The 2012 edition of the Cinema Italian Style festival will take place November 13-18, 2012. The six-day celebration of Italian cinema will be held at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica, and at the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, and showcase classic Italian films and contemporary productions, including several U.S. premieres.
The following is our interview with Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles, Mr. Alberto Di Mauro, about this event.
Bijan Tehrani: Please tell us a little bit about the 2012 Italian Film festival.
Alberto Di Mauro: It’s every year, like an annual appointment, in November. The festival starts on the 14th of November; it’s called Cinema Italian Style. It will be held at the Egyptian theatre, at the Aero and for the first time also at the Italian Cultural Institute. This year is very important because we will present the film by Fratelli Taviani CAESAR MUST DIE, which has gotten a lot of success already. In fact, it just got the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival and is Italy’s Oscar submission for Best Film in a Foreign Language. This is the most important film but we have many other important films by famous directors like Pupi Avati, Ferzan Özpetek or Giuseppe Piccioni: so, many many who are important and famous, and other ones not so famous but new stars in the world of cinema.
At the same time, we have a special event at the Institute dedicated to documentaries. We are going to screen three documentaries, all of them very meaningful. The first one is about cinema itself, it’s called HANDMADE CINEMA and it’s about the artisans who are behind cinema. So it’s not about the directors or the actors, actresses and big stars, but about all the work that is behind the scenes. In the cast, we also have very important people like Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo, who are production designers who’ve already won three Oscars and many others who talk about the work in cinema, with the materials -scissors, needles, hammers, brushes, whatever materials needed to create a film. So it’s a film to get aware of how a film is built up.
The second one is LA GUERRA DEI VULCANI, THE WAR OF VOLCANOES, about the love story triangle between Roberto Rossellini, Ingrid Bergman, Anna Magnani, in the Aeolien Islands, in Vulcani exactly: the reconstruction of this story in the fantastic frame of the Aeolien Islands, forgotten islands in a way.
And the third one is YOU ARE HERE: this is a film about the city of Rome, looking for the many sites that were made famous by great Italian films. You know that Rome is considered in a way an open theatre, a stage, like an open-air theater. So we are discovering these places where many many films have been shot.
BT: How many days will the festival run and how can international film fans get access to the movies?
AdM: The festival will be from November 14th to November 18th, with the first day at the Egyptian Theatre. The other days will be at the Aero -most of the films. And November 16th, the Documentary section will be at the Italian Cultural Institute in the evening. It’s better to book in advance as some films can be sold out from the beginning. There is a website for the event where you can already find the films and book an entrance.
BT: Are there filmmakers coming from Italy?
AdM: Absolutely! There will be a big delegation, for example the Fratelli Taviani will be here. We are very pleased they will be able to be with us during the festival in spite of all the engagements they already have in Italy and other parts of the world. They will receive some awards: they will receive a special award, the IIC Lifetime Career Award which the IIC gives to very famous people in different areas of culture. Last year, we gave it to Dario Argento and he came here; this year, we’ll be giving it to Fratelli Taviani.
BT: Are there any discounts for students?
AdM: Yes, there are discounts. Everything can be found on the website. There are different possibilities so it is best to visit the website directly.
BT: How can the audience get to the venues?
AdM: Most films will be presented at the Aero Theatre. Tickets can be bought through the Cinematheque online or by going to the cinema box office directly. The opening is by invitation only. And the documentaries are free. Of course, it will be open to everyone until sold-out.
www.cinemaitalianstyle.net