Italy’s Fandango Sales has taken international distribution rights to quirky comedy “Volare” about the fear of flying that marks the directorial debut of actor Margherita Buy.
Buy is known internationally for frequent roles in Nanni Moretti movies, most recently in “A Brighter Tomorrow” that launched from Cannes.
Her smart concept movie is being lead-produced by Simone Gattoni for Kavac Film, the company founded by veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio.
Buy – who in “Tomorrow” played Paola, partner and producer of Moretti’s self-centered alter ego Giovanni – also stars in “Volare” as a talented actress named AnnaBì who lands a role in a movie by a hot Korean helmer that would allow her to break out internationally. She is forced to turn it down owing to her aerophobia, as extreme fear of flying in an airplane is known.
AnnaBì subsequently has to face the same problem when her daughter gets into a U.
Buy is known internationally for frequent roles in Nanni Moretti movies, most recently in “A Brighter Tomorrow” that launched from Cannes.
Her smart concept movie is being lead-produced by Simone Gattoni for Kavac Film, the company founded by veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio.
Buy – who in “Tomorrow” played Paola, partner and producer of Moretti’s self-centered alter ego Giovanni – also stars in “Volare” as a talented actress named AnnaBì who lands a role in a movie by a hot Korean helmer that would allow her to break out internationally. She is forced to turn it down owing to her aerophobia, as extreme fear of flying in an airplane is known.
AnnaBì subsequently has to face the same problem when her daughter gets into a U.
- 9/21/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Veteran Italian auteur Silvio Soldini is set to direct “The Tasters,” which will reconstruct the true untold story of the women conscripted to be Adolf Hitler’s food tasters.
The Nazi-era drama — which will mark Soldini’s first foray into German-language cinema — is based on the bestselling book “At the Wolf’s Table,” by Italian author Rosella Pastorino, about a group of women who were recruited by the SS in 1943 to make sure that food to be served to Hitler was not poisoned. Forced to eat what might kill them, the tasters start to split into two factions: those loyal to Hitler, and those who insist they aren’t Nazis, even as they risk their lives everyday for the Führer. “At the Wolf’s Table” has been translated in 46 countries.
Vision distribution is launching international sales in Cannes on “The Tasters,” which is eying a fall- winter 2023 production start. The...
The Nazi-era drama — which will mark Soldini’s first foray into German-language cinema — is based on the bestselling book “At the Wolf’s Table,” by Italian author Rosella Pastorino, about a group of women who were recruited by the SS in 1943 to make sure that food to be served to Hitler was not poisoned. Forced to eat what might kill them, the tasters start to split into two factions: those loyal to Hitler, and those who insist they aren’t Nazis, even as they risk their lives everyday for the Führer. “At the Wolf’s Table” has been translated in 46 countries.
Vision distribution is launching international sales in Cannes on “The Tasters,” which is eying a fall- winter 2023 production start. The...
- 5/19/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Hou Zuxin’s ‘The Italian Recipe’ to open the 24th edition of the Asian festival in Italy.
The Far East Film Festival (Feff), held in the Italian town of Udine, has unveiled the full line-up for its 24th edition, including 13 world premieres.
The festival, which has established itself as a European showcase for Asian cinema, is set to run from April 22-30 and will open with the world premiere of The Italian Recipe from China’s Zuxin Hou. The romantic comedy, starring Huang Yao and Liu Xan, is mostly set in Rome and marks just the second official co-production between Italy and China.
The Far East Film Festival (Feff), held in the Italian town of Udine, has unveiled the full line-up for its 24th edition, including 13 world premieres.
The festival, which has established itself as a European showcase for Asian cinema, is set to run from April 22-30 and will open with the world premiere of The Italian Recipe from China’s Zuxin Hou. The romantic comedy, starring Huang Yao and Liu Xan, is mostly set in Rome and marks just the second official co-production between Italy and China.
- 4/12/2022
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Costanza Quatriglio’s Hazara drama Just Like My Son is produced by Ascent Film and Rai.
Costanza Quatriglio’s (The Island) drama Just Like My Son is to become the first sizeable Italian production to shoot in Iran in more than 50 years.
The Italian-Belgian-Croatian co-production, which has already shot in Italy, charts the story of an Afghan teenage boy who escapes civil wars and the Taliban.
Iranian production partner Farzad Pak of Tangerine Film has now joined the project.
