession. The sequel, which never explicitly mentions the Lutzs due to real life legal issues, is an absolutely wild ride.
Written by Fright Night Part 2 and Halloween 3: Season of the Witch’s Tommy Lee Wallace, the second film in the Amityville franchise crams in over the top performances, incest and more than a few nods to horror trends, including both the infamous Pov shots from slasher films like Halloween and Black Christmas, and a narrative riff on The Exorcist.
The film tells the story of the Montelli family, an Italian American family that moves into the now iconic house.
While it’s easy to appreciate the grounded, almost stoic nature of the original, it’s hard not to enjoy the outright campiness of Amityville 2: The Possession. The sequel, which never explicitly mentions the Lutzs due to real life legal issues, is an absolutely wild ride.
Written by Fright Night Part 2 and Halloween 3: Season of the Witch’s Tommy Lee Wallace, the second film in the Amityville franchise crams in over the top performances, incest and more than a few nods to horror trends, including both the infamous Pov shots from slasher films like Halloween and Black Christmas, and a narrative riff on The Exorcist.
The film tells the story of the Montelli family, an Italian American family that moves into the now iconic house.
- 11/22/2022
- by Joe Lipsett
- bloody-disgusting.com
Shooting has begun in Roccabianca in the province of Parma, Italy, on Marco Bellocchio’s new film, “La Conversione” (The Conversion), inspired by the story of Edgardo Mortara, the Jewish child who in 1858 was removed from his family to be raised as a Catholic in the custody of Pope Pius IX. Bellocchio is pictured, above, on set in Roccabianca this week.
“La Conversione” stars Paolo Pierobon, Barbara Ronchi, Fausto Russo Alesi, Filippo Timi, Fabrizio Gifuni, Enea Sala, playing Mortara as a child, and Leonardo Maltese, playing Mortara as an older boy.
The film is an IBCmovie and Kavac Film production with Rai Cinema, with the support of the Emilia Romagna region and its film commission, in co-production with Ad Vitam Production in France, and Match Factory Productions in Germany. It is produced by Beppe Caschetto and Simone Gattoni.
The screenplay is by Bellocchio and Susanna Nicchiarelli, with the collaboration of Edoardo Albinati and Daniela Ceselli,...
“La Conversione” stars Paolo Pierobon, Barbara Ronchi, Fausto Russo Alesi, Filippo Timi, Fabrizio Gifuni, Enea Sala, playing Mortara as a child, and Leonardo Maltese, playing Mortara as an older boy.
The film is an IBCmovie and Kavac Film production with Rai Cinema, with the support of the Emilia Romagna region and its film commission, in co-production with Ad Vitam Production in France, and Match Factory Productions in Germany. It is produced by Beppe Caschetto and Simone Gattoni.
The screenplay is by Bellocchio and Susanna Nicchiarelli, with the collaboration of Edoardo Albinati and Daniela Ceselli,...
- 7/1/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Most films ask nothing of you. You simply press play and watch the story unfold, gleaning context as the filmmaker colors in their narrative. But the occasional movie demands prerequisites to appreciate. Think: Dušan Makavejev’s Man Is Not a Bird, or last year’s competition title Petrov’s Flu, Kirill Serebrennikov’s mind-numbing swan dive into the socio-political climate of post-Soviet Russia whose commentary nearly requires a Ph.D. to unpack. Marco Bellocchio’s Exterior Night hovers somewhere in-between.
It would help if the historical thriller came with the equivalent of a summer reading list, but there’s enough explanation to clue you in if you’re not brushed up on your 1970s Italian politics. Perhaps more important that the story is easy to get wrapped up in, a six-episode miniseries that feels like a brisk five-and-a-half hours. No doubt it will be richer the more you know, but Bellocchio––with co-writers Stefano Bises,...
It would help if the historical thriller came with the equivalent of a summer reading list, but there’s enough explanation to clue you in if you’re not brushed up on your 1970s Italian politics. Perhaps more important that the story is easy to get wrapped up in, a six-episode miniseries that feels like a brisk five-and-a-half hours. No doubt it will be richer the more you know, but Bellocchio––with co-writers Stefano Bises,...
