http://www.cinemaitaliasf.com/work-forte daily 0.75 2022-05-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1519789012992-FUZCKN1U6T7CK0XBFXD9/LINA_WERTMULLER.jpg Archive - HOMAGE TO LINA WERTULLER Cinema Italia SF, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco and The Italian Consulate General and with the support of The Leonardo da Vinci Society, is proud to present its 6th series of Italian Classic Cinema: HOMAGE TO LINA WERTMÜLLER The first woman ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Saturday, September 23, 2017 – Castro Theatre, San Francisco A day-long cinematic celebration of Lina Wertmüller, the groundbreaking, pioneering woman director and visionary whose fearless, polemical and provocative films have left indelible marks and influence on the international entertainment field. • 11:00 AM: “Love & Anarchy” (129 min.) • 1:30 PM: “Behind the White Glasses” (104 min.) • 4:00 PM: “Swept Away” (115 min.) • 6:30 PM: “Seven Beauties” (116 min.) • 8:30 PM: White Glasses Party in the Theatre’s Mezzanine (ends at 10:00 PM) • 10:00 PM: “The Seduction of Mimi” (112 min.) Four narrative films in 2K Restoration DCP and one documentary film. All DCPs are provided by Kino Lorber. All four narrative feature films star Giancarlo Giannini. We are excited to welcome to San Francisco Valerio Ruiz, the director of the documentary film “Behind the White Glasses”. The Director: Lina Wertmüller was born Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spañol von Braueich in Rome in 1928 to a devoutly Roman Catholic Swiss family of aristocratic descent. After graduating from school, her first job was touring Europe in a puppet show. For the next ten years she worked as an actress, director and playwright for the stage. During this period she met Giancarlo Giannini, who later starred in many of her films. Through her acquaintance with Marcello Mastroianni, she met Federico Fellini and, in 1962, Fellini offered her the assistant director position on 81⁄2. The following year, Wertmüller made her directorial debut with The Lizards (I Basilischi). The film's subject matter—the lives of impoverished people in southern Italy—became a recurring motif in her later work. In 1972, Wertmüller achieved international acclaim with a series of four movies starring Giancarlo Giannini. The last, and best-received of these, was 1975's Seven Beauties (Pasqualino Sette Bellezze), which earned four Academy Award nominations and was an international hit. Wertmüller was the first woman nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director. JaneCampion, Sofia Coppola, and Kathryn Bigelow are the only other female directors nominated (with Bigelow the first to win). In 1985, she received the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry. She is known for her whimsically prolix movie titles. For instance, the full title of Swept Away is Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August. These titles were invariably shortened for international release. (She is entered in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest film title: Un fatto di sangue nel comune di Siculiana fra due uomini per causa di una vedova. Si sospettano moventi politici. Amore-Morte-Shimmy. Lugano belle Tarantelle. Tarallucci e vino. That 1979 movie with 179 characters is better known under the international titles Blood Feud or Revenge. Wertmüller has had a prolific career, and still actively directs. She was married to Enrico Job (died March 4, 2008), an art designer who worked on several of her pictures. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1551209922216-CTUVMLGO6L2EY1M7AWFT/Marcello_1960.png Archive - CIAO MARCELLO! AN HOMAGE TO MARCELLO MASTROIANNI SEPTEMBER 22, 2018 CASTRO THEATRE An overdue homage to a great star 60 years after the making of “La Dolce Vita”, featuring the works of four directors for one actor in one day. Presented in collaboration with The Leonardo da Vinci Society, The Consul General of Italy and The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco. With gratitude to Luce Cinecittá, Janus Films, Kino Lorber, and Paramount Pictures. 10:00 AM Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963) 119 min. BD Directed by Vittorio De Sica with Sophia Loren 1:00 PM 8½ (1963) 138 min. 35 mm Directed by Federico Fellini with Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimèe, Sandra Milo 3:30 PM A Special Day (1977) 106 min. 35 mm Directed by Ettore Scola with Sophia Loren 6:00 PM La Dolce Vita (1960) 173 min. DCP Directed by Federico Fellini with Anita Ekberg 9:00 PM-10:30 PM Via Veneto Party 10:30 PM Divorce Italian Style (1961) 105 min. 35 mm Directed by Pietro Germi with Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli ABOUT MARCELLO A more intimate Marcello, who after the 10 years in the theater under the artistic wing of Luchino Visconti, arrives to the big success of “La Dolce Vita”, never forgetting the intimate life of the average Italian of the time. He molds and changes according to the director that he works with, giving us a kaleidoscope of images of Italy of the 60s. Marcello said: “Yes! I confess, I prefer cinema to theater. Yes, I prefer it for approximation and improvisations, for its confusion. Everything is cinema! A hotchpotch where everything is mixed together, where everyone is okay from jailbirds to poets…” Marcello Mastroianni was only eleven years old when he entered the legendary gates of Cinecittá for the first time. A moment he would never have forgotten, he entered as an extra in a film by Beniamino Gigli called “Marionette”. He was born in Fontana Liri, a small town not far from Rome, on September 26, 1924. He died in Paris on December 19, 1996. His life as an actor was extraordinarily lucky and intense. He spent many years as a great theater protagonist interpreting legendary and memorable dramas. Then he spent years and years building a vast filmography: he acted in more than 170 films, many of which are absolute masterpieces and many are forever milestones in the history of worldwide cinema. Amelia Antonucci, Program Director: “In the year 2000, during my time as Director of the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, I had the honor of presenting to San Francisco a retrospective of 22 films starring Marcello Mastroianni, entitled “The Stuff that Dreams are Made For” at the Pacific Film Archive and at the Castro Theatre from January 14th through Feb 12th: A whole month of Marcello! I am proud that after 18 years later, I am able to present again an homage to this unforgettable actor and star, with five titles in one day at the same venue – the Castro movie palace. Cinema Italia San Francisco, the company that I created to present Italian classic cinema in San Francisco. Following Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Vittorio De Sica, Anna Magnani, Dino Risi, Lina Wertmüller, Michelangelo Antonioni, this is our eighth series.” “The Latin lover, the quintessential continental, the world weary Don Giovanni: for over five decades Marcello Mastroianni epitomized and complicated onscreen masculinity, and remains a key symbol of postwar Italian cinema.” – Film Society of Lincoln Center https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1532453700009-321TNSLVFHCLO829RIU4/Antonioni-visto-da-Antonioni.jpg Archive - Michelangelo Antonioni APRIL 28, 2018 CASTRO THEATRE Presented by Luce Cinecittà, in collaboration with The Italian Cultural Institute and the Consul General of Italy in San Francisco. Michelangelo Antonioni, was born in Ferrara on September 29, 1912. He died in Rome on July 30, 2007 at 94 years of age. His films received numerous awards and nominations throughout his career, including: at Festival de Cannes - Jury Prize (1960, 1962), Palme d'Or (1966), and 35th Anniversary Prize (1982); at the Venice Film Festival - Silver Lion (1955), Golden Lion (1964), FIPRESCI Prize (1964, 1995) and Pietro Bianchi Award (1998); the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Silver Ribbon eight times; an honorary Academy Award in 1995. He is one of only three directors to have won the Palme d'Or, the Golden Lion and the Golden Bear, and the only director to have won these three and the Golden Leopard of the Locarno International Film Festival. Few directors have so radically transformed our