A full house from Rai Cinema which will be bringing around twenty titles to the 68th Venice Film Festival.
The competition section will feature its Italian movies “Quando la notte”, “Terraferma” and “L’ultimo Terrestre” as well as the non-Italian “The Ides of March ” and “Texas Killing Fields”.
“Il villaggio di cartone” will be out of competition, while the “Controcampo italiano” section will feature “Scialla”, “Qualche nuvola”, “Cavalli” and “L’arrivo di Wang”.
“Piazza Garibaldi”, “Out of Teheran”, “Qui pro quo” and “Io sono. La tratta” are in the documentary section, “Ruggine”, “Io sono lì” and “Il mundial dimenticato” in the Giornate degli Autori, “Il silenzio di Pelesjan” in Orizzonti and, finally, “La-bas” and “Missione di pace” in the Settimana della Critica.
A long, very varied list which proud Managing Director Paolo Del Brocco says is «an extraordinary result that rewards the Rai’s commitment to cinema and confirms our aim to bring diverse films in terms of stories, genres and languages, to the attention of an increasingly demanding and attentive public.
An editorial strategy that has been realized in collaboration with a number of independent producers who have achieved extremely positive results in both industrial and cultural terms».
One particularly striking fact is that Rai Cinema’s “Venetian Patrol” includes many movies (certainly the most important ones) that are based on literary works: “Quando la notte” [When the night] by Cristina Comencini is based on her own bestselling novel (published by Feltrinelli, see box), “L’ultimo Terrestre” is from the graphic novel “Nessuno mi farà  del male”, a collection of short stories by Giacomo Monti (published by Canicola) and “Ruggine” by Daniele Gaglianone is inspired by the novel of the same name by Stefano Massaron (published by Einaudi).

«Inventing stories is becoming increasingly difficult”, reflects Del Brocco.
“For a movie it is easier to start with the words of a novel rather than from a blank page. You have a certain added value».
Also «using an existing work has many advantages, starting with the fame it gives the film, a type of fame that an original work does not have.
Just think of “Gomorra”: Garrone’s movie would have been a hit in any case, but it would not have been such a triumph without the success of Saviano’s book ».