- 5/19/2022
- by Luke Hicks
- The Film Stage
Pietro Marcello in front of an Andrei Tarkovsky Stalker and Satyajit Ray Apu Trilogy posters: “For me Martin Eden is a very contemporary character. So my objective was to span over the entire 20th century …” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden star Luca Marinelli (Andrea in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning The Great Beauty) in the title role won the Best Actor Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival where the film had its world première. Based on the 1909 novel by Jack London, with a screenplay co-written with Maurizio Braucci, Martin Eden, shot by Alessandro Abate and Francesco Di Giacomo, represents the 20th Century unlike any other film. Jessica Cressy, Vincenzo Nemolato, Marco Leonardi, Carlo Cecchi, Denise Sardisco and Carmen Pommella feature in the excellent ensemble surrounding our troubled hero.
Pietro Marcello on Luca Marinelli in Martin Eden: “We do love Martin Eden in the first part of the film because he's authentic,...
Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden star Luca Marinelli (Andrea in Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-winning The Great Beauty) in the title role won the Best Actor Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival where the film had its world première. Based on the 1909 novel by Jack London, with a screenplay co-written with Maurizio Braucci, Martin Eden, shot by Alessandro Abate and Francesco Di Giacomo, represents the 20th Century unlike any other film. Jessica Cressy, Vincenzo Nemolato, Marco Leonardi, Carlo Cecchi, Denise Sardisco and Carmen Pommella feature in the excellent ensemble surrounding our troubled hero.
Pietro Marcello on Luca Marinelli in Martin Eden: “We do love Martin Eden in the first part of the film because he's authentic,...
- 10/11/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
American novelist Jack London was an active proponent of socialism, his writing offering self-reflexive deconstructions of their values within distinct, incongruous, futuristic worlds, temporally far-flung but with technology and attitudes contemporaneous to the turn of the century. These qualities are prevalent throughout Martin Eden, Pietro Marcello’s fantastic second fiction feature that stands as a spellbinding synthesis of both London’s speculative ideas and Marcello’s documentarian instincts, capturing the clairvoyance and spirit of London’s writing via Marcello’s sensibilities as a predominantly non-fiction filmmaker.
Eden follows the eponymous protagonist through pre-World War II Italy, changed from the novel’s pre-wwi America. Despite his undereducation, the young sailor—imbued with wily charm by a mesmerizing Luca Marinelli—is a promising writer, though he’s constantly struggling to make ends meet, frequently unemployed because of firm commitment to his rights as a worker. When not at sea, he’s either...
Eden follows the eponymous protagonist through pre-World War II Italy, changed from the novel’s pre-wwi America. Despite his undereducation, the young sailor—imbued with wily charm by a mesmerizing Luca Marinelli—is a promising writer, though he’s constantly struggling to make ends meet, frequently unemployed because of firm commitment to his rights as a worker. When not at sea, he’s either...
- 10/1/2019
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
By the time a publicist signals that my turn has come, director Pietro Marcello has just wrapped his last roundtable interview of the day, and slouches on a sofa at the Excelsior Hotel, peering at the terrace a few steps away from us, and the Adriatic Sea, sprawling bright and calm further down. It’s the midway point of the 76th Venice Film Festival, and the thick late summer air above the Lido is packed with the noise of people besieging the red carpet. A self-taught documentarian (Diy credentials he would proudly and rightfully boast in our interview), Marcello first bowed on the Lido in 2007, when his Crossing the Line found a slot in the Horizons sidebar, before cementing his name in 2009 with The Mouth of the Wolf. Eight years since his 2011 documentary The Silence of Pelesjan world premiered on the Lido—again in the Horizons program—and four since...
- 10/1/2019
- MUBI
Jack London — an avowed socialist who found himself struggling to reconcile his political ideals with his personal success — intended for “Martin Eden” to be a damning critique of the individualism that spurred his fame. “White Fang” and “The Call of the Wild” had earned the low-born writer an invitation into high society, but he struggled to square the untamed working man he was with the celebrated author he’d suddenly become; still at heart the same person he had always been, London was disgusted to see how differently the ruling class now looked at someone they once despised. What self-serving bullshit! Why should anyone beg for a member of the elite to throw them their own private lifeline when all of the workers could band together and raise everyone to the same level?
