Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media-mogul-turned politician who defined a three-decade-long era in postwar Italy during which TV spin, tainting allegations of corruption and sex scandals were pervasive — but who also achieved unprecedented political stability in the country — has died. He was 86.
Berlusconi died at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, according to Italian media reports. He had been suffering from leukaemia and had recently developed a lung infection.
After building a fortune by launching Italian private TV with his Mediaset empire, Berlusconi entered politics in 1993, was elected prime minister in 1994, and went on to serve as the country’s premier three times, not consecutively, becoming the longest serving democratically elected Italian leader. He was ousted from parliament in 2013 following a tax fraud conviction.
Berlusconi’s construction company Edilnord built a modernistic complex on Milan’s outskirts, named Milano 2, which he outfitted with an internal cable TV station, called Telemilano. Launched...
Berlusconi died at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan, according to Italian media reports. He had been suffering from leukaemia and had recently developed a lung infection.
After building a fortune by launching Italian private TV with his Mediaset empire, Berlusconi entered politics in 1993, was elected prime minister in 1994, and went on to serve as the country’s premier three times, not consecutively, becoming the longest serving democratically elected Italian leader. He was ousted from parliament in 2013 following a tax fraud conviction.
Berlusconi’s construction company Edilnord built a modernistic complex on Milan’s outskirts, named Milano 2, which he outfitted with an internal cable TV station, called Telemilano. Launched...
- 6/12/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli and Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
Pierfrancesco Favino is best known internationally for strong male character roles such as mobster Tommaso Buscetta in The Traitor, disgraced politician Bettino Craxi in Hammamet and terrorist-targeted vice-police chief Alfonso Noce in Padrenostro, for which he won Venice’s Volpi Cup for Best Actor.
In Mario Martone’s drama Nostalgia, he plays the gentler, less defined figure of Felice, a man in his 50s who returns from 40 years in the Middle East to his mysterious, layered home neighborhood in Naples to reconnect with his elderly mother and confront a past wrong.
Related: The Contenders International – Deadline’s Full Coverage
“What was interesting to me was this relationship with his mother and the tenderness of this man and how gentle he is. It’s quite rare to see a man’s masculinity portrayed in that way,” Favino told a Contenders International panel Saturday.
“I have to say he resembles me much more than The Traitor,...
In Mario Martone’s drama Nostalgia, he plays the gentler, less defined figure of Felice, a man in his 50s who returns from 40 years in the Middle East to his mysterious, layered home neighborhood in Naples to reconnect with his elderly mother and confront a past wrong.
Related: The Contenders International – Deadline’s Full Coverage
“What was interesting to me was this relationship with his mother and the tenderness of this man and how gentle he is. It’s quite rare to see a man’s masculinity portrayed in that way,” Favino told a Contenders International panel Saturday.
“I have to say he resembles me much more than The Traitor,...
- 12/3/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Veteran Italian auteur Gianni Amelio rose to prominence with Oscar-nominated “Open Doors” (1990) and also “Stolen Children,” which won the 1992 Cannes Grand Prix. He won the Venice Golden Lion in 1998 with period drama “The Way We Laughed” and competed again in Venice with “A Lonely Hero” in 2013. Amelio’s more recent work comprises “Hammamet,” a portrait of disgraced late Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi’s final years in Tunisia.
Amelio is back in Venice with “Lord of the Ants” a biopic of Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968, after a four-year trial due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law. Pic, which is produced by Simone Gattoni and Marco Bellocchio, stars Luigi Lo Cascio (“The Ties”) as Braibanti, who was convicted after a complaint from his younger partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality.
Amelio is back in Venice with “Lord of the Ants” a biopic of Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968, after a four-year trial due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law. Pic, which is produced by Simone Gattoni and Marco Bellocchio, stars Luigi Lo Cascio (“The Ties”) as Braibanti, who was convicted after a complaint from his younger partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality.
- 9/10/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Prominent arthouse sales company The Match Factory has closed multiple sales on Italian auteur Gianni Amelio’s Venice competition title “Lord of the Ants” ahead of its Venice premiere on Tuesday.
The Match Factory has sealed deals on Amelio’s latest work – which is a biopic of Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law – that will ensure the film’s theatrical release in Australia/New Zealand (Palace Films); Japan (Zazie Films); Spain (Surtsey Films); Sweden (TriArt Film) and Greece (Ama Films). Further deals are in negotiation, the company said.
