A FINE film by writer and director of the academy award winning Cinema Paradiso, Giuseppe Tornatore, will open the Italian Film Festival at Cinema Paradiso tonight.
Malena stars Monica Bellucci as a young widow who inspires a boy’s independence and courage amidst the chaos and intolerance of war.
While exploring the madness of war and the craving for romance, this film delves into life-altering moments as it explores adolescence, beauty, sexuality, and revenge.
The festival continues until Tuesday November 6 and includes Maurizio Nichetti’s comedy Honolulu Baby. This film looks at a married male executive who is relocated in a company restructure to an island populated solely by women.
Closing the festival is L’Ultimo Bacio (Last Kiss), a comedy that is the winner of five David di Donatello Awards and has been hugely successful at the Italian box office. L’Ultimo Bacio is an exploration of fear, of the simple, day-to-day kind most of us have at some stage, if not all the time. From the anxiety of getting old to the fears of being single, this
film is a humorous tale of the struggle for personal happiness
in the face of an uncertain future.
Featuring in the festival is Gerad Depardieu who, alongside Diego Abatantuono and Sergio Castellitto, stars in Ettore Scolas’ drama Concorrenza Sleale (Unfair Competition). The award winning film is set in the late 1930s and examines the friendship between two shopkeepers (one a Jew and the other a Catholic) in a small Roman town amidst the prevailing anti-Semitism of the time.
Tonight’s opening begins at 7pm and tickets (including the opening night party) are $25. For further festival details head into Cinema Paradiso and get a festival brochure or phone 9227 1771.
All other sessions of the festival are $14 and the closing night film and party is $20. Tickets are on sale now for any of the screenings.
