Italy

MVIFF 2018: CLOSING NIGHT FILM: ORECCHIE + Closing Party at La Soffitta

| 2018 | 90 minutes | |
directed by Alessandro Aronadio

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ORECCHIE (EARS) will be preceded by a showing of the “Best Overall” Short Film from Saturday’s Juried Competition.  After the film, patrons are encouraged to join us for our Closing Night Party at La Soffitta Restaurant on Main Street.  This dark comedy begins when a man wakes up with a low ringing…

MVIFF 2017: LIKE CRAZY (la pazza gioia)–CLOSING NIGHT FILM + Party at La Soffitta–SOLD OUT

| 2017 | 118 minutes | | ,
directed by Paolo Virzi and Francesca Archibugi

LIKE CRAZY will be preceded by a showing of the “Best Overall” Short Film from Saturday’s Juried Competition held on Saturday.  After the film, patrons are encouraged to join us for our Closing Night Party Beatrice is a motor-mouthed fantasist, a self-styled billionaire countess who likes to believe she’s on intimate terms with…

2017 Spectrum Film Festival: YOUTH EVENT

, | 1994-2016 | | , ,

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TREVOR (1994) (16 Minutes) This comedy won the Oscar for Best Live-Action Short Film and led to the creation of The Trevor Project, the national non-profit organization focused on the suicide-prevention of LGBTQ youth. It tells the story of a thirteen-year-old boy whose life falls apart when his fellow middle schoolers learns…

2016 MVIFF — MIA MADRE

| 2016 | 107 mins | | ,
Directed by NANNI MORETTI

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  Margherita, a director in the middle of an existential crisis, has to deal with the inevitable and still unacceptable loss of her mother.Acclaimed Italian auteur Nanni Moretti finds comedy and pathos in the story of Margherita, a harried film director trying to juggle the demands of her latest movie and a…

2016 MVIFF – THE WONDERS

| 2014 | 110 mins | |
ALICE ROHRWACHER

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A family of beekeepers living in the Tuscan countryside finds their household disrupted by the simultaneous arrival of a silently troubled teenage boy and a reality TV show intent on showcasing the family. Rohrwacher’s richly textured feature centers on a family of beekeepers living in stark isolation in central Italy. The dynamic…

A BIGGER SPLASH

, | 2016 | 125 minutes | |
Directed by Luca Guadagnino

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In A BIGGER SPLASH, rock legend Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) is recuperating on the volcanic island of Pantelleria with her partner Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) when iconoclast record producer and old flame Harry (Ralph Fiennes) unexpectedly arrives with his daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson) and interrupts their holiday, bringing with him an A-bomb blast…

OPERA IN CINEMA: LE NOZZE DI FIGARO

| 2015 | 190 minutes | |
Directed by Sven-Eric Bechtolf. Conducted by Franz Welser-Möst

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Sung in Italian. Mozart and da Ponte’s very first collaboration resulted in a masterpiece –LE NOZZE DI FIGARO– that represents a highlight in the entire history of opera. In his stage play on which the opera is based, Beaumarchais broached the topic of the class struggle between the Count and his servant…

YOUTH

, , | 2015 | 118 minutes | |
Directed by Paolo Sorrentino

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From Paolo Sorrentino, the director of Italy’s Oscar foreign language winner THE GREAT BEAUTY comes YOUTH, about two longtime friends vacationing in the Swiss Alps. Oscar winning actor Michael Caine plays Fred, an acclaimed composer and conductor, who brings along his daughter (Rachel Weisz) and best friend Mick (Harvey Keitel), a renowned…

OPERA IN CINEMA: AIDA

| 2015 | 150 minutes | |
Conductor Zubin Mehta. Director Peter Stein.

