A24 has acquired North American rights to Paolo Sorrentino’s Cannes Competition entry Parthenope.
Pathé handles international sales and will also distribute in France and Switzerland.
Inspired by the Greek myth of the siren who threw herself to her death in the sea after she failed to seduce Ulysses with her voice, Parthenope marks the Italian auteur’s seventh Competition selection after Youth most recently in 2015, and titles like eventual best foreign language Oscar winner The Great Beauty in 2013, and Il Divo in 2008.
The story centres on the titular character, born in the sea of Naples in 1950, who searches for...
Pathé handles international sales and will also distribute in France and Switzerland.
Inspired by the Greek myth of the siren who threw herself to her death in the sea after she failed to seduce Ulysses with her voice, Parthenope marks the Italian auteur’s seventh Competition selection after Youth most recently in 2015, and titles like eventual best foreign language Oscar winner The Great Beauty in 2013, and Il Divo in 2008.
The story centres on the titular character, born in the sea of Naples in 1950, who searches for...
- 5/3/2024
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: A24 has acquired North American rights to Parthenope, the new film from Oscar winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, ahead of its world premiere at the 77th Festival de Cannes.
Parthenope is the seventh Sorrentino movie to play the Croisette following 2004’s The Consequences of Love, 2008’s Il Divo which won the Jury Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize, 2011’s This Must Be the Place starring Sean which also won the Ecumenical Jury Prize, 2013’s The Great Beauty and 2015’s Youth. The Great Beauty would go on to win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2014.
Sorrentino’s previous directorial, The Hand of God, inspired by his youth, received a 2022 Oscar nomination for Best International Film and was released on Netflix stateside.
Pathe is handling foreign sales and is releasing the movie in France and Switzerland.
The movie follows Parthenope, who born in the sea of Naples in 1950, searches for happiness...
Parthenope is the seventh Sorrentino movie to play the Croisette following 2004’s The Consequences of Love, 2008’s Il Divo which won the Jury Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize, 2011’s This Must Be the Place starring Sean which also won the Ecumenical Jury Prize, 2013’s The Great Beauty and 2015’s Youth. The Great Beauty would go on to win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2014.
Sorrentino’s previous directorial, The Hand of God, inspired by his youth, received a 2022 Oscar nomination for Best International Film and was released on Netflix stateside.
Pathe is handling foreign sales and is releasing the movie in France and Switzerland.
The movie follows Parthenope, who born in the sea of Naples in 1950, searches for happiness...
- 5/3/2024
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Acclaimed auteurs Francis Ford Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Paolo Sorrentino and Andrea Arnold are among the filmmakers set to compete for the coveted Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.
A total of 19 features were revealed today (April 11) that will play in Competition at the festival, set to run May 14-25.
Rarely a festival to veer far from familiar names, the Competition line-up is dominated by directors who have been selected multiple times for Cannes.
They include US filmmaker Coppola with sci-fi epic Megalopolis, which stars Adam Driver and is set in a future version of New York City following a disaster.
A total of 19 features were revealed today (April 11) that will play in Competition at the festival, set to run May 14-25.
Rarely a festival to veer far from familiar names, the Competition line-up is dominated by directors who have been selected multiple times for Cannes.
They include US filmmaker Coppola with sci-fi epic Megalopolis, which stars Adam Driver and is set in a future version of New York City following a disaster.
- 4/11/2024
- ScreenDaily
Adagio, as many musicians know, means “slowly” in Italian. That seems to be one of the guiding principles in this epic slow-burn crime thriller from director Stefano Sollima, who’s known for helming the lauded TV series Gomorrah and ZeroZeroZero, as well as taking on Hollywood jobs like the actioners Without Remorse and Sicario: Day of the Soldado.
He certainly has style to boot, and this very Heat-like story, which takes place in parts of Rome rarely seen in mainstream movies, is loaded with ambience, as well as brawny performances by a triumvirate of Italy’s best working actors: Pierfrancesco Favino, Toni Servillo and Valerio Mastandrea. What it lacks, however, is a gripping and original plot, as well as enough dazzling set pieces to make all the late exposition worthwhile.
Premiering in competition in Venice, Adagio will likely be a local hit, with Sollima delivering the kind of Michael Mann...
He certainly has style to boot, and this very Heat-like story, which takes place in parts of Rome rarely seen in mainstream movies, is loaded with ambience, as well as brawny performances by a triumvirate of Italy’s best working actors: Pierfrancesco Favino, Toni Servillo and Valerio Mastandrea. What it lacks, however, is a gripping and original plot, as well as enough dazzling set pieces to make all the late exposition worthwhile.
Premiering in competition in Venice, Adagio will likely be a local hit, with Sollima delivering the kind of Michael Mann...
- 9/2/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Gary Oldman has joined the cast of Paolo Sorrentino’s new film that is currently shooting in Naples.
Details about Oldman’s role in the still-untitled Italian-language drama are being kept under wraps.
Sorrentino’s 10th feature is about a woman named Partenope “who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth,” as the auteur – who won an international Oscar in 2013 for “The Great Beauty” –put it in a statement to Variety in June, when the shoot started.
In Greek mythology, Parthenope, as she is known in English, is the name of a siren who having failed to entice Odysseus with her songs, cast herself into the sea and drowned. Her body washed up on a symbolic foundational rock where Naples lies. Neapolitans in Italy are also known as “Parthenopeans.”
“Her long life embodies the full repertoire of human existence: youth’s lightheartedness and its demise,...
Details about Oldman’s role in the still-untitled Italian-language drama are being kept under wraps.
Sorrentino’s 10th feature is about a woman named Partenope “who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth,” as the auteur – who won an international Oscar in 2013 for “The Great Beauty” –put it in a statement to Variety in June, when the shoot started.
In Greek mythology, Parthenope, as she is known in English, is the name of a siren who having failed to entice Odysseus with her songs, cast herself into the sea and drowned. Her body washed up on a symbolic foundational rock where Naples lies. Neapolitans in Italy are also known as “Parthenopeans.”
“Her long life embodies the full repertoire of human existence: youth’s lightheartedness and its demise,...
- 8/30/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Roughly two years after his return to Naples for “The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino is heading back to his hometown for another movie steeped in the lore of his native southern port city.
The still untitled film is about a woman named Partenope “who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth,” the Oscar-winning auteur has revealed to Variety.
In Greek mythology, Parthenope, as she is known in English, is the name of a siren who having failed to entice Odysseus with her songs, cast herself into the sea and drowned. Her body washed up on a symbolic foundational rock where Naples lies. Neapolitans in Italy are also known as “Parthenopeans.”
Shooting on Sorrentino’s new film is set to start “at the end of June” and will take place in Naples and on the island of Capri.
Here is the film’s full director’s statement,...
The still untitled film is about a woman named Partenope “who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth,” the Oscar-winning auteur has revealed to Variety.
In Greek mythology, Parthenope, as she is known in English, is the name of a siren who having failed to entice Odysseus with her songs, cast herself into the sea and drowned. Her body washed up on a symbolic foundational rock where Naples lies. Neapolitans in Italy are also known as “Parthenopeans.”
Shooting on Sorrentino’s new film is set to start “at the end of June” and will take place in Naples and on the island of Capri.
Here is the film’s full director’s statement,...
