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For Immediate Release
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Luce Cinecitta and The Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco
Present
The 1st edition of

CINEMA ITALIAN STYLE
November 22 - 24, 2019
 At the Vogue Theatre in San Francisco

 
The 1st edition in San Francisco of Cinema Italian Style, a festival co-organized by Luce Cinecitta’—Italy’s premier film organization—and the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco, will be held at the Vogue Theatre in San Francisco on Nov. 22-24, 2019. Cinema Italian Style, with support from the Italian Consulate General in San Francisco, will feature the best of contemporary Italian cinema and will launch with a special Opening Night on Friday, November 22. Cinema and food will be protagonists of Cinema Italian Style, the showcase for the best Italian movies of the year, supporting Marco Bellocchio’s The Traitor, the Italian entry to the Academy Awards® 2020 – Best Foreign Language Film. In a week full of Italian events, the San Francisco audience will have the opportunity to be immersed in Italian culture by discovering eight of the best movies of the year.

Other events across San Francisco will explore the link between cinema and cuisine, as part of worldwide events organized for the 4th edition of the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World, organized by the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. "This year, the Italian Cultural Institute and the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Istituto Luce Cinecittà, Italy’s premier film organization, to present Cinema Italian Style in San Francisco,” said Annamaria Di Giorgio, the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute. "We jumped at the opportunity to work with Luce Cinecittà, since the festival also takes place in November in Seattle and Los Angeles, which allows us to easily share talent and resources.”
 
Opening Night Films
The Traitor
Il traditore
DIR: Marco Bellocchio Italy/France/Germany/Brazil, 2019, 135 min
Friday, November 22, 6:00 pm

Veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio (Vincere) ignites the screen with an incendiary Mafia drama about Tommaso Buscetta (Pierfrancesco Favino), the man who brought down Cosa Nostra. In the early 1980’s, an all-out war rages between cut-throat Sicilian mafia bosses. Tommaso Buscetta, a made man, flees Italy to hide out in Brazil. Back home, scores are being settled and Buscetta watches from afar as his sons and brother are killed in Palermo, knowing that he may be next. Arrested and extradited to Italy by the Brazilian police, Buscetta makes a move that will change everything for the Mafia: he decides to meet with Judge Giovanni Falcone (Fausto Russo Alesi) and betray the eternal vow he made to Cosa Nostra, which leads to the notorious Maxi Trial. The Traitor was nominated for the Palme D’Or at Cannes and is Italy’s submission to the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film. Special thanks to Sony Pictures Classics. CAST: Pierfrancesco Favino, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Fabrizio Ferracane, Luigi Lo Cascio, Fausto Russo Alesi, Nicola Calì


The Invisible Witness
Il testimone invisibile 
DIR: Stefano Mordini Italy, 2018, 102 min
Friday, November 22, 9:00 pm

Adriano (Riccardo Scamarcio), a tech entrepreneur, is awakened by the police in a hotel room next to the dead body of his lover, Laura (Miriam Leone). The door was locked from the inside and there is no evidence of anybody else in the room. Despite his claims of innocence, he is charged with murder. His attorney (Paola Sambo) sends veteran criminal attorney Virginia Ferrara (Maria Paiato)—who has never lost a trial—to craft a defense strategy. The two have only three hours to prepare the case, discredit a key witness who is accusing Adriano, and find the evidence confirming his innocence. With his back to the wall, Adriano is forced to tell the full truth to his lawyer, but will that be enough? The Invisible Witness features a faced paced script and stellar performances by Scamarcio, Leone and Paiato, supported by a top-notch ensemble cast. CAST: Riccardo Scamarcio, Miriam Leone, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Maria Paiato, Sara Cardinaletti, Nicola Pannelli, Sergio Romano, Paola Sambo, Gerardo De Blasio, Alessandra Carrillo


Vivere
Vivere
DIR: Francesca Archibugi Italy, 2019, 103 min
Saturday, November 23, 3:00 pm

The Attorre family lives in a semi-detached villa in a decorous Roman suburb, next door to a prying neighbor, Perind (Marcello Font of Dogman). Luca (Adriano Giannini), a frustrated freelance journalist and creative conjurer of fake news, struggles to support Susi (Michela Ramazzotti), a former ballerina who now teaches ballet to overweight women, and Lucilla, a quiet and imaginative six-year-old who suffers from severe asthma. Pierpaolo, the 17-year-old son of Luca from a previous relationship—who lives with his well-to-do mother under the aegis of his powerful grandfather—visits often and supports them economically.  When Mary Ann, a winsome Irish au pair (Rosin O'Donovan), comes to take care of Lucilla, everyone’s role in the family shifts.
CAST: Micaela Ramazzotti, Adriano Giannini, Roisin O'Donovan, Massimo Ghini, Marcello Fonte, Andrea Calligari, Enrico Montesano, Valentina Cervi, Elisa Miccoli