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Sung in Italian. After two traditional productions of Aida staged by Zeffirelli in the last decade, this new production of Verdi’s magnificent opera is presented by two great masters – conductor Zubin Mehta and director Peter Stein. The acclaimed German director (and a naturalized Italian), has promised “eine ganz intime Aida”, a…

OPERA IN CINEMA: NORMA

| 2015 | 180 mins | |
Directed by Kevin Newbury

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“If we weep from emotion on hearing it, it’s nothing to be ashamed of”. That is what Richard Wagner said about Vincenzo Bellini’s most famous opera, which he considered the most perfect example of a musical tragedy. And rightly so, because in Norma Italian Romanticism reached its pinnacle. This production, by up-and-coming American stage…

THE DINNER

| 2014 | 92 min | |
Directed by Ivano de Matteo

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In this finely observed family drama (loosely based on the novel by Herman Koch), a civilized dinner between brothers Paolo (Luigi Lo Cascio) and Massimo (Alessandro Gassman) and their wives Clara (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and Sofia (Barbora Bobulova) simmers with uncomfortable tension as they must face the truth of their children’s involvement with…

Closing Night Film: GOOD FOR NOTHING (Buoni a Nulla) and Wrap Party at La Soffitta restaurant

| 2014 | 87 mins | |
Gianni di Gregorio

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The incomparable Gianni Di Gregorio follows Mid-August Lunch(Pranzo di Ferragosto) and The Salt Of Life (Gianni e le donne) with another gem, sprinkled with his sly wit and irresistible charm. Easygoing Gianni is looking forward to a life untroubled by the demands of his ex-wife and nosy neighbours. On the eve of his retirement, he is informed…

NIGHT AT THE OPERA: L’ELISIR D’AMORE

| 2012 | 130 minutes | |
Rolando Villazón

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Presentation From the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden comes this spectacular production of Gaetano Donizetti’s wonderful L’Elisir d’Amore. Set on the movie set of a silent film Western (surprises at the end when the film is played), this is the second directorial work of Rolando Villazón (following his directorial debut in 2011 with Werther at…

OPERA in cinema: RIGOLETTO

| 2014 | 129 minutes | |
Stefano Vizioli

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Presentation Considered one of Giuseppe Verdi’s greatest accomplishments, Rigoletto continues to enthrall audiences worldwide with its tragic plot and famous arias. One of the most popular arias of all time, “La donna e’ mobile,” is so catchy that prior to Rigoletto’s premiere in Venice of 1851, Verdi swore the tenor to secrecy,…

OPERA in cinema: Cavalleria and Pagliacci

| 2014 | 170 minutes | |
Enrico Castiglione

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Cavalleria Rusticana Adapted from the short story written by Giovanni Verga, Cavalleria Rusticana is a one-act opera considered one of the classics of verismo opera. The opera was composed by Pietro Mascagni, with a libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, as part of an 1888 competition by Milanese publisher Edoardo Sonzogno. After winning the…

TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT

, , , | 2014 | 95 minutes | | ,
Directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne

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For the first time, Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne team up with a major international star, Marion Cotillard, to create a universal story about working-class people living on the edges of society. Sandra (Cotillard) has just returned to work after recovering from a serious bout with depression. Realizing that the company…

OPERA in cinema: LA FORZA DEL DESTINO

, | 2014 | 161 mins. | |
Directed by Martin Kušej

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Presentation La forza del destino – what is the meaning of the destiny that Verdi uses so forcefully? Who forces Leonora, and Alvaro as the murderer of her father, to enter the hermitage of a monastery – and confronts them there, in a mighty showdown, with the brother who is full of…

OPERA in cinema: Rossini’s LA CENERENTOLA

, | 2012 | 165 Mins | |
Directed by Joan Font

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Presentation “Catch Joyce DiDonato and Juan Diego Flórez in what may just be definitive performances in Rossini’s enchanting rags-to-riches rendition,” entreated James Sohre in his review of Rossini’s beloved dramma giocoso “La Cenerentola” in Opera Today. This performance from Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu captures all the vocal sparks and dazzle generated…

