Notícias

Michele Placido’s “Eternal Visionary” (Eterno visionario) is a sprawling look at legendary playwright Luigi Pirandello’s inner demons. Sweeping through the 1920s and 1930s, the playwright (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) ruminates on his past as fraught personal relationships tumble to the fore.

The film has scale and sweep. But it’s more interested in emotion and interiority, especially mental landscapes as they shift and are affected across a span of time. One may try to be in denial and repress the emotional shadow of certain circumstances but sooner or later, they will catch up. The haunting of the man hews itself all over “Eternal Visionary.” The wounds and guilt are as persistent as the stubborn ego of the artist who pushes for the ‘human sincerity’ in his work to be recognized. He’s almost deluded in several instances.

The film portrays the genius of a man who feels constantly misunderstood by everyone around him.

“Monterossi: Season 2” finds Monterossi (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) still stuck with his producing role on the sleazy talk show he created, “Crazy Love”, that he’s been regretting since it started sliding into lowbrow exploitation. Flora (Carla Signoris), the domineering host, continues to push for the most lurid guests and topics, much to his chagrin. It’s akin to the havoc Dr. Frankenstein unleashed despite his laudable reanimation intentions. Monterossi had hoped for an “Oprah”, only to see his project devolve into a “Jerry Springer”.

The first season was six 45-minute episodes split evenly over two separate mysteries. This one covers one set of crimes in five.

My review of Season One of this charming light crime series from Italian TV, “Monterossi” will bring you up to speed or refresh your memory. This next round again delivers the goods on scripts, performances and settings.

“Monterossi” – TV series review

Three bodies of...

Pulsar Content has secured worldwide sales on Michele Placido’s “Eternal Visionary,” a film about the life of Luigi Pirandello, the Italian playwright, novelist and poet who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934.

Pirandello is played by Fabrizio Bentivoglio, one of Italy’s best known actors whose credits include “Loro,” “The Invisible Boy” and “Human Capital.” Bentivoglio stars opposite filmmaker and actor Valeria Bruni Tedeschi who stars as Pirandello’s wife. Federica Luna Vincenti completes the cast.

The movie opens in 1934 as Pirandello is traveling to Stockholm, where he is about to receive the Nobel Prize. He starts reliving the drama and magic of the loved ones who have populated his life and inspired his art. He reminisces about the madness of his wife, his stormy relationship with his children, his controversial stance towards fascism and his love for Marta Abba, the young actress who became his muse.

Now in post-production,...

Fabrizio Bentivoglio as Carlo Monterossi, in Italian TV’s “Monterossi – The Series.” Courtesy of MHz Choice

Italian TV gives us “Monterossi – The Series,” an unusual light-crime package. Lead character Carlo Monterossi (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) is the creator of a highly popular, sleazy tabloid series called “Crazy Love.” He’s disgusted by the voyeuristic monster they’ve unleashed on the public, and desperately wants out. His agent and the producers are doing all they can to keep him on board. That bit of conflict suddenly shifts to Carlo’s back burner when a masked guy with a gun comes to the door to kill him. Fortunately, the gunman misses. Otherwise, the series either would have just been a short, or they’d have needed a new star and title. You’ll be quite pleased to have spent the time getting to know the eponymous gent we’re given.

The 2022 season’s six...

Market

The Cannes Film Market has launched Cannes Investors Circle, which will commence with a keynote introduction by Liesl Copland, Participant’s executive VP, content and platform strategy, who will offer her perspective on the modern media landscape. The initiative will also feature a panel discussion titled Navigating Film Finance in a Changing World that aims to offer insights on global financing and market trends in 2023 and beyond. The panelists will include Elisa Alvares, finance expert at Jacaranda Consultants; Rikke Ennis, CEO of REinvent Studios; Emilie Georges, co-founder and CEO of Paradise City; Mike Goodridge, U.K. producer at Good Chaos who is also presenting Jessica Hausner’s “Club Zero” in the festival’s official competition; with film festival consultant Wendy Mitchell moderating.

The event will also include an invitation-only session where VIP private investors will listen to pitches of nine new global film projects at the investment stage. The...

The Italian premieres of Cannes Film Festival opener Jeanne du Barry starring Johnny Depp and Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny will be among the international highlights of the 69th Taormina Film Festival which gave a taster of its line-up at a press conference in Rome on Tuesday.

Principal cast for James Mangold’s Indiana Jones reboot including Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Antonio Banderas, John Rhys-Davies and Mads Mikkelsen are expected to be in attendance for the screening.

The event, unfolding June 23 to July 1 in Sicily, is under the new co-artistic directorship of Barrett Wissman this year.

There will also be Italian premieres for Lisa Cortes’s Little Richard: I Am Everything, a documentary about the life and career of the legendary musician, and A.V. Rockwell’s A Thousand and One, starring Teyana Taylor.

Italian highlights include the world premiere of the comedy The Worst Days by Edoardo Leo,...

