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Uberto Pasolini adapts epic poetry on an intimate scale in The Return, which loosely transposes the second half of Homer’s The Odyssey for the screen. Gone are the gods and monsters, or anything of a mythological bent, in this interpretation of Odysseus’s decades-in-the-making voyage home to Ithaca. Pasolini reduces the scale without minimizing the stakes of a husband, father, and warrior who must come to terms with small but mighty forces, from the ravages of age to the unyielding passage of time.

For a film based on one of the oldest works of literature, Pasolini leverages little in the way of words to tell his version of the story. Rather than relying on verse to have us learn about the characters’ responses to various developments, The Return often turns to its actors to convey or process information in close-ups. When talents like Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche sign...

"If I were free, I'd fight for what was mine. I'd fight for my people." Bleecker Street FIlms has revealed an official trailer for The Return, a brand new take on the The Odyssey story from Italian filmmaker Uberto Pasolini. This film skipped Venice and ended up premiering at the Toronto & Chicago Film Festivals this fall, with a US release now set for December in theaters. Based on the classic story written by Homer. After 20 years Odysseus finally returns to Ithaca, where he finds his wife held prisoner by suitors vying to be king and his son facing death at their hands. To win back his family and all he has lost, Odysseus must rediscover his strength and fight back. The film reunites actors Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche 30 years after their Academy Award winning triumph in The English Patient. The cast also includes Charlie Plummer, Marwan Kenzari, Claudio Santamaria,...

Ralph Fiennes may be turning heads this awards season for his buzzy performance as Cardinal Lawrence in “Conclave,” but the two-time Academy Award nominee is showing off a different set of skills in epic saga “The Return.”

Fiennes stars as the iconic hero Odysseus in the TIFF-selected feature, which is co-written, directed, and produced by Uberto Pasolini, who previously moved viewers to tears this year with “Nowhere Special.” Juliette Binoche plays Odysseus’ wife Penelope, who has to protect the throne in the aftermath of the Trojan War.

The official synopsis reads: “After 20 years away, Odysseus (Fiennes) washes up on the shores of Ithaca, haggard and unrecognizable. The King has returned from the Trojan War, but much has changed in his kingdom. His beloved wife Penelope (Binoche) is a prisoner in her own home, hounded by suitors vying to be king. Their son Telemachus faces death at the hands of these suitors,...

Veteran actors Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes exchanged teary-eyed tributes as they picked up honorary career achievement awards this evening at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece.

The veteran duo are two of the headline guests this year in Thessaloniki, and they were presented with the festival’s honorary Golden Alexander award for their respective bodies of work, which now includes three collaborations.

“I’m very grateful and honored to be here with this woman. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to talk about Juliette,” Fiennes told the crowd in Greece. “I want to thank Juliette because working with her is a dream. She is an extraordinary artist to spend your time with. She’s a great woman. She channels a very unusual and unique energy. She’s inspirational to work with. She gives in a way that I have not experienced with any other actor.”

At this point Fiennes began to tear up,...

In The Return, a soldier comes home after being away for many years at war, looking haggard and exhausted. His friends don’t recognize him, he has a difficult time readjusting to society and even his wife doesn’t seem to know who he is. It seems a fairly familiar story, except that the main characters’ names are Odysseus and Penelope, the setting is the island of Ithaca and the war took place in Troy. Yes, this film — receiving its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival before a theatrical release later this year — is an adaptation of a section of Homer’s The Odyssey.

But don’t expect appearances by gods or goddesses or mythological creatures created by the likes of Ray Harryhausen. Rather, director/co-screenwriter Uberto Pasolini (Still Life, Nowhere Special) strips the tale to its bare essentials, resulting in a stark, solemnly paced experience that viewers...

Guadagnino's distinct touch transforms unfulfilled desire into tangible tension in his films, seen in Zendaya-led Challengers. With energetic directing, he navigates complex themes and characters, though some works struggle with tone and coherence. A more diverse take on cinema, Guadagnino's films resonate with diverse visions, while his partnership with Swinton is a standout.

Luca Guadagnino is steadily making a name for himself in Hollywood with numerous titles being added to his filmography. While not all are great, they are still impressive and unique works of art that many will remember as some of cinema's most fascinating stories. As seen in the critically acclaimed Challengers, starring Zendaya in an Oscar-worthy performance, Guadagnino has demonstrated a remarkable ability to capture the essence of unfulfilled desire, transforming it into tangible tension on screen.

Equally notable is his energetic and expressive approach behind the camera, which complements the subtleties of his chosen material.

“The White Lotus” star Sabrina Impacciatore and Venice Film Festival director Alberto Barbera play alternate versions of themselves on the final episode of the Italian adaptation of “Call My Agent,” which was released this weekend on pay-tv Sky Italia.

Shot in September 2023, during the real Venice event, the show sees Impacciatore play the fest’s master of ceremonies who, wearing a red gown, disembarks with her agent from a motorboat on the Lido at the Excelsior Hotel dock, greeted by throngs of fans and paparazzi. She then starts acting a bit strange, speaking to Barbera in English instead of Italian and almost falling into the lagoon, as seen in the above exclusive subtitled clip.

Impacciatore, who played Valentina, the hotel manager in the Sicily-set second season of “White Lotus,” was mostly unknown outside of Italy before appearing in the hit HBO show which also gave her domestic career a nice boost.

