Fond. Cinema Roma - 150th anniversary of Italy's Unification: a journey through italian identity

MARIO CAMERINI, FROM SOUND TO SILENTS
30 years after the death of Mario Camerini, the International Rome Film Festival pays tribute to the filmmaker with a first-time screening of his silent film Rails, in the version restored by the Fondazione Cineteca Italiana in Milan. In fact, while the sonorized version of the film, not authorized by the director, premiered in 1931, there is no record of public screenings of the silent version. The screening of Rails is accompanied by a live musical performance by Carlo Casillo (guitar, live computers, glockenspiel), Roberto Caberlotto (accordion), Nicola Fadanelli (viola), Mariano De Tassis (percussions, live eletronic effects), a mix of melodies and electronic music, pulsating, evocative effects and strains of futurist music. Rails is a milestone in the history of Italian film, marking the rebirth of the industry after the slump in the late 20s. The casino sequences are the real heart of the film, and Camerini’s only cameo appearance on screen at this point, in the biggest close-up of the whole sequence, is no accident.
The digital restoration, conservative and non-invasive, was carried out at Bologna’s Immagine Ritrovata in 2010-2011, and faithfully recaptures the excellence of the original photography of the period. On the occasion of this 30-year anniversary, “Gli archivi del ‘900” have brought out a monograph devoted to Mario Camerini, edited by Arnaldo Colasanti and Ernesto Nicosia, with the collaboration of the most respected experts on the filmmaker, and illustrations from the sizable archives of the CSC National Film Archives; a book presentation will be held during the Festival at the Auditorium Bookshop.

FILM AND MUSIC
The International Rome Film Festival presents a first: a screening of the restored version of the silent film Rails by Mario Camerini, accompanied by a live musical performance by Carlo Casillo, Roberto Caberlotto, Nicola Fadanelli, and Mariano De Tassis.
Rotaie
by Mario Camerini, Italy, 1929, 74’
Cast: Käthe Von Nagy, Maurizio D’ancora, Daniele Crespi, Aldo Moschino, Mario Camerini


THE YEAR OF THE CANNIBALS BY LILIANA CAVANI
The restored version of the provocative film directed by Liliana Cavani in the turbulent years of the student protests will be screened at the International Rome Film Festival. With her 1969 film The Year of the Cannibals, the well-known director reworked Sophocle’s tragedy in a contemporary vein and re-evoked Antigone’s struggle for universal values in a hostile society that has lost its faith. The film shows the streets and squares of a large modern city filled with corpses, but passers-by don’t seem to notice and keep walking. The authorities have left the bodies of the rebels in the street to serve as a warning and discourage further insurrections, but Antigone, the daughter of a well-off family, wants to give her brother, one of the fallen, a proper burial. No one will help her: neither her family nor her fiancé, the son of a high-ranking government official. The only person willing to assist Antigone is Tiresia, a young foreigner who speaks in a strange tongue. Together, they proceed to give a burial to as many of the dead as they can, until their subversive activity reaches the dictators’ears, and their fates are sealed. The two martyrs, however, have become an example for other young people, who challenge the injustice of the authorities’ ban and take to the streets themselves to collect the bodies remaining and bury them.

RESTORED FILM
A tribute to filmmaker Liliana Cavani, with a gala event dedicated to the screening of the restored version of I cannibali, a sophisticated inquiry into the legitimacy of power.
I cannibali
by Liliana Cavani, Italy, 1969, 95’
Cast: Francesco  Arminio, Delia  Boccardo, Pierre  Clementi, Britt  Ekland, Francesco  Leonetti, Marino  Mase', Cora  Mazzoni, Tomas  Milian