The Italian, Persian and English-language film, which will shoot 30% of its story in the regions of Varamin, Sangan and Baragan from April 15, is the first Italian fiction feature to have an Iranian partner since the 1960s.
“This is the first Italian fiction film shot and co-produced with Iran,” Ascent producer Andrea Paris told Screen.
“Bureaucratically it hasn’t been easy; the Iranian cinema industry is well developed but not very open to foreign productions. It took six...
Costanza Quatriglio’s (The Island) drama Just Like My Son is to become the first sizeable Italian production to shoot in Iran in more than 50 years.
The Italian-Belgian-Croatian co-production, which has already shot in Italy, charts the story of an Afghan teenage boy who escapes civil wars and the Taliban.
Iranian production partner Farzad Pak of Tangerine Film has now joined the project.
The Italian, Persian and English-language film, which will shoot 30% of its story in the regions of Varamin, Sangan and Baragan from April 15, is the first Italian fiction feature to have an Iranian partner since the 1960s.
“This is the first Italian fiction film shot and co-produced with Iran,” Ascent producer Andrea Paris told Screen.
“Bureaucratically it hasn’t been easy; the Iranian cinema industry is well developed but not very open to foreign productions. It took six...
- 4/7/2017
- ScreenDaily
2016 Berlinale Shooting Star Tihana Lazovic [pictured] leads the Italy-Belgium co-production.
Italian film-maker Costanza Quatriglio (The Island) is currently shooting a new project titled Just Like My Son in Italy and Iran.
The film stars Croatian actress Tihana Lazovic, a 2016 Berlinale Shooting Star, who made her debut in Dalibor Matanic’s High Sun, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in Cannes two years ago.
Doriana Leondeff (Bread And Tulips) co-wrote the script, which tells the story of a mother journeying from east to west.
As well as Lazovic, the film will feature non-professional Afghan actors.
No international sales agent is yet attached to the film, which is an Italy-Belgium co-production from Rai Cinema with Ascent Film (I Can Quit Whenever I Want). Caviar Film (Nymphomaniac) is a co-producer on the project.
“My character is a strong, natural, clever and messy young woman who meets a young man,” said Lazovic. “Their love becomes forbidden because of their different...
Italian film-maker Costanza Quatriglio (The Island) is currently shooting a new project titled Just Like My Son in Italy and Iran.
The film stars Croatian actress Tihana Lazovic, a 2016 Berlinale Shooting Star, who made her debut in Dalibor Matanic’s High Sun, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in Cannes two years ago.
Doriana Leondeff (Bread And Tulips) co-wrote the script, which tells the story of a mother journeying from east to west.
As well as Lazovic, the film will feature non-professional Afghan actors.
No international sales agent is yet attached to the film, which is an Italy-Belgium co-production from Rai Cinema with Ascent Film (I Can Quit Whenever I Want). Caviar Film (Nymphomaniac) is a co-producer on the project.
“My character is a strong, natural, clever and messy young woman who meets a young man,” said Lazovic. “Their love becomes forbidden because of their different...
- 11/6/2016
- ScreenDaily
Director: Silvio Soldini Writers: Silvio Soldini, Doriana Leondeff, Angelo Carbone Starring: Alba Rohrwacher, Giuseppe Battinston, Pierfrancesco Favino Anna (Alba Rohrwacher) and Alessio's (Giuseppe Battinston) relationship begins to come undone when a charming waiter named Domenico (Pierfrancesco Favino) enters the picture. Prior to Anna's first interaction with the talk, dark and handsome Domenico (he is from the south), we sense that her relationship with Alessio is friendly and comfortable but there is nothing sexy about it. Even their body types -- Anna is attractive and petite, Alessio is frumpy and rotund -- signal that they might be romantically incompatible. (I often found myself wondering how Anna and Alessio became a couple in the first place.) The affair between Anna and Domenico is clumsy from the get go, as they not so clandestinely exchange each other's digits outside of the insurance office where Anna works as an accountant. At their first rendezvous,...
- 4/4/2011
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
Another title In Competition for Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival 2010.
Next project that we’re going to talk about is movie titled La Passione or if you prefer The Passion from Italian director Carlo Mazzacurati who was in charge for the script as well, together with Umberto Contarello, Doriana Leondeff and Marco Pettenello.
Check out the La Passione synopsis: “When you’re over fifty, it becomes increasingly difficult to be an up-and-coming director. Gianni Dubois knows this only too well. He hasn’t made a film for years, and now that he has the chance to direct a young TV star he can’t even think up an idea for a story.
