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Viggo Mortensen (Sigmund Freud), Michael Fassbender (Carl Jung), A Dangerous Method Monsieur Lazhar Tops Genie Awards Meilleur Film / Best Motion Picture A Dangerous Method – Martin Katz, Marco Mehlitz, Jeremy Thomas CAFÉ De Flore – Pierre Even, Marie-Claude Poulin, Jean-Marc Vallée * Monsieur Lazhar – Luc Déry, Kim McCraw Starbuck – André Rouleau The Whistleblower – Christina Piovesan, Celine Rattray Meilleure RÉALISATION / Achievement In Direction David Cronenberg – A Dangerous Method Steven Silver – The Bang Bang Club Jean-marc VALLÉE – Café de Flore * Philippe Falardeau – Monsieur Lazhar Larysa Kondracki – The Whistleblower Meilleures Images / Achievement In Cinematography Miroslaw Baszak, C.S.C. – The Bang Bang Club Pierre Cottereau – Café de Flore Jon Joffin – Daydream Nation * Jean-FRANÇOIS Lord – Snow & Ashes Ronald Plante – Monsieur Lazhar Meilleur Montage / Achievement In Editing Jean-FRANÇOIS Bergeron – The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom Michael Czarnecki – In Darkness Patrick Demers – Jaloux * STÉPHANE Lafleur – Monsieur Lazhar Ronald Sanders, C.C.E. A.C.E. – A Dangerous Method...

A few days ago, Alliance Vivafilm, a film distributor, released the first poster of Funkytown, a film helmed by acclaimed director Daniel Roby (La peau blanche) and penned by Steve Galluccio (Mambo Italiano).

In the 1970s, Montreal was the wealthiest city in Canada and was at the centre of the disco movement. The film follows the life of a bunch of successful people who are destroying themselves.

The film - which was made with a budget of $7.3 million - reunites a star-studded cast: Patrick Huard, Paul Doucet, Sarah Mutch, Justin Chatwin, Raymond Bouchard, Genevieve L'Esperance, Janine Theriault, Romina D'Ugo, Geneviève Brouillette, Lina Roessler, François Létourneau, Sophie Cadieux and many more.

Finally, the film will be released in Quebec's theatres on December 17, 2010.

From the author of Mambo Italiano, comes the World Premiere of a light-hearted and hilariouscomedy about love, lust and misunderstandings, inspired by Feydeau, Goldoni and Sophia Loren.

It's a burning hot August in Naples, 1952 - "earthquake weather", and the citizens of Piazza San Domenico are all stirred up when Carmelina Benevento (Christina Broccolini) suddenly faints upon hearing some bad news about her fiancé, Guido (Guido Cocomello). A series of conspicuous sightings between people provoke gossip.

Misinterpretations ensue as The Players contrive their own schemesand desperately try to keep face. But love and earth tremors have a way of setting things straight! Playwright, Steve Galluccio is a three-time Gemini Award-winning writer whose career started in Montreal's vibrant underground theatre scene. Galluccio burst into "legit" theatre in 2000 with his breakthrough work, Mambo Italiano which was translated into French by Michel Tremblay.

An astounding hit in both French and English, the play has...

Screened

Toronto International Film Festival

Ethnic and sexual stereotypes receive equally clumsy treatment in this Canadian comedy, which depicts the misadventures of a young Italian man's attempting to come out in the face of societal and family pressures. "Mambo Italiano" is in release from Samuel Goldwyn/IDP, which No Doubt hopes to duplicate the success of another recent comedy featuring an ethnic group in the title.

The film depicts the travails of mild-mannered Angelo (Luke Kirby), who still lives at home in Montreal with his working-class Italian parents, Maria (Ginette Reno) and Gino (Paul Sorvino). The latter are characteristically aghast when Angelo decides that he wants to move into a place of his own -- a distinct break from Italian tradition -- but their concerns are somewhat alleviated when Angelo's former childhood friend Nino (Peter Miller), now a cop, moves in with him as his "roommate."

What they don't know is that the pair are lovers, a fact that Angelo and the well-closeted Nino take great pains to conceal. But the deception is short-lived, and the revelation results in inevitable and highly predictable complications and hysterically emotional repercussions, with Angelo's parents and Nino's strong-willed mother desperately trying to rescue their children even while at each other's throats.

Based all too obviously on a play by co-screenwriter Steve Galluccio, the film's broad humor and stereotypical characterizations probably played much more effectively onstage. Here, under the heavy-handed direction of Emile Gaudreault, the material lacks both credibility and emotional resonance, though admittedly the comedy -- not so far removed in style from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" -- could well connect with less discerning audiences. Particularly bizarre are the segments in which Angelo attempts, none too successfully, to counsel callers to a suicide hot line.

The performers vary in effectiveness, with Kirby appealing in the central role despite the character's many inconsistencies. Miller is suitably stalwart as the buffed Nino, and Claudia Ferri garners both laughs and sympathy as Angelo's aggrieved sister. The rest of the performers go through their predictable paces with professionalism, though Sorvino displays evidence of having played this sort of blustery Italian patriarch far too often.

Mambo Italiano

Samuel Goldwyn Films/IDP Distribution

Cinemaginaire

Credits:

Director: Emile Gaudreault

Screenwriter: Emile Gaudreault, Steve Galluccio

Producers: Denise Robert, Daniel Louis

Director of photography: Serge Ladouceur

Editor: Richard Comeau

Production designer: Patricia Christie

Composer: FM Le Sieur

Cast:

Angelo Barberini: Luke Kirby

Gino Barberini: Paul Sorvino

Maria Barberini: Ginette Reno

Maria: Stephanie Vecchio

Anna Barberini: Claudia Ferri

Nino Paventi: Peter Miller

Lina Paventi: Mary Walsh

Running time -- 88 minutes

No MPAA rating...

Variety reports that the Samuel Goldwyn Company has acquired the domestic rights to Canadian comedy Mambo Italiano, starring Paul Sorvino, Ginette Reno, Mary Walsh, Luke Kirby, Peter Miller, Claudia Ferri and Sophie Lorain. Emile Gaudreault directs the comedy, based on a successful play by Steve Galluccio about a dysfunctional Italian immigrant family in Montreal who discover that their son is gay. Mambo will be released in Quebec on June 6, with a later rollout for the rest of Canada.

TORONTO -- Canadian distributor Equinox Films said it has sold the feature comedy Mambo Italiano to Icon Pictures for the United Kingdom and Australia, Lola Films for Spain and Italy, Splendid Films for Germany and Shani Films for Israel. Directed by Emile Gaudreault, Mambo Italiano is a coming-out comedy centering on a first-generation Canadian who tells his loving, dysfunctional Italian immigrant family that he's in love -- with a guy named Nino. It stars Paul Sorvino, Mary Walsh and Luke Kirby. Rounding out the cast are Peter Miller, Claudia Ferri and Sophie Lorain. Yves Dion, vp of distribution for Montreal-based Equinox Films, negotiated the deals after last month's American Film Market. The movie, which was shot last summer in Montreal, will screen in the Cannes market. Mambo was produced by Denise Robert and Daniel Louis of Montreal-based Cinemaginaire, and is based on the stage play by Steve Galluccio. Equinox distributed the boxoffice hit My Big Fat Greek Wedding, also a family-themed ethnic comedy, in Canada, where it brought in CAN$29 million. The company said no deal for US. distribution of Mambo Italiano has been set as yet.