- 6/23/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
With many European countries stepping up their offerings to lure in foreign projects, the last few years Italy’s Piedmont region has been quietly becoming an attractive option for Hollywood and international productions to set up camp. In a few weeks, Universal will release the tenth instalment of the Fast and Furious franchise, Fast X, of which 10 days was shot on the streets and city center of Turin, the region’s capital city, and around 150 of its 500-strong crew were locals. Michael Mann’s long-gestating Ferrari also was hosted by the Piedmont region last year.
Pre-pandemic, Matthew Vaughn’s The King’s Man also shot in Turin, using the city’s Royal Palace, streets along the city’s River Po and its Castle of Racconigi to shoot his Sarajevo-set project. It was a big commitment from major big-budget Hollywood film, putting the region’s locations on the map in a major...
Pre-pandemic, Matthew Vaughn’s The King’s Man also shot in Turin, using the city’s Royal Palace, streets along the city’s River Po and its Castle of Racconigi to shoot his Sarajevo-set project. It was a big commitment from major big-budget Hollywood film, putting the region’s locations on the map in a major...
- 5/8/2023
- by Diana Lodderhose
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Oscar winner Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) is due to start filming a new movie in June, we can reveal.
Set between the picturesque Italian island of Capri and Sorrentino’s city of birth, Naples, the movie will reunite the filmmaker with The Apartment producer Lorenzo Mieli after their collaborations on Oscar nominee The Hand Of God and series The New Pope, The Young Pope and Sei Pezzi Facili. Script comes from Sorrentino.
Plot details are being kept under wraps, but we hear the project will deal with “the human condition”.
Naples and its surrounding area were the setting for the director’s most recent film, 2021 drama The Hand Of God.
Contrary to a handful of online reports in the past week, we hear the film won’t be based on myths surrounding The Siren of Parthenope or star Gomorrah actor Giampiero De Concilio.
There’s no word yet...
Set between the picturesque Italian island of Capri and Sorrentino’s city of birth, Naples, the movie will reunite the filmmaker with The Apartment producer Lorenzo Mieli after their collaborations on Oscar nominee The Hand Of God and series The New Pope, The Young Pope and Sei Pezzi Facili. Script comes from Sorrentino.
Plot details are being kept under wraps, but we hear the project will deal with “the human condition”.
Naples and its surrounding area were the setting for the director’s most recent film, 2021 drama The Hand Of God.
Contrary to a handful of online reports in the past week, we hear the film won’t be based on myths surrounding The Siren of Parthenope or star Gomorrah actor Giampiero De Concilio.
There’s no word yet...
- 4/3/2023
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
The films up for the 2023 Best Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar are “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “The Batman,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Elvis,” and “The Whale.” Our current odds show that “Elvis” (69/20) is favored to win, followed in order by “The Whale” (18/5), “The Batman” (9/2), “All Quiet on the Western Front” (9/2), and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (9/2).
Each of this category’s last five consecutive lineups has included a 70% first-time nominee majority, but this year’s rookie group is 16% smaller. The present subset is comprised of both “All Quiet on the Western Front” artists (Linda Eisenhamerova and Heike Merker) as well as two craftspeople from “The Whale” (Annemarie Bradley-Sherron and Judy Chin) and one each from “The Batman” (Michael Fontaine), “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Camille Friend), and “Elvis” (Jason Baird).
Baird shares his nomination with Mark Coulier and Aldo Signoretti, who have now amassed four bids apiece in this category. Signoretti...
Each of this category’s last five consecutive lineups has included a 70% first-time nominee majority, but this year’s rookie group is 16% smaller. The present subset is comprised of both “All Quiet on the Western Front” artists (Linda Eisenhamerova and Heike Merker) as well as two craftspeople from “The Whale” (Annemarie Bradley-Sherron and Judy Chin) and one each from “The Batman” (Michael Fontaine), “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (Camille Friend), and “Elvis” (Jason Baird).
Baird shares his nomination with Mark Coulier and Aldo Signoretti, who have now amassed four bids apiece in this category. Signoretti...
- 3/11/2023
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
Álvaro Morte, Benedetta Porcaroli, Dora Romano and Giorgio Colangeli have joined Black Bear Pictures’ upcoming psychological horror film “Immaculate” with previously announced star and producer Sydney Sweeney. The film has begun its principal photography in Rome.
The horror film depicts devoutly religious Cecilia (Sweeney) who receives an offer at an illustrious Italian convent. While seemingly picture-perfect, her new home in the Italian countryside holds some horrifying secrets.
Morte’s credits include “Money Heist,” “Mirage,” “The Wheel of Time” and the upcoming series “Talkies.” Porcaroli has worked on projects such as “Perfect Strangers” “Baby,” “18 Presents” and the upcoming “Il Vangelo Secondo Maria.” Romano was featured in “The Hand of God,” “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” “Imma Tataranni – Deputy Prosecutor” and “Night Sun.” Colangeli’s credits include “Il Divo,” “Mindemic,” “Citizens of the World” and the upcoming “Castelrotto.” Sweeney’s acting work includes “Euphoria,” “The White Lotus” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.
The horror film depicts devoutly religious Cecilia (Sweeney) who receives an offer at an illustrious Italian convent. While seemingly picture-perfect, her new home in the Italian countryside holds some horrifying secrets.
Morte’s credits include “Money Heist,” “Mirage,” “The Wheel of Time” and the upcoming series “Talkies.” Porcaroli has worked on projects such as “Perfect Strangers” “Baby,” “18 Presents” and the upcoming “Il Vangelo Secondo Maria.” Romano was featured in “The Hand of God,” “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer,” “Imma Tataranni – Deputy Prosecutor” and “Night Sun.” Colangeli’s credits include “Il Divo,” “Mindemic,” “Citizens of the World” and the upcoming “Castelrotto.” Sweeney’s acting work includes “Euphoria,” “The White Lotus” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.
- 2/13/2023
- by Julia MacCary
- Variety Film + TV
Admissions are falling in both Italy and France.
Cinemas must innovate and focus on quality, not quantity, to attract back post-pandemic audiences, urged Italian and French distributors and exhibitors who came together at a panel at the Venice Film Festival this week.
European cinemas lost an estimated €19bn in revenues as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, according to International Union of Cinemas (Unic) figures released in June in its 2022 annual report.
Simone Gialdini, who heads Italian cinema theatre association Anec, said spectators’ theatrical experiences need be completely differentiated from their streaming activities to relaunch ticket sales. He...
Cinemas must innovate and focus on quality, not quantity, to attract back post-pandemic audiences, urged Italian and French distributors and exhibitors who came together at a panel at the Venice Film Festival this week.
European cinemas lost an estimated €19bn in revenues as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, according to International Union of Cinemas (Unic) figures released in June in its 2022 annual report.
Simone Gialdini, who heads Italian cinema theatre association Anec, said spectators’ theatrical experiences need be completely differentiated from their streaming activities to relaunch ticket sales. He...
- 9/9/2022
- by Alina Trabattoni
- ScreenDaily
Paolo Sorrentino, the Oscar-winning director of “The Great Beauty” and “The Hand of God,” is set to preside over the jury of the Marrakech International Film Festival. The popular fest will make a comeback this year after a pair of editions were canceled due to the pandemic. The upcoming fest will take place Nov. 11-19.