Braibanti was convicted after a complaint from his partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality. The Fascist-era law that punished Braibanti, which made it a crime to lead innocent or unwary people “morally” astray,...
The Match Factory has sealed deals on Amelio’s latest work – which is a biopic of Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law – that will ensure the film’s theatrical release in Australia/New Zealand (Palace Films); Japan (Zazie Films); Spain (Surtsey Films); Sweden (TriArt Film) and Greece (Ama Films). Further deals are in negotiation, the company said.
Braibanti was convicted after a complaint from his partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality. The Fascist-era law that punished Braibanti, which made it a crime to lead innocent or unwary people “morally” astray,...
- 9/6/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italian auteur Gianni Amelio (“Open Doors”) will shoot a biopic of Italian poet, playwright and director Aldo Braibanti, who was jailed in 1968 due to a Fascist-era anti-gay law. The Match Factory has boarded the pic and is launching international sales in Cannes.
Amelio is best-known for the Oscar-nominated “Open Doors” (1990) and also “Stolen Children,” which won the 1992 Cannes Grand Prix, as well as “Hammamet,” a portrait of disgraced late Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi’s final years in Tunisia.
Braibanti was convicted after a complaint from his partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality. The Fascist-era law that punished Braibanti, which made it a crime to lead innocent or unwary people “morally” astray, was repealed in 1981.
Amelio’s new film, titled “Il signore delle formiche,” which translates as “The Ants Man,” features an...
Amelio is best-known for the Oscar-nominated “Open Doors” (1990) and also “Stolen Children,” which won the 1992 Cannes Grand Prix, as well as “Hammamet,” a portrait of disgraced late Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi’s final years in Tunisia.
Braibanti was convicted after a complaint from his partner’s father, who later forced his son to be treated with electroconvulsive therapy in an ill-conceived attempt to rid him of his homosexuality. The Fascist-era law that punished Braibanti, which made it a crime to lead innocent or unwary people “morally” astray, was repealed in 1981.
Amelio’s new film, titled “Il signore delle formiche,” which translates as “The Ants Man,” features an...
- 7/10/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italy’s 66th David di Donatello Awards are set to celebrate on May 11 a year of resilience for Cinema Italiano that also looks likely to germinate some creative renewal, just as Italian movie theaters start to reopen and production is booming.
Giorgio Diritti’s biopic “Hidden Away,” about crazed primitivist painter Antonio Ligabue, Gianni Amelio’s wistful “Hammamet,” which reconstructs the Tunisian self-exile of scandal-plagued Italian leader Bettino Craxi, and dark drama “Bad Tales” by the D’Innocenzo Brothers lead the crowded field for Italy’s equivalent of the Oscars, with no clear frontrunner.
Significantly, “Hidden Away,” which scooped 15 nominations, and “Bad Tales,” which scored 13, both star actor Elio Germano. And Germano also plays the lead in another standout title in the Davids race, Netflix Italian Original “The Incredible Story of Rose Island,” which landed 11 noms, including one for the pic’s producer, multihyphenate Matteo Rovere, whose Groenlandia Group is having a banner year.
Giorgio Diritti’s biopic “Hidden Away,” about crazed primitivist painter Antonio Ligabue, Gianni Amelio’s wistful “Hammamet,” which reconstructs the Tunisian self-exile of scandal-plagued Italian leader Bettino Craxi, and dark drama “Bad Tales” by the D’Innocenzo Brothers lead the crowded field for Italy’s equivalent of the Oscars, with no clear frontrunner.
Significantly, “Hidden Away,” which scooped 15 nominations, and “Bad Tales,” which scored 13, both star actor Elio Germano. And Germano also plays the lead in another standout title in the Davids race, Netflix Italian Original “The Incredible Story of Rose Island,” which landed 11 noms, including one for the pic’s producer, multihyphenate Matteo Rovere, whose Groenlandia Group is having a banner year.
- 5/6/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Giorgio Diritti’s biopic of an obscure artist “Hidden Away,” Gianni Amelio’s “Hammamet,” about scandal plagued Italian leader Bettino Craxi, and dark drama “Bad Tales” by the D’Innocenzo Brothers lead the race for Italy’s David di Donatello Awards, the country’s top film prizes, for which this year there is no clear frontrunner.
Interestingly, “Hidden Away,” which scooped 15 nominations, and “Bad Tales,” which tallied 13 noms, both star actor Elio Germano. Germano also stars in another film in the Davids race, Netflix Italian Original “The Incredible Story of Rose Island,” which scooped 11 nominations, including one for Matteo Rovere, its producer.