ITALIAN DECAMERON - A TEN-PART REALIST / SURREALIST JOURNEY THROUGH THE ITALIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY IN CINEMA
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification, the Casa del Cinema offers a five-day program of screenings during the Rome Film Festival. Dedicated to the big screen’s treatment of Italian national identity, the overview features five pairs of films, each pair illustrating five important aspects of what it means to be Italian, in a realist, epic, dramatic or grotesque vein. The Italian national character, the importance of the family and the Catholic faith, the historic or imaginary divide between northerners and southerners, the emigration of the past century and the immigration of the present: the ten films constitute a polygonal portrait, a virtual Decameron for our times. Each two-film screening will be accompanied by a debate between two historians, social critics, novelists, journalists or filmmakers, who will call on a third key figure in the audience: the director or star of the film being screened, or another privileged observer connected with the film or the theme in some way.
Just the way to grapple with our feelings about our national identity without being rhetorical, conventional, or even monolithic, by comparing opposing views, or at least divergent ones.

October 31, ITALIANS / ITALIOTS.
At 18:00, The Great War by Mario Monicelli.
Following the screening: An ONSTAGE DUET between Giovanni Sabbatucci or Piero Craveri and Lucio Villari or Emilio Gentile). Privileged Observer: Alessandro Gassman
At 21:00, I mostri by Dino Risi.

November 1, FAMILY / FAMILISTS.
At 18:00, Three Brothers by Francesco Rosi (or The Family by Ettore Scola)
Following the screening: An ONSTAGE DUET between Miriam Mafai and Beppe Severgnini (or Crepet, who wrote a book on the ‘sfamily’) Privileged Observer: Pupi Avati
At 21:00, Giovanna’s Father  by Pupi Avati.

November 2, NORTHERNERS / SOUTHERNERS.
At 18:00, Il posto by Ermanno Olmi.
Following the screening: An ONSTAGE DUET between Domenico De Masi and Philippe Daverio. Privileged Observer: Lina Wertmuller
At 21:00, I Basilischi by Lina Wertmuller.

November 3, BELIEVERS / CLERICALISTS.
At 18:00, Francesco by Liliana Cavani.
Following the screening: An ONSTAGE DUET between Giuseppe De Rita and Vincenzo Cerami. Privileged Observer: Liliana Cavani
At 21:00,  The Conspirators by Luigi Magni.

November 4, EMIGRANTS / IMMIGRANTS.
At 18:00, Bread and Chocolate  by Franco Brusati
Following the screening: An ONSTAGE DUET between Emanuele Crialese (Mario Martone) and Pasquale Squitieri. Or else Gianantonio Stella and Maghdi Allam. Privileged Observer: Michele Placido
At 21:00, Tomato by Michele Placido.


VIVA L’ITALIA! THE RISORGIMENTO ON THE SET
From the triumphal, epic Risorgimento in Alessandro Blasetti’s 1860 (1934) to the more problematic version in Noi credevamo by Mario Martone (2010): the photography exhibition “Viva l’Italia! The Risorgimento on the Set”, organized by the International Rome Film Festival to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian Unification, moves between these two poles.
The exhibition takes its name from the film by Roberto Rossellini to showcase some striking examples of how Italian cinema has dealt with the age of the Risorgimento and its leading exponents, in a fascinating and contradictory weave of history and fiction. The show is not a comprehensive overview – many film scenes have been left out for various reasons, despite their importance – but a memorable journey through cinema, using stills taken on and off the set, that takes a new look at films that are celebratory (besides Viva l’Italia, Camicie rosse by Goffredo Alessandrini), as well as more restrained, tied to minor episodes (Piero Nelli’s La pattuglia sperduta), or films in which the historical record is retraced in the guise of melodrama (Luchino Visconti) or comedy (Luigi Magni).
This blend of high culture and popular culture, and nobility and common folk, so characteristic of the period of the Unification, is underscored by the arrangement of the photographs on display, which depict both the stars of Italian cinema and the extras that crowd the screen.
The photographs are on loan from: the Archivio Storico del Cinema/AFE (Roma), Franco Bellomo, Centro Cinema Città di Cesena, the Bologna Cineteca, the National Film Museum in Turin, and Associated Reporters (Roma).

Curated by Antonio Maraldi (Centro Cinema City of Cesena)
Foyer Sala Petrassi – Auditorium Parco della Musica / October 26 – November 4 / 11am to 6pm / Free admission