Sorrentino’s jury will award the Étoile d’Or to one of 14 feature-length films set to compete at the festival, which aims at showcasing rising filmmakers from around the world. The helmer follows the footsteps of prestigious directors and talents such as Martin Scorsese and Tilda Swinton, who presided over previous years.
“The Marrakech Film Festival is for me the place where the dream of watching numerous films with Martin Scorsese, and of spending days talking about cinema with him and other talented colleagues, came true,” Sorrentino said in a statement. “I believe — I want...
Sorrentino’s jury will award the Étoile d’Or to one of 14 feature-length films set to compete at the festival, which aims at showcasing rising filmmakers from around the world. The helmer follows the footsteps of prestigious directors and talents such as Martin Scorsese and Tilda Swinton, who presided over previous years.
“The Marrakech Film Festival is for me the place where the dream of watching numerous films with Martin Scorsese, and of spending days talking about cinema with him and other talented colleagues, came true,” Sorrentino said in a statement. “I believe — I want...
- 9/7/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
A fire broke out at Rome’s historic Cinecittà Studios on Monday afternoon (Aug. 1) and was extinguished by three teams of firefighters.
The fire broke out in the area where a set depicting renaissance Florence was housed and which was being decommissioned, destroying parts of it. It also disrupted the shoot for Netflix’s sequel to Charlize Theron film “The Old Guard” and threatened the “Big Brother” house.
“The fire has been extinguished. There are no injuries, no poisoning, no serious material damage,” Cinecittà Studios spokesperson Marlon Pellegrini told Afp in a statement.
The cause of the fire is not immediately clear, though conditions are dry and potentially incendiary in Italy, which is undergoing a heatwave.
The studio has history with fire. In 2007, flames engulfed warehouses housing sets for HBO/BBC series “Rome” and 32,000 square feet of studio space were destroyed. And in 2012, some parts of Studio 5, where Federico Fellini...
The fire broke out in the area where a set depicting renaissance Florence was housed and which was being decommissioned, destroying parts of it. It also disrupted the shoot for Netflix’s sequel to Charlize Theron film “The Old Guard” and threatened the “Big Brother” house.
“The fire has been extinguished. There are no injuries, no poisoning, no serious material damage,” Cinecittà Studios spokesperson Marlon Pellegrini told Afp in a statement.
The cause of the fire is not immediately clear, though conditions are dry and potentially incendiary in Italy, which is undergoing a heatwave.
The studio has history with fire. In 2007, flames engulfed warehouses housing sets for HBO/BBC series “Rome” and 32,000 square feet of studio space were destroyed. And in 2012, some parts of Studio 5, where Federico Fellini...
- 8/2/2022
- by Naman Ramachandran and Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Specialty U.S. distributors Uncork’d Entertainment and Dark Star Pictures have acquired Italian director Pasquale Marrazzo’s LGBTQ drama “The Neighbor” for release in North America from Rome-based Coccinelle Film Sales.
“The Neighbor” (which is titled “Hotel Milano” in Italy) is about two young men who are in love but get bullied by a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads that makes their life impossible as hatred and intolerance seeps into the rapport between their respective families.
It’s the fifth feature written and directed by Marrazzo whose debut “South of the Sun” launched from Toronto’s Discovery section in 2001. Marrazzo’s “I Dream of the World on Friday” was in Locarno’s Filmmakers of the Present Competition in 2009.
Marrazzo self-produced “Neighbor” does not yet have Italian distribution. Pic stars newcomer actors Michele Costabile and Jacopo Costantini as the leads and boasts a score by prizewinning Italian composer Teho Teardo.
In Cannes Coccinelle,...
“The Neighbor” (which is titled “Hotel Milano” in Italy) is about two young men who are in love but get bullied by a gang of neo-Nazi skinheads that makes their life impossible as hatred and intolerance seeps into the rapport between their respective families.
It’s the fifth feature written and directed by Marrazzo whose debut “South of the Sun” launched from Toronto’s Discovery section in 2001. Marrazzo’s “I Dream of the World on Friday” was in Locarno’s Filmmakers of the Present Competition in 2009.
Marrazzo self-produced “Neighbor” does not yet have Italian distribution. Pic stars newcomer actors Michele Costabile and Jacopo Costantini as the leads and boasts a score by prizewinning Italian composer Teho Teardo.
In Cannes Coccinelle,...
- 5/24/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Since Cinecittà Studios was founded in 1937, the sprawling facilities have driven the golden age of Cinema Italiano.
The famed city of cinema has also, albeit intermittently, been a magnet for international productions and endured wild fluctuations in the country’s political climate, before recently reemerging as a new frontier for the country’s film and TV industry.
Located in the heart of the Mediterranean basin, a short ride from the center of Rome and its airports, Italy’s top production hub has to date, hosted more than 3,000 films that have earned 53 Oscars.
During the period following World War II, the studios forged close ties to Hollywood, which helped the Italian industry gain its international standing.
The myriad Italian pics made at the studios range from Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” (1960) and “8½” (1963) to Nanni Moretti’s “Sogni D’Oro” (1981), Sergio Leone’s epic “Once Upon a Time in America...
The famed city of cinema has also, albeit intermittently, been a magnet for international productions and endured wild fluctuations in the country’s political climate, before recently reemerging as a new frontier for the country’s film and TV industry.
Located in the heart of the Mediterranean basin, a short ride from the center of Rome and its airports, Italy’s top production hub has to date, hosted more than 3,000 films that have earned 53 Oscars.
During the period following World War II, the studios forged close ties to Hollywood, which helped the Italian industry gain its international standing.
The myriad Italian pics made at the studios range from Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” (1960) and “8½” (1963) to Nanni Moretti’s “Sogni D’Oro” (1981), Sergio Leone’s epic “Once Upon a Time in America...
- 5/12/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
03 March 2014 by Sydney Levine in SydneysBuzz
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...
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...
- 5/8/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
When Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino reached his milestone 50th birthday, he decided the occasion was ripe with the potential to break away from many of the enduring ways he made distinctive, much lauded projects and experiment with new cinematic and storytelling techniques. And for his next film, The Hand of God, he decided to plumb the depths of his own past as well.
“Why now?” ponders Sorrentino. “I started to look at the past, without being too much involved. So in these past years, I’m able to see into my past with sort of an objective lens, and this is helpful to put in order the things in my life.”
“I had this story I was scared to do because it’s very personal, but because it’s a painful story...
“Why now?” ponders Sorrentino. “I started to look at the past, without being too much involved. So in these past years, I’m able to see into my past with sort of an objective lens, and this is helpful to put in order the things in my life.”
“I had this story I was scared to do because it’s very personal, but because it’s a painful story...
- 1/20/2022
- by Scott Huver
- Deadline Film + TV
Home of Fiat, birthplace of Gianni Agnelli, and site of one of cinema’s most memorable vehicular chases in 1969’s “The Italian Job,” the northern Italian city of Turin has always been car central. So when it comes to big screen representation, besting that iconic Michael Caine caper might be no easy task, but the local film board isn’t going to stop trying.
Over the past two decades, Film Commission Torino Piemonte has acted as a one-stop-shop offering logistical assistance and production services to visiting shoots. Since the bureau opened in 2000, most have been domestic in origin – with Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo” counting among the more prominent examples – but in recent vintages the Piedmont capital has welcomed a growing share of international visitors as well.