Franz Rogowski plays a Nazi ringmaster in a deluded blend of magical realism, gratuitous violence and sentimentality

What better way to start the new year with what will surely be remembered as one of its worst films. This mashup of magical realism, gratuitous violence and sentimentality is an atrocity in filmic form. It’s only a bit offensive for its appropriation of the Holocaust as a dramatic engine. What really stirs revulsion is the film’s smug delusions of quality, a self-belief so strong that it has the gall to take two hours and 21 minutes to unfurl itself to the end. Everyone who whined about Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon being too long should be strapped to a chair, like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange, and forced to watch this in order to understand the difference between a film that’s long because it has a...

Julian Schnabel is in Italy on the set of his star-studded crime mystery “In the Hand of Dante,” for which he and Louise Kugelberg, his wife and close creative collaborator, have been narratively and literally criss-crossing between the 14th and 21st centuries in locations including Sicily, Venice, Verona and Rome.

Besides the film’s previously announced leads — Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa and Gerard Butler — “Hand of Dante” will also see British musician and actor Benjamin Clementine (“Dune”) playing a quintessentially demonic character who seesaws between past and present. Clementine also contributes to the film’s score. Other A-list recruits comprise John Malkovich, Al Pacino and Louis Cancelmi (“Killers of the Flower Moon”) who plays both a present-day hitman named Lefty and nobleman Guido da Polenta, who was Dante’s benefactor.

Julian Schnabel, speaking to Variety on a spectacular Rome set – a palatial villa on a hill overlooking the...

Emmy-nominated “The White Lotus” star Sabrina Impacciatore will play the Venice Film Festival’s master of ceremonies in the upcoming second season of the Italian version of “Call My Agent,” which will also feature a cameo by Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera.

Impacciatore, wearing a red gown, disembarked from a water taxi at the Excelsior Hotel pier on the Venice Lido on Saturday welcomed by Barbera, as cameras rolled for a key scene in the show. Actors playing photographers for the scene and also real paparazzi snapped away upon her arrival.

“’Call My Agent – ​​Italia’ is a true love letter to cinema, its rituals and its protagonists,” Nils Hartmann, EVP of Sky Studios for Italy and Germany, said in a statement. “It is therefore a truly great emotion, and at the same time a great motive of pride for us, to be able to shoot the second season of such...

A TV documentary titled Barbie Uncovered and an adaptation of Homer’s classic The Odyssey starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche are among the titles to receive cash during the latest round of U.K. Global Screen Fund awards.

Financed through the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms), the latest round handed out over £1.2 million in cash awards through the fund’s International Co-production strand, supporting UK producers to work as partners on international co-productions. To date, the strand has now awarded over £5 million to 33 co-productions.

This latest round of awards sees the UK co-producing with 12 territories and will be the first time the fund has supported collaborations with India and Finland. The funding will also support partnerships with Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Ireland, Canada, and New Zealand.

TV doc Barbie Uncovered is an unofficial majority UK co-production with New Zealand. The UK...

TV documentary “Barbie Uncovered” and an adaptation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche are among the latest projects awarded by the U.K. Global Screen Fund.

On “Barbie Uncovered,” an unofficial majority U.K. co-production with New Zealand, the U.K. producers are Ross Wilson from Rw Productions and Alan Clements from Two Media Rivers who will co-produce with New Zealand’s Daniel Story and Cass Avery from Augusto. It will be directed by Eddie Hutton-Mills and focuses on the unknown history of the global icon Barbie and the dramatic and dark story behind the creation of the world’s most famous doll.

On “The Odyssey” adaptation “The Return,” a minority U.K. co-production with Italy, Greece and France made under the European Convention, the U.K. producers are James Clayton and Uberto Pasolini from Red Wave Films who will co‐produce with Italy’s...

Strike could be an opportunity for local talents to be successful worldwide, says Davide Nardini.

Davide Nardini, Amazon’s head of scripted originals in Italy, has addressed the possible impact of the SAG-AFTRA strike on local productions and has underlined that the streamer is looking for more mainstream projects that target broad audiences.

Speaking at the Audiovisual Producers Summit in Trieste, Nardini said that if the strike dragged on, it’s possible that it could inadvertently open up opportunities for local talents.

He underlined that Amazon was not planning for this and neither is it part of its international strategy.

Strike could be an opportunity for local talents to be successful worldwide, says Davide Nardini.

Davide Nardini, Amazon’s head of scripted originals in Italy, has addressed the impact of the SAG-AFTRA strike on local productions and has underlined the streamer is looking for more mainstream projects that target broad audiences.

Speaking at the Audiovisual Producers Summit in Trieste, Nardini said the strike could inadvertently be an opportunity for local talents.

“We will see what will happen with the strike. Maybe it will be an opportunity for local talents to be successful worldwide,” said Nardini, who emphasised he...

Prime Video has unveiled has unveiled its latest slate of Italian original shows and films at a Presents event in Rome, including a remake of No Activity.

The streamer’s glitzy event revealed three new original scripted shows, two unscripted series and six movies, along with a number of returning shows. Among the scripted series is Antonia, the comedy-drama from Groenlandia and Fidelio we told you about earlier this morning in Europe.

Joining Antonia is another Groenlandia series, Niente da Segnalare, which is based on the Australian drama format No Activity.

The six-episode series follows two criminals waiting for an important shipment, two cops on stakeout ready to trigger a raid and two dispatch operators ready to send reinforcements. When the shipment doesn’t arrive, everyone is forced into an exhausting wait.