Other winners include Italian star Sophia Loren and two Netflix features.

Giorgio Diritti’s Hidden Away was the big winner at Italy’s David di Donatello awards on Tuesday (May 11), winning seven awards including best picture, best director and lead actor for Elio Germano.

The drama, which chronicles the difficult life of Italian painter Antonio Ligabue, is produced by Palomar with Rai Cinema, and premiered at the 2020 Berlinale, where Elio Germano won the Silver Bear for best actor. The film, which was the frontrunner going into the night with 15 nominations, also picked up prizes for cinematography, hair artist and sound.

Giorgio Diritti’s biopic “Hidden Away,” about crazed primitivist painter Antonio Ligabue, was the big winner at Italy’s 66th David di Donatello Awards, the country’s top film prizes.

The Davids were held with an in-person ceremony aired from two venues amid a strong spirit of restart as Italian movie theaters gradually begin to reopen.

“Hidden Away,” which was the frontrunner with 15 nominations, scored seven statuettes including best picture, director and actor honors won by Elio Germano who tackles “the fiendishly difficult role” of the self-taught artist “with customary gusto,” as Variety critic Jay Weissberg noted in his review.

The best actress statuette went to Sophia Loren for her role as Madame Rosa, a former prostitute and Holocaust survivor, in Netflix Original “The Life Ahead,” directed by her son Edoardo Ponti. The Italian icon’s return to the big screen after a decade had been snubbed by the Oscars earlier this year.

The screenwriter’s debut film starring Barbara Ronchi, Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Thony is produced by Lynn, Groenlandia’s new division dedicated to projects directed by women. Filming wrapped last week on Settembre, the first feature film to be directed by Giulia Steigerwalt, which has now entered into post-production. Based upon the 2019 short film of the same name which was written and directed by Steigerwalt herself, the film stars Barbara Ronchi, Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Thony in lead roles and tells the ironic and emotional tale of an adolescent’s sentimental education. Penned in its entirety by the director, Settembre tells the story of 14-year-old Maria who comes to the attention of Cristian, a boy she’s always had a crush on, following the school summer holidays. Via...

In 1968, idealistic Italian engineer Giorgio Rosa founded an independent micro nation on a tiny island he built on a platform supported by steel pylons off the coast of Rimini, Italy, outside Italian territorial waters. He named the platform — which had its own bar/restaurant, post office and radio station — the Republic of Rose Island.

This anarchic act is the subject of “Rose Island,” a dramedy rooted in real history marking the first Netflix International Original film out of Italy. The streaming giant worked closely with director Sydney Sibilia and production company Grøenlandia (“The First King”) to shepherd the picture, conceived from the outset for an international audience. The film stems from Netflix’s stepped-up drive under David Kosse, vice president of international film and Teresa Moneo, director of international film, to produce and acquire significant non-English language titles with worldwide appeal.

Partly shot in Malta, “Rose Island” boasts a top-tier...

"To change the world, you've got to risk a little." Netflix has unveiled an official trailer for an indie Italian film titled Rose Island, from filmmaker Sydney Sibilia (of the I Can Quit Whenever I Want series). This reminds me of the UK film Pirate Radio about the ship broadcasting in international waters, or about the party-on-a-homemade-raft experiment examined in the doc The Raft. An idealistic engineer builds his own island off the Italian coast and declares it a nation, drawing the world's attention. Values are tested when the Italian government declares him an enemy, but to change the world risks must be taken. This has a more light-hearted, comedic tone to it in addition to its let's-take-on-the-Italian-government boldness. Starring Elio Germano as Giorgio Rosa, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Tom Wlaschiha, Luca Zingaretti, François Cluzet, Matilda De Angelis, & Ascanio Balbo. This looks like a good story and a fun film! Take a look.

Netflix has debuted a new trailer for its Italian comedy drama based on a true story ‘Rose Island’.

Giorgio, a gifted yet misunderstood engineer has hit rock bottom – he’s been fired from his job, his parents won’t speak to him, and the love of his life has ditched him after he accidentally gets them both arrested (long story…). Sick of the stuffy rules of Italian society of the late 60s, Giorgio hatches an impossible plan; he will build his own island in the middle of the sea. Joined by a team of revolutionaries and outcasts, the Republic of Rose Island is founded, independence is declared and Giorgio is appointed President. However, team values and resilience are tested, as the Italian Prime Minister decides Giorgio’s idealistic island is Italy’s Enemy Number One.

Directed by Sydney Sibilia, the film stars Giorgio Rosa: Elio Germano,,Gabriella: Matilda De Angelis,...

Prior to the pandemic, British filmmaker Peter Chelsom shot an Italian-language movie titled “Security” based on the novel of the same name by U.S. author Stephen Amidon. The film, set in the posh Tuscan seaside town of Forte Dei Marmi, wrapped just before lockdown. It stars Italian A-lister Marco D’Amore as a cop looking into a web of sexual abuse cases. The entirely Italian cast also comprises Maya Sansa, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Valeria Bilello, Silvio Muccino and Tommaso Ragno. The cinematographer, Mauro Fiore (“Avatar”), is Italian-born. Chelsom spoke exclusively to Variety about “Security,” which is co-produced by Indiana Production and Vision Distribution and being sold as a market premiere at the Cannes virtual Marché du Film by Vision Distribution’s new world sales arm.

