DON’T BE BAD

(NON ESSERE CATTIVO)

2015, Kimerafilm production with Rai Cinema and Taodue Film in collaboration with, Leone Film Group; Distribution: Rai Com; 101 min. Dir. Claudio Caligari.

Co-presented with AFI FEST presented by Audi!

Los Angeles Premiere!

The final film from writer-director Claudio Caligari follows friends Cesare (Luca Marinelli) and Vittorio (Alessandro Borghi) around the outskirts of Rome in Ostia, where the fast-moving nightlife of the 1990s threatens to pull them apart. This Pasolini-esque crime drama won eight awards at the Venice International Film Festival.

In Italian with English subtitles.

Introduction by actors Alessandro Borghi and Luca Marinelli, and producer Valerio Mastandrea. Artistic delegation from CIS selection in attendance.

Red-carpet arrivals begin at 5:45 PM. The evening starts at 6:30 PM with the Cinema Italian Style opening ceremony, including the presentation of CIS awards. Feature starts at 7:00 PM. Register for free tickets on the AFI website.

AN ITALIAN NAME

(IL NOME DEL FIGLIO)

2015, Indiana production, Lucky Red, Films Distribution, 94 min. Dir. Francesca Archibugi.

Los Angeles Premiere!

Based on the recent French film WHAT’S IN A NAME?, this boisterous comedy starts simply enough, at a dinner party where soon-to-be parents Alessandro Gassmann and Micaela Ramazzotti (both Nastro d’Argento winners) hope to enjoy an evening with some old friends (Valeria Golino, Luigi Lo Cascio and Rocco Papaleo). But all hell breaks loose when the subject of the child’s name is broached.

In Italian with English subtitles.

AN ITALIAN NAME director Francesca Archibugi will introduce the first feature.

THE DINNER

(I NOSTRI RAGAZZI)

2014, Rodeo Drive and Rai Cinema, Distribution: Film Movement, 92 min. Dir. Ivano De Matteo.

Los Angeles Premiere!

This superb adaptation of Herman Koch’s bestseller will give any parent nightmares. Pediatrician Luigi Lo Cascio and lawyer Alessandro Gassmann dine together every week with their wives; they have a lot to talk about when video surfaces that could implicate their teenage kids in the death of a homeless woman. De Matteo skillfully plays on audience assumptions from start to devastating finish in this look at how close violence remains to even the most placid surface.

In Italian with English subtitles.

Program also includes a short film presented in collaboration with Roma Creative Contest:

“TWO LEFT FEET” (“DUE PIEDI SINISTRI”)

2015, Lea Film, 6 min. Dir. Isabella Salvetti.

In a working class neighborhood of Rome, Mirko plays football with his friends. He meets Luana, who is just sitting there. The two like each other at first, but an unpleasant surprise leaves Mirko breathless. Luana instead smiles happy, maybe for the first time in her life.

THE WAIT

(L’ATTESA)

2015, 100 min. Dir. Piero Messina.

In her villa in Sicily, Anna (Juliette Binoche) is mourning her son Giuseppe when his fiancée (Lou de Laâge) arrives to spend Easter weekend with him. Unable to break the news to the young woman, Anna allows her to wait for Giuseppe, getting to know this link to her son a little better before the truth inevitably emerges. Messina earned a Golden Lion nomination at the Venice Film Festival for this stylish feature debut.

In Italian with English subtitles.

Introduction by director Piero Messina.

ME, MYSELF AND HER

(IO E LEI)

2015, Lucky Red and Rai Cinema, Distribution: Lucky Red, 97 min. Dir. Maria Sole Tognazzi.

Perhaps Italy’s first romantic comedy with a female couple at the center, ME, MYSELF AND HER stars Sabrina Ferilli as happily out restaurateur Marina and Margherita Buy (from Tognazzi’s previous A FIVE STAR LIFE) as Federica, a previously married architect whose fear of what others might think gives her pause about the relationship. With a light tone, this warm look at the everyday struggles of two people to build a life together strikes a universal chord.

In Italian with English subtitles.

ME, MYSELF AND HER director Maria Sole Tognazzi will introduce the first feature.

GOD WILLING

(SE DIO VUOLE)

2015, Wildside and Rai Cinema, Distribution: Intramovies, 87 min. Dir. Edoado Maria Falcone.

Los Angeles Premiere!

Edoardo Maria Falcone earned David di Donatello and Nastro d’Argento Best New Director awards for this knowing father-son comedy. Alessandro Gassmann stars as a priest hilariously stalked by arrogant cardiac surgeon Tommaso (Marco Giallini), an avowed atheist who is thrown for a loop by an announcement from his only son (Enrico Oetiker) – the young man wants to become a priest, too. A box office hit in Italy.