Valerio Vestoso is the director and Laura Grimaldi,...

Gabriele Mainetti on the streets of Rome with Anne-Katrin Titze: “In Once Upon A Time In America you don’t even have the American Dream like Scarface does.”

In the second instalment with Gabriele Mainetti we touch upon Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Brian De Palma’s Scarface, Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In America, John Ford and John Wayne, Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City, Michael Haneke’s comment on Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Tod Browning, and the painful process of accepting yourself in Freaks Out, co-written with Nicola Guaglianone.

Gabriele Mainetti on Franz (Franz Rogowski): “Franz says no and Matilda can’t say no and says yes with all the pain.”

There’s Franz, the German pianist blessed with 12 fingers and the ability to see the future. He wants the “freaks” on his side. But what exactly is his side?...

Exclusive: Vmi Releasing has picked up North American rights to the fantastical WWII drama Freaks vs. the Reich (formerly Freaks Out), which won eight awards at the Venice Film Festival in 2021, including the Grafetta d’Oro for Best Film, and went on to land six David di Donatello Awards from the Academy of Italian Cinema the following year. The second feature from director Gabriele Mainetti (They Call Me Jeeg) will bow in theaters and on digital on April 28th.

Related Story Roadside Attractions Acquires Emerson Brothers Drama ‘Dreamin’ Wild’ With Casey Affleck, Noah Jupe & Zooey Deschanel Related Story Vmi Releasing Taps 'Skinamarink' Exec Producer Jonathan Barkan As Head Of U.S. Distribution Related Story Michael Madsen Horror Gets North America Deal; Toronto Music Biz Pic Adds Cast; Carmen Aguirre Memoir Optioned — North America Briefs

The film set in 1943 Rome opens on an artisanal circus owned by elderly magician,...

Gabriele Mainetti’s Freaks Out, co-written with Nicola Guaglianone, starring Franz Rogowski, Aurora Giovinazzo, Pietro Castellitto, Giancarlo Martini, Claudio Santamaria, and Giorgio Tirabassi opens Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà’s 21st edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema

Giuseppe Bonito’s A Girl Returned; Paolo Taviani’s Leonora Addio (The Demise Of Luigi Pirandello); Laura Bispuri’s The Peacock’s Paradise (Il Paradiso Del Pavone) starring Dominique Sanda, Alba Rohrwacher, Carlo Cerciello, and Maya Sansa; Chiara Bellosi’s Swing Ride (Calcinculo) with Gaia Di Pietro and Andrea Carpenzano; Nanni Moretti’s Three Floors with Margherita Buy, Adriano Giannini, Elena Lietti, Riccardo Scamarcio, Paolo Graziosi, and Rohrwacher, and Gabriele Mainetti’s Freaks Out, co-written with Nicola Guaglianone, starring Franz Rogowski, Aurora Giovinazzo, Pietro Castellitto, Giancarlo Martini, Claudio Santamaria, and Giorgio Tirabassi are six highlights of Film at Lincoln Center and Cinecittà’s 21st edition of Open Roads: New Italian Cinema.

In the pantheon of notoriously unavailable films, Jerry Lewis’ “The Day the Clown Cried” occupies a special plinth: Its outline — a circus clown is imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp where he cheers up Jewish children before being forced to lead them to their doom — makes it one of the few movies to have been suppressed purely on the grounds of “yikes.” It is perhaps unfair to compare it with “Freaks Out,” the second film from Italian director Gabriele Mainetti (“They Call Me Jeeg”), though given that Mainetti’s film also involves circus performers, Nazis and a train full of Jewish people being transported to the camps, quite which film the comparison is unfair to is up for debate. After all, Lewis’ boondoggle didn’t have in it a psychotic, ether-addicted, six-fingered, “Sieg Heil!”-ing pianist who can see into the future, and a whole host of references to, of all things,...

Italian firm Indiana Production, German outfit SquareOne Productions and French company Snd (Groupe M6) have revealed details about their Italian-language mafia series L’Ora (Ink Against Bullets).

The 10-part returning mafia origin series is inspired by the real-life investigative endeavors of the Sicilian newspaper of the same name.

The series is directed by Piero Messina, best known for Netflix Original series Suburra, Ciro d’Emilio and Stefano Lorenzi. Currently in post-production, completion is scheduled for Q2, 2021. Snd and SquareOne handle international rights.

The series will chart how in October 1958, the Sicilian newspaper L’Ora denounced the mafia and its endemic organized crime in the region. Shortly after, a bomb detonated in front of the editorial offices; only two days later the daily reappeared with the headline: ‘The Mafia may threaten us, our investigation continues.’

Inspired by those events, the series takes place in Palermo of the late 1950s and early...

The film received its market premiere at Berlin’s Efm.

Elle Driver has closed sales on Gabriele Muccino’s hit drama The Best Years, which received its market premiere at Berlin’s Efm.

The film follows three childhood friends and the woman they all fall for at one point in their lives, over the course of 40 years of recent Italian history.

In Europe, it has sold to France (Arp Selection), Germany (Prokino Filmverleih), Spain (Vertigo Films), Benelux (Cineart), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Greece (Tanweer), Portugal (Outsider Films), Sweden and Iceland (Njuta Film) and Denmark (Another World).

In the rest of the world,...