perception of the possibilities of film as has Michelangelo Antonioni. Just as there is painting before and after “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,” there is cinema before and after “L’Avventura.” Indeed Antonioni’s films constitute a monument of modernism. Their evocation of postwar alienation and anomie, their formal innovation and figurative beauty, created one of the most influential and inexhaustible canons in the history of cinema. – James Quandt https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1500146110639-Y93G6XB6PFY4LTTYWTA5/Untitled-248.jpg Archive - DINO RISI - A FILM SERIES AN HOMAGE TO THE MASTER OF THE COMEDY ITALIAN STYLE Saturday, April 22, 2017 The Castro Theatre 429 Castro Street, San Francisco Presented by Luce Cinecittà, in collaboration with The Italian Cultural Institute and the Consul General of Italy in San Francisco. A few months after the 100th anniversary of his birth, we celebrate the genius, the irony, the disenchantment, the quick and amazing inventions that Dino Risi has created behind the camera. Luce Cinecittà, in collaboration with The Italian Cultural Institute and Cinema Italia San Francisco are proud to announce Dino Risi - A Film Series, showing four of his most significant films. All featuring renowned Italian actor Vittorio Gassman in his shooting star roles. Dino Risi’s comedies describe the changing society in postwar Italy. He had great commercial and critical success during “Il Boom,” the Italian economic miracle of the ‘50s and ‘60s, together with Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, and Ettore Scola. As social satire, his films are full of shameless characters portraying the stereotypes of commedia all’Italiana (Comedy Italian Style) incarnated in the best actors of the time: Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi, Ugo Tognazzi, and Sophia Loren. After the Museum of Modern Art Premiere (December 2016-January 2017), the series will showcase the regional premiere of the new 4K restorations of Il Sorpasso (The Easy Life) and Profumo di donna (Scent of a Woman), and new 35 mm prints of Il mattatore (Love and Larceny) and I mostri (15 from Rome – Opiate ’67). Following "The Easy Life", celebrate at the sensational Commedia all’Italiana Party in the Castro Theatre mezzanine level with food and fun. Tickets are $12 per screening. Tickets for the party are $15. A pass to see all four films and attend the party is $60. BUY TICKETS HERE SCHEDULE 1:00 PM - Il mattatore (Love and Larceny) – 1960, 104” 3:30 PM – Profumo di donna (Scent of a Woman) – 1974, 103” 6:00 PM - Il sorpasso (The Easy Life) – 1962, 108” 8:30 PM - Commedia all’Italiana Party 10:00 PM - I mostri (15 from Rome – Opiate ’67) – 1963, 118” All films will be presented with English subtitles. DINO RISI – A Film Series is produced by Luce Cinecittà (the Italian agency for the promotion of Italian cinema abroad), under the auspices of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism and the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco and Cinema Italia San Francisco, with the support of the Leonardo Da Vinci Society. The series is organized by Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero (Luce Cinecittà); Amelia Antonucci (Cinema Italia SF); Paolo Barlera (Director, IIC San Francisco). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1484778078198-2CJ8D4OJ25UJIZ6A75DI/Anna-Magnani-05.jpg Archive - ANNA MAGNANI - A FILM SERIES AN ALL-CELLULOID SPECIAL HOMAGE TO A DIVA OF THE ITALIAN CINEMA Presented by Luce Cinecittà, in collaboration with The Italian Cultural Institute and the Consul General of Italy in San Francisco. Download the PDF of the Official Program Luce Cinecittà, The Italian Cultural Institute and Cinema Italia San Francisco are proud to announce Anna Magnani – A Film Series, a special presentation of four 35mm prints of the most acclaimed movies of Nannarella at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, on September 24, 2016, as part of a major tour in the U.S. and Canada – starting at New York City’s Lincoln Center on May 18, 2016, traveling to Chicago in June, Los Angeles (American Cinematheque and UCLA) in August, and continuing in Houston, Columbus (Ohio), and Toronto in January 2017. The day begins with Roberto Rossellini’s neorealist war drama "Open City". This is followed by Luchino Visconti’s satirical spin on the movie industry – "Bellissima". The evening’s Spotlight Film is Daniel Mann’s "The Rose Tattoo", the celebrated adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play that garnered three Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Magnani, who also won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for this memorable English-language role. A vivacious Roman- and Louisiana-styled party will follow the screening. The series will conclude with Mario Monicelli’s "The Passionate Thief", a comedic adaptation of two novels by Alberto Moravia, starring Magnani and Totò. Following "The Rose Tattoo", celebrate Anna Magnani - A Film Series with a sensational party in the Castro Theatre mezzanine level with food and fun, inspired by the Rome of Anna Magnani. This series is co-presented by Istituto Luce Cinecittà and The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, with the support of The Leonardo da Vinci Society. It was organized by program director Amelia Antonucci of Cinema Italia San Francisco, and Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero of Istituto Luce Cinecittà, in association with the Ministry of Culture, Italy, andunder the auspices of The Consul General of Italy in San Francisco. Tickets are $12 per screening. Tickets for the party are $20. A pass to see all four films and attend the party is $60. BUY TICKETS NOW SCHEDULE • 1:00 PM: Rome Open City (100 mins. – 1945) • 3:00 PM: Bellissima (115 mins. – 1952) • 6:00 PM: The Rose Tattoo (117 mins. – 1955) • 8:00 PM: La Roma di Magnani Party in the Castro Theatre’s mezzanine • 10:00 PM: The Passionate Thief (106 mins. – 1960) All films will be presented with English subtitles. ANNA MAGNANI The movies in which Anna Magnani acted, even if directed by famous directors as Rossellini, Pasolini, Fellini and Visconti, often are remembered as “Magnani’s movies” and have inspired generations of filmmaker around the world. Jean Renoir says of her: “She is the greatest actress that I worked with: She is entirely ‘animal’… An animal created for stage and screen.” Roberto Rossellini called her “the greatest acting genius since Eleonora Duse”. Tennessee Williams became an admirer and wrote The Rose Tattoo specifically for her to star in, a role for which she received an Oscar in 1955. Born in 1908 in Rome, Anna Magnani was raised by her grandmother in modest conditions. She studied for two years at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome and began her career in a traveling Italian Theatre troupe. While gaining fame as a stage actress, she was discovered by her future husband and film director Goffredo Alessandrini who cast her in two of his films. When her marriage to Alessandrini ended in 1950, she never married again. Magnani once said, “Women like me can only submit to men capable of dominating them, and I have never found anyone capable of dominating me.” In 1941, Magnani appeared in her first important film, Teresa Venerdi, directed by Vittorio De Sica, but it was her 1945 role in Roberto Rossellini’s Rome Open City that instantly made her a star in Italy and abroad. Her performance won her Best Foreign Actress of the year by the National Board of Review and Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. The seven years following Rome Open City were the most prolific for Magnani’s career and she was seen as the symbol of the Italian national spirit during the postwar years. Her acting, so spontaneous and natural, and her instinctive emotional approach to the characters portrayed, made her for a few years the most popular Italian actress in Hollywood. In 1956 she won the Academy Award as Best Actress for The Rose Tattoo, directed by Daniel Mann. It was an adaptation of a stage text especially written for her by Tennessee Williams. