Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2014
One of our most popular annual programs, Open Roads has served as the leading North American showcase of contemporary Italian cinema for the past 13 years. This exceptionally strong and diverse edition includes the latest work from established veterans (Gianni Amelio, Roberto Andò, Daniele Luchetti) alongside promising new talents from both the commercial and independent spheres, with in-person appearances at many screenings.
This year’s lineup includes the two main prizewinners from both the Venice and Rome Film Festivals—Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary Sacro GRA and Alberto Fasulo’s docudrama Tir—and also underscores the emergence of documentary as a breeding ground for some of the most exciting recent developments in Italian cinema. More than a third of the films in Open Roads this year are documentaries or by documentarians working in fiction, with rich and fascinating results. All films are New York premieres unless otherwise noted.
Special thanks to Istituto Luce-Cinecittà – Filmitalia, Italian Cultural Institute of New York, Antonio Monda, American Continental Property Group, Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Italian Trade Commision.
Lineup
Those Happy Years
Opening Night
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Daniele Luchetti at both screenings.
Luchetti’s warm-hearted, bittersweet autobiographical account of his childhood as a budding filmmaker captures a family’s radical transformations through a son’s brand-new Super-8 camera.
The Administrator
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with Umberto Montella at both screenings.
In this lively and absorbing documentary set in Naples, a building administrator’s dealings with his larger-than-life tenants provide a tough-minded yet affectionate look at an Italy mired in crisis.
The Fifth Wheel
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Giovanni Veronesi at June 6 screening.
Veronesi’s irresistible romantic comedy journeys through four decades of recent Italian history on the back of a good-hearted, honest middle-class guy who always finds himself a step behind.
Happy to Be Different
A moving and enlightening work of oral history, Amelio’s new documentary is a chronicle of gay life in Italy from the fall of Fascism through the early 1980s.
The Human Factor
Q&A with filmmaker Bruno Oliviero at both screenings.
Rendered darkly beautiful as a noir setting, Milan is the electric backdrop for this story of a troubled detective investigating the murder of a high-profile member of the city’s seedy nightlife.
I Can Quit Whenever I Want
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with actress Valeria Solarino at both screenings.
A band of brilliant un(der)employed academics turn to a life of crime in order to survive in this biting parody on the plight of the Italian middle class in the aftermath of the economic crisis.
A Lonely Hero
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Gianni Amelio on June 5.
Amelio’s deadpan parable follows a small everyday hero from Milan who throws himself at a wide array of “substitute” jobs with a deep moral consistency as he reinvents himself from day to day.
Long Live Freedom
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Roberto Andò on June 7.
His party in decline, a seasoned politician (Toni Servillo) flees to Paris to hide out with his ex-girlfriend (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) in Andò’s scathing yet comic critique of Italian political dynamics.
The Mafia Only Kills in Summer
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Pierfrancesco "Pif" Diliberto on June 7.
In Pierfrancesco “Pif” Diliberto’s irreverent feature debut, a young boy’s obsession with the Mafia surpasses even his passion for the beautiful schoolmate who remains his main love interest until adulthood.
Quiet Bliss
Q&A with filmmaker Edoardo Winspeare and actress Laura Licchetta at June 7 screening.
Three generations of women seek refuge in their family’s Salento olive grove after their small textile business collapses in this warm and vibrant drama set against the radiant southern Italian landscape.
The Referee
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with actor Jacopo Cullin at both screenings.
A third-league Sardinian soccer team goes on a sudden winning streak while conflict erupts over archaic sheep-breeding codes in the lush black-and-white world of Zucca’s utterly distinctive first feature.
Sacro GRA
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi at both screenings.
The first documentary to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Rosi’s latest reveals the sheer diversity of life bubbling around the margins of the 43.5-mile highway that encircles the Rome.
Small Homeland
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Alessandro Rossetto on June 8.
Best friends Luisa and Renata long to escape their stifling provincial town in northeastern Italy, working as maids in a hotel and supplementing their income with sex work and a dubious blackmail plot.
South Is Nothing
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Fabio Mollo at both screenings.
A teenage tomboy who hasn’t spoken a word since the death of her beloved brother runs away from home and ends up on a quest to find the truth about her lost sibling and also herself.
A Street in Palermo
U.S. Premiere
The first film by theater director Emma Dante takes place almost entirely in a narrow alleyway in a run-down neighborhood of Palermo, where two carloads of stubborn characters face off over their refusal to back up.
Tir
U.S. Premiere. Q&A with filmmaker Alberto Fasulo on June 7.
A former teacher from Bosnia takes a job driving a tractor trailer (“tir”) through Europe, immersing the viewer in the sounds, the landscape, and the longing for company that goes with life on the road.
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