Amazon has ordered its first unscripted Italian Original TV series, “Celebrity Hunted – Caccia all’uomo,” from EndemolShine Italy.

The series will launch on Amazon Prime Video in more than 200 countries and territories next year. The format is a real-life thriller spanning six episodes where eight local celebrities are being hunted by professional investigators, cyber analysts, online profilers and human trackers from law enforcement and military intelligence. The celebrities have to stay off the radar and remain at large for 14 days across Italy with limited financial resources.

The show’s first season brings together football player Francesco Totti, artist Fedez, YouTuber Luis Sal, actor Claudio Santamaria alongside the journalist and writer Francesca Barra, popular anchorman Costantino della Gherardesca (“Pechino Express”), actors Diana Del Bufalo (“Che Dio ci aiuti”) and Cristiano Caccamo (“Matrimonio italiano”).

“With ‘Celebrity Hunted – Caccia all’uomo’ we are bringing a truly innovative concept to viewers,” said

Georgia Brown,...

Amazon is making an Italian version of British entertainment format Celebrity Hunted – its first non-scripted original in Italy.

The Svod service has ordered Celebrity Hunted – Caccia all’uomo from Endemol Shine Italy with the six-part series set to launch around the world in 2020.

The series, which follows celebrities on the run from a team of expert hunters, will feature Italian soccer star Francesco Totti, artist Fedez, YouTuber Luis Sal, actor Claudio Santamaria, journalist and writer Francesca Barra, anchorman Costantino della Gherardesca and actors Diana Del Bufalo and Cristiano Caccamo.

The celebrities must attempt to stay off the radar and remain at large for 14 days across Italy with limited financial resources. Hunting them down are some of the most renowned and feared Italian professional investigators, cyber analysts, online profilers and human trackers from law enforcement and military intelligence. The Hunters can use any legal means to trace the celebrities including call tracing,...

It’s a pretty safe bet that the Italian entries at Venice that will make the biggest splashes this year are both TV series premiering in the official selection: Paolo Sorrentino’s limited series “The New Pope” and Stefano Sollima’s cocaine-trafficking drama “ZeroZeroZero.”

While these are both shows by directors who also work in film, Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera has no qualms in pointing out that in the film sphere the domestic pickings were slim this year.

Venice selectors received 186 Italian films, which amounts to roughly 10% of the total submissions. “And more than half were unwatchable microbudget first works,” Barbera says. “You wonder: why produce this stuff?”

However, the TV series, both commissioned by Sky Italia and screening out of competition, are on a different level. “They were both a big gamble,” Barbera says. And they cost a lot, “but you really see the results.”

Barbera says everyone...

Pierfrancesco Favino, who heads to Cannes in the starring role of Marco Bellocchio’s Palme d’Or contender The Traitor, co-stars.

Elle Driver has boarded world sales on Italian director Gabriele Muccino’s drama The Best Years, exploring the cycle of life through the forty-year relationship of four close friends, against the backdrop of contemporary Italian history.

The Paris-based sales company will kick-off pre-sales on the film in Cannes ahead of shooting, which commences in June.

Pierfrancesco Favino, who heads to Cannes in the starring role of Marco Bellocchio’s Palme d’Or contender The Traitor, co-stars opposite Claudio Santamaria,...

Italian director Gabriele Salvatores, who won the foreign-language film Oscar for “Mediterraneo” in 1991 and more recently helmed teen superhero franchise “The Invisible Boy” is in Berlin where sales company Rai Com is showing buyers footage of his upcoming road movie “Volare.” Pic stars Claudio Santamaria and Valeria Golino and is penned by Umberto Contarello (“The Great Beauty”).

Based on a widely translated bestseller by Italy’s Fulvio Ervas — which was inspired by a true story — “Volare” is about a boozing lounge singer (Santamaria) who accidentally intersects with his teen autistic son, whom he has never met before. He has an epiphany and decides to hit the road with him in an attempt to fight his son’s autism. They are chased by the boy’s mother (Golino) and her husband, played by Diego Abatantuono, who also starred in “Mediterraneo.”

Salvatores in Berlin spoke to Variety about making his return to the road movie genre.

Rai Com is kicking off sales in Berlin on Italian producer Ginevra Elkann’s directorial debut, “Magari” (If Only), which stars Brett Gelman (“Fleabag”), Alba Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazzaro”), Riccardo Scamarcio (“Loro”) and France’s Céline Sallette (“Les Revenants”).

The multi-language pic is currently shooting in the seaside town of Sabaudia, outside Rome.

Produced by Wildside and Rai Cinema, “Magari” is a sentimental comedy about three kids of divorced parents who, while living in Paris with their bourgeois Russian-Orthodox mother, are suddenly packed off and sent to stay with their unconventional and broke Italian father, Carlo.

Elkann wrote the screenplay with writer Chiara Barzini, author of English-language novel “Things That Happened Before the Earthquake.”

Elkann previously directed the short “Vado a Messa,” which screened at Venice. As a producer she’s shepherded several standout festival titles, including Noaz Deshe’s Swahili-language drama “White Shadow,” which won the 2013 Venice Film Festival’s Lion of the Future.

Oscar-winning director Gabriele Salvatores is set to shoot a road movie with the working title “Don’t Be Afraid If I Hug You,” which involves a father and his autistic son on the run. Pic stars Italian A-listers Claudio Santamaria (“They Call Me Jeeg”) and Valeria Golino.