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1462560814781-3BA1QDT9NZMVB7DY249J/tumblr_nfi2nkwkdq1qjzrgro1_1280+copy.jpg Archive - VITTORIO DE SICA - A film series Presented by Luce Cinecittà, in collaboration with The Italian Cultural Institute and the Consul General of Italy in San Francisco. On September 26, 2015, four of the most successful and loved works by the master of Italian Neorealism will screen at San Francisco’s historic Castro Theatre. Vittorio De Sica – A Film Series will engage the audience in a one-day pursuit of a cinematic personality that has many facets and won 4 Academy Awards. This series is co-presented by Istituto Luce Cinecittà and The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, with the support of The Leonardo da Vinci Society. It was organized by program director Amelia Antonucci of Cinema Italia San Francisco, and Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero of Istituto Luce Cinecittà, in association with the Ministry of Culture, Italy, andunder the auspices of The Consul General of Italy in San Francisco. Tickets are $12 per screening. Tickets for the party are $20. A pass to see all four films and attend the party is $60. Click here to purchase tickets. SCHEDULE 11:30 am La ciociara (Two Women) (Drama, War/1960/121 min.) 2:00 pm L’Oro di Napoli (The Gold of Naples) (Comedy / 1954 / 118 mins.) 5:00 pm Matrimonio all’Italiana (Marriage Italian-Style ) (Comedy, Drama / 1964 / 102mins.) 7:30 pm Il Giardino dei Finzi Contini (The Garden of the Finzi Continis) (Drama / 1970 / 95 mins.) 9:30 pm Party in the Castro Mezzanine On September 26, 2015, following our 7:30PM special West Coast Premiere of the new restoration of the Academy Award-winning "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis", head upstairs to the Castro Theatre's mezzanine for a great time at our "In The Secret Garden" Party at 9:30PM. The party will feature food, wine and entertainment from select regions of Italy featured in the four films of Vittorio De Sica - A Film Series. Discover Naples: The classic "osteria" with vino, pizzette (bite-sized pizzas) and cartocci (fried delicacies in paper cones). As well, we will feature scrumptious selections of food and wine from Rome and, of course, Ferrara. Come meet Mr. Lino Capolicchio, the star of "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis", and mix and mingle with fellow lovers of Italian movies and all things Italian. Purchase your tickets today and we will see you there! All films presented with English subtitles About Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica (7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: Shoeshine and Bicycle Thieves were awarded honorary Oscars, while both Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Indeed, the great critical success of Shoeshine, (the first foreign film to be so recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) and Bicycle Thieves helped establish the permanent Best Foreign Film Oscar. These two films generally are considered part of the canon of classic cinema. De Sica was also nominated for the 1957 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing Major Rinaldi in American director Charles Vidor's 1957 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, a movie that was panned by critics and proved a box office flop. De Sica's acting was considered the highlight of the film. Born into poverty in Sora, Lazio (1901), he began his career as a theatre actor in the early 1920s and joined Tatiana Pavlova's theatre company in 1923. In 1933 he founded his own company with his wife Giuditta Rissone and Sergio Tofano. The company performed mostly light comedies, but they also staged plays by Beaumarchais and worked with famous directors like Luchino Visconti. His meeting with Cesare Zavattini was a very important event: together they created some of the most celebrated films of the neorealistic age, like Shoeshine and Bicycle Thieves (released as The Bicycle Thief in America). De Sica appeared in the British television series The Four Just Men (1959). His passion for gambling was well known. Because of it, he often lost large sums of money and accepted work that might not otherwise have interested him. He never kept his gambling a secret from anyone; in fact, he projected it on characters in his own movies, like Count Max (which he acted in but did not direct) and The Gold of Naples. In 1937 he married Giuditta Rissone, whom he met ten years before and who gave birth to their daughter, Emi. In 1942, on the set of Un garibaldino al convento, he met Spanish actress Maria Mercader (sister of Ramon Mercader, Trotsky's assassin), with whom he started a relationship. After divorcing Rissone in France in 1954, he married Mercader in 1959, in Mexico, but this union was not considered valid under Italian law. In 1968 he obtained French citizenship and married Mercader in Paris. Meanwhile he had already had two sons with her: Manuel, in 1949, who became a musician, and Christian, in 1951, who would follow his father's path as an actor and director. Although divorced, De Sica never parted from his first family. He led a double family life, with double celebrations on holidays. It is said that, at Christmas and on New Year's Eve, he used to put back the clocks by two hours in Mercader's house so that he could make a toast at midnight with both families. His first wife agreed to keep up the facade of a marriage so as not to leave her daughter without a father. Vittorio De Sica died at 73 after a surgery at the Neuilly-sur-Seine hospital in Paris. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1553185750595-8FWDP9TR59WLMELQ3LGV/F4NG2G.jpg Archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1576181728216-TMH1UZ0KRFKP8R4S1HX3/1-Fellini.jpg Archive - FELLINI 100: Homage to Federico Fellini Saturday, March 7, 2020 CASTRO THEATRE, SAN FRANCISCO Presented by Luce Cinecittà and The Italian Cultural Institute under the auspices of the Consul General of Italy in San Francisco. Organized by Cinema Italia San Francisco. About the Program On the occasion of Federico Fellini’s 100th anniversary and in conjunction with Federico Fellini at 100, Luce Cinecittà has organized a series of international initiatives to present the complete retrospective of his films in several locations around the world, including, in North America: New York, Boston, Washington, Houston, Cleveland, Toronto, BAMPFA Berkeley, and Harvard University. San Francisco paid homage to the great Maestro with a selection of his works on March 7, 2020, at the Castro Theatre. Presented by Istituto Luce Cinecittà and Istituto Italiano Cultura SF, director Annamaria Di Giorgio, under the auspices of Consul General of Italy Lorenzo Ortona and organized by Cinema Italia San Francisco as its 10th program. The one-day marathon with four films selected by program director Amelia Antonucci was part of the Federico Fellini 100 Tour, a series of centennial tributes to Federico Fellini (1920–1993), which travels to major museums and film institutions worldwide, coordinated by Paola Ruggiero and Camilla Cormanni of Luce Cinecittà. All films (unless noted) were digitally restored by Luce Cinecittà, Cineteca di Bologna and Cineteca Nazionale. March 7th Full Schedule: 12:30 p.m. – La strada (1954) 104 min. B/W, 35mm, courtesy of Janus Films. 3:00 p.m. – Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits) (1965) 144 min. Color, DCP restored by Cinecittà-CSC. 6:00 p.m. – Amarcord (1973) 127 min. Color, DCP restored by Cineteca di Bologna. 