Building on the head of steam offered by the 2020 festival favorite “The Truffle Hunters,” Turin and its surrounding regions recently hosted three large-scale Bollywood productions,...
Over the past two decades, Film Commission Torino Piemonte has acted as a one-stop-shop offering logistical assistance and production services to visiting shoots. Since the bureau opened in 2000, most have been domestic in origin – with Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo” counting among the more prominent examples – but in recent vintages the Piedmont capital has welcomed a growing share of international visitors as well.
Building on the head of steam offered by the 2020 festival favorite “The Truffle Hunters,” Turin and its surrounding regions recently hosted three large-scale Bollywood productions,...
- 12/3/2021
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
"I don't like reality anymore. Reality is lousy." Netflix has debuted the full official trailer for The Hand of God, the latest film made by acclaimed Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino. This premiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize Silver Lion and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor. Sorrentino is telling his own story of growing up in Naples, as his desire to be a filmmaker grows. He shot this in Naples last year and it looks absolutely magical, showing the true power of cinema. The story of a boy in the tumultuous Naples of the 1980s. Sorrentino's most personal film yet is a tale of fate and family, sports and cinema, love and loss. Starring Filippo Scotti, with Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Marlon Joubert, Luisa Ranieri, Renato Carpentieri, and Massimiliano Gallo. While I didn't end up loving this film ...
- 11/11/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Multi-award winning Italian director Paolo Sorrentino has been speaking openly about his most intimate film to date, “The Hand of God,” at the Lumière Festival in Lyon, where his upcoming Netflix film received its French premiere.
Speaking at a masterclass at the century-old Comédie Odéon theater, Sorrentino confided: “I am first and foremost an observer. It’s what I like doing. But at some point you have to move on from observation to narration. I start telling a story when reality becomes too chaotic. For me, telling a story is putting things in order. That’s the meaning of cinema: putting order into the disorder of reality.”
Questioned on his taste for order and symmetry in his filmmaking, he went on: “I am afraid of chaos and reality. That’s why it took me 20 years to make this film: Naples may be a very cinematic city, but it’s too chaotic.
Speaking at a masterclass at the century-old Comédie Odéon theater, Sorrentino confided: “I am first and foremost an observer. It’s what I like doing. But at some point you have to move on from observation to narration. I start telling a story when reality becomes too chaotic. For me, telling a story is putting things in order. That’s the meaning of cinema: putting order into the disorder of reality.”
Questioned on his taste for order and symmetry in his filmmaking, he went on: “I am afraid of chaos and reality. That’s why it took me 20 years to make this film: Naples may be a very cinematic city, but it’s too chaotic.
- 10/12/2021
- by Lise Pedersen
- Variety Film + TV
Paolo Sorrentino, fresh off his Grand Jury Prize win in Venice for “The Hand of God,” in which he decided to tell his own story, picked up another statuette at Zurich Film Festival.
“It comes as a bit of a surprise as I am such a young Italian director,” joked the 51-year-old. “I am honored to receive this award for the first part of my career. I hope I will receive another one in about 20 years.”
During his masterclass, conducted in Italian, “The Great Beauty” helmer opened up about latest film, which saw him return to his hometown of Naples. A Netflix production, it delves into his family, the tragedy that ripped it apart but also soccer legend Diego Maradona, unveiled as a Napoli player in 1984.
“For me, and for many people from Naples, he represented a moment of joy, of sudden freedom after years of difficult times. His arrival had given us hope,...
“It comes as a bit of a surprise as I am such a young Italian director,” joked the 51-year-old. “I am honored to receive this award for the first part of my career. I hope I will receive another one in about 20 years.”
During his masterclass, conducted in Italian, “The Great Beauty” helmer opened up about latest film, which saw him return to his hometown of Naples. A Netflix production, it delves into his family, the tragedy that ripped it apart but also soccer legend Diego Maradona, unveiled as a Napoli player in 1984.
“For me, and for many people from Naples, he represented a moment of joy, of sudden freedom after years of difficult times. His arrival had given us hope,...
- 10/1/2021
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
Contemporary filmmakers clearly have an enormous bee in their bonnet for the coming-of-age film and poetic youth memoir—even Steven Spielberg is currently getting in on the action with his cutely named The Fabelmans, reminiscing on his Eisenhower-era boyhood in Arizona. There are a handful of potential explanations for this: the adjacent popularity of autofiction (that modish literary form initially popularised in France) has found authors—from Norway’s Knausgaard to Ferrante in Naples—deep-mining their own backstories, reinventing what we know to be realism. So there’s something in the air. Can it also be the self-publicising spree of social media platforms? For this writer’s money, climate anxiety seems relevant: the urge to preserve, to scan past memories before a great erasure. Even James Gray, often impervious to fashion, is setting up Armageddon Time, about his upbringing in ‘80s Queens.
This is all eternally relevant for Paolo Sorrentino’s new film,...
This is all eternally relevant for Paolo Sorrentino’s new film,...
- 9/10/2021
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
It would be accurate to say that Paolo Sorrentino’s work explores the relationship between the sacred and the profane, but such tepid wording fails to capture the orgiastic maximalism of “The Great Beauty,” speak to the sexed up sacrilege of “The New Pope,” or summon the I didn’t even see it because a Sorrentino movie about Silvio Berlusconi just sounded way too exhausting-ness of “Loro.” Calling “Il Divo” a film about a crooked politician would be like calling “8 ½” a film about writer’s block: Right enough, and yet oh so wrong. In Sorrentino’s world, the sacred and the profane don’t just rub together or intertwine so much as they dry hump each other — with eternal vigor — until we so lose track of where one ends and the other begins that we stop trying to figure it out. For better or worse, his cinema is the work...
- 9/2/2021
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Going back to Naples and the tragedy that changed his life, The Great Beauty director evokes his adolescence with bawdy vigour
At 16, Paolo Sorrentino returned home to find that both his parents were dead, killed by a carbon monoxide leak. On the night of the tragedy, Sorrentino was inside a football stadium, watching Diego Maradona play for his local team, Napoli. Afterwards, he would say – not wholly joking – that Maradona saved his life.
More than three decades on, in the middle act of a career that has already won him an Oscar, the Italian film-maker has retraced his steps, turned back the clock and fashioned this foundational horror into a fevered coming-of-age tale, a movie that played to a capacity crowd here in Venice. The Hand of God, no surprise, is Sorrentino’s most nakedly personal film to date, almost to a fault in the way it jettisons the cool...
At 16, Paolo Sorrentino returned home to find that both his parents were dead, killed by a carbon monoxide leak. On the night of the tragedy, Sorrentino was inside a football stadium, watching Diego Maradona play for his local team, Napoli. Afterwards, he would say – not wholly joking – that Maradona saved his life.
More than three decades on, in the middle act of a career that has already won him an Oscar, the Italian film-maker has retraced his steps, turned back the clock and fashioned this foundational horror into a fevered coming-of-age tale, a movie that played to a capacity crowd here in Venice. The Hand of God, no surprise, is Sorrentino’s most nakedly personal film to date, almost to a fault in the way it jettisons the cool...
