Director Ivan Cotroneo in person on June 11!</strong>

Noted screenwriter Ivan Cotroneo (I am Love; Piano, Solo; Paz!) makes an impressive passage to the director’s chair with this sharply observed, bittersweet comedy about a large, colorful Neapolitan family struggling against both changing times and internal tensions.  Nine years old in the early '70s, Peppino sets up the family landscape for us: his dad, Antonio, sells sewing machines when not cheating on his wife, Rosaria; his young aunt and uncle, Titina and Salvatore, are enjoying the era’s various revolutions, although not always together; and his cousin, Gennaro, wears a cape and thinks he’s Superman. Cotroneo has a terrific sense of the period, which he captures with small but telling details; the world is changing all around his characters, and their anxiety and even befuddlement with this new world is always shown with sympathy—even when it’s laced with humor. The first-rate cast includes Valeria Golino, Luca Zingaretti, Fabrizio Gifuni and Cristina Capotondi.

This screening will be preceded by an Olympic clip from the Instituto Luce Archive:
Los Angeles – 08/1932
Italians to the 10th Olympiad
(Giornale Luce B0126)