Rai Com has boarded and will kick off world sales in Toronto. Salvatores’ new pic will start shooting this month.

Based on a widely translated bestseller by Italy’s Fulvio Ervas — which was inspired by a true story — “Don’t Be Afraid” is penned by Umberto Contarello (“The Great Beauty”). Santamaria will play a boozing lounge singer who accidentally intersects with his teen autistic son, whom he has never met before. He has an epiphany and decides to hit the road with him in an attempt to fight his son’s autism. They are chased by the boy’s mother (Golino) and her husband.

The Second World War-set film focuses on four circus workers.

Screen can unveil a first look at They Call Me Jeeg director Gabriele Mainetti’s next film, Freaks Out.

Currently shooting, the €9m production is from Lucky Red and Mainetti’s own Goon Films together with Rai Cinema, in coproduction with Belgian company GapBusters.

Rai Com and True Colours began sales on the project at the recent Cannes Film Festival market.

Mainetti wrote the Freaks Out screenplay with his They Call Me Jeeg co-writer Nicola Guaglianone. The film tells the story of four friends in Rome during the Second World War.

Netflix rolled out the red carpet at Rome’s Villa Miani on Wednesday to unveil new projects and expound on its international ambitions. CEO Reed Hastings and Cco Ted Sarandos made brief appearances high above the Eternal City introducing a series of panels and announcements that revealed details of such upcoming offerings as a continuation of the Peabody Award winning true crime mini The Staircase; a documentary about the November 2013 Paris Attacks; a Julian Fellowes-penned origins of soccer drama; German event series The Wave; Idris Elba-starrer Turn Up Charlie; its first Italian original film; and still more.

In 2018, Netflix is nearly doubling the number of produced shows and investment since 2017 overseas. It has over 35,000 people working on local productions and this year, says subscribers will have access to over 100 projects in 16 languages from 16 countries, including for the first time the Middle East and Africa.

The service said it is committed to local-language shows,...

Actors Cary Elwes and Jake Busey will join the “Stranger Things” cast in the show’s third season, Netflix announced Wednesday.

Elwes, known for “The Princess Bride,” will play a character named Mayor Kline, while Busey, from “Starship Troopers,” will play Bruce.

Mayor Kline is being described by Netflix promotional materials as “handsome, slick, and sleazy.” “Your classic ’80s politician – more concerned with his own image than with the people of the small town he governs.” The Bruce character played by Busey is “a journalist for the The Hawkins Post, with questionable morals and a sick sense of humor.”

Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos made the new casting announcement at Netflix’s See What’s Next event in Rome, where the streaming giant announced a slew of new productions from Europe and elsewhere around the world.

As previously announced, Maya Hawke will be one of the new leads in “Stranger Things,...

Streaming giant also announces shows from France, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands.

Netflix has announced a new batch of European original dramas at press event in Rome.

These include a six-part drama from Downton Abbey writer Julian Fellowes and an eight-part comedy created by and starring Idris Elba.

UK indie 42 (Watership Down) is producing Fellowes’ series The English Game, which Netflix VP of international originals Eric Barmack said was about “the invention of modern football and how its creation reached across the class divide”.

He added that the series would be “part-Etonians, part-factory workers”.

The drama was one of a...

Rome — Leading Italian film company Rai Cinema is producing new works by revered Russian auteurs Alexander Sokurov and Andrei Konchalovsky, as well as a slew of new titles from prominent Italian helmers Gabriele Salvatores and Gianni Amelio and younger standouts Jonas Carpignano and Susanna Nicchiarelli.

The production and distribution arm of pubcaster Rai has teamed up with the Sokurov Foundation on an unconventional historical work featuring rare archive footage of Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini and Churchill captured in non-official circumstances. These leaders will hold imaginary conversations during World War II that reveal their “human nature, their vision of the world” and their personal takes of wartime events, according to Rai Cinema promotional materials.

This latest work by the director who explored the corrupting effects of power in “Moloch” (1999), about Hitler, and “Taurus” (2000), about Lenin, and who more recently shot “Russian Ark” and “Francofonia,” is working-titled “La risata tra le lacrime” in Italian,...

ZamaThe programme for the 2017 edition of the Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, and includes new films from Darren Aronofsky, Lucrecia Martel, Frederick Wiseman, Alexander Payne, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Abdellatif Kechiche, Takeshi Kitano and many more.COMPETITIONmother! (Darren Aronofsky)First Reformed (Paul Schrader)Sweet Country (Warwick Thornton)The Leisure Seeker (Paolo Virzi)Una Famiglia (Sebastiano Riso)Ex Libris - The New York Public Library (Frederick Wiseman)Angels Wear White (Vivian Qu)The Whale (Andrea Pallaoro)Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)Foxtrot (Samuel Maoz)Ammore e malavita (Manetti Brothers)Jusqu'a la garde (Xavier Legrand)The Third Murder (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno (Abdellatif Kechiche)Lean on Pete (Andrew Haigh)L'insulte (Ziad Doueiri)La Villa (Robert Guediguian)The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro)Suburbicon (George Clooney)Human Flow (Ai Weiwei)Downsizing (Alexander Payne)Out Of COMPETITIONFeaturesOur Souls at Night (Ritesh Batra)Il Signor Rotpeter (Antonietta de Lillo)Victoria...

Venice sidebar to screen eleven world premieres; first screening of Ermanno Olmi doc.