- 9/2/2021
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
When Paolo Sorrentino was 16 he lost his parents in an accident involving the heating system in a mountain house where he always used to go to with them. But that weekend he didn’t go, because he wanted to watch his idol Diego Maradona and S.S.C Napoli play a soccer match in Tuscany. And that saved him. Having recently turned 50 amid the coronavirus lockdown, the Oscar-winning director of “The Great Beauty” decided he was “old enough” to tackle his autobiography. So after 20 years he returned to his native Naples to shoot “The Hand of God.”
This Netflix Original film, which world-premieres Thursday in Venice, is the story of a goofy kid named Fabietto who starts harboring a passion for filmmaking in the tumultuous Naples of the late 1980s. As Sorrentino puts it, “it’s a tale of destiny and family, of sport and cinema, love and loss.” Excerpts from the conversation follow.
This Netflix Original film, which world-premieres Thursday in Venice, is the story of a goofy kid named Fabietto who starts harboring a passion for filmmaking in the tumultuous Naples of the late 1980s. As Sorrentino puts it, “it’s a tale of destiny and family, of sport and cinema, love and loss.” Excerpts from the conversation follow.
- 9/2/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
"Do you have a story to tell??" Netflix has revealed the first teaser trailer for The Hand of God, the latest film from acclaimed Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino. This is premiering in just a few weeks at the upcoming 2021 Venice Film Festival and it's easily one of my most anticipated. This trailer is so good that final shot of him yelling out "Si!!" gives me chills. Sorrentino is telling his own story of growing up in Naples, as his desire to be a filmmaker grows. He shot this in Naples last year and it looks absolutely magical, capturing the glory and beauty of cinema and what makes it so enrapturing. The story of a boy in the tumultuous Naples of the 1980s. Sorrentino's most personal film yet is a tale of fate and family, sports and cinema, love and loss. Starring Filippo Scotti, with Toni Servillo, Teresa ...
- 8/19/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
True Colours has taken international sales on Italian auteur Mario Martone’s new film “The King of Laughter” (“Qui Rido Io”) starring Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”) as popular and prolific early 20th century Neapolitan actor and playwright Eduardo Scarpetta.
Martone’s latest three works “Leopardi,” “Capri Revolution” and “The Mayor of Rione Sanità” all launched from the Venice competition. “King of Laughter,” for which True Colours will be launching sales at the Cannes market, is believed to have been submitted for a berth in the Lido’s upcoming edition in September.
The Rome-based sales company previously handled Martone’s “Sanità,” which also hails from Naples’ rich theatre heritage.
Scarpetta penned more than 50 comic plays including “Poverty and Nobility,” later adapted into a hit movie produced by Dino De Laurentiis starring Sophia Loren and comedy star Totò.
This is a natural role for Servillo –– pictured as Scarpetta in the above...
Martone’s latest three works “Leopardi,” “Capri Revolution” and “The Mayor of Rione Sanità” all launched from the Venice competition. “King of Laughter,” for which True Colours will be launching sales at the Cannes market, is believed to have been submitted for a berth in the Lido’s upcoming edition in September.
The Rome-based sales company previously handled Martone’s “Sanità,” which also hails from Naples’ rich theatre heritage.
Scarpetta penned more than 50 comic plays including “Poverty and Nobility,” later adapted into a hit movie produced by Dino De Laurentiis starring Sophia Loren and comedy star Totò.
This is a natural role for Servillo –– pictured as Scarpetta in the above...
- 7/6/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”) is set to star in Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God,” which started shooting last week in Naples, the Oscar-winning director’s hometown.
Production of Sorrentino’s new pic, which is produced by Fremantle-backed The Apartment for Netflix, has since moved to the Sicilian island of Stromboli, according to a well-placed source who on Monday confirmed Italian press reports regarding both Servillo’s casting and the film’s shoot.
Fremantle did not respond to request for comment.
Described by Sorrentino in promotional materials as an “intimate and personal film,” “The Hand of God” marks Sorrentino’s return to making a film mainly set, and shot, in his native Naples, 20 years after his feature debut “One Man Up” in 2001, in which Servillo played a cocaine-addled club singer.
Servillo, a frequent fixture in Sorrentino’s work, has since performed in four other films by the Neapolitan director.
Production of Sorrentino’s new pic, which is produced by Fremantle-backed The Apartment for Netflix, has since moved to the Sicilian island of Stromboli, according to a well-placed source who on Monday confirmed Italian press reports regarding both Servillo’s casting and the film’s shoot.
Fremantle did not respond to request for comment.
Described by Sorrentino in promotional materials as an “intimate and personal film,” “The Hand of God” marks Sorrentino’s return to making a film mainly set, and shot, in his native Naples, 20 years after his feature debut “One Man Up” in 2001, in which Servillo played a cocaine-addled club singer.
Servillo, a frequent fixture in Sorrentino’s work, has since performed in four other films by the Neapolitan director.
- 9/14/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
While the pandemic has reduced film festivals’ capacity to showcase new work, an all-singing all-dancing Spanish-Italian number has been selected for two.
Sold by Latido Films, “Explota Explota” (“My Heart Goes Boom!”), the assured debut feature of music promo and commercials director Nacho Álvarez, will receive an Rtve Gala Screening at the San Sebastian Festival next week and has also made the selection for the Toronto Festival’s market screenings.
Set in dictator Francisco Franco’s Spain during the 1970s, the musical comedy tells an unlikely love story between an aspiring dancer (“Beautiful Youth’s” Ingrid García-Jonnson) and the man who must censor her.
Inspired by “Mamma Mia” and “Hairspray,” Álvarez – brother of Uruguayan Fede Álvarez (“Evil Dead” “Don’t Breathe”) – takes the songs of popular singer, dancer and actress Raffaella Carrà and threads them into a story of forbidden love.
While some might balk at making a musical as their debut feature,...
Sold by Latido Films, “Explota Explota” (“My Heart Goes Boom!”), the assured debut feature of music promo and commercials director Nacho Álvarez, will receive an Rtve Gala Screening at the San Sebastian Festival next week and has also made the selection for the Toronto Festival’s market screenings.
Set in dictator Francisco Franco’s Spain during the 1970s, the musical comedy tells an unlikely love story between an aspiring dancer (“Beautiful Youth’s” Ingrid García-Jonnson) and the man who must censor her.
Inspired by “Mamma Mia” and “Hairspray,” Álvarez – brother of Uruguayan Fede Álvarez (“Evil Dead” “Don’t Breathe”) – takes the songs of popular singer, dancer and actress Raffaella Carrà and threads them into a story of forbidden love.
While some might balk at making a musical as their debut feature,...
- 9/10/2020
- by Ann-Marie Corvin
- Variety Film + TV
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
Over the top, excessive, too much reliance on anonymous sexy young women for thrills…definitely an inferior work! Let’s hope it is not a trend.
I have been one of Sorrentino’s greatest fans. As I wrote in the review of A Great Beauty “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.”
Well Toni Servillo is still incomparable. His face is a smiley face mask which can momentarily change into the face of a tired old man. But he is a cardboard figure as he plays Berlusconi in his last days before his current resurrection as a member of EU Parliament. His wife Veronica Lario, played by Elena Sofia Ricci was the only real character with any depth.
I have been one of Sorrentino’s greatest fans. As I wrote in the review of A Great Beauty “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.”