As if this wasn’t enough, a leak in his apartment in Tuscany has ruined the 16th-century fresco in the chapel next door. To avoid being sued and publicly shamed, Gianni must accept the bizarre proposal of...
Next project that we’re going to talk about is movie titled La Passione or if you prefer The Passion from Italian director Carlo Mazzacurati who was in charge for the script as well, together with Umberto Contarello, Doriana Leondeff and Marco Pettenello.
Check out the La Passione synopsis: “When you’re over fifty, it becomes increasingly difficult to be an up-and-coming director. Gianni Dubois knows this only too well. He hasn’t made a film for years, and now that he has the chance to direct a young TV star he can’t even think up an idea for a story.
As if this wasn’t enough, a leak in his apartment in Tuscany has ruined the 16th-century fresco in the chapel next door. To avoid being sued and publicly shamed, Gianni must accept the bizarre proposal of...
- 9/11/2010
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
RomaCinemaFest
ROME -- Carlo Mazzacurati's The Right Distance may not be the director's best film, but is stronger and tighter than what he's produced in the last decade. An inconsistent director, Mazzacurati does warm to making movies about marginalized characters without dipping too far into the syrupy posturing that passes as small-town nostalgia in much of today's Italian cinema. Despite overreaching ambitions, word-of-mouth and positive local reviews could help boost figures as it carves out an arthouse niche for itself. Released in Italy by 01 Distribution on October 20, the day after its RomeCinemaFest screening, it modestly grossed under half a million euros in its first week.
This film opens with a spectacularly sunny and sweeping shot of the lush countryside along the banks of the River Po, the best camerawork by an otherwise underused Luca Bigazzi. It then homes in on a bus carrying -- we are told through a young man's voiceover -- Mara (Valentina Lodovini), the pretty elementary school substitute teacher who will change his life forever, to his sleepy town of Concadalbero.
A loner who recently lost his mother, 18 year-old Giovanni (Giovanni Capovilla, making an impressive feature debut) tells us about his first "adult" crush on 30 year-old Mara, along the way providing background information on Concadalbero and its inhabitants.
Giovanni is a budding journalist obsessed with a recent rash of serial dog killings. He lands a job writing anonymously for a local paper, whose stereotypically cantankerous editor (Mazzacurati regular Fabrizio Bentivoglio) tells him to always keep the "right distance" between himself and a story -- not too far so as to lose empathy, not too close so as to become emotionally involved.
The story then shifts to Mara, who in emails to a friend back in Florence exalts the peace of rural living but complains that pickings are slim among the local men. The Only Ones interested are philandering tobacconist Amos (Giuseppe Battiston, who picked up a best acting award at the Fest for his performance) and Hassan (Ahmed Hafiene), a Tunisian mechanic who spies on Mara from the woods by her house, and is in turn spied on by Giovanni.
After catching Hassan in the act, Mara first scorns him but is won over by his gentle shyness and they begin dating. He falls hard, yet she is just passing through, en route to more gratifying work in Brazil.
Just when you think that apart from their personal drama, and the disturbing canine slayings, nothing much happens in Concadalbero -- even the racism endured by many immigrants in Italy seems relatively benign here -- an unexpected brutal murder turns the film into a whodunit in the third, and weakest, act.
Throughout the music by San Francisco acoustic chamber trio Tin Hat is appropriately haunting but Distance ultimately stretches itself thin. Two of its plot threads -- the poignant tale about growing up in Anytown, Italy and the unfulfilled love story -- are almost overshadowed by a facile courtroom drama and investigation that belie the emotional realism of the first two thirds of the film. Which is a shame, because what lies beneath is a compelling story on how human triumphs and tragedies stem, in equal measure, from our inability to maintain the right distance in life.