10:00 pm – I Vitelloni (1953) 108 min. B/W, DCP restored by Cinecittà-CSC. Click here for the complete series of films, lectures and more at BAMPFA Berkeley January 16 through May 17, 2020 About Federico Fellini Federico Fellini, a poet of cinema, was born in Rimini, Italy, on January 20, 1920, and died in Rome on October 31, 1993. In a career of almost 50 years, he won the Cannes Palme d'Or for La Dolce Vita, was nominated for 12 Academy Awards® and won four times in the category of Best Foreign Language Film (now called Best International Film), the most for any director in the Academy’s history. At the 65th Academy Awards in 1992, he received the honorary award for Lifetime Achievement. His cinematic worlds of good-natured fools, early neorealist screenplays, and carnivalesque studies of society and human nature, blend to form the universe in which his unique sensibilities abide. In the first two films of our series, we pay tribute to his muse and spouse Giulietta Masina. The third and last films are his memories and his fantastic world. Presenting Organizations Istituto Luce Cinecittà Established in May 2010, following the merger of Cinecittà Holding and Istituto Luce (founded in 1924), Istituto Luce Cinecittà is the public service branch of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism with the aim of promoting classic and contemporary Italian cinema worldwide, through traveling programs in major international institutions. Such programs include film retrospectives of Italy’s most prominent directors and actors, art and photographic exhibitions, book presentations, support in the selection of Italian films at film festivals, and the participation of Italian talents attending international events. It is also home to Cinecittà Studios. www.cinecitta.com The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco The Italian Cultural Institute promotes Italian language, culture, and the best of Italy by offering information about Italy, scholarships, and cultural events, such as: art exhibits, film screenings, concerts, and lectures. The Institute’s goal is to foster mutual understanding and cultural cooperation between Italy and the United States. www.iicsanfrancisco.esteri.it Cinema Italia San Francisco Founded in 2013, Cinema Italia SF is an organization that operates in San Francisco bringing to major screens the best of Italian Cinema. This will be the 10th program organized by CISF in the Bay Area: Pasolini (2013), Bertolucci (2014), De Sica (2015), Magnani (2016), Dino Risi and Lina Wertmüller (2017), Michelangelo Antonioni (2018), Marcello Mastroianni (2018), Ugo Tognazzi (2019), and Federico Fellini #Fellini100 (2020). Cinema Italia San Francisco is a member of Intersection for the Arts, which provides fiscal sponsorship, incubation and consulting to artists. www.cinemitaliasf.com Image: © RGR Collection / Alamy Stock Photo Important Advisory
 Posted March 5, 2020: All those who have traveled to Italy in the 14 days prior to the Fellini 100 Film Festival are asked to refrain from participating in the event, based on the latest indications from the US government of March 4, 2020: in particular, the Center for Infectious Disease Prevention (CDC) has specified that all those arriving from Italy will have to undergo a voluntary self-isolation period of 14 days and monitor their health to avoid possible infections from Coronavirus. We are certain you will understand the current circumstances, and we thank you for your collaboration. Refund Policy Refunds must be requested to cinemaitaliasf@gmail.com by the latest by Friday, March 6, 2020 at 11:59 PM. Any refund requests after this specific time will not be honored. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1433360079160-8E0MB01TYGFZ0TPA66AH/mamma_roma_paakuva.jpg Archive - "MAMMA ROMA," 1962 “Arguably in Mamma Roma the sub-proletarian world provides not only the subject matter but the actual subject of the film, for the story hinges on the attempts of Mamma Roma, an ex-prostitute, to ‘go straight’ and to provide a respectable petty bourgeois existence in which her adolescent son can grow up. The attempts fail and the respectable dream evaporates and, in a sense, there is a moral in this—the first statement by Pasolini of what is to become a recurrent theme: the un-livability of the modern bourgeois and petty-bourgeois world” (G. Nowell-Smith, “Pasolini’s Originality,” in Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1977). In Italian; English subtitles. 111 min. Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. With Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1433013178893-XBUAI02GW65L3XA7PF9J/vlcsnap2012030221h58m32.png Archive - "IL CONFORMISTA" (THE CONFORMIST, 1970) With The Conformist, Bertolucci was anything but, distinguishing himself with a sumptuous masterpiece that delves into the clash between repressed guilt and political acquiescence. The titular “conformist,” Marcello Clerici is a suave intellectual who has risen through the ranks of Mussolini’s fascist government. A long sublimated molestation has driven him to seek “the impression of normalcy,” so he forfeits all moral value in the pursuit of anonymity. When he is sent to Paris to organize the assassination of his former mentor, an antifascist professor, Clerici must confront his tortured past. Bertolucci’s chilling study of the fascist personality is told through flashbacks refracting as though through a faceted gemstone. The accumulating story is re-collected via an exacting design of Art Deco excess, disorienting scale, and uncanny lighting. Clerici (portrayed by Jean-Louis Trintignant with unnerving control) is captive to an interior inertia reflected by these strident surroundings. Throughout his films, Bertolucci has perused the interplay of moral convention and psychological failing. The Conformist breaks with the norm in its lavish condemnation of follow-the-leader. —Steve Seid, Pacific Film Archive, UC Berkeley   Written by Bernardo Bertolucci, based on the novel by Alberto Moravia. Photographed by Vittorio Storaro. Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda, Pierre Clémenti. Print Source: Istituto Luce- Cinecittá S.r.L. Bertolucci US. Permission: Paramount Pictures. Print Source: Kino Lorber, New York City http://www.cinemaitaliasf.com/new-gallery-5-forte daily 1.0 2022-09-01 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1501045533267-OZG9TJAYYSX6TGRAZH3L/Lina_Wertmuller_Square.jpg Home - HOMAGE TO LINA WERTMÜLLER Cinema Italia SF, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco and The Italian Consulate General and with the support of The Leonardo da Vinci Society, is proud to present its 6th series of Italian Classic Cinema: HOMAGE TO LINA WERTMÜLLER The first woman ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Saturday, September 23, 2017 – Castro Theatre, San Francisco A day-long cinematic celebration of Lina Wertmüller, the groundbreaking, pioneering woman director and visionary whose fearless, polemical and provocative films have left indelible marks and influence on the international entertainment field. BUY TICKETS NOW - Single Tickets - Party Tickets - Day Pass • 11:00 AM: “Love & Anarchy” (129 min.) • 1:30 PM: “Behind the White Glasses” (104 min.) • 4:00 PM: “Swept Away” (115 min.) • 6:30 PM: “Seven Beauties” (116 min.) • 8:30 PM: White Glasses Party in the Theatre’s Mezzanine (ends at 10:00 PM) • 10:00 PM: “The Seduction of Mimi” (112 min.) Four narrative films in 2K Restoration DCP and one documentary film. All DCPs are provided by Kino Lorber. All four narrative feature films star Giancarlo Giannini. We are excited to welcome to San Francisco Valerio Ruiz, the director of the documentary film “Behind the White Glasses”. The Director: Lina Wertmüller was born Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spañol von Braueich in Rome in 1928 to a devoutly Roman Catholic Swiss family of aristocratic descent. After graduating from school, her first job was touring Europe in a puppet show. For the next ten years she worked as an actress, director and playwright for the stage. During this period she met Giancarlo Giannini, who later starred in many of her films. Through her acquaintance with Marcello Mastroianni, she met Federico Fellini and, in 1962, Fellini offered her the assistant director position on 81⁄2. The following year, Wertmüller made her directorial debut with The Lizards (I Basilischi). The film's subject matter—the lives of impoverished people in southern Italy—became a recurring motif in her later work. In 1972, Wertmüller achieved international acclaim with a series of four movies starring Giancarlo Giannini. The last, and best-received of these, was 1975's Seven Beauties (Pasqualino Sette Bellezze), which earned four Academy Award nominations and was an international hit. Wertmüller was the first woman nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director. JaneCampion, Sofia Coppola, and Kathryn Bigelow are the only other female directors nominated (with Bigelow the first to win). In 1985, she received the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry. She is known for her whimsically prolix movie titles. For instance, the full title of Swept Away is Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August. These titles were invariably shortened for international release. (She is entered in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest film title: Un fatto di sangue nel comune di Siculiana fra due uomini per causa di una vedova. Si sospettano moventi politici. Amore-Morte-Shimmy. Lugano belle Tarantelle. Tarallucci e vino. That 1979 movie with 179 characters is better known under the international titles Blood Feud or Revenge. Wertmüller has had a prolific career, and still actively directs. She was married to Enrico Job (died March 4, 2008), an art designer who worked on several of her pictures. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1501045533267-OZG9TJAYYSX6TGRAZH3L/Lina_Wertmuller_Square.jpg Home - HOMAGE TO LINA WERTMÜLLER Cinema Italia SF, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco and The Italian Consulate General and with the support of The Leonardo da Vinci Society, is proud to present its 6th series of Italian Classic Cinema: HOMAGE TO LINA WERTMÜLLER The first woman ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. Saturday, September 23, 2017 – Castro Theatre, San Francisco A day-long cinematic celebration of Lina Wertmüller, the groundbreaking, pioneering woman director and visionary whose fearless, polemical and provocative films have left indelible marks and influence on the international entertainment field. BUY TICKETS NOW - Single Tickets - Party Tickets - Day Pass • 11:00 AM: “Love & Anarchy” (129 min.) • 1:30 PM: “Behind the White Glasses” (104 min.) • 4:00 PM: “Swept Away” (115 min.) • 6:30 PM: “Seven Beauties” (116 min.) • 8:30 PM: White Glasses Party in the Theatre’s Mezzanine (ends at 10:00 PM) • 10:00 PM: “The Seduction of Mimi” (112 min.) Four narrative films in 2K Restoration DCP and one documentary film. All DCPs are provided by Kino Lorber. All four narrative feature films star Giancarlo Giannini. We are excited to welcome to San Francisco Valerio Ruiz, the director of the documentary film “Behind the White Glasses”. The Director: Lina Wertmüller was born Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spañol von Braueich in Rome in 1928 to a devoutly Roman Catholic Swiss family of aristocratic descent. After graduating from school, her first job was touring Europe in a puppet show. For the next ten years she worked as an actress, director and playwright for the stage. During this period she met Giancarlo Giannini, who later starred in many of her films. Through her acquaintance with Marcello Mastroianni, she met Federico Fellini and, in 1962, Fellini offered her the assistant director position on 81⁄2. The following year, Wertmüller made her directorial debut with The Lizards (I Basilischi). The film's subject matter—the lives of impoverished people in southern Italy—became a recurring motif in her later work. In 1972, Wertmüller achieved international acclaim with a series of four movies starring Giancarlo Giannini. The last, and best-received of these, was 1975's Seven Beauties (Pasqualino Sette Bellezze), which earned four Academy Award nominations and was an international hit. Wertmüller was the first woman nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director. JaneCampion, Sofia Coppola, and Kathryn Bigelow are the only other female directors nominated (with Bigelow the first to win). In 1985, she received the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry. She is known for her whimsically prolix movie titles. For instance, the full title of Swept Away is Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August. These titles were invariably shortened for international release. (She is entered in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest film title: Un fatto di sangue nel comune di Siculiana fra due uomini per causa di una vedova. Si sospettano moventi politici. Amore-Morte-Shimmy. Lugano belle Tarantelle. Tarallucci e vino. That 1979 movie with 179 characters is better known under the international titles Blood Feud or Revenge. Wertmüller has had a prolific career, and still actively directs. She was married to Enrico Job (died March 4, 2008), an art designer who worked on several of her pictures. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1652975149057-1EGMT95DXO49XFDWSBB1/image-asset.jpeg Home - PASOLINI 100 BUY TICKETS BUY DAY PASS Homage to Pier Paolo Pasolini On the 100th anniversary of his birth Saturday, September 10, 2022 Castro Theatre, San Francisco Presented by Cinecittà, The Italian Cultural Institute and Cinema Italia San Francisco in collaboration with Artistic Soul Association under the auspices of the Consul General of Italy in San Francisco. We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Jan Shrem & Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art and the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation. This Special Homage to Pasolini, who pushed the boundaries of politics, art and sexuality, follows the complete retrospective that Cinecittà premiered at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of Pasolini’s birth. San Francisco will pay homage to the great Maestro with a selection of his works on September 10 at the Castro Theatre. This is Cinema Italia San Francisco’s 11th program of classic Italian cinema. Saturday, September 10 Full Schedule: 10:30am – Pasolini ( 2014) directed by Abel Ferrara. 84 min. Color DCP, starring Willem Dafoe 12:30pm – Mamma Roma (1962) 107 min. B&W. 35mm, starring Anna Magnani 3:00pm - Accattone (1961) 117 min. B&W. Digitally 4 K, starring Franco Citti 6:00pm - Medea ( 1969) 110 min. Color, 35mm, starring Maria Callas 8:30pm - 10:00pm - La Roma di Pasolini Reception - Castro Theatre Mezzanine 10:00 pm - Salò or the 120 days of Sodom (1976) 116 min., Color, 35mm (viewer discretion advised) starring Franco Citti. All prints courtesy of Cinecittá, unless otherwise noted. Screening permission by Janus Films, Kino Lorber, Park Circus, Unzero. Ticket Prices: Single screenings: $15.00 per admission Seniors, Students and IIC members: $12 Party (after Medea): $35.00 per admission Festival Pass (all films + party): $70.00 per pass ($80.00 after July 20) Vaccination proof & ID are required About Pier Paolo Pasolini Though he was a filmmaker for just over a decade, Pasolini’s impact on cinema is profound. An openly gay man and outspoken critic of capitalism and Europe’s bourgeois establishment, Pasolini remained in the crosshairs of the elite for his entire career, which ended tragically when he was murdered weeks before the premiere of his most incendiary condemnation of the upper classes: Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. He was 53 years old. Presented almost in preserved 35mm prints, realized by Cinecittà and Cineteca di Bologna, this small selection of movies traverses Pasolini’s main periods: his reinvention of Italian neorealism as a potently lyrical vehicle for devastating portraits of modern life (Accattone, Mamma Roma); his searing portraits of the depravity of European society and his shocking one-two punch of the celebratory Trilogy of Life, a celebration of the primal pleasures of sex set in antiquity, and its antithesis, the devastatingly bleak World War II horror show Salò. ( B. Rondeau, senior director, film programs Academy Museum of Motion Pictures ) Medea is presented as an Homage to the main interpreter and close friend of Pasolini, Greek Soprano Maria Callas whose 100 year anniversary falls also in 2022. Presenting Organizations Cinecittà Established in May 2010, following the merger of Cinecittà Holding and Istituto Luce (founded in 1924), Cinecittà is the public service branch of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism with the aim of promoting classic and contemporary Italian cinema worldwide, through traveling programs in major international institutions. Such programs include: film retrospectives of Italy’s most prominent directors and actors, art and photographic exhibitions, books presentations, support in the selection of Italian films at film festivals, and the participation of Italian talents attending international events. It is also home of Cinecittà Studios. www.cinecitta.com The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco The Italian Cultural Institute promotes Italian language, culture, and