Well Toni Servillo is still incomparable. His face is a smiley face mask which can momentarily change into the face of a tired old man. But he is a cardboard figure as he plays Berlusconi in his last days before his current resurrection as a member of EU Parliament. His wife Veronica Lario, played by Elena Sofia Ricci was the only real character with any depth.
- 8/21/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Chiara Martegiani with Laughing (Ride) director Valerio Mastandrea on crying: "For me it's a nightmare." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the Film at Lincoln Center and Istituto Luce Cinecittà Open Roads: New Italian Cinema program of films in New York, Valerio Mastandrea has a duel role. The director/screenwriter of Laughing (Ride) also stars with Riccardo Scamarcio, Jasmine Trinca and Isabella Ferrari in Valeria Golino's Euphoria (Euforia) which had its première in 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival.
Valerio Mastandrea was Nico Naldini, confidant to Pier Paolo Pasolini played by Willem Dafoe in Abel Ferrara's Pasolini, and Andrea Bottini in Roberto Andò's Long Live Freedom (Viva La Libertà) with Toni Servillo and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. He also starred opposite Alba Rohrwacher in Silvio Soldini's Garibaldi's Lovers (Il Comandante E La Cicogna).
Valerio Mastandrea: "Maybe you've got to reach something and stay in the scene even before crying, just...
In the Film at Lincoln Center and Istituto Luce Cinecittà Open Roads: New Italian Cinema program of films in New York, Valerio Mastandrea has a duel role. The director/screenwriter of Laughing (Ride) also stars with Riccardo Scamarcio, Jasmine Trinca and Isabella Ferrari in Valeria Golino's Euphoria (Euforia) which had its première in 2018 at the Cannes Film Festival.
Valerio Mastandrea was Nico Naldini, confidant to Pier Paolo Pasolini played by Willem Dafoe in Abel Ferrara's Pasolini, and Andrea Bottini in Roberto Andò's Long Live Freedom (Viva La Libertà) with Toni Servillo and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. He also starred opposite Alba Rohrwacher in Silvio Soldini's Garibaldi's Lovers (Il Comandante E La Cicogna).
Valerio Mastandrea: "Maybe you've got to reach something and stay in the scene even before crying, just...
- 6/10/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Silvio Berlusconi is the role Toni Servillo was born to play – but Paulo Sorrentino’s dreamlike biopic is perhaps too lenient to the grisly plutocrat
His face is waxy and frozen, topped with an ebony hair-transplant and split with a rictus grin, like the Joker. Italy’s grisly premier plutocrat Silvio Berlusconi is the part Toni Servillo was born to play, maybe the part that all his previous roles for director Paolo Sorrentino have been leading up to. There’s a prototypical sliver of Silvio in the exiled mob functionary Titta in Consequences of Love (2004), the enigmatic mandarin Giulio Andreotti in Il Divo (2008) and especially the disillusioned Roman journalist and boulevardier Jep in La Grande Bellezza. Servillo is always good at the fathomless ennui of the lion in winter, the droll and mordant self-knowledge of someone sadly savouring the various status-trappings of age and male power that he has – almost – ceased to care about.
His face is waxy and frozen, topped with an ebony hair-transplant and split with a rictus grin, like the Joker. Italy’s grisly premier plutocrat Silvio Berlusconi is the part Toni Servillo was born to play, maybe the part that all his previous roles for director Paolo Sorrentino have been leading up to. There’s a prototypical sliver of Silvio in the exiled mob functionary Titta in Consequences of Love (2004), the enigmatic mandarin Giulio Andreotti in Il Divo (2008) and especially the disillusioned Roman journalist and boulevardier Jep in La Grande Bellezza. Servillo is always good at the fathomless ennui of the lion in winter, the droll and mordant self-knowledge of someone sadly savouring the various status-trappings of age and male power that he has – almost – ceased to care about.
- 4/17/2019
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The Italian contingent at Toronto comprises new works by heavyweights such as Oscar-winner Paolo Sorrentino and Matteo Garrone alongside emerging talents who’ve already made a splash, including Roberto Minervini and Edoardo De Angelis, and newcomer Laura Luchetti, among a growing group of women directors breaking the country’s gender barrier.
These helmers are all under 50. In different ways their latest works all have political connotations, which range from former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s deep impact on Italy, to immigration and the upheaval being caused by President Trump in the U.S. While rooted in local contexts, they spring from the Italian film community’s increasingly international mindset.
“Loro,” Paolo Sorrentino
Section: Masters
“Loro,” which means “Them,” stars Sorrentino regular Toni Servillo as a grinning Silvio Berlusconi. Servillo previously played Italian pol Giulio Andreotti in the director’s caustic pop opera “Il Divo,” but the tone in this depiction...
These helmers are all under 50. In different ways their latest works all have political connotations, which range from former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s deep impact on Italy, to immigration and the upheaval being caused by President Trump in the U.S. While rooted in local contexts, they spring from the Italian film community’s increasingly international mindset.
“Loro,” Paolo Sorrentino
Section: Masters
“Loro,” which means “Them,” stars Sorrentino regular Toni Servillo as a grinning Silvio Berlusconi. Servillo previously played Italian pol Giulio Andreotti in the director’s caustic pop opera “Il Divo,” but the tone in this depiction...
- 9/14/2018
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Opera singer Daniel Emmet, whose shocking elimination in the Judge Cuts caused outrage among “America’s Got Talent” fans, is getting a second shot at the big time. He’s been chosen as a wild card by “Agt” judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Mel B and Howie Mandel and will return on Tuesday, August 28 during the live Quarterfinals 3 episode. See all 12 of this week’s acts down below.
SEESacred Riana interview: After ‘America’s Got Talent’ elimination, ghost magician fails to thank fans for their support [Watch]
“Even though Daniel Emmet got a ‘no’ at Judge Cuts, he’s now back as a wild card in the live shows,” revealed “Agt” host Tyra Banks during the “Road to the Lives” episode of NBC’s reality TV show. As a refresher, when Daniel first auditioned Simon stopped him mid-performance because he didn’t like his original song. Instead, Simon ordered him to sing Il Divo‘s “Passera,...
SEESacred Riana interview: After ‘America’s Got Talent’ elimination, ghost magician fails to thank fans for their support [Watch]
“Even though Daniel Emmet got a ‘no’ at Judge Cuts, he’s now back as a wild card in the live shows,” revealed “Agt” host Tyra Banks during the “Road to the Lives” episode of NBC’s reality TV show. As a refresher, when Daniel first auditioned Simon stopped him mid-performance because he didn’t like his original song. Instead, Simon ordered him to sing Il Divo‘s “Passera,...
- 8/27/2018
- by Marcus James Dixon
- Gold Derby
“Even though Daniel Emmet got a ‘no’ at Judge Cuts, he’s now back as a wild card in the live shows,” revealed “America’s Got Talent” host Tyra Banks during Thursday’s special “Road to the Lives” episode of NBC’s reality TV show. The opera singer’s shocking elimination two weeks ago broke the internet, with many viewers praying that he’d be given another shot. Their dreams have been answered, as Daniel now numbers among the Top 36 acts of Season 13. The live Quarterfinals begin Tuesday, August 14 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.