THE RIGHT DISTANCE
Fandango, RAI Cinema
Credits:
Director: Carlo Mazzacurati
Writers: Carlo Mazzacurati, Doriana Leondeff, Marco Pettenello, Claudio Piersanti
Producer: Domenico Procacci
Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi
Production designer: Giancarlo Basili
Music: Tin Hat
Costume designer: Francesca Sartori
Editor: Paolo Cottignola
Cast:
Giovanni: Giovanni Capovilla
Mara: Valentina Lodovini
Hassan: Ahmed Hafiene
Amos: Giuseppe Battiston
Bencivegna: Fabrizio Bentivoglio
Bolla: Roberto Abbiati
Franco: Natalino Balasso
Guido: Stefano Scandaletti
Running time -- 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
ROME -- Carlo Mazzacurati's The Right Distance may not be the director's best film, but is stronger and tighter than what he's produced in the last decade. An inconsistent director, Mazzacurati does warm to making movies about marginalized characters without dipping too far into the syrupy posturing that passes as small-town nostalgia in much of today's Italian cinema. Despite overreaching ambitions, word-of-mouth and positive local reviews could help boost figures as it carves out an arthouse niche for itself. Released in Italy by 01 Distribution on October 20, the day after its RomeCinemaFest screening, it modestly grossed under half a million euros in its first week.
This film opens with a spectacularly sunny and sweeping shot of the lush countryside along the banks of the River Po, the best camerawork by an otherwise underused Luca Bigazzi. It then homes in on a bus carrying -- we are told through a young man's voiceover -- Mara (Valentina Lodovini), the pretty elementary school substitute teacher who will change his life forever, to his sleepy town of Concadalbero.
A loner who recently lost his mother, 18 year-old Giovanni (Giovanni Capovilla, making an impressive feature debut) tells us about his first "adult" crush on 30 year-old Mara, along the way providing background information on Concadalbero and its inhabitants.
Giovanni is a budding journalist obsessed with a recent rash of serial dog killings. He lands a job writing anonymously for a local paper, whose stereotypically cantankerous editor (Mazzacurati regular Fabrizio Bentivoglio) tells him to always keep the "right distance" between himself and a story -- not too far so as to lose empathy, not too close so as to become emotionally involved.
The story then shifts to Mara, who in emails to a friend back in Florence exalts the peace of rural living but complains that pickings are slim among the local men. The Only Ones interested are philandering tobacconist Amos (Giuseppe Battiston, who picked up a best acting award at the Fest for his performance) and Hassan (Ahmed Hafiene), a Tunisian mechanic who spies on Mara from the woods by her house, and is in turn spied on by Giovanni.
After catching Hassan in the act, Mara first scorns him but is won over by his gentle shyness and they begin dating. He falls hard, yet she is just passing through, en route to more gratifying work in Brazil.
Just when you think that apart from their personal drama, and the disturbing canine slayings, nothing much happens in Concadalbero -- even the racism endured by many immigrants in Italy seems relatively benign here -- an unexpected brutal murder turns the film into a whodunit in the third, and weakest, act.
Throughout the music by San Francisco acoustic chamber trio Tin Hat is appropriately haunting but Distance ultimately stretches itself thin. Two of its plot threads -- the poignant tale about growing up in Anytown, Italy and the unfulfilled love story -- are almost overshadowed by a facile courtroom drama and investigation that belie the emotional realism of the first two thirds of the film. Which is a shame, because what lies beneath is a compelling story on how human triumphs and tragedies stem, in equal measure, from our inability to maintain the right distance in life.
THE RIGHT DISTANCE
Fandango, RAI Cinema
Credits:
Director: Carlo Mazzacurati
Writers: Carlo Mazzacurati, Doriana Leondeff, Marco Pettenello, Claudio Piersanti
Producer: Domenico Procacci
Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi
Production designer: Giancarlo Basili
Music: Tin Hat
Costume designer: Francesca Sartori
Editor: Paolo Cottignola
Cast:
Giovanni: Giovanni Capovilla
Mara: Valentina Lodovini
Hassan: Ahmed Hafiene
Amos: Giuseppe Battiston
Bencivegna: Fabrizio Bentivoglio
Bolla: Roberto Abbiati
Franco: Natalino Balasso
Guido: Stefano Scandaletti
Running time -- 107 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 11/2/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
RomaCinemaFest
ROME -- Silvio Soldini, best known for his multiple award-winning Bread and Tulips from 2000, may have toned down his lyrical ways in Clouds and Days, but he has not strayed from his favorite subject matter -- a middle-aged couple in crisis. Here Soldini forgoes his trademark fairy tale or literary touches (such as in 2002's Burning in the Wind) for austere naturalism, complete with handheld camerawork that may not be entirely justified but lends itself to the film's verite feel.
A universal story with which almost anyone can identify, the film was released domestically Oct. 26 on 176 screens, coming in fifth at the boxoffice with nearly €725,000 grossed from its opening weekend -- over half of what Soldini's previous title, Agata and the Storm (2004), took in overall at home.
