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“Monterossi: Season 2” finds Monterossi (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) still stuck with his producing role on the sleazy talk show he created, “Crazy Love”, that he’s been regretting since it started sliding into lowbrow exploitation. Flora (Carla Signoris), the domineering host, continues to push for the most lurid guests and topics, much to his chagrin. It’s akin to the havoc Dr. Frankenstein unleashed despite his laudable reanimation intentions. Monterossi had hoped for an “Oprah”, only to see his project devolve into a “Jerry Springer”.

The first season was six 45-minute episodes split evenly over two separate mysteries. This one covers one set of crimes in five.

My review of Season One of this charming light crime series from Italian TV, “Monterossi” will bring you up to speed or refresh your memory. This next round again delivers the goods on scripts, performances and settings.

“Monterossi” – TV series review

Three bodies of...

First we have Catherine Breillat getting back in the saddle, and now we have some great news coming out of Italy with Liliana Cavani working on her first feature film in more than two decades. Cineuropa reports that Alessandro Gassmann, Claudia Gerini and Angela Molina are toplining L’ordine del tempo – which is currently shooting in Rome until mid-October. The supporting cast includes Edoardo Leo, Ksenia Rappoport, Richard Sammel, Valentina Cervi, Francesca Inaudi, Angeliqa Devi, Mariana Tamayo and Fabrizio Rongione. We’re thinking the 92 year-old filmmaker will get an invite to the Venice Film Festival next year.…...

"What is going on between you guys?" "Nothing is going on, okay?" Vertical Ent. has revealed an official trailer for Game of Love, a passionate romantic drama set in Italy. The logline for this is quite tantalizing: "An accident will force Vivien and Roy to come to a stop and reclaim their lives, one minute at the time, and finally start living in a present that perhaps will prove to be more exciting than any predefined." But this ends up looking like just another cheesy romance anyway. Roy and Vivien arrive in Sicily to prepare for the sale of Roy's family estate. During the visit, a mysterious woman arrives and befriends Vivien, much to Roy's displeasure. Tensions build & lines are crossed as secrets from Roy's past force them to face new questions. Starring Bella Thorne and Benjamin Mascolo, along with Alma Noce, Francesca Inaudi, Simone Coppo, Bruno Di Chiara, and Barbara Giummarra.

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...

Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s Ambi Pictures is producing.

The ensemble cast of Tre Tocchi will feature Marco Giallini, Francesca Inaudi, Luca Argentero, Massimiliano Benvenuto, Leandro Amato, Ida Di Benedetto, Vincenzo De Michele, Gilles Rocca, Antonio Folletto and Emiliano Ragno.

Marco Risi is directing the Italian dramedy, which is being produced by Andrea Iervolino and Monika Bacardi’s new Ambi Pictures.

Shooting starts this month in Rome.

Tre Tocchi weaves together the stories of six friends who are united by two of their greatest passions – soccer and acting.

Are you guys ready for the oldest film festival in the world? Yeah, sure you are! Who’s crazy enough to miss all that glamour, great movies, and well-known faces? Guess nobody!

This year’s Venice Film Festival runs from September 1- 11th and some great titles will compete for Leone d’Oro, or if you prefer Golden Lion, indeed!

Just in case you don’t trust us, check out a list of all the films playing in competition:

In Competition

Black Swan, Opening Night Film (dir. Darren Aronofsky – U.S.) Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

La Pecora Nera, (dir. Ascanio Celestini – Italy) Ascanio Celestini, Giorgio Tirabassi, Maya Sansa

Somewhere, (dir. Sofia Coppola – U.S.) Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Benicio Del Toro, Michelle Monaghan, Laura Chiatti, Simona Ventura

Happy Few, (dir. Antony Cordier – France) Marina Fois, Elodie Bouchez, Roschdy Zem, Nicolas Duvauchelle

The Solitude of Prime Numbers,...

Earlier this week, the fifty films showing at the Toronto International Film Festival were announced. Today, we have a list of the films showing in-competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Highlights of the Festival include Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere, Richard J. Lewis’ Barney’s Version, Julian Schnabel’s Miral, and Tom Tykwer’s Drei. What’s also cool about this list is that we see the runtimes of each of the films. However, it’s not unusual for a film to undergo changes between a festival and its general release.

Hit the jump for a list of all the films playing in-competition and click here for the films playing out-of-competition. This year’s Venice Film Festival runs from September 1 – 11th.

Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan

USA, 103′

Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder

Ascanio Celestini – La Pecora Nera

Italia, 93′

Ascanio Celestini,...

• Pictured above: Laurence Kardish (MoMa) Antonio Monda (Nyu), Giampoalo Letta (Medusa Films), Salvatore Ferragamo (Ferragamo), and Mario Sesti (Film Critic) MoMA has done it again. Another tribute to Italian Cinema has arrived at the Museum of Modern Art. Following the tribute to Antonio Capuano and the tribute to Gianni Amelio, MoMA has hooked up with Medus Films and Salvatore Ferragamo to celebrate Medusa Film’s 10th Anniversary. As I was sitting in at the press conference for this event, I looked on stage and saw Ettore Scola. I turned to my right and saw Dario Argento. I look behind me and saw Paolo Sorrentino. I looked in front of me and saw Stefano Accorsi. It was the who’s who of Italian Cinema yesterday and today. To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the production and distribution company Medusa, the president of Medusa donated 14 of their most popular titles to

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