The Venice Film Festival’s (Aug 30 - 9) independently run Venice Days section will host 12 competition titles, 11 of which are world premieres, including new films from Kim Nguyen, Chloe Sevigny, Pengfei, and Sara Forestier.

War Witch director Nguyen will show drama Eye On Juliet, starring UK actor Joe Cole, while M marks the directorial debut of Standing Tall actress Forestier.

Pengfei, who was in Venice Days in 2015 with his first film, Underground Fragrance, is returning with followup The Taste of Rice Flower (pictured).

Screening in the special events category will be a never seen before and thought to be lost Ermanno Olmi documentary from the 1960s: Il Tentato Suicidio Nell Adolescenza (Attempted Suicide In Youths).

The documentary follows the pioneering work of the emergency psychiatric branch of the Policlinico di Milano.

Meanwhile, new short films by Sevigny and Us choreographer-director Celia Rowlson-Hall will screen in Venice...

Venice sidebar to screen eleven world premieres; first screening of Ermanno Olmi doc.

The Venice Film Festival’s (Aug 30 - 9) independently run Venice Days section will host 12 competition titles, 11 of which are world premieres, including new films from Kim Nguyen, Chloe Sevigny, Pengfei, and Sara Forestier.

War Witch director Nguyen will show drama Eye On Juliet, starring UK actor Joe Cole, while M marks the directorial debut of Standing Tall actress Forestier.

Pengfei, who was in Venice Days in 2015 with his first film, Underground Fragrance, is returning with followup The Taste of Rice Flower (pictured).

New short films by Sevigny and Us choreographer-director Celia Rowlson-Hall will screen in Venice Days’ Women’s Tales Project, sponsored by Miu Miu, the women’s fashion brand.

Screening in the special events category will be a never seen before and thought to be lost Ermanno Olmi documentary from the ’60s: Il Tentato Suicidio Nell Adolescenza.

Iranian director...

Watch a the brand new movie clip ‘Newfound Powers’ from the upcoming film “They Call Me Jeeg” (Lo Chiamavano Jeeg Robot) from director Gabriele Mainetti and starring Claudio Santamaria, Luca Marinelli, Ilenia Pastorelli and Stefano Ambrogi. Enzo, an ex-con from the poor outskirts of Rome, puts his newfound superpowers to use furthering his career as […]

The post New Clip from They Call Me Jeeg Robot Released appeared first on Shockya.com.

If you’re just about numb to comic book films these days, then allow this quaint Italian picture to cleanse your palette. The debut feature-length effort from from Gabriele Mainetti seems like a fresh yet familiar take on this type of film; it also reminds once how much fun this type of story can be sans all the machismo and infighting. They Call Me Jeeg Robot is an impressive piece of work, with violence to spare, but it doesn’t glamorize heroes or villains. That’s an important thing to note because it also earns points for originality even if the story is of the passé “hero born of toxic waste” variety.

It’s rare to pair the words “origin story” with praise, but there’s no hiding that fact here. Although, this is more of comic film seen through the lens of something like Taken or Layer Cake. For once,...

Gabriele Mainetti’s fantasy superhero film won seven Italian film awards earlier this year.

Italian sales agent Rai Com has inked multiple deals for Gabriele Mainetti’s multi-award-winning They Call Me Jeeg.

The fantasy action, which scooped seven prizes at Italy’s primary awards the David di Donatellos earlier this year including best debut director, best actor and best actress, has sold to multiple territories.

Adding to deals done at Cannes for France (Nour Films) and Japan (Zazie) are the Us (Uncork’d), Latin America (Telefilms), Germany (Pandastorm), Portugal (Il Sorpasso) and Greece (Weirdwave).

The Italian language film stars Claudio Santamaria (Casino Royale) as Enzo, an ex-con from the poor outskirts of Rome who uses newly-found superpowers to further his delinquent lifestyle, angering local mob bosses.

Director Mainetti’s debut feature was co-produced by Rai Cinema with Goon Films. It grossed $5.3m (€4.8m) from its local release.

Elsewhere, HBO Eastern Europe is planning to broadcast the film...

Both titles won seven prizes at the 60th David Di Donatellos, while Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth took home two from fourteen nominations.

In a surprise result at Italy’s major national film prizes, the David di Donatellos, debut film They Call Him Jeeg Robot won seven major awards.

Matteo Garrone’s Tale Of Tales also gathered seven statuettes, six of which were in technical categories, as well as Best Director for Matteo Garrone.

Box office sensation Perfect Strangers won Best Film and Best Screenplay while only two awards (Best Musical Score and Best Song) went to Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-nominated Youth.

They Call Him Jeeg Robot, Gabriele Mainetti’s first feature film, is a superhero story co-produced by RaiCinema about a Roman thief who gains superhuman strength after a near-mortal accident.

Starring Claudio Santamaria (Diaz - Don’t Clean Up This Blood) as the titular hero and Luca Marinelli (Don’t Be Evil) as the villain, the movie...

Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth received fourteen nominations while Matteo Garrone’s Tale Of Tales received twelve and Berlin-winner Fuocoammare received four.

Claudio Caligari’s last film, Don’t Be Bad, and superhero film They Call Me Jeeg led the nominations at this year’s David di Donatello awards with sixteen nominations each.