Volare
Tutto il mio folle amore
DIR: Gabriele Salvatores Italy, 2019, 97 min
Saturday, November 23, 6:00 pm

Willi (Claudio Santamaria) returns sixteen years after the birth of his autistic son Vincent (Giulio Pranno), and breaks into the home of his ex-girlfriend Elena (Valeria Golino) and her partner Mario (Diego Abatantuono), who adopted Vincent. Willi, a boozing lounge singer, wants to connect with the boy, but Elena is furious and throws him out. But when Willi discovers that Vincent has hidden away in the back of his pick-up truck en route to a tour of Slovenia, a musical and emotional journey begins that will change their lives and seal their bond. CAST: Claudio Santamaria, Valeria Golino, Diego Abatantuono, Giulio Pranno, Daniel Vivian, Marusa Majer, Tania Garribba


The First King: Birth of an Empire
Il primo re
DIR: Matteo Rovere Italy, 2019, 127 min
Saturday, November 23, 8:30 pm

In this swashbuckling epic, Matteo Rovere brings us the mythic story of twin shepherd brothers, Romulus and Remus, one of whom will found the Roman empire. In 800 B.C., a prophecy foretells that one of the brothers—who are both hardened by the elements and suckled by a she-wolf—will build a world-spanning empire, but the other will die at his brother’s hand. In this swordfight drama (featuring dialogue in a painstakingly researched, authentic archaic Latin), love, ambition and fratricide coalesce in a searing story about the most tragic of sacrifices, from which Rome will rise.  CAST: Alessandro Borghi, Alessio Lapice


Food Makers
Followed by food tasting
DIR: Enrica Cavalli Italy, 2018, 48 min
DIRECTOR IN PERSON 
Sunday, November 24, 2:15 pm

Enrica Cavalli’s engaging documentary chronicles the round-the-world journey of fifteen students of the F​ood Innovation Program​ (based in Reggio Emilia), to find out how food is changing. To study the food of the future, writer Nick Difino and director Cavalli followed the students as they traversed cities in ten countries (Boston, Davis, San Francisco, Kyoto, London, Shanghai, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Maastricht, Wageningen, Bologna, the Italian Food Valley and Puglia) to meet and interview people who are “Food Heroes.” We live in an ever-growing global community, where what we eat and how we produce affects the whole life of our planet. On one hand, over two billion people have problems accessing good food and on the other, over one billion suffer from obesity. This documentary is a resounding call for a better food system and a more democratic international food policy. 


The Vice of Hope
Il vizio della speranza
DIR: Edoardo De Angelis Italy, 2018, 96 min
Sunday, November 24, 5:00 pm

Edoardo De Angelis, director of the critically acclaimed Indivisible, returns to the Neapolitan coastal area with the beautifully told tale of Maria (Pina Turco), a young woman forced by economic circumstances to work as a trafficker of paid surrogate mothers, transporting them clandestinely along the Volturno river. But when one of the pregnant women disappears, Maria is threatened by her complicated boss, Zi’Mari (Maria Confalone) and has to find the missing woman. Accompanied by her trusty pit bull, Maria encounters a world of wide-open spaces but narrowing choices. CAST: Pina Turco, Massimiliano Rossi, Marina Confalone, Cristina Donadio, Marcello Romolo


Closing Night Film 
Ordinary Happiness
Momenti di trascurabile felicità 
DIR: Daniele Luchetti Italy, 2019, 93 min
Sunday, November 24, 7:30 pm

Paolo (Pif), a Sicilian engineer who is married with two children, drives his scooter with abandon. In a daily act of bravado, he crosses an intersection with the light changing to red, and gets hit by a truck and dies. What if, because of a miscalculation in Paradise, you got an extra hour and a half after death and a chance to achieve what really counts in life, enjoying the people you love most: your partner, your children, and your friends? How do you cram life’s small moments of happiness—parenting, marital bliss, sex, and soccer—into an hour and half? CAST: Pierfrancesco Diliberto aka Pif, Renato Carpentieri, Federica Victoria Caiozzo aka Thony, Francesco Giammanco, Angelica Alleruzzo, Vincenzo Ferrera, Franz Cantalupo, Manfredi Pannizzo


Screeners Available
The First King: Birth of an Empire
Food Makers
The Invisible Witness
Ordinary Happiness
The Vice of Hope
Vivere
Volare


To request a screener, please email Publicity@larsenassc.com

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The Italian Cultural Institute (IIC) Founded in 1978, the Italian Cultural Institute (Istituto Italiano di Cultura) in San Francisco is an official branch of the Italian government, dedicated to the promotion of the Italian language and culture in the United States. www.iicsanfrancisco.esteri.it
 
 

 

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