SEEProjection artists Front Pictures earn wild card slot in ‘America’s Got Talent’ live shows after being Mia in Judge Cuts
As a refresher, Daniel’s journey on “Agt” was unique in that judge Simon Cowell, stopped him mid-performance because he didn’t like the song he was singing. Instead, Simon ordered Daniel to sing...
SEEProjection artists Front Pictures earn wild card slot in ‘America’s Got Talent’ live shows after being Mia in Judge Cuts
As a refresher, Daniel’s journey on “Agt” was unique in that judge Simon Cowell, stopped him mid-performance because he didn’t like the song he was singing. Instead, Simon ordered Daniel to sing...
- 8/10/2018
- by Marcus James Dixon
- Gold Derby
After the shocking elimination of opera singer Daniel Emmet during the Judge Cuts 1 episode of “America’s Got Talent,” viewers are in an absolute uproar. Fan reactions range from “He is absolutely amazing!” to “What is wrong with the judges?!” to “Daniel was totally robbed.” See a selection of fan comments down below and then be sure to give us Your thoughts on Emmet’s controversial ouster.
See 11-year-old animal impersonator Lily Wilker gets kicked off ‘America’s Got Talent’ after making jungle noises [Watch]
“Agt” judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Mel B and Howie Mandel and guest judge Ken Jeong watched 18 acts perform on Tuesday night, but could only put through seven of them to the live rounds. Jeong honored Voices of Hope Children’s Choir with his Golden Buzzer, which took one of the seven slots.
The other six acts that the judges advanced were dance group Junior New System,...
See 11-year-old animal impersonator Lily Wilker gets kicked off ‘America’s Got Talent’ after making jungle noises [Watch]
“Agt” judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Mel B and Howie Mandel and guest judge Ken Jeong watched 18 acts perform on Tuesday night, but could only put through seven of them to the live rounds. Jeong honored Voices of Hope Children’s Choir with his Golden Buzzer, which took one of the seven slots.
The other six acts that the judges advanced were dance group Junior New System,...
- 7/19/2018
- by Marcus James Dixon
- Gold Derby
Classical crossover singer Daniel Emmet thought that he was sure to sail through his audition for “America’s Got Talent.” But as we saw on the June 19 episode of “Agt,” head judge Simon Cowell had something else in mind for this 25-year-old singer, who intended to perform an original song that was a mashup of opera and pop. He had barely begun this tune, which came across as bland and boring, when the curmudgeonly Cowell cut him off and demanded that he sing a different song. (Watch his audition video above.)
When Emmet admitted he had not come prepared with an alternate, Cowell was cross. He dispatched him from the stage and gave him just one hour to learn another song, the Il Divo hit “Passera.” The visibly nervous neophyte returned in the appointed 60 minutes and proceeded to wow the audience, the panel and even himself with his rendition of this Italian aria.
When Emmet admitted he had not come prepared with an alternate, Cowell was cross. He dispatched him from the stage and gave him just one hour to learn another song, the Il Divo hit “Passera.” The visibly nervous neophyte returned in the appointed 60 minutes and proceeded to wow the audience, the panel and even himself with his rendition of this Italian aria.
- 6/20/2018
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
After Paolo Sorrentino’s virtuoso evisceration of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti in “Il Divo,” expectations were sky high that the distinctive director would bring a similar caustic bravura to his treatment of Silvio Berlusconi. Yet “Loro 1,” the first of a two-part kaleidoscopic consideration of the four-time prime minister and the Italy he fostered, is not so much an invigorating acid bath as a subtly written, stylistically more classical look at one of the most divisive European leaders in recent memory. It aims to peer not just into Berlusconi’s monomaniacal soul, but to expose, as with “The Great Beauty,” the apotheosis of vulgarity and craving for attention that’s been the canny politician and media magnate’s lasting imprint on Italian society.
Whether it’s successful depends very much on “Loro 2,” to be released in Italy on May 10, roughly two weeks after this installment. Rumor has it the...
Whether it’s successful depends very much on “Loro 2,” to be released in Italy on May 10, roughly two weeks after this installment. Rumor has it the...
- 5/8/2018
- by Jay Weissberg
- Variety Film + TV
After a long series of attention-grabbing films, director Paolo Sorrentino has risen to become one of Italy’s major social critics. Loro 1 (Them 1), the first of his twin films on Silvio Berlusconi, fits snugly into his dark vision of the country’s decline into unrestrained greed, political apathy and careless hedonism, which were so poignantly detailed in The Great Beauty. Judging by the first part, Loro seems less a biopic of the Italian business mogul-turned-politician than a harsh critique of Italians and their habits of self-abasement. Toni Servillo, the talented actor who impersonated wily politician Giulio Andreotti in Il Divo, makes...
- 4/30/2018
- by Deborah Young
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
International trailers revealed for Hot Dog, Fack Ju Goethe 3, Dark Almost Night.
Source: Hot Dog
Hot Dog
German sales outfit Picture Tree International has revealed key international marketing material for titles including German box office smash Fack ju Göhte 3 (aka Suck Me Shakespeer 3), Til Schweiger action-comedy Hot Dog and Polish crime-drama Dark Almost Night.
Watch the exclusive English-language trailers for these films below.
Like its two predecessors, Fack ju Göhte 3 has proven a huge hit in Germany where it has sold six million tickets.
Hot Dog has also gone down well at home, debuting in first position at the local box office two weeks ago for Warner Bros Germany.
The company’s Efm slate will also comprise Swedish comedy Kingdom Of Sweden - Not Of This World, which is currently in post-production and could get a festival launch in summer or autumn; Austrian drama What You Win On The Swings; German comedy A Jar Full Of Life, which...
Source: Hot Dog
Hot Dog
German sales outfit Picture Tree International has revealed key international marketing material for titles including German box office smash Fack ju Göhte 3 (aka Suck Me Shakespeer 3), Til Schweiger action-comedy Hot Dog and Polish crime-drama Dark Almost Night.
Watch the exclusive English-language trailers for these films below.
Like its two predecessors, Fack ju Göhte 3 has proven a huge hit in Germany where it has sold six million tickets.
Hot Dog has also gone down well at home, debuting in first position at the local box office two weeks ago for Warner Bros Germany.
The company’s Efm slate will also comprise Swedish comedy Kingdom Of Sweden - Not Of This World, which is currently in post-production and could get a festival launch in summer or autumn; Austrian drama What You Win On The Swings; German comedy A Jar Full Of Life, which...
- 1/30/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- ScreenDaily
At first glance this clip of Sean Penn's kooky rock star in This Must Be The Place looks like Robert Smith's take on The Straight Story. Which isn't too far from the truth. Any resemblance to the Cure frontman is purely deliberate in Penn's performance - Smith was a conscious jumping-off point for the radically tousled ex-rocker Cheyenne - but the road trip he's embarking on here owes even more to The Boys From Brazil.Directed by Paolo Sorrentino, whose political thriller Il Divo won him a stack of plaudits in 2009, This Must Be The Place sees Cheyenne tap into his inner Expendable to hunt down the Nazi who killed his father. Helping in his unlikely quest is the ever-wonderful Judd Hirsch as a Simon Wiesenthal-alike Nazi hunter and the also-ever-wonderful Frances McDormand as Cheyenne's long-suffering wife. brightcove.createExperiences(); Moments of Lynchian weirdness sit cheek-by-jowl with a...
