Italian Film Festival Arizona
Event description
Giuseppe Cino is an Italian director and screenplay who was born in the Sicilian town of Caltanissetta in 1947. After attending the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, a prestigious school for moviemakers, he started working in television and as assistant director and collaborator of Roberto Rossellini. He later directed several movies inspired by different genres, including fantasy, thriller and drama, earning several important awards.
Friday, Jan. 27, 2023 — Opening night
- Maria Venera (original Title: Quell’estate felice, That Happy Summer), 2007
Run time 111’
Sicily, 1951. A young literature teacher, Angelo, secretly falls in love with Maria Venera, the most beautiful girl of the town of Modica. She is an orphan who lives in the decrepit palace of her grandfather, an old aristocrat who squandered his fortune in pursuing endless affairs with women. Angelo will be able to save Maria Venera’s honor, but at the cost of having to leave town.
Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023
Total run time of day 1 — 5 hours and 5 minutes
- A Man and a Voice. To Beniamino Gigli (Un uomo e una voce. A Beniamino Gigli), 2017, by Giuseppe Conti
Running time: 99’
This movie is a biopic about the great Italian opera singer Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957). The director evokes the crucial years of his childhood, when his magic vocal gift was first revealed amidst his family’s financial difficulty. He follows the future star throughout his apprenticeship in Rome until his admission to the prestigious Santa Cecilia Academy, marking the beginning of his success.
- Breath of Life (Diceria dell’untore), 1990
Running time 97’
In 1946, the professor Angelo is a recovering Second World War soldier in a Palermo TB clinic. Most of the patients are young yet are aware of their impending death. Angelo holds the same bleak expectations. Yet, after meeting Marta a former dancer, he miraculously recovers while all the others perish, including the medical professionals. Angelo is the only survivor that can bear witness to the ordeal in the clinic.
- Journey toward East (In viaggio verso Est), 1992
Running time 97’
In the fall of 1991, a photographer, Alex, decides to journey to the former URSS to document traces of the past, birth of the new and recovery of long forgotten traditions. But Alex is a complex and conflicted character. Believer in the revolution coming from the East, he would never give up the consumerist way of life he has been accustomed to. Andrej and Iliana come along him.
Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023
Total run time of day 2 — 6 hours
- Red’s Sky at Night (Rosso di sera), 1988
Run time 89’
Alex is separated and has a young daughter, Elo. After a youth full of failures at the university and in politics, he is leading a mediocre existence alongside Margit, his new partner, and his friends. One night, at Gangi’s birthday — who, like him, had been involved with the 70s political agitators — Alex finds out about a secret relationship between Margit and Gangi.
- A Sicilian Miracle (Miracolo a Palermo), 2005
Run time 89’
Totò lives with his mother and his father has been killed in a settling of scores by the Mafia. During the day he helps his mother, encumbered by back-breaking jobs. He hopes to one day meet his father’s assassins and kill them. But, after miraculously surviving a shootout, he decides to change his life.
- The House of the Blue Shadows (La casa del buon ritorno), 1986
Run time 91’
Jacob, alongside his fiancée Margit, comes back to the house of his childhood. Despite the beautiful scenery, in this very same house twenty years before, he accidentally killed a girl he had fallen in love with, Lola. From this moment on, Jacob becomes obsessed with his past.