And so London scraped out a book about a scruffy wanderer who falls in love with a rich girl,...
And so London scraped out a book about a scruffy wanderer who falls in love with a rich girl,...
- 9/2/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
The world would be a far better place with more melodrama in it. Cinematically speaking, at least.
Take the debut film from director Piero Messina for example. Entitled L’Attesa, the former assistant director to Paolo Sorrentino on The Great Beauty takes the viewer to Sicily and introduces them to Anna, mother to Giuseppe, as she awaits his girlfriend’s arrival. Meeting one another for the first time, Anna and the beautiful Jeanne (Lou de Laage) are planning on sharing a few days before Easter together as they await the arrival of Guiseppe. However, as one would expect with any melodrama worth its weight in heightened emotions, things aren’t quite as they seem as both parties have secrets being hidden, making the connection the two make all the more powerful and all the more emotionally devastating. What starts out as a seemingly standard melodrama evolves into a moving meditation...
Take the debut film from director Piero Messina for example. Entitled L’Attesa, the former assistant director to Paolo Sorrentino on The Great Beauty takes the viewer to Sicily and introduces them to Anna, mother to Giuseppe, as she awaits his girlfriend’s arrival. Meeting one another for the first time, Anna and the beautiful Jeanne (Lou de Laage) are planning on sharing a few days before Easter together as they await the arrival of Guiseppe. However, as one would expect with any melodrama worth its weight in heightened emotions, things aren’t quite as they seem as both parties have secrets being hidden, making the connection the two make all the more powerful and all the more emotionally devastating. What starts out as a seemingly standard melodrama evolves into a moving meditation...
- 4/29/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Though it’s a harder film festival to regulate and therefore tabulate a comprehensively genuine list reflecting the totality of the fest’s offering per any individual’s perspective, the Toronto Film Festival manages to be a healthy platform for new and developing voices for those willing to sift through the multitude of titles. Of course, many new exciting voices were present that debuted at earlier film festivals, like Berlin, Sundance, and Cannes. From Guy Maddin’s co-director Evan Johnson on The Forbidden Room and Josh Mond’s stunning debut James White out of Sundance, to notable Cannes berths like Laszlo Nemes of Son of Saul, Deniz Gamz Erguven of Mustang, and Thomas Bidegain’s Les Cowboys, 2015 brought a wide variety of new filmmakers to light. In deliberating the Top Ten New Voices out of Tiff, we focused on offerings either unique to the festival or near concurrent premieres with Locarno and Venice.
- 10/12/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Oscar Season Officially Begins! Check Out Complete List of Winners of the 68th Venice Film Festival!
Official Awards of the 68th Venice Film Festival
Venezia 68
Golden Lion for Best Film
Faust by Aleksander Sokurov (Russia)
Silver Lion for Best Director
Shangjun Cai for the film Ren Shan Ren Hai (People Mountain People Sea) (China - Hong Kong)
Special Jury Prize
Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese (Italy)
Coppa Volpi for Best Actor
Michael Fassbender in the film Shame by Steve McQueen (United Kingdom)
Coppa Volpi for Best Actress
Deanie Yip in the film Tao jie (A Simple Life) by Ann Hui (China - Hong Kong)
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress
Shôta Sometani and Fumi Nikaidô in the film Himizu by Sion Sono (Japan)
Osella for the Best Cinematography
Robbie Ryan for the film Wuthering Heights by Andrea Arnold (United Kingdom)
Osella for Best Screenplay
Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou for the film Alpis (Alps) by Yorgos Lanthimos (Grecia)
Lion of the Future -...
