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Reviewer: James van Maanen

Rating (out of 5): ****

I first saw Vincere when it had its American premiere during last year's New York Film Festival, but the film -- directed and co-written (with Daniella Ceselli) by Marco Bellocchio -- is so smart, dark and telling that it easily rewards a second viewing. Marco Bellocchio's skills as a filmmaker have only grown as he has aged.

Bellocchio tells his version of Benito Mussolini (aka Il Duce) as combination black comedy, opera, history, horror, politics, and masochistic love story of the woman who fixated on Mr. M, married him and fathered his child. In that role you'll discover a very different side of popular Italian actress Giovanna Mezzogiorno (Ferzan Ozpetek's Facing Windows), who at times seems very nearly feral in this film, while getting yet another taste of the fellow who may well be the most talented, versatile and charismatic young actor in Italy,...

Miami, Fl (Cns) --"Saturno Contro (Saturn In Opposition)" closes the Italian Film Festival on Tuesday, October 14th in Miami Beach, Fl. The screening, presented in association with the Miami & Ft. Lauderdale Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, takes place at the Regal South Beach Cinema 18. The film has been described as an Almodovar-esque story of a close group of friends with their own dramas and what happens when they come together to face a tragedy within their circle. The Italian dramedy centers around Davide (Pierfrancesco Favino) and his younger boyfriend, Lorenzo (Luca Argento), as well as their oddball group of friends, including a drug addict businesswoman, an eccentric older gay friend, and what seems to be a normal straight couple.

Directed by Turkish director Ferzan Ozpetek, the film deals with the themes of family and friendship that recur often in Italian cinema. "It's definitely not your Hollywood fare. People want to see something completely different.

By James Van Maanen

"If you're lucky enough to have ever been part of a band of deeply close friends, then add writer/director Ferzan Ozpetek's new film Saturn in Opposition (Saturno Contro) to your must-see list immediately," wrote James Van Maanen when he caught the film as part of this summers Open Roads series of new Italian Films at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

It was then, too, that he got a chance to talk with the director about his work - and more than a little, too, about what the current administrations in the US and Italy are really after. Meantime, with Saturn in Opposition now coming out on DVD, you can take James's advice, too.

ROME -- Two years after her Oscar nomination for "Don't Tell," Cristina Comencini has opted for humor rather than melodrama in examining modern problems in her native Italy. Black and White, her ninth film (and first since the death of her father, Luigi, a beacon of Italian cinema), is a social comedy being referred to as a kind of contemporary, Italian "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" Italy is only now dealing with racial issues that have been present for decades in many other European countries (most notably, France and Great Britain) and beyond.

The film should strike a chord with self-declared progressives and liberals of all cultures, who should recognize that we have far to go in dismantling deeply rooted bigotry.

All married couple Elena (Ambra Angiolini) and Carlo (actor/writer/television personality Fabio Volo) have in common is the color of their skin (white) and their 6-year-old daughter. Elena comes from a wealthy family and is dedicated to her job at an African aid organization. Carlo comes from a more modest background and is a computer engineer sick and tired of campaigns against world hunger.

Then Carlo meets Nadine (Aissa Maiga of Bamako), the dissatisfied wife of one of Elena's colleagues (Eriq Ebouaney of Hitman). Their love at first sight wreaks havoc upon their marriages and, more importantly, brings to light a series of prejudices and cliches from the betrayed spouses. (Maiga and Ebouaney are originally from Senegal and Cameroon, respectively, and are respected actors in their adopted country, France.)

Defying political correctness, the film written by Comencini, Giulia Calenda and Maddalena Ravagli chooses not to focus on Italy's poorest (and most numerous) immigrants but on the underlying racism in wealthier, more progressive circles. Here the deepest cut comes not so much from betrayal but the color of one's rival -- in other words, not adultery but sexuality shared with the "other."

However, the writers don't seem to know where their characters' destinies are ultimately headed: Will tradition and cultural pressure win over desire? Thus, they have created a double ending that apparently was rewritten and re-shot several times. Although somewhat confused, the second ending drives home the point that disrupted lives can't be remade as easily as a hotel bed after a night of passion (a scene that serves as a spot-on metaphor in a film that otherwise relies too heavily on dialogue).

Rising screen star Angiolini (the singer-turned-actress of Saturno Contro) is given the most complex role in Elena, who, according to Nadine, feels a burden of guilt. Nadine presumes correctly: Elena grew up in a household with a black maid forced to wear a white apron. Yet Elena's legacy is that of an upper-class family to whom, as in the case of her womanizing father (Franco Branciaroli), loving Africa means collecting trophies, such as objects from endless safaris and in one instance a black lover.

The entire cast is strong and tight and the Italian spoken by French actors Maiga and Ebouaney is impressive indeed, yet it is Anna Bonaiuto who stands out for her temperament and comic timing. The veteran screen and stage star plays Elena's mother, Adua, herself a betrayed wife and a woman full of stereotypes. "They really do have rhythm in their blood," she says while watching Nadine's daughter dance.

And it would be nice to think that her name was no coincidence: the Battle of Adua in the 19th century was the harshest colonial defeat in Italian history.

BLACK AND WHITE

Cattleya, RAI Cinema

Credits:

Director: Cristina Comencini

Screenwriters: Cristina Comencini, Giulia Calenda, Maddalena Ravagli

Producers: Riccardo Tozzi, Giovanni Stabilini, Marco Chimenz

Director of photography: Fabio Cianchetti

Production designer: Paola Comencini

Costume designer: Antonella Berardi

Editor: Cecilia Zanuso

Cast:

Carlo: Fabio Volo

Elena: Ambra Angiolini

Nadine: Aissa Maiga

Bertrand: Eriq Ebouaney

Adua: Anna Bonaiuto

Alfonso: Franco Branciaroli

Olga: Katia Ricciarelli

Esmeralda: Teresa Saponangelo

Running time -- 102 minutes

No MPAA rating...