In the U.S., Days will be most-successful among highbrow audiences with a taste for smart European fare and the Italian realism of a bygone era. It should also win back European audiences -- in particular in Switzerland and Germany, where he has a large following -- ready for a more mature story from the director.
Although Michele (Antonio Albanese) has a solid marriage, he waits until his wife Elsa (Margherita Buy) has obtained her art history degree to tell her that he was fired two months earlier by the company he helped create. They will have to sell their lavish home immediately. Reeling from shock over the abysmal state of their finances, she quickly finds part-time work as a telemarketer while he goes on fruitless job interviews for positions for which he is overqualified.
Depressed, Michele begins skipping the interviews to do menial work, first as a moped messenger then as a handyman with two of his former employees (Giuseppe Battiston and Antonio Carlo Francini). Eventually, he refuses to get out bed, forcing Elsa to accept a full-time office job and take over his role as the family breadwinner. As their life of privilege slips further away, they start taking their frustrations out on one another and their 20-year-old daughter Alice (Alba Rohrwacher).
The intelligently crafted plot (by Soldini, his longstanding collaborator Doriana Leondeff, Francesco Piccolo and Federica Pontremoli) is balanced by comedic moments that keep it from becoming bleak. The film relies more on nuance rather than dramatic peaks. One particularly gripping, wordless scene comes when Alice, oblivious to her parents' problems, pulls up next to Michele, who is on a moped delivering a package, at a stoplight.
Soldini also reigns in Albanese (a renowned comic prone to hamming it up) and Buy (who has perfected the role of the neurotic urbanite), drawing from them two sober, highly credible performances that reflect how life's unexpected struggles can wear away at even the most loving relationships.
However, two hours on the exhaustive, day-by-day fallout of these struggles weighs down rather than heightens the tension and threat to Elsa and Michele's livelihood and love (even when she begins flirting with a co-worker). At times Days seems more of a social commentary on the shrinking middle class than the will-they-or-won't-they-make-it story at the heart of the film.
DAYS AND CLOUDS
Lumiere & Co., Amka Films, RTSI
Credits:
Director: Silvio Soldin
Writers: Soldini, Doriana Leondeff, Francesco Piccolo, Federica Pontremoli
Producer: Lionello Cerri
Executive producer: Tiziana Soudani
Director of photography: Ramiro Civita
Production designer: Paolo Bizzarri
Music: Giovanni Venosta
Costume designers: Silvia Nebiolo, Patrizia Mazzon
Editor: Carlotta Cristiani
Cast:
Elsa: Margherita Buy
Michele: Antonio Albanese
Alice: Alba Rohrwacher
Vito: Giuseppe Battiston
Riki: Fabio Troiano
Nadia: Carla Signoris
Salviati: Paolo Sassanelli
Luciano: Antonio Carlo Francini
Running time -- 117 minutes
No MPAA rating...
ROME -- Silvio Soldini, best known for his multiple award-winning Bread and Tulips from 2000, may have toned down his lyrical ways in Clouds and Days, but he has not strayed from his favorite subject matter -- a middle-aged couple in crisis. Here Soldini forgoes his trademark fairy tale or literary touches (such as in 2002's Burning in the Wind) for austere naturalism, complete with handheld camerawork that may not be entirely justified but lends itself to the film's verite feel.
A universal story with which almost anyone can identify, the film was released domestically Oct. 26 on 176 screens, coming in fifth at the boxoffice with nearly €725,000 grossed from its opening weekend -- over half of what Soldini's previous title, Agata and the Storm (2004), took in overall at home.
In the U.S., Days will be most-successful among highbrow audiences with a taste for smart European fare and the Italian realism of a bygone era. It should also win back European audiences -- in particular in Switzerland and Germany, where he has a large following -- ready for a more mature story from the director.
Although Michele (Antonio Albanese) has a solid marriage, he waits until his wife Elsa (Margherita Buy) has obtained her art history degree to tell her that he was fired two months earlier by the company he helped create. They will have to sell their lavish home immediately. Reeling from shock over the abysmal state of their finances, she quickly finds part-time work as a telemarketer while he goes on fruitless job interviews for positions for which he is overqualified.
Depressed, Michele begins skipping the interviews to do menial work, first as a moped messenger then as a handyman with two of his former employees (Giuseppe Battiston and Antonio Carlo Francini). Eventually, he refuses to get out bed, forcing Elsa to accept a full-time office job and take over his role as the family breadwinner. As their life of privilege slips further away, they start taking their frustrations out on one another and their 20-year-old daughter Alice (Alba Rohrwacher).