Arthouse crime drama Don’t Be Bad, first seen at last year’s Venice Film Festival, secured nominations including best film, director (Claudio Caligari), screenplay (Claudio Caligari, Francesca Serafini and Giordano Meacci), supporting actress (Elisabetta De Vito) and leading actors (Luca Marinelli and Lorenzo Borghi).

They Call Me Jeeg was nominated for its leading actor (Claudio Santamaria), leading actress (Ilenia Pastorelli), supporting actor (Luca Marinelli), supporting actress (Antonia Truppo) and screenplay (Nicola Guaglianone, Menotti).

In the best film category Don’t Be Bad will compete against Berlin-winner Fuocoammare, Tale of Tales, Youth and the box office hit Perfetti Sconosciuti.

In the best...

Sara Serraiocco's star shines in Lamberto Sanfelice's Chlorine and Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza's Salvo Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Attending the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema lunch at Barbetta were filmmakers Francesca Archibugi - An Italian Name (Il Nome Del figlio); Duccio Chiarini - Short Skin; Eleonora Danco - N-Capace / N-Able; Cristina Comencini - Latin Lover; Ivano de Matteo - The Dinner (I Nostri Ragazzi); Masbedo (Nicolò Massazza and Iacopo Bedogni) - The Lack and actors Claudio Santamaria in Ermanno Olmi's Greenery Will Bloom Again (Torneranno I Prati); Adriano Giannini in Claudio Noce's The Ice Forest (La Foresta Di Ghiaccio) and Lamberto Sanfelice's Chlorine (Cloro) star, Sara Serraiocco.

Jenny with Flavia (Chiara Romano): "I spent a lot of time with the girls who do synchronized swimming."

The Italian cinema delegation in town was joined by Antonio Monda, the newly appointed Artistic Director of...

The Woman in Gold, starring Helen Mirren, and Anton Corbijn’s Life, starring Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan, to world premiere at Berlinale.

The 65th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 5-15) is to host the world premieres of Woman in Gold, starring Helen Mirren; Life, starring Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan; and Dagur Kári’s Virgin Mountain.

The films form part of the Berlinale Special Galas line-up, which will also include the international premiere of awards contender Selma and the European premiere of Bill Pohland’s Love & Mercy, starring John Cusack

Based on a true story, Woman In Gold is directed by Simon Curtis (My Week With Marilyn) and stars Mirren as Maria Altmann, an octogenarian Jewish refugee, who takes on the government to recover artwork she believes rightfully belongs to her family.

The UK-us co-production, which also stars Ryan Reynolds (Captives) and Daniel Brühl (Rush), is produced by Origin Pictures, BBC Films and The...

Name and focus changes for every section, which are now all competitive, resulting in the festival’s structure being “slimmer’.

The ninth Rome Film Festival (Oct 16-25) has revealed a diverse line-up including the Italian premieres for potential awards contenders including David Fincher’s Gone Girl. the world premiere of Takashi Miike’s As the Gods Will and Burhan Qurbani’s We are Young, We are Strong and European premiere of Oren Moverman’s Time Out of Mind, Toronto hit Still Alice and Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet.

This year for the first time the award-winners in each section of the programme will be decided by the audience on the basis of votes cast after the screenings.

Each section has changed name and focus for 2014 and are all competitive, resulting in the festival’s structure being “slimmer’.

Italian comedies Soap Opera and Andiamo a Quel Paese bookend the line-up.

Full line-up

Cinema D’Oggi

World premiere

• Angely...

Pauline at the Beach: Fitoussi’s Breezy Caper Good for a Laugh

Director Marc Fitoussi seems inclined toward breezy-haired, bauble headed gamines that get jostled around like seaweed in unpredictable waters. While his 2010 film Copacabana was a notable comedy starring Isabelle Huppert as the comic foil (rather than the ‘straight man’ for once), his latest reunites him with Sandrine Kiberlain, who starred in his 2007 debut, La Vie D’Artist. It’s quite easy to see why he’s attracted such talents as he seems to have a knack for an offbeat drollery with actresses that seem unconventional leads in a comedic vehicle. Inconsequential? Perhaps. But there’s an undeniable delight in watching his funny ladies as they cross in and out of slight frippery. While his features are hard to get a hold of in the Us, possibly because of their very slightness, his latest, like his others, is certainly...

Another day, another trio of announcements from the Berlin International Film Festival (February 9 through 19). First off, this year's Berlinale Camera has been presented to Haro Senft, "one of the pioneers of New German Cinema as well as a tireless advocate of German children films... He was the initiator of Doc 59, a group based in Munich at the end of the 1950s; many of its members went on to sign the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962." His 1961 documentary short Kahl was nominated for an Oscar and Bruno Ganz gave his first performance in a major role in Senft's first narrative feature, Der sanfte Lauf (1967).

"In 1971 he resigned from all his positions related to film policy and devoted himself unlike anyone else to developing a culture of children's films. With his films Ein Tag mit dem Wind (1978) and Jacob hinter der blauen Tür (1987) he set the standard for the genre." Because Senft can no longer travel,...

Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, The Ides of March Tomas Alfredson – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy UK, Germany, 127' Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt Andrea Arnold – Wuthering Heights UK, 128' Kaya Scodelario, Nichola Burley, Steve Evets, Oliver Milburn Ami Canaan Mann – Texas Killing Fields USA, 109' Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jeffrey Dean Morgan George Clooney – The Ides Of March [Opening Film] USA, 98' Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood Cristina Comencini – Quando La Notte Italy, 116' Claudia Pandolfi, Filippo Timi, Michela Cescon, Thomas Trabacchi Emanuele Crialese – Terraferma Italy, France, 88' Filippo Pucillo, Donatella Finocchiaro, Giuseppe Fiorello, Claudio Santamaria David Cronenberg – A Dangerous Method Germany, Canada, 99' Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender, Vincent Cassel Abel Ferrara – 4:44 Last Day On Earth USA, 82' Willem Dafoe, Shanyn Leigh, Paz de la Huerta, Natasha Lyonne William Friedkin – Killer Joe USA, 103' Matthew McConaughey,...

Sony has placed its bets on relative newcomer Eva Green to play the female lead in the latest James Bond installment, Casino Royale. The French actress will play British treasury agent Vesper Lynd opposite Daniel Craig, the studio said Thursday. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Wright will be the latest actor to fill the shoes of fellow spy and Bond franchise regular Felix Leiter. Casino Royale marks the CIA agent's first appearance in a Bond movie since 1989's License to Kill. Rounding out the cast are Giancarlo Giannini as Mathis, Caterina Murino as Solonge, Simon Abkarian as Dimitrios, Tobias Menzies as Villiers, Ivana Milicevic as Valenka, Clemens Schick as Kratt, Ludger Pistor as Mendel and Claudio Santamaria as Carlos.

BERLIN -- This Italian gangster movie is based on a novel titled "Crime Novel" (Romanzo Criminale). So why not call this "Crime Movie"? Because even though the story reputedly portrays a real gang of street punks that did rise to some power in Rome from 1977-92, the movie feels totally generic. We've seen all these moves before -- all these massacres, betrayals, drug deals and double crosses, the intrepid police inspector, great whore, merciless leader and the falling out among gang members once delusions of grandeur or grasps at respectability go to their tiny brains.

Truth be told, when moviemakers go up against Coppola or Scorsese, they need charismatic characters and a wicked story line. Alas, Michele Placido and writers Giancarlo De Cataldo, Stefano Rulli and Sandro Petraglia, adapting De Cataldo's novel, are stuck with cruel characters and crude action that provoke little excitement.

Warner Bros. Pictures is one of the producers of "Crime Novel", but there probably isn't too much domestic coin to be made from the film. It should do well in action markets and could turn up at a festival here or there.

On the plus side, Placido does give audiences juicy action and superficial though lively characters. He even has an eye for tourist sights. A clandestine meeting takes place in front of the ancient Forum. A girl brings her gangster date to an old church to admire its Caravaggio. A guy gets knifed to death on the Spanish Steps. You half expect a bloody body to get dumped into the Trevi Fountain.

These gangsters come from the streets and never really clean up their act. As kids, they joyride in a stolen car through a police blockade and over a cop, an act that lands several in prison. They emerge as hardened criminals, each with his own criminal moniker.

Lebanese (a scruffy-bearded Pierfrancesco Favino) is the natural born leader, uncompromising in his brutality but untutored in the subtleties of dealing with Mafia dons, terrorists or the Secret Service. Ice (handsome Kim Rossi Stuart) actually has smoothness, as he comes from wealth. He eventually tires of the whole criminal experience, perhaps because of his love for Roberta (beautiful Jasmine Trinca), an innocent art lover unaware of her boyfriend's occupation.

Dandy (the equally handsome Claudio Santamaria) also longs to be "normal," but that doesn't mean dropping Rome's greatest prostitute, Patrizia (sultry Anna Mouglalis), as his lover. He even sets her up with her own luxury bordello.

The police are absorbed in a battle with homegrown terrorists during this time, so it falls to Capt. Scialoja (Stefano Accorsi) to dog the gang's every step for years. In doing so, he forms an ambiguous relationship with Patrizia; indeed he may be her only lover to actually love her.

The film interweaves the gang's activities with major events in recent Italian history, especially the Red Brigade terror. The film hints that the gang may have crossed over into working with terrorists, but this is never completely clear.

Eventually, the endless killings and emotional face-offs between the gang members as they predictably fall out become numbingly repetitive. So muddled is the action that one can be excused for missing a plot point or misidentifying a character.

Luca Bigazzi's camera is fluid and alive to the action. Nicoletta Taranta's stylish period costumes and Paola Comencini's sets are magazine-quality. A score of pop hits of the era and Paolo Buonvino's lush, ominous music put plenty of flavors into these Roman rumblings. But as one Mafia don says, there have been too many killings by this rudderless gang and " 'too much' is the enemy of fairness." That is an apt criticism of this movie, too.

CRIME NOVEL

Cattleya/Warner Bros. Pictures

Credits:

Director: Michele Placido

Screenwriters: Stefano Rulli, Sandro Petraglia, Giancarlo De Cataldo

Based on the novel by: Giancarlo De Cataldo

Producers: Riccardo Tozzi, Giovanni Stabilini, Marco Chimenz

Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi

Production designer: Paola Comencini

Music: Paolo Buonvino

Costumes: Nicoletta Taranta

Editor: Esmeralda Calabria

Cast:

Ice: Kim Rossi Stuart

Patrizia: Anna Mouglalis

Lebanese: Pierfrancesco Favino

Dandy: Claudio Santamaria

Scialoja: Stefano Accorsi

Black: Riccardo Scamarcio

Roberta: Jasmine Trinca

No MPAA rating

Running time -- 153 minutes...