During a virtual press conference Piera Detassis, who heads the David nods, underlined the strong presence this year of women directors, citing Susanna Nicchiarelli’s “Miss Marx,” a biopic of Karl Marx’s proto-feminist daughter Eleanor, and also Emma Dante’s Sicily-set “The Macaluso Sisters,” that are both nominated for film and director.
Interestingly, “Hidden Away,” which scooped 15 nominations, and “Bad Tales,” which tallied 13 noms, both star actor Elio Germano. Germano also stars in another film in the Davids race, Netflix Italian Original “The Incredible Story of Rose Island,” which scooped 11 nominations, including one for Matteo Rovere, its producer.
During a virtual press conference Piera Detassis, who heads the David nods, underlined the strong presence this year of women directors, citing Susanna Nicchiarelli’s “Miss Marx,” a biopic of Karl Marx’s proto-feminist daughter Eleanor, and also Emma Dante’s Sicily-set “The Macaluso Sisters,” that are both nominated for film and director.
- 3/26/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio, recently the big winner at Italy’s David di Donatello awards with elegant mob drama “The Traitor,” is busy with a trio of projects involving personal and also national history, all shepherded by his now regular producer Simone Gattoni.
Gattoni, partner with Bellocchio in Rome’s Kavac Film, and among Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch last year, is riding high after the Davids — “The Traitor” having won six statuettes including best picture and director — and ramping up a robust slate of film and TV projects in various stages, to be directed by a mix of veteran names such as Bellocchio and Gianni Amelio (“Open Doors”), as well as younger, emerging Italian helmers. Most of these projects are being mounted by Kavac in tandem with other prominent Italian and European producers.
The most advanced project on the Kavac slate is Bellocchio’s “L’Urlo” (“The Scream”), a very...
Gattoni, partner with Bellocchio in Rome’s Kavac Film, and among Variety’s 10 Producers to Watch last year, is riding high after the Davids — “The Traitor” having won six statuettes including best picture and director — and ramping up a robust slate of film and TV projects in various stages, to be directed by a mix of veteran names such as Bellocchio and Gianni Amelio (“Open Doors”), as well as younger, emerging Italian helmers. Most of these projects are being mounted by Kavac in tandem with other prominent Italian and European producers.
The most advanced project on the Kavac slate is Bellocchio’s “L’Urlo” (“The Scream”), a very...
- 5/22/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italy’s Pepito Prods., at Berlin with competition drama “Bad Tales” by Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, is emerging as a new home for the country’s auteurs.
The company, headed by former Rai head of drama Agostino Saccà in January, scored more than $6 million in Italian cinemas with veteran Gianni Amelio’s “Hammamet,” a biopic of disgraced late Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi that marks Amelio’s best box office result in a decade.
“Bad Tales,” which world premieres Feb. 25, is the D’Innocenzo brothers’ followup to their debut, “Boy’s Cry.” That bowed in Berlin’s Panorama in 2018.
Giuseppe Saccà, who is a partner in the family-run indie along with his father and sister Maria Grazia, said they were approached by the self-taught directorial duo, now aged 30, with the screenplay for “Boy’s Cry” and were awed by the writing. They decided to take the plunge “even though they had never directed anything before,...
The company, headed by former Rai head of drama Agostino Saccà in January, scored more than $6 million in Italian cinemas with veteran Gianni Amelio’s “Hammamet,” a biopic of disgraced late Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi that marks Amelio’s best box office result in a decade.
“Bad Tales,” which world premieres Feb. 25, is the D’Innocenzo brothers’ followup to their debut, “Boy’s Cry.” That bowed in Berlin’s Panorama in 2018.
Giuseppe Saccà, who is a partner in the family-run indie along with his father and sister Maria Grazia, said they were approached by the self-taught directorial duo, now aged 30, with the screenplay for “Boy’s Cry” and were awed by the writing. They decided to take the plunge “even though they had never directed anything before,...
- 2/25/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
With most top Italian production companies — Cattleya, Wildside and Palomar — now owned by non-Italian players, and Italian pubcaster Rai also increasingly thinking internationally, cinema Italiano is striving to break out of national confines more than ever.
This means bigger budgets and auteurs turning toward genre — in particular, crime movies and biopics.
Marco Bellocchio’s Cannes competition entry “The Traitor,” which follows Tommaso Buscetta, the first high-ranking member of Cosa Nostra to break the Sicilian Mafia’s oath of silence, is case in point, with an auteur taking on a genre pic.