the best of Italy by offering information about Italy, scholarships, and cultural events, such as: art exhibits, film screenings, concerts, and lectures. The Institute’s goal is to foster mutual understanding and cultural cooperation between Italy and the United States. www.iicsanfrancisco.esteri.it Cinema Italia San Francisco Founded in 2013, Cinema Italia SF is an organization that operates in San Francisco bringing to major screens the best of Italian Cinema. This will be the 11th program organized by CISF in the Bay Area: Pasolini (2013), Bertolucci (2014), De Sica (2015), Magnani (2016), Dino Risi and Lina Wertmüller (2017), Michelangelo Antonioni, Marcello Mastroianni (2018) Ugo Tognazzi ( 2019) and Fellini 100 ( 2020). Cinema Italia San Francisco is a member of Intersection for the Arts, which provides fiscal sponsorship, incubation and consulting to artists. Artistic Soul Association The Artistic Soul Association was founded in 1995 by Loredana Commonara, a professional in the film and audiovisual sector. Artistic Soul Association’s activities include the production and organization of short films and international festivals in Italy (Ventotene Film Festival) and the promotion of contemporary Italian cinema and audiovisual in New York (Italy on Screen Today-New York Film & Tv Series Fest). The initiatives produced by the association are realized thanks to the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Italian Cultural Institutes, in collaboration with the Parliament, the European Commission, and many prestigious Italian and international Universities. www.ventotenefilmfestival.com - italyonscreentoday.it https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1652975521522-MI9KS36D3XLPSMO54BNI/2-Lastrada.jpg Home - PASOLINI 10:30 AM BUY TICKETS BUY DAY PASS Director: Abel Ferrara, 2014, 84 min., DCP, Color, Italy, Belgium France. Cast: Willem Dafoe, Ninetto Davoli, Valerio Mastandrea, Riccardo Scamarcio. Willem Dafoe stars in Abel Ferrara’s dramatic English-language film Pasolini, about the mysterious final days of the renowned Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini. This haunting biopic draws on Pasolini’s last interview and scenes from his unfinished novel Petrolio, which imagines Pasolini’s muse Ninetto Davoli returning to “finish” the unfinished work, in a final act of love. Dafoe’s charisma shines as he embodies the intellect and passion of the murdered director. The film, written by Maurizio Braucci, was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival and screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. DCP by Kino Lorber. Co-Presented by SFFILM https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1652832140707-0OQ156MKQZTXUF183IHM/3-Juliet1.jpg Home - MAMMA ROMA 12:30 PM BUY TICKETS BUY DAY PASS Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1962, 107 min., 35mm, B&W, Italy. Cast: Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti, Silvana Corsini. Distr. Janus Film. Print from Cinecittà. Mamma Roma is Pasolini’s second feature and is among Pasolini’s most audaciously shaped and satisfying movies. The immortal Anna Magnani is equally vulnerable and volcanic as the titular character in Pasolini’s gritty tale of a mother determined to rise above poverty. The writer-director returns to the desolate outskirts of Rome for this tale of doomed maternal love set against a stark backdrop of ancient ruins and prefab apartment blocks. Former prostitute Mamma Roma is trying to start a new life in a new flat with her teenage son. But the criminal underworld she thought she had escaped slowly pulls her back into its vortex. Co-Presented by California Film Institute/Mill Valley Film Festival https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1652832304397-N7TW10NCUI36RCGR6HQO/4-Amacord.jpg Home - ACCATTONE 3:00 PM BUY TICKETS BUY DAY PASS Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1961, 117 min., 4K DCP restoration, B&W, Italy. Cast: Franco Citti, Franca Pasut, Silvana Corsini, Paola Guidi. Distr. Janus Restored by Cinecittà with Cineteca di Bologna and The Film Foundation in collaboration with Compass Film. Restoration funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. After writing a pair of novels, Ragazzi di Vita and Una Vita Violenta, set in the urban periphery of Rome, Pasolini decided to turn to cinema to continue exploring this world and its characters. Accattone is the nickname of Vittorio—played by non professional Franco Citti, a soon to be Pasolini regular—a young loafer roaming the hardscrabble Roman slum of Pigneto who fancies himself a pimp. The desperation of Vittorio’s sun-baked world is intensified by Tonino Delli Colli’s crisp cinematography and the strains of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. One of cinema’s great debuts, Accattone reimagines Neorealism by eschewing any sentimentality for the poetry of the everyday. Co-presented by SFFILM and United Nations Association Film Festival (UNAFF) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1652832432203-UMGQNXKKHLNMPWFA2Q26/5-IVitelloni.jpg Home - MEDEA 6:00 PM BUY TICKETS BUY DAY PASS Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1969, 110 min., 35mm, Color, Italy/France/West Germany. Cast: Maria Callas, Massimo Girotti, Laurent Terzieff, Giuseppe Gentile. Distr. Unzero Print from Cinecittà. Restored by Cinecittà and S.N.C. in 2012 in its original 35mm format with the support of Gucci. In Medea, Greek American soprano Maria Callas stars in a rare non-opera role as the title character in Pasolini’s haunting adaptation of the tragedy by Euripides, about a woman scorned by her husband (Jason of the Argonauts) who avenges herself with fierce abandon. The film is also ravishing in its visual imagery—Medea was shot on location in ancient sites of Italy, Turkey, and Syria, including the Citadel of Aleppo. British film critic Tony Rayns called this stunning portrait of a woman pushed to the brink, “a love song to Maria Callas.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1654109250763-VLMVQVA724PQR0BKWFCD/5e182f2e80136447507330.jpeg Home - LA ROMA DI PASOLINI RECEPTION 8:30 - 10:00 PM BUY TICKETS BUY DAY PASS Rudy of C’era una Volta restaurant will re-create the Roman atmosphere for selected guests in the Mezzanine. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1555696297151-AJHW91KHT854DXFOQVHX/lagrandebouffe1.jpg Home - THE BIG FEAST PARTY 8:30PM Buy tickets here The Big Feast party in the mezzanine level will be the natural introduction to “La Grande Bouffe,” presenting on a traditional buffet-style of the best of Italian food, catered by chef Rudy Duran of C’era Una Volta restaurant. Nero d’Avola and Grillo white wines will be served courtesy of Il Gattopardo. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1652833491443-L5KOQJZZZ905HXNH5I19/Salo.jpg Home - SALÒ OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM 10:00 PM BUY TICKETS BUY DAY PASS Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1976, 116 min., 35mm., Color, Italy/France. Cast: Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi. Umberto P.Quintavalle, Aldo Valletti. Distr. Park Circus Print from Cinecittá. Pasolini’s infamous final film transposes the Marquis de Sade’s 18th century treatise on torture to Mussolini’s Italy circa 1944. A group of representatives of the wealthy upper classes—a Duke, a Bishop, a Magistrate, and naturally, the President—have holed themselves up in a palatial estate in the titular city of Salò, where they have imprisoned a horde of young men and women to torment for their pleasure. Salò, a town in Northern Italy, was briefly made the capital under Benito Mussolini’s Fascist government in 1943-1945. The story, rife with political implications, is in four segments, inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy. Pasolini’s controversial masterpiece makes disturbingly literal the way the rich exploit the poor. Salò descends into the abyss until not a fleck of light remains. Co-Presented by Jewish Film Institute (Viewer discretion is strongly advised). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1553716597620-C809H9IYLU3J63MPSZWG/lagrandebouffe10.jpg Home - LA GRANDE BOUFFE (THE BIG FEAST) 10:00 PM Buy tickets here Buy a day pass 1973. France/Italy. Directed and written by Marco Ferreri. With Ugo Tognazzi, Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli. In French and some Italian with English subtitles. 