Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2016
Co-organized with Istituto Luce Cinecittà in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of New York
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They Call Me Jeeg
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Banat / Banat - Il Viaggio
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The Beginners / Alaska
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Ugly, Dirty and Bad / Brutti, sporchi e cattivi
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God Willing / Se Dio vuole
For 16 years, Open Roads has proudly offered North American audiences the most diverse and extensive lineup of contemporary Italian film available. The 2016 edition strikes a satisfying balance between emerging talents and esteemed veterans, including feature debuts by Carlo Lavagna (Arianna) and Adriano Valerio (Banat); the latest from Gianni Zanasi (The Complexity of Happiness), documentary filmmaker Gianfranco Pannone (The World’s Smallest Army), and Vincenzo Marra (First Light); and the final work from the late cult director Claudio Caligari (Don’t Be Bad, Italy’s submission for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Oscar). This year also marks the 40th anniversary of Ettore Scola’s brilliant Ugly, Dirty and Bad, which will return to the screen in a beautiful new digital restoration. As always, the series includes both commercial and independent fare, ranging from a vérité documentary to a superhero movie, outrageous comedies to gripping dramas. Experience the best of today’s Italian cinema, with in-person appearances by many of the filmmakers.
Open Roads: New Italian Cinema is co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Istituto Luce Cinecittà. Organized by Dennis Lim and Dan Sullivan, Film Society; and by Carla Cattani, Griselda Guerrasio, and Monique Catalino, Istituto Luce Cinecittà.
Special thanks to the Italian Trade Commission; Italian Cultural Institute New York; Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimò—NYU; Antonio Monda.
For 16 years, Open Roads has proudly offered North American audiences the most diverse and extensive lineup of contemporary Italian film available. The 2016 edition strikes a satisfying balance between emerging talents and esteemed veterans, showcasing a medley of commercial and independent fare. Experience the best of Italian cinema, with special in-person appearances by many of the filmmakers. Tickets on sale now! See more and save with a 3+ Film Package or $99 All Access Pass!
Lineup
Ugly, Dirty and Bad
New Digital Restoration!
A master of the commedia all’italiana, Ettore Scola won Best Director at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival for this outrageous “satirical tragedy” about a sub-proletariat household in Rome. The great Nino Manfredi stars as the grizzled old patriarch who refuses to share an insurance payout with the dozens of family members living with him. Soon enough, tensions boil over.
Arianna
Q&A with Carlo Lavagna, co-writer Chiara Barzini, and actress Ondina Quadri on 6/5; introduction by Barzini on 6/8
Carlo Lavagna’s feature debut is a lyrical coming-of-age story centered on timeless questions about gender, family, and self-knowledge. Unfolding on an idyllic lakeshore in the Italian countryside, it stars newcomer Ondina Quadri as the young woman of the title who embarks on a profoundly personal emotional journey when she returns to her childhood home for the summer.
Banat
Q&A with Adriano Valerio on 6/3
Two Italians struggle to start a new life together on a hardscrabble Romanian farm in Adriano Valerio’s promising feature debut, a quietly poetic study of cross-cultural exchange and souls in transition.
The Beginners
North American Premiere · Q&A with Claudio Cupellini on 6/3
A chance encounter on a Paris hotel rooftop ignites an obsessive case of l’amour fou that takes two lovers from the highest highs to the lowest lows. This torrid saga of money, sex, and violence is a wild, careening joyride.
Call Me Francesco – the Pope
Introduction by composer Arturo Cardelus
Set amid the life-or-death political turmoil of Argentina’s Dirty War, this unsentimental biopic, starring Rodrigo de la Serna of The Motorcycle Diaries, forgoes hagiography to delve into the darkest chapter of the life of the man the world now knows as Pope Francis.
The Complexity of Happiness
Valerio Mastandrea stars as Enrico, a businessman whose empathy is put to the test when, returning home one night, he finds a lonely exchange student waiting in his apartment, abandoned by his commitment-averse brother. Anchored by Mastandrea’s warm, subtly generous performance, this film asks what it means to make a positive difference in the lives of others.
Don’t Be Bad
The final film from the late cult director Claudio Caligari (Toxic Love)—and Italy’s submission for the 2015 Best Foreign Language Oscar—is a gritty crime saga that evocatively captures the cocaine-fueled highs and the grim, morning-after lows of life in the fast lane. An Uncork'd Entertainment release
First Light
North American Premiere · Q&A with Vincenzo Marra on 6/3
This gripping human drama tackles a complex issue—an international custody battle—with emotion and suspense. Italian superstar Riccardo Scamarcio plays a father who takes matters into his own hands when his girlfriend disappears with their son. Winner of a Francesco Pasinetti Award at the Venice Film Festival.
God Willing
Q&A with Edoardo Falcone
The great “faith vs. reason” debate gets a comedic workout in this by turns goofy and heartfelt satire about a famed surgeon and strict atheist who is thrown for a loop when his son decides he wants to become a priest.
Long Live the Bride
North American Premiere
The Dardenne Brothers produced this engagingly offbeat, blackly comic character study about the intersecting lives of various misfits—including an alcoholic, a prostitute, and a con man—living on the outermost margins of society.
Me, Myself and Her
North American Premiere · Q&A with Maria Sole Tognazzi on 6/2
The seemingly perfect relationship of a lesbian couple (Margherita Buy and Sabrina Ferilli) is put to the test in this light-as-a-soufflé romantic comedy, which features picture postcard-worthy views of Rome and witty observations on the challenges all couples face.
River Memories
North American Premiere · Q&A with Gianluca De Serio & Massimiliano De Serio
Along a river in Turin, over 1,000 people live in a sprawling makeshift shantytown, a multiethnic melting pot slated to be razed by the government. This strikingly shot vérité documentary captures the last days of a vibrant community and is an elegiac record of a vanishing way of life.
Solo
North American Premiere · Q&A with Laura Morante on 6/3
In this snappy relationship comedy that plays like a Woody Allen sex farce told from the female point of view, writer-director Laura Morante stars as a timid, middle-aged woman who sets out to reclaim her life.
They Call Me Jeeg
North American Premiere · Q&A with Gabriele Mainetti on 6/4
A plunge into Rome’s toxic Tiber River transforms a porn-addicted petty criminal into an indestructible, superhuman strongman. The antidote to Hollywood-slick blockbusters, this gritty take on the superhero film is a bloody, bruising, bone-crunching blast.
The World’s Smallest Army
North American Premiere · Q&A with Gianfranco Pannone
Documentarian Gianfranco Pannone turns his camera on “the smallest army in the world”: the Swiss Guard, a centuries-old military unit comprised of young Swiss soldiers stationed at the Vatican who are tasked with guarding the Pope. Pannone follows Leo and René as they bid farewell to their families and embark on their assignment in Rome. Screening with Viva Ingrid! (Alessandro Rossellini, 20m).
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