In Italian with English subtitles.

Program also includes a short film presented in collaboration with Roma Creative Contest:

“DEAR SUSIE”

2015, 3 min. Pr. Nicolò Cafieri, Tommaso Fumagalli Dir. Leopoldo Caggiano.

The obsessive love story between a shy Italian boy and an American girl.

LATIN LOVER

2015, Lumiere & Co.and Rai Cinema, Distribution: Rai Com, 104 min. Dir. Cristina Comencini.

Los Angeles Premiere!

Italian actor Saverio (a charismatic Francesco Scianna) personified the Latin lover of the title, portraying a legion of romantic leads onscreen and fathering five daughters (each with a different woman). Ten years after Saverio’s death, his hometown of Apulia stages a memorial, bringing ex-wives, children and former associates together to regrind old axes. Beginning with this ensemble comedy setup, LATIN LOVER ultimately emerges as a love letter to the glory days of Italian film. With Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Marisa Paredes and Virna Lisi (in her final performance).

In Italian with English subtitles.

THE LEGENDARY GIULIA

(NOI E LA GIULIA)

2015, Italian International Film, Warner Bros Ita Dist: Intramovies, 115 min. Dir. Edoardo Leo.

Los Angeles Premiere!

Diego (Luca Argentero), Claudio (Stefano Fresi) and Fausto (director Leo) are all busts at their respective occupations and leave the city for an abandoned farm they hope to turn into a magnet for tourists. The boys have to think fast when the local mafia tries to muscle in on things, but a buried car (the Alfa Romeo Giulia of the title) that plays classical music becomes a surprise attraction.

In Italian with English subtitles.

ITALIAN GANGSTERS

2015, Minerva Pictures and Istituto Luce Cinecittà, Distributor: Minerva Pictures, 87 min. Dir. Renato De Maria.

Los Angeles Premiere!

This unusual docudrama presents a rogue’s gallery of criminals from postwar Milan, painting multifaceted portraits of such notorious underworld figures as Enzo Barbieri and Paolo Casaroli. Cut together in rat-a-tat style, archival footage, scenes from films and actors speaking the gangsters’ own words resurrect both these larger-than life characters and a freewheeling (if dangerous) era of Italian history.

In Italian with English subtitles.

Program also includes a short film presented in collaboration with Roma Creative Contest:

“SHARON’S NUMBER” (“IL NUMERO DI SHARON”)

2015, Associazione Culturale Premio Solinas, 5 min. Dir: Roberto Gagnor.

Andrea knows Lisa on “chat roulette,” where you chat with whoever turns up. When she’s dictating her phone number to him, lightning strikes a trellis, sending the country into blackout before he got the last three digits. He decides to try thousands of possible combinations

MY MOTHER

(MIA MADRE)

2015, Sacher Film, Fandango, Le Pacte, Rai Cinema, Artè, France Cinema, Distribution: Alchemy, 106 min. Dir. Nanni Moretti.

Los Angeles Premiere!

Filmmaker Nanni Moretti’s latest may have a touch of autobiography to it; the film profiles a director (David di Donatello Award winner Margherita Buy) under both personal and professional duress. As her mother (Giulia Lazzarini) lies in a hospital bed nearing the end of her life, Margherita’s current production hits a snag in the person of its difficult lead actor (John Turturro, providing some nice comic relief).

In Italian with English subtitles.

Introduction by director Nanni Moretti.

“THE BALLAD OF THE HOMELESS” (“LA BALLATA DEI SENZATETTO”)

2015 50”, Independent Revolution, 8 min. Dir. and Creative Designer Monica Manganelli.

The Ballad of the Homeless is a short animated film. It’s a poetic and surreal journey into the lands devastated by the earthquake in Emilia (2012), through the eyes of a child (Tommy, the protagonist) and his friend, a snail. Together they face and discover the values of solidarity, hope and see the rebirth of the land. Tommy and his friend (a symbol of slow tenacity that does not give up) then face a journey of self-knowledge where they will be witnesses to what happened in Emilia. It will be a journey to understand how to overcome the fear.

Program also includes a short film presented in collaboration with Roma Creative Contest:

“ZINI’ AND AMI'” (“ZINI’ E AMI'”)

2015, Associazione Culturale Premio Solinas, 5 min. Dir. Pierluca Di Pasquale.

After a failed relationship, Zinì buys Amì, an android prototype that is virtually perfect and programmed to like most of the things he does. While things go smoothly at first, Amì develops a bug in her operating system and no one is able to find a solution.