The public is the protagonist of the tenth edition of the Rome event which is going back to its roots and once again taking on the guise of a “Festa”.
This is the precise mandate handed down by the BOD of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma chaired by Piera Detassis, explains the new artistic director Antonio Monda, “that restores the essence of theatrical participation”, privileging the background “vision” (in first place the red carpet).
Thus the awards competition has been axed – apart from the public award – the Festival has been extended to the city’s movie theaters (in addition to the Casa del Cinema, Eden, Alcazar, Atlantic, Greenwich, Aquila, Trevi, Cineland Ostia) with a proposed schedule that, alongside a reduced official selection (compared to the past), features a proliferation of “fringe” events.
From tributes to the great maestros like Scola (with a restored version of “La terrazza”), Rosi, Pasolini and the Taviani brothers (as well as Kubrick, Bunuel, Sinatra) to the retrospective curated by Mario Sesti about the forgotten filmmaker Antonio Pietrangeli, to Pixar productions twenty years after the release of their first movie.
Plus the long-awaited Incontri ravvicinati-Close Encounters that will feature duets between, amongst others, Wes Anderson and the writer Donna Tartt, the maestros of horror William Friedkin and Dario Argento, the couple (in the movies and in real life) Joel Coen-Frances McDormand, Carlo Verdone and Paola Cortellesi.
There are 37 titles from 24 countries in the official selection including “Junun” the movie-concert filmed in India by Paul Thomas Anderson, the Argentinian “Eva no Duerme” by Pablo Aguero about the fate of Eva Perón’s corpse, and “The Walk – 3D” by Robert Zemeckis, the true story of the French tightrope walker who walked across a wire suspended between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, as well as the two TV se- ries “Fargo” (season 2) and the Israeli “Fauda” (already optioned by HBO) about the Arab-Israeli conflict.
There are three genre films and a documentary from Italy: the melo-drama “Alaska” by Claudio Cupellini starring Elio Germano, the latest cutting comedy by Sergio Rubini, “Dobbiamo parlare”, Gabriele Mainetti’s debut “Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot” and Gianni Amelio’s doc “Registro di classe” dedicated to schools.
What about the stars? Jude Law, Ellen Page and Monica Bellucci are the names that to date have been confirmed for this edition.
The 10th edition has a 4 million Euro budget, plays tribute to Virna Lisi and will close with a version of “La grande bellezza-The Great Beauty” that has never been screened before.