The intelligently crafted plot (by Soldini, his longstanding collaborator Doriana Leondeff, Francesco Piccolo and Federica Pontremoli) is balanced by comedic moments that keep it from becoming bleak. The film relies more on nuance rather than dramatic peaks. One particularly gripping, wordless scene comes when Alice, oblivious to her parents' problems, pulls up next to Michele, who is on a moped delivering a package, at a stoplight.
Soldini also reigns in Albanese (a renowned comic prone to hamming it up) and Buy (who has perfected the role of the neurotic urbanite), drawing from them two sober, highly credible performances that reflect how life's unexpected struggles can wear away at even the most loving relationships.
However, two hours on the exhaustive, day-by-day fallout of these struggles weighs down rather than heightens the tension and threat to Elsa and Michele's livelihood and love (even when she begins flirting with a co-worker). At times Days seems more of a social commentary on the shrinking middle class than the will-they-or-won't-they-make-it story at the heart of the film.
DAYS AND CLOUDS
Lumiere & Co., Amka Films, RTSI
Credits:
Director: Silvio Soldin
Writers: Soldini, Doriana Leondeff, Francesco Piccolo, Federica Pontremoli
Producer: Lionello Cerri
Executive producer: Tiziana Soudani
Director of photography: Ramiro Civita
Production designer: Paolo Bizzarri
Music: Giovanni Venosta
Costume designers: Silvia Nebiolo, Patrizia Mazzon
Editor: Carlotta Cristiani
Cast:
Elsa: Margherita Buy
Michele: Antonio Albanese
Alice: Alba Rohrwacher
Vito: Giuseppe Battiston
Riki: Fabio Troiano
Nadia: Carla Signoris
Salviati: Paolo Sassanelli
Luciano: Antonio Carlo Francini
Running time -- 117 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 10/31/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Silvio Soldini's "Bread & Tulips" has seemingly won more film awards than "Gladiator" and "American Beauty" combined. So as it enters the homestretch of its triumphant worldwide tour in the United States, it's surprising to discover how unfulfilling and relentlessly saccharine the movie is. What a sad commentary on the state of adult comedies that this artificial concoction can win such plaudits.
With aggressive marketing by First Look that emphasizes all of those festival and Donatello awards, the film should open strongly in specialty venues. After that is anybody's guess. But Italian feel-good movies tend to win over audiences whatever their deficiencies.
In the early going, a young boy in a car on a highway holds up a sign reading "New Parents Wanted". That essentially sums up the situation in this film -- only in reverse. A bored housewife, played as a perpetual klutz by Licia Maglietta, desperately needs a new family. Only she doesn't realize it yet. Her husband is too busy with work and his mistress to pay her much heed. Her two teenage sons simply ignore her.
Opportunity arrives unexpectedly when she gets left behind at a rest stop during the family's annual bus holiday. She impulsively hitchhikes to Venice, where several scruffy folk teach her the joys of cheerful impoverishment and determined selfishness in the face of life's hardships.
At the heart of the story is a strange relationship that develops between Maglietta and a forlorn, aging waiter (veteran actor Bruno Ganz) who speaks in a vague foreign accent -- he claims to be Icelandic -- and absurdly flowery language. Maglietta discovers an accordion and remembers she once played the instrument. Ganz remembers he once sang on cruise ships. Duet, anyone?
This is the kind of movie where characters' occupations -- a detective-plumber and a holistic beautician/masseuse -- are funnier than the characters. The pudgy detective-plumber and coy masseuse fall for each other for no clear reason. (This being Venice, one is tempted to say there must be something weird in the water.)
The actors do their best -- perhaps even more than their best because overacting is the order of the day here. But there is not a shred of credibility in this connection even for those who are, in the original English-language title of this movie, "Hopelessly Romantic".
Seldom is one so aware of a moviemaker's strain at creating "enchantment." Each character is given some shtick, such as Maglietta's clumsiness or the masseuse's New Age accouterments, but no sense of character. Even Maglietta's bored housewife has no real personality.
At 116 minutes, the movie staggers rather than prances to the finish line. Technical credits on the well-crafted movie are adroit as Soldini and his crew show off a nontouristy side to Venice and its fabled canals.