129 min. A pilot (Marcello Mastroianni), a cook (Ugo Tognazzi), a TV star (Michel Piccoli) and a judge decide to gorge themselves to death on fine cuisine. Ferreri’s notorious orgy of Rabelaisian appetites brings together some of Europe’s greatest actors for a defiantly scatological Last Supper. Archival 35 mm film print from Luce Cinecittà. Courtesy of Drafthouse. Image: © Courtesy of Arrow Films & American Genre Film Archive https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1551212088359-HUGA6ORHBJLW7TTNAWE8/Portrait-of-My-Father.jpg Home - SPECIAL EVENT: PORTRAIT OF MY FATHER (RITRATTO DI MIO PADRE) Thursday, April 25th at 6:30 pm at the Italian Cultural Institute Limited seating. For more information about this free event, please click here. 2010, Italy. Directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi. Screenplay by Manuela Tempesta, Tognazzi. With Ugo Tognazzi, Bernardo Bertolucci, Mario Monicelli, Michel Piccoli. DCP courtesy Surf Film. In Italian; English subtitles. 85 min. Directed by his daughter, this affectionate portrait reveals the complicated brilliance of Ugo Tognazzi, both as a famous actor and as a family man, through rare home movies, film clips and on-set footage, and warm and witty remembrances by his children and close collaborators. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1500146748387-9CZFRDGLAL2K401IW5AU/LINA_WERTMULLER.jpg Home - HOMAGE TO LINA WERTMÜLLER THE FIRST WOMAN EVER NOMINATED FOR THE ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR. Saturday, September 23, 2017 The Castro Theatre 429 Castro Street, San Francisco Cinema Italia SF, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco and The Italian Consulate General and with the support of The Leonardo da Vinci Society, is proud to present its 6th series of Italian Classic Cinema. A day-long cinematic celebration of Lina Wertmüller, the groundbreaking, pioneering woman director and visionary whose fearless, polemical and provocative films have left indelible marks and influence on the international entertainment field. SCHEDULE: · 11:00 AM: “Love & Anarchy” (129 min.) · 1:30 PM: “Behind the White Glasses” (104 min.) · 4:00 PM: “Swept Away” (115 min.) · 6:30 PM: “Seven Beauties” (116 min.) · 8:30 PM: White Glasses Party in the Theatre’s Mezzanine (ends at 10:00 PM) · 10:00 PM: “The Seduction of Mimi” (112 min.) Four narrative films in 2K Restoration DCP and one documentary film. All DCPs are provided by Kino Lorber. All four narrative feature films star Giancarlo Giannini. We are excited to welcome to San Francisco Valerio Ruiz, the director of the documentary film “Behind the White Glasses”. ABOUT LINA WERTMÜLLER: Lina Wertmüller was born Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spañol von Braueich in Rome in 1928 to a devoutly Roman Catholic Swiss family of aristocratic descent. After graduating from school, her first job was touring Europe in a puppet show. For the next ten years she worked as an actress, director and playwright for the stage. During this period she met Giancarlo Giannini, who later starred in many of her films. Through her acquaintance with Marcello Mastroianni, she met Federico Fellini and, in 1962, Fellini offered her the assistant director position on 8½. The following year, Wertmüller made her directorial debut with The Lizards (I Basilischi). The film's subject matter—the lives of impoverished people in southern Italy—became a recurring motif in her later work. In 1972, Wertmüller achieved international acclaim with a series of four movies starring Giancarlo Giannini. The last, and best-received of these, was 1975's Seven Beauties (Pasqualino Sette Bellezze), which earned four Academy Award nominations and was an international hit. Wertmüller was the first woman nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director. Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, and Kathryn Bigelow are the only other female directors nominated (with Bigelow the first to win). In 1985, she received the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry. She is known for her whimsically prolix movie titles. For instance, the full title of Swept Away is Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August. These titles were invariably shortened for international release. (She is entered in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest film title: Un fatto di sangue nel comune di Siculiana fra due uomini per causa di una vedova. Si sospettano moventi politici. Amore-Morte-Shimmy. Lugano belle. Tarantelle. Tarallucci e vino. That 1979 movie with 179 characters is better known under the international titles Blood Feud or Revenge. Wertmüller has had a prolific career, and still actively directs. She was married to Enrico Job (died March 4, 2008), an art designer who worked on several of her pictures. (Biography Source: Wikipedia) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1440617705059-JB70TC2LEMTOJ2VMT12A/037-sophia-loren-theredlist.jpg Home - "La Ciociara" (Two Women, 1960 ) 11:30am (Drama/War - 1960 - 121 mins.) Director: Vittorio De Sica Screenplay: Cesare Zavattini Cinematographer: Gábor Pogány Starring: Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Raf Vallone RESTORED 35mm PRINT! BUY TICKETS Not to be missed: a recent restoration of the acclaimed classic that won Sophia Loren the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Actress – the first time any non-English speaking role had garnered that prize. ("Before I made Two Women, I had been a performer," Loren said. "Afterward, I was an actress.") In De Sica's stunning adaptation of the Alberto Moravia novel, Loren plays Cesira (a role that was reportedly first offered to Anna Magnani, who turned it down), a shopkeeper who flees from Rome, along with her adolescent daughter Rosetta (Eleanora Brown), to escape the Allied bombardment during the last days of World War II. In the mountains of her native Ciociara, the hard-nosed widow finds refuge with her people and strikes up a flirtation with an idealistic young intellectual (Jean-Paul Belmondo); however, she soon discovers that even her financial cunning offers no protection from the ravages of war. "A powerful experience to behold, and one of De Sica's finest films." (Film Threat). Restored by Fondazione Scuola Nazionale di Cinema and Mediaset. Print courtesy of Istituto Luce Cinecittà. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1433369423900-VTPDA8N858S6D6UBHEPZ/tumblr_nfi2nkwkdq1qjzrgro1_1280+copy.jpg Home - VITTORIO DE SICA - A film series   On September 26, 2015, four of the most successful and loved works by the master of Italian Neorealism will screen at San Francisco’s historic Castro Theatre. Vittorio De Sica – A Film Series will engage the audience in a one-day pursuit of a cinematic personality that has many facets and won 4 Academy Awards. This series is co-presented by Istituto Luce Cinecittà and The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, with the support of The Leonardo da Vinci Society. It was organized by program director Amelia Antonucci of Cinema Italia San Francisco, and Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero of Istituto Luce Cinecittà, in association with the Ministry of Culture, Italy, andunder the auspices of The Consul General of Italy in San Francisco. Tickets are $12 per screening. Tickets for the party are $20. A pass to see all four films and attend the party is $60. Click here to purchase tickets.   