Director Marco Bellocchio and cinematographer Daniele Cipri in person for Q&A at June 6 screening!

Screening added Friday, June 7 at 4:00pm!

Isabelle Huppert and Toni Servillo star in Italian master Bellocchio’s compelling, somber ensemble drama in which characters in three interrelated storylines struggle with the moral impasses and compromises of modern life. The film’s point of departure is a real-life, right-to-euthanasia case that became a national controversy in 2008, culminating in a Parliamentary vote. (The film’s title might more precisely be “Sleeping Beauty.”) Against this backdrop, Bellocchio attempts to encompass the differing values and outlook of young and old, reactionary and idealistic: that of a senator (SeOpensrvillo) with a passionately pro-life daughter (Alba Rohrwacher) preparing to cast his vote on the issue; a retired actress and devout Catholic (Huppert) who tends to her own comatose daughter; and a troubled young doctor (Bellocchio’s brother, Pier Giorgio) who tries to help a suicidal methadone addict (Maya Sansa). Bellocchio takes an X-ray of the lingering malaise of late-Berlusconi Italy and its frightening intellectual and psychological confusion—and certainly touches a nerve.