BREAD & TULIPS
First Look Pictures
Instituto Luce/Monogatari SRL/RAI Cinema
Producer: Daniele Maggioni
Director: Silvio Soldini
Screenwriters: Doriana Leondeff, Silvio Soldini
Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi
Production designer: Paola Bizzarri
Music: Giovanni Venosta
Costume designer: Silvia Nebiolo
Editor: Carlotta Cristiani
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rosalba: Licia Maglietta
Fernando: Bruno Ganz
Costantino: Giuseppe Battiston
Grazia: Marina Massironi
Mimmo: Antonio Catania
Running time -- 116 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
With aggressive marketing by First Look that emphasizes all of those festival and Donatello awards, the film should open strongly in specialty venues. After that is anybody's guess. But Italian feel-good movies tend to win over audiences whatever their deficiencies.
In the early going, a young boy in a car on a highway holds up a sign reading "New Parents Wanted". That essentially sums up the situation in this film -- only in reverse. A bored housewife, played as a perpetual klutz by Licia Maglietta, desperately needs a new family. Only she doesn't realize it yet. Her husband is too busy with work and his mistress to pay her much heed. Her two teenage sons simply ignore her.
Opportunity arrives unexpectedly when she gets left behind at a rest stop during the family's annual bus holiday. She impulsively hitchhikes to Venice, where several scruffy folk teach her the joys of cheerful impoverishment and determined selfishness in the face of life's hardships.
At the heart of the story is a strange relationship that develops between Maglietta and a forlorn, aging waiter (veteran actor Bruno Ganz) who speaks in a vague foreign accent -- he claims to be Icelandic -- and absurdly flowery language. Maglietta discovers an accordion and remembers she once played the instrument. Ganz remembers he once sang on cruise ships. Duet, anyone?
This is the kind of movie where characters' occupations -- a detective-plumber and a holistic beautician/masseuse -- are funnier than the characters. The pudgy detective-plumber and coy masseuse fall for each other for no clear reason. (This being Venice, one is tempted to say there must be something weird in the water.)
The actors do their best -- perhaps even more than their best because overacting is the order of the day here. But there is not a shred of credibility in this connection even for those who are, in the original English-language title of this movie, "Hopelessly Romantic".
Seldom is one so aware of a moviemaker's strain at creating "enchantment." Each character is given some shtick, such as Maglietta's clumsiness or the masseuse's New Age accouterments, but no sense of character. Even Maglietta's bored housewife has no real personality.
At 116 minutes, the movie staggers rather than prances to the finish line. Technical credits on the well-crafted movie are adroit as Soldini and his crew show off a nontouristy side to Venice and its fabled canals.
BREAD & TULIPS
First Look Pictures
Instituto Luce/Monogatari SRL/RAI Cinema
Producer: Daniele Maggioni
Director: Silvio Soldini
Screenwriters: Doriana Leondeff, Silvio Soldini
Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi
Production designer: Paola Bizzarri
Music: Giovanni Venosta
Costume designer: Silvia Nebiolo
Editor: Carlotta Cristiani
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rosalba: Licia Maglietta
Fernando: Bruno Ganz
Costantino: Giuseppe Battiston
Grazia: Marina Massironi
Mimmo: Antonio Catania
Running time -- 116 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Silvio Soldini's "Bread & Tulips" has seemingly won more film awards than "Gladiator" and "American Beauty" combined. So as it enters the homestretch of its triumphant worldwide tour in the United States, it's surprising to discover how unfulfilling and relentlessly saccharine the movie is. What a sad commentary on the state of adult comedies that this artificial concoction can win such plaudits.
With aggressive marketing by First Look that emphasizes all of those festival and Donatello awards, the film should open strongly in specialty venues. After that is anybody's guess. But Italian feel-good movies tend to win over audiences whatever their deficiencies.
In the early going, a young boy in a car on a highway holds up a sign reading "New Parents Wanted". That essentially sums up the situation in this film -- only in reverse. A bored housewife, played as a perpetual klutz by Licia Maglietta, desperately needs a new family. Only she doesn't realize it yet. Her husband is too busy with work and his mistress to pay her much heed. Her two teenage sons simply ignore her.
Opportunity arrives unexpectedly when she gets left behind at a rest stop during the family's annual bus holiday. She impulsively hitchhikes to Venice, where several scruffy folk teach her the joys of cheerful impoverishment and determined selfishness in the face of life's hardships.