SCHEDULE 11:30 am La ciociara (Two Women) (Drama, War/1960/121 min.) 2:00 pm L’Oro di Napoli (The Gold of Naples) (Comedy / 1954 / 118 mins.) 5:00 pm Matrimonio all’Italiana (Marriage Italian-Style ) (Comedy, Drama / 1964 / 102mins.) 7:30 pm Il Giardino dei Finzi Contini (The Garden of the Finzi Continis) (Drama / 1970 / 95 mins.) 9:30 pm Party in the Castro Mezzanine On September 26, 2015, following our 7:30PM special West Coast Premiere of the new restoration of the Academy Award-winning "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis", head upstairs to the Castro Theatre's mezzanine for a great time at our "In The Secret Garden" Party at 9:30PM. The party will feature food, wine and entertainment from select regions of Italy featured in the four films of Vittorio De Sica - A Film Series. Discover Naples: The classic "osteria" with vino, pizzette (bite-sized pizzas) and cartocci (fried delicacies in paper cones). As well, we will feature scrumptious selections of food and wine from Rome and, of course, Ferrara. Come meet Mr. Lino Capolicchio, the star of "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis", and mix and mingle with fellow lovers of Italian movies and all things Italian. Purchase your tickets today and we will see you there! All films presented with English subtitles   About Vittorio De Sica Vittorio De Sica (7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: Shoeshine and Bicycle Thieves were awarded honorary Oscars, while both Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Indeed, the great critical success of Shoeshine, (the first foreign film to be so recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) and Bicycle Thieves helped establish the permanent Best Foreign Film Oscar. These two films generally are considered part of the canon of classic cinema. De Sica was also nominated for the 1957 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing Major Rinaldi in American director Charles Vidor's 1957 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, a movie that was panned by critics and proved a box office flop. De Sica's acting was considered the highlight of the film. Born into poverty in Sora, Lazio (1901), he began his career as a theatre actor in the early 1920s and joined Tatiana Pavlova's theatre company in 1923. In 1933 he founded his own company with his wife Giuditta Rissone and Sergio Tofano. The company performed mostly light comedies, but they also staged plays by Beaumarchais and worked with famous directors like Luchino Visconti. His meeting with Cesare Zavattini was a very important event: together they created some of the most celebrated films of the neorealistic age, like Shoeshine and Bicycle Thieves (released as The Bicycle Thief in America). De Sica appeared in the British television series The Four Just Men (1959). His passion for gambling was well known. Because of it, he often lost large sums of money and accepted work that might not otherwise have interested him. He never kept his gambling a secret from anyone; in fact, he projected it on characters in his own movies, like Count Max (which he acted in but did not direct) and The Gold of Naples. In 1937 he married Giuditta Rissone, whom he met ten years before and who gave birth to their daughter, Emi. In 1942, on the set of Un garibaldino al convento, he met Spanish actress Maria Mercader (sister of Ramon Mercader, Trotsky's assassin), with whom he started a relationship. After divorcing Rissone in France in 1954, he married Mercader in 1959, in Mexico, but this union was not considered valid under Italian law. In 1968 he obtained French citizenship and married Mercader in Paris. Meanwhile he had already had two sons with her: Manuel, in 1949, who became a musician, and Christian, in 1951, who would follow his father's path as an actor and director. Although divorced, De Sica never parted from his first family. He led a double family life, with double celebrations on holidays. It is said that, at Christmas and on New Year's Eve, he used to put back the clocks by two hours in Mercader's house so that he could make a toast at midnight with both families. His first wife agreed to keep up the facade of a marriage so as not to leave her daughter without a father. Vittorio De Sica died at 73 after a surgery at the Neuilly-sur-Seine hospital in Paris.   https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5568ebaae4b0ba9959e6134b/1462563812968-XE0MTCWT10W0R2CRJAXE/Anna-Magnani-05.jpg Home - ANNA MAGNANI - A FILM SERIES AN ALL-CELLULOID SPECIAL HOMAGE TO A DIVA OF THE ITALIAN CINEMA Download the PDF of the Official Program Luce Cinecittà, The Italian Cultural Institute and Cinema Italia San Francisco are proud to announce Anna Magnani – A Film Series, a special presentation of four 35mm prints of the most acclaimed movies of Nannarella at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, on September 24, 2016, as part of a major tour in the U.S. and Canada – starting at New York City’s Lincoln Center on May 18, 2016, traveling to Chicago in June, Los Angeles (American Cinematheque and UCLA) in August, and continuing in Houston, Columbus (Ohio), and Toronto in January 2017. The day begins with Roberto Rossellini’s neorealist war drama "Open City". This is followed by Luchino Visconti’s satirical spin on the movie industry – "Bellissima". The evening’s Spotlight Film is Daniel Mann’s "The Rose Tattoo", the celebrated adaptation of Tennessee Williams’ play that garnered three Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Magnani, who also won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for this memorable English-language role. A vivacious Roman- and Louisiana-styled party will follow the screening. The series will conclude with Mario Monicelli’s "The Passionate Thief", a comedic adaptation of two novels by Alberto Moravia, starring Magnani and Totò. Following "The Rose Tattoo", celebrate Anna Magnani - A Film Series with a sensational party in the Castro Theatre mezzanine level with food and fun, inspired by the Rome of Anna Magnani. This series is co-presented by Istituto Luce Cinecittà and The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, with the support of The Leonardo da Vinci Society. It was organized by program director Amelia Antonucci of Cinema Italia San Francisco, and Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero of Istituto Luce Cinecittà, in association with the Ministry of Culture, Italy, andunder the auspices of The Consul General of Italy in San Francisco. Tickets are $12 per screening. Tickets for the party are $20. A pass to see all four films and attend the party is $60. BUY TICKETS NOW SCHEDULE • 1:00 PM: Rome Open City (100 mins. – 1945) • 3:00 PM: Bellissima (115 mins. – 1952) • 6:00 PM: The Rose Tattoo (117 mins. – 1955) • 8:00 PM: La Roma di Magnani Party in the Castro Theatre’s mezzanine • 10:00 PM: The Passionate Thief (106 mins. – 1960) All films will be presented with English subtitles. ANNA MAGNANI The movies in which Anna Magnani acted, even if directed by famous directors as Rossellini, Pasolini, Fellini and Visconti, often are remembered as “Magnani’s movies” and have inspired generations of filmmaker around the world. Jean Renoir says of her: “She is the greatest actress that I worked with: She is entirely ‘animal’… An animal created for stage and screen.” Roberto Rossellini called her “the greatest acting genius since Eleonora Duse”. Tennessee Williams became an admirer and wrote The Rose Tattoo specifically for her to star in, a role for which she received an Oscar in 1955. Born in 1908 in Rome, Anna Magnani was raised by her grandmother in modest conditions. She studied for two years at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome and began her career in a traveling Italian Theatre troupe. While gaining fame as a stage actress, she was discovered by her future husband and film director Goffredo Alessandrini who cast her in two of his films. When her marriage to Alessandrini ended in 1950, she never married again. Magnani once said, “Women like me can only submit to men capable of dominating them, and I have never found anyone capable of dominating me.” In 1941, Magnani appeared in her first important film, Teresa Venerdi, directed by Vittorio De Sica, but it was her 1945 role in Roberto Rossellini’s Rome Open City that instantly made her a star in Italy and abroad. Her performance won her Best Foreign Actress of the year by the National Board of Review and Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. The seven years following Rome Open City were the most prolific for Magnani’s career and she was seen as the symbol of the Italian national spirit during the postwar years. Her acting, so spontaneous and natural, and her instinctive emotional approach to the characters portrayed, made her for a few years the most popular Italian actress in Hollywood. In 1956 she won the Academy Award as Best Actress for The Rose Tattoo, directed by Daniel Mann. 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