Venezia 68
Golden Lion for Best Film
Faust by Aleksander Sokurov (Russia)
Silver Lion for Best Director
Shangjun Cai for the film Ren Shan Ren Hai (People Mountain People Sea) (China - Hong Kong)
Special Jury Prize
Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese (Italy)
Coppa Volpi for Best Actor
Michael Fassbender in the film Shame by Steve McQueen (United Kingdom)
Coppa Volpi for Best Actress
Deanie Yip in the film Tao jie (A Simple Life) by Ann Hui (China - Hong Kong)
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress
Shôta Sometani and Fumi Nikaidô in the film Himizu by Sion Sono (Japan)
Osella for the Best Cinematography
Robbie Ryan for the film Wuthering Heights by Andrea Arnold (United Kingdom)
Osella for Best Screenplay
Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou for the film Alpis (Alps) by Yorgos Lanthimos (Grecia)
Lion of the Future -...
- 9/12/2011
- by Manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Aleksandr Sokurov's Faust has won the Golden Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival. Now's a good time to catch up with Daniel Kasman's review.
The Jury, headed by Darren Aronofsky, awarded the Silver Lion (Best Director) to Cai Shangjun for People Mountain People Sea.
The Special Jury Prize goes to Emanuele Crialese's Terraferma. A roundup was posted earlier today.
The Osella for Best Screenplay goes to Giorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou for Alps. (Roundup and Daniel Kasman's review.)
The Osella for Best Cinematography: Robbie Ryan for Wuthering Heights. (Roundup.)
Michael Fassbender wins the Volpi Cup (Best Actor) for his performance in Steve McQueens's Shame (roundup), while the Volpi Cup for Best Actress goes to Deanie Ip for her performance in Ann Hui's A Simple Life (roundup and Daniel Kasman's review).
The Marcello Mastroianni Award (Best Young Actor) goes to Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaido for their work in Sion Sono's Himizu.
The Jury, headed by Darren Aronofsky, awarded the Silver Lion (Best Director) to Cai Shangjun for People Mountain People Sea.
The Special Jury Prize goes to Emanuele Crialese's Terraferma. A roundup was posted earlier today.
The Osella for Best Screenplay goes to Giorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou for Alps. (Roundup and Daniel Kasman's review.)
The Osella for Best Cinematography: Robbie Ryan for Wuthering Heights. (Roundup.)
Michael Fassbender wins the Volpi Cup (Best Actor) for his performance in Steve McQueens's Shame (roundup), while the Volpi Cup for Best Actress goes to Deanie Ip for her performance in Ann Hui's A Simple Life (roundup and Daniel Kasman's review).
The Marcello Mastroianni Award (Best Young Actor) goes to Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaido for their work in Sion Sono's Himizu.
- 9/11/2011
- MUBI
Faust directed by Aleksander Sokurov of Russia won the Golden Lion for the Best Film at the 68th Venice International Film Festival. The festival came to a close on September 10 with the award ceremony.
The Special Jury prize went to Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese of Italy.
Fipresci Prizes went to Shame directed by Steve McQueen of UK and Two Years at Sea directed by Ben Rivers of UK.
The Indian films that were presented at the festival are Amit Dutta’s Sonchidi and Gurvinder Singh’s Anhey Ghore Da Daan (Alms of the Blind Horse).
Official Awards of the 68th Venice Film Festival
Golden Lion for Best Film
Faust by Aleksander Sokurov (Russia)
Silver Lion for Best Director
Shangjun Cai for the film Ren Shan Ren Hai (People Mountain People Sea) (China – Hong Kong)
Special Jury Prize
Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese (Italy)
Coppa Volpi for Best Actor
Michael Fassbender in...
The Special Jury prize went to Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese of Italy.
Fipresci Prizes went to Shame directed by Steve McQueen of UK and Two Years at Sea directed by Ben Rivers of UK.
The Indian films that were presented at the festival are Amit Dutta’s Sonchidi and Gurvinder Singh’s Anhey Ghore Da Daan (Alms of the Blind Horse).
Official Awards of the 68th Venice Film Festival
Golden Lion for Best Film
Faust by Aleksander Sokurov (Russia)
Silver Lion for Best Director
Shangjun Cai for the film Ren Shan Ren Hai (People Mountain People Sea) (China – Hong Kong)
Special Jury Prize
Terraferma by Emanuele Crialese (Italy)
Coppa Volpi for Best Actor
Michael Fassbender in...
- 9/11/2011
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.