At the heart of the story is a strange relationship that develops between Maglietta and a forlorn, aging waiter (veteran actor Bruno Ganz) who speaks in a vague foreign accent -- he claims to be Icelandic -- and absurdly flowery language. Maglietta discovers an accordion and remembers she once played the instrument. Ganz remembers he once sang on cruise ships. Duet, anyone?
This is the kind of movie where characters' occupations -- a detective-plumber and a holistic beautician/masseuse -- are funnier than the characters. The pudgy detective-plumber and coy masseuse fall for each other for no clear reason. (This being Venice, one is tempted to say there must be something weird in the water.)
The actors do their best -- perhaps even more than their best because overacting is the order of the day here. But there is not a shred of credibility in this connection even for those who are, in the original English-language title of this movie, "Hopelessly Romantic".
Seldom is one so aware of a moviemaker's strain at creating "enchantment." Each character is given some shtick, such as Maglietta's clumsiness or the masseuse's New Age accouterments, but no sense of character. Even Maglietta's bored housewife has no real personality.
At 116 minutes, the movie staggers rather than prances to the finish line. Technical credits on the well-crafted movie are adroit as Soldini and his crew show off a nontouristy side to Venice and its fabled canals.
BREAD & TULIPS
First Look Pictures
Instituto Luce/Monogatari SRL/RAI Cinema
Producer: Daniele Maggioni
Director: Silvio Soldini
Screenwriters: Doriana Leondeff, Silvio Soldini
Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi
Production designer: Paola Bizzarri
Music: Giovanni Venosta
Costume designer: Silvia Nebiolo
Editor: Carlotta Cristiani
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rosalba: Licia Maglietta
Fernando: Bruno Ganz
Costantino: Giuseppe Battiston
Grazia: Marina Massironi
Mimmo: Antonio Catania
Running time -- 116 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
With aggressive marketing by First Look that emphasizes all of those festival and Donatello awards, the film should open strongly in specialty venues. After that is anybody's guess. But Italian feel-good movies tend to win over audiences whatever their deficiencies.
In the early going, a young boy in a car on a highway holds up a sign reading "New Parents Wanted". That essentially sums up the situation in this film -- only in reverse. A bored housewife, played as a perpetual klutz by Licia Maglietta, desperately needs a new family. Only she doesn't realize it yet. Her husband is too busy with work and his mistress to pay her much heed. Her two teenage sons simply ignore her.
Opportunity arrives unexpectedly when she gets left behind at a rest stop during the family's annual bus holiday. She impulsively hitchhikes to Venice, where several scruffy folk teach her the joys of cheerful impoverishment and determined selfishness in the face of life's hardships.
At the heart of the story is a strange relationship that develops between Maglietta and a forlorn, aging waiter (veteran actor Bruno Ganz) who speaks in a vague foreign accent -- he claims to be Icelandic -- and absurdly flowery language. Maglietta discovers an accordion and remembers she once played the instrument. Ganz remembers he once sang on cruise ships. Duet, anyone?
This is the kind of movie where characters' occupations -- a detective-plumber and a holistic beautician/masseuse -- are funnier than the characters. The pudgy detective-plumber and coy masseuse fall for each other for no clear reason. (This being Venice, one is tempted to say there must be something weird in the water.)
The actors do their best -- perhaps even more than their best because overacting is the order of the day here. But there is not a shred of credibility in this connection even for those who are, in the original English-language title of this movie, "Hopelessly Romantic".
Seldom is one so aware of a moviemaker's strain at creating "enchantment." Each character is given some shtick, such as Maglietta's clumsiness or the masseuse's New Age accouterments, but no sense of character. Even Maglietta's bored housewife has no real personality.
At 116 minutes, the movie staggers rather than prances to the finish line. Technical credits on the well-crafted movie are adroit as Soldini and his crew show off a nontouristy side to Venice and its fabled canals.
BREAD & TULIPS
First Look Pictures
Instituto Luce/Monogatari SRL/RAI Cinema
Producer: Daniele Maggioni
Director: Silvio Soldini
Screenwriters: Doriana Leondeff, Silvio Soldini
Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi
Production designer: Paola Bizzarri
Music: Giovanni Venosta
Costume designer: Silvia Nebiolo
Editor: Carlotta Cristiani
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rosalba: Licia Maglietta
Fernando: Bruno Ganz
Costantino: Giuseppe Battiston
Grazia: Marina Massironi
Mimmo: Antonio Catania
Running time -- 116 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
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