Buscetta is played by local A-lister Pierfrancesco Favino, who will next be seen as disgraced late Italian socialist prime Bettino Craxi in upcoming biopic “Hammamet,” directed by veteran auteur Gianni Amelio. The title refers to the Tunisian seaside city where Craxi fled from Italian justice in the 1990s after being indicted for massive corruption.
Italian cinema no longer stems “from self-contemplation,...
This means bigger budgets and auteurs turning toward genre — in particular, crime movies and biopics.
Marco Bellocchio’s Cannes competition entry “The Traitor,” which follows Tommaso Buscetta, the first high-ranking member of Cosa Nostra to break the Sicilian Mafia’s oath of silence, is case in point, with an auteur taking on a genre pic.
Buscetta is played by local A-lister Pierfrancesco Favino, who will next be seen as disgraced late Italian socialist prime Bettino Craxi in upcoming biopic “Hammamet,” directed by veteran auteur Gianni Amelio. The title refers to the Tunisian seaside city where Craxi fled from Italian justice in the 1990s after being indicted for massive corruption.
Italian cinema no longer stems “from self-contemplation,...
- 5/16/2019
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italy’s Minerva Pictures is ramping up its sales side, having acquired international distribution rights to veteran auteur Gianni Amelio’s anticipated “Hammamet,” a biopic of disgraced late Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi. It’s also taken rights to period drama “Aspromonte,” starring Marcello Fonte, winner of last year’s Cannes best actor award for “Dogman.”
“Hammamet,” which portrays Craxi’s final years in the Tunisian seaside villa where he fled from Italian justice, stars Pierfrancesco Favino, who will be in Cannes as the lead actor of Marco Bellocchio’s competition title, “The Traitor.” Now shooting, “Hammamet” is produced by Pepito Prods. and Rai Cinema. Amelio’s previous features include “Lamerica”; “Stolen Children,” which took the Cannes Grand Prix; and “The Way We Laughed,” which won Venice’s Golden Lion.
“Aspromonte” is helmed by Mimmo Calopresti, whose first feature, “The Second Time,” competed in Cannes. Fonte stars as a poet...
“Hammamet,” which portrays Craxi’s final years in the Tunisian seaside villa where he fled from Italian justice, stars Pierfrancesco Favino, who will be in Cannes as the lead actor of Marco Bellocchio’s competition title, “The Traitor.” Now shooting, “Hammamet” is produced by Pepito Prods. and Rai Cinema. Amelio’s previous features include “Lamerica”; “Stolen Children,” which took the Cannes Grand Prix; and “The Way We Laughed,” which won Venice’s Golden Lion.
“Aspromonte” is helmed by Mimmo Calopresti, whose first feature, “The Second Time,” competed in Cannes. Fonte stars as a poet...
- 5/15/2019
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
ROME -- Bettino Craxi, the former Italian prime minister and one-time political patron and mentor to Silvio Berlusconi who died in exile in North Africa, is attracting attention from filmmakers, his family said Tuesday.
Craxi's son, politician Vittorio "Bobo" Craxi, said that there is interest from several fronts to make a big-screen film about his father's life, though he did not provide details. The younger Craxi said he envisioned actor-director Michele Placido in the lead role of the film.
Speculation about a film on Craxi's life has swirled for years. But this is the first confirmation from a family member that a deal could be in the works.
Meanwhile, Craxi's daughter, parliamentarian Stefania Craxi, backed a major documentary project called "La mia vita e stata una corsa" (My life was a race) from director Paolo Pizzolante. The film will premiere Jan. 24 in Rome, the eight-year anniversary of Craxi's death at the age of 65.
The elder Craxi was a polarizing figure in Italy.
Craxi's son, politician Vittorio "Bobo" Craxi, said that there is interest from several fronts to make a big-screen film about his father's life, though he did not provide details. The younger Craxi said he envisioned actor-director Michele Placido in the lead role of the film.
Speculation about a film on Craxi's life has swirled for years. But this is the first confirmation from a family member that a deal could be in the works.
Meanwhile, Craxi's daughter, parliamentarian Stefania Craxi, backed a major documentary project called "La mia vita e stata una corsa" (My life was a race) from director Paolo Pizzolante. The film will premiere Jan. 24 in Rome, the eight-year anniversary of Craxi's death at the age of 65.
The elder Craxi was a polarizing figure in Italy.
- 1/16/2008
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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.