Classic Film Night: ROME, OPEN CITY

| 1946 | 103 minutes | | ,
Roberto Rossellini

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This was Roberto Rossellini’s revelation, a harrowing drama about the Nazi occupation of Rome and the brave few who struggled against it. Rome Open City is a shockingly authentic experience, conceived and directed amid the ruin of World War II. The location: Nazi occupied Rome. As Rome is classified an open city,…

OPERA in cinema: IL TROVATORE (Encore)

| 2013 | 137 minutes | |
Giuseppe Verdi

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This musical feast from Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden stars Anna Netrebko and Plácido Domingo in debut roles at the head of an impressive ensemble directed by Daniel Barenboim. Anna Netrebko, “in devastating form” (The Times), draws a compelling and immediate portrait of Leonora from beginning to end. At her side, the…

Classic Film Night: IL SORPASSO (1962)

| 1961 | 105 mins | | ,
Directed by Dino Risi

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A post Italian neo-realist film full of life and spontaneity. Every second of this film is refreshing and the characters take you along for the ride.    The ultimate Italian road comedy, Il sorpasso stars the unlikely pair of Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant as, respectively, a waggish, freewheeling bachelor and the…

SOLD OUT — CLOSING NIGHT FILM: A FIVE STAR LIFE and Closing Reception — SOLD OUT!

| 2013 | 85 minutes | |
Maria Sole Tognazzi

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Our closing night reception will begin immediately following the film and is to be held in the Film Center lobby and porch area – food and libations and live music.  A Five Star Life is the sophisticated and delightful story of one woman’s quest for personal and professional fulfillment set against some…

Opera in Cinema: Verdi’s LA TRAVIATA

| 1994 | 190 minutes | |
Richard Eyre's

Verdi’s La Traviata, based on Alexander Dumas fils’s play La Dame aux camélias, is one of Verdi’s most popular operas, combining drama, passion and memorable melodies. Verdi’s tragic tale of a Parisian courtesan who sacrifices all for love is vividly presented in Richard Eyre’s production. Alfredo and the courtesan Violetta fall passionately in…

OPERA in Cinema: Verdi’s NABUCCO

| 2014 | 149 Mins | |
Daniele Abbado’

Placido Domingo, one of the most celebrated vocal talents of our time, is making a major role debut. This is a rare chance to see a genre-defining masterwork, containing some of the greatest choral music ever written, along with some wonderful arias and ensembles. This new production of Nabucco is not-to-be-missed. Domingo…

OPERA in Cinema: Mozart’s DON GIOVANNI

| 1787 | 205 mins | |
Kasper Holten

The debut feature film of leading opera director Kasper Holten (Director of Opera at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), DON GIOVANNI (JUAN) retells Mozart’s classical masterpiece as a story of the modern man’s escape from himself and his demons. Star studded cast featuring the leading Don Giovanni of today Mariusz Kwiecien…

THE GREAT BEAUTY

| 2013 | 142 min | | ,
Paolo Sorrentino

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Journalist Jep Gambardella (the dazzling Toni Servillo, Il divo and Gomorrah) has charmed and seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades. Since the legendary success of his one and only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city’s literary and social circles, but when his sixty-fifth…

Terraferma

| 2011 | 88 min. | |
A Film by Emanuele Crialese

A man is put in jeopardy when he’s forced to help a family with nowhere to turn in this drama from Italian filmmaker Emanuele Crialese. Ernesto (Mimmo Cuticchio) is an elderly fisherman who lives on the Sicilian island of Linosa. The fishing business has gone into a slump and many on the…

Reality

| 2012 | 110 min. | | ,
A Film by Matteo Garrone

From acclaimed director Matteo Garrone, REALITY is a darkly comic look at Luciano, a charming and affable fishmonger whose unexpected and sudden obsession with being a contestant on the reality show “Big Brother” leads him down a rabbit hole of skewed perceptions and paranoia. So overcome by his dream of being on…