- 2/24/2012
- EmpireOnline
Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos has died aged 76. The Athens-born director was killed in a road accident in the port city of Pireas. Angelopoulos was in the middle of shooting his new film, The Other Sea, with Italian actor Toni Servillo (Il Divo) when the accident happened. It was to be his first film since 2008's The Dust of Time.The director took the path less travelled to the big screen. Initially a law student in Athens, he headed to Paris to study literature at the Sorbonne before making plans to attend Paris's prestigious School of Cinema. Instead, he returned to Greece and worked as a journalist and critic until his paper was banned by the ruling junta. It was then that he turned to filmmaking, making a politically-charged trilogy that spanned Greek history from 1930 to 1970. It included acclaimed drama The Travelling Players (1975), which won him notice overseas and laid the foundations for a well-respected filmography.
- 1/25/2012
- EmpireOnline
As any Sundance veteran can tell you, the best way to start the festival is with a series of movies about depressed artistic types who don't know what to do with their lives. You have to plan carefully, too, because on average only about 80 of the films that screen here match that description. I started my 2012 Sundance with This Must Be the Place, Hello I Must Be Going, and I Am Not a Hipster**. I had high hopes for that first one, especially. The writer/director, Paolo Sorrentino, was responsible for Il Divo, an ultra-stylish drama about Italian politics that I loved (and keep in mind, I usually don't like politics or Italians). Moreover, This Must Be the Place stars Sean Penn as an aging Goth rocker who goes looking for a Nazi war criminal. Based on that description...
Read More...
Read More...
- 1/22/2012
- by Eric D. Snider
- Movies.com
Paolo Sorrentino's This Must Be The Place centers around Sean Penn's character, a burned out former rock star named Cheyenne, as he searches for his dead father's tormenter, a now 95-year-old Nazi hiding in the United States. The director scored with his last film, Il Divo - which I haven't seen, but have heard great things about - but his follow-up is a total disappointment on nearly every level.
Some of that synopsis may sound interesting, and there are occasionally interesting moments in the film that seem to hint at something deeper happening beneath the surface. But these moments ultimately don't lead anywhere, leaving me frustrated and wishing I could see these loose ends tied up instead of what actually unfolds on screen. Early in the film, a downcast Penn walks through a mall and an ironic fan comes up and snaps a photo of him without permission,...
- 1/21/2012
- by benp
- GeekTyrant
Sean Penn affects a high-pitched, soft-spoken voice as retired rock-star Cheyenne in the new trailer for "This Must Be the Place", an upcoming dramedy co-written and directed by Italian helmer Paolo Sorrentino ("Il Divo") that also stars Frances McDormand and Judd Hirsch. The film, which was picked up by the Weinstein Co. following its premiere at this year's Cannes Film Festival, follows a former goth-rocker as he sets out on a road trip to track down the Nazi war criminal who made his recently-deceased father's life a living hell during WWII. With his sullen demeanor, white makeup, Goth attire and head...
- 12/22/2011
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
Here is a new trailer for This Must Be The Place starring Sean Penn doing his best impersonation of The Cure. This Australian edit of the trailer from Hopscotch films shows off some new footage for this unique film. The film was directed by Paolo Sorrentino, who directed such films as Il Divo and The Consequences of Love
Here is the description:
Sean Penn plays Cheyenne, a bored, retired, wealthy American goth rock star living in Dublin (and looking a lot like Robert Smith). He's a complex character, bumbling around town with friends and living in an enormous mansion with his down-to-earth wife of 35 years, Jane (Frances McDormand.) When he learns of the death of his father - who he has been estranged from for over 30 years - he returns to America to embark on a road trip that will change him forever. His quest is driven by the revelation...
Here is the description:
Sean Penn plays Cheyenne, a bored, retired, wealthy American goth rock star living in Dublin (and looking a lot like Robert Smith). He's a complex character, bumbling around town with friends and living in an enormous mansion with his down-to-earth wife of 35 years, Jane (Frances McDormand.) When he learns of the death of his father - who he has been estranged from for over 30 years - he returns to America to embark on a road trip that will change him forever. His quest is driven by the revelation...
- 12/21/2011
- by Tiberius
- GeekTyrant
At this point in time, it feels like Sundance is still months away, but actually, it's only a matter of a few weeks, and once Christmas and New Year are out of the way, we'll practically be there. Most of the line-up's been announced already, and off the top of our heads, it's the most promising that Park City has seen in quite some time. But it's not quite done, with the festival announcing four new features added at the last minute, bringing the total up to 117 full-length films, from thirty different countries. Perhaps the starriest isn't actually a premiere; "This Must Be The Place," Paolo Sorrentino's drama starring Sean Penn as an aging rock star who heads out on the road to hunt down the Nazi war criminal who killed his father. The film's from "Il Divo" helmer Sorrentino, and received a rather cool response when it bowed at Cannes back in May.
- 12/20/2011
- The Playlist
One of the most talked-about films this spring was Paolo Sorrentino's followup to "Il Divo," the oddball roadtrip movie "This Must Be The Place." Starring a Robert Smith-channeling Sean Penn, the film is an odd one, a gothic holocaust dramedy of sorts about an aging rocker who goes to find the SS officer who tortured his estranged father, who recently passed away. Reviews were mixed, but curiousity abounded not only for the chance to see Penn do something quite out of step with his usual screen appearances, but also because of a score led by new tunes from David Byrne and Will Oldham. Well, while we wait for The Weinstein Company to release this movie, details on the soundtrack have arrived, though you'll have to import this one for now.
- 11/17/2011
- The Playlist
Pittsburgh rapper's independent debut tops 'Breaking Dawn' soundtrack.
By Gil Kaufman
Mac Miller
Photo: David Wolff-Patrick/Redferns
Who has enough mojo to beat out the soundtrack to one of the year's most-anticipated movies? How about Mac Miller? Right about now, the Pittsburgh rapper is probably having the best day ever because, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan, his independently released debut full-length album, Blue Slide Park, is going to debut at #1 on the Billboard albums chart next week, thanks to sales of more than 144,000.
The feat by the 19-year-old Mc marks the first time an indie debut release has hit #1 since 1995's Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound.
A bit further back at #3 is Now 40, which moved 119,000 copies, followed by "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1" soundtrack (105,000) with tunes by the Joy Formidable, Theophilus London, Iron & Wine, Christina Perri and the Noisettes. The two...
By Gil Kaufman
Mac Miller
Photo: David Wolff-Patrick/Redferns
Who has enough mojo to beat out the soundtrack to one of the year's most-anticipated movies? How about Mac Miller? Right about now, the Pittsburgh rapper is probably having the best day ever because, according to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan, his independently released debut full-length album, Blue Slide Park, is going to debut at #1 on the Billboard albums chart next week, thanks to sales of more than 144,000.
The feat by the 19-year-old Mc marks the first time an indie debut release has hit #1 since 1995's Dogg Food by Tha Dogg Pound.
A bit further back at #3 is Now 40, which moved 119,000 copies, followed by "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1" soundtrack (105,000) with tunes by the Joy Formidable, Theophilus London, Iron & Wine, Christina Perri and the Noisettes. The two...
- 11/16/2011
- MTV Music 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.