This is the second novel by Amidon set in the U.S. and transposed to Italy, after “Human Capital,” which was directed by Paolo Virzì. Other similarities?...

The news that two hitherto heterosexual patriarchs are getting married — to each other — roils both of their families in amiable “An Almost Ordinary Summer.” This slickly produced . Released last February on its home turf, the Italian comedy was selected to open this year’s Palm Springs Film Festival following several other prominent American fest screenings. Wolfe will give it a limited U.S. theatrical release on Jan. 10, with a home-formats launch on Jan. 21.

A spectacularly situated cliffside villa in coastal Gaeta is the getaway home for wealthy art dealer Toni (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), who has gathered his Earth Mother sister (Lunetta Savino) and his daughters there for his birthday. Somewhat to their surprise, he’s supposedly rented out the guest house to a clan of working-class strangers led by Roman fishmonger Carlo (Alessandro Gassmann).

But this turns out to be a ruse. In fact, Toni and Carlo have been seeing each other for over a year,...

Exclusive: Netflix has boarded The Incredible Story Of Rose Island (L’Incredibile Storia Dell’Isola Delle Rose), a comedy feature from Sydney Sibilia, director of the successful Italian franchise Smetto Quando Voglia. Production began in September on the movie that’s based on the true story of engineer Giorgio Rosa and the independent micronation he founded in 1968 off the Rimini coast outside Italian territorial waters.

This is part of Netflix’s overseas drive under VP of International Film David Kosse who joined in March to focus on making and acquiring significant non-English language titles with worldwide appeal. Shooting will take place in Rome, Malta, Rimini and Bologna.

The Incredible Story Of Rose Island is co-written by Sibilia and Francesca Manieri. A Netflix original film produced by Groenlandia, it stars Elio Germano as Giorgio Rosa with Matilda De Angelis, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Luca Zingaretti, François Cluzet (Intouchables), Thomas Wlaschiha (Game Of Thrones), Leonardo Lidi,...

"Sell them your dream of the future." IFC Films has unveiled an official trailer for the latest spectacle from Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino, an epic political satire titled Loro. The film profiles the life of Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi, played by Toni Servillo, an "egomaniac billionaire Prime Minister who presides over an empire of scandal and corruption." Sounds scary, but it's described as a "ferocious feast of satire" with plenty of Sorrentino's spunk and extravagance. "Exploding with eye-popping, extravagantly surreal set-pieces, the dazzling, daring new film from Academy Award-winning director Paolo Sorrentino is both a wickedly subversive satire and a furious elegy for a country crumbling while its leaders enrich themselves." Also starring Riccardo Scamarcio as the young hustler trying to move closer to Berlusconi, plus Elena Sofia Ricci, Kasia Smutniak, Euridice Axen, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Roberto De Francesco, Dario Cantarelli, and Anna Bonaiuto. Worth a look. Here's the official Us...

Leading Italian sales company True Colors has closed a slew of sales at the Cannes Market and landed North American deals on horror pic “In The Trap” and gay-themed comedy “An Almost Ordinary Summer,” acquired respectively by Mpi Media Group and Wolfe Releasing.

The English-language “In The Trap” (pictured) directed by Italy’s Alessio Liguori as his feature-film debut, and produced by Italian shingles Dreamworld Movies and Mad Rocket Entertainment generated a flurry of deals, confirming the growing global appetite for horror titles and the resurgence of Italy’s capability to churn out chillers that can travel.

“In The Trap,” which features an international cast comprising South Africa’s David Bailie (“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”), and Sonya Cullingford (“The Mummy”), is about a solitary proof reader trapped by fear in his apartment where he is tortured by an unknown evil force. Besides the U.S. and Canada,...

Vulture Watch

Will the story continue? Has The Name of the Rose TV show been cancelled or renewed for a second season on SundanceTV? The television vulture is watching all the latest cancellation and renewal news, so this page is the place to track the status of The Name of the Rose, season two. Bookmark it, or subscribe for the latest updates. Remember, the television vulture is watching your shows. Are you?  

What's This TV Show About?

A SundanceTV medieval detective drama based on the 1980 Umberto Eco novel, The Name of the Rose stars John Turturro, Damian Hardung, Rupert Everett, Greta Scarano, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, and Michael Emerson. The series unfolds in northern Italy in 1327 and centers on brilliant English Franciscan friar William of Baskerville (Turturro) and Adso of Melk (Hardung), a young novice. When the duo travels to a remote abbey...

SundanceTV doesn't have a huge slate of scripted TV series, but they tend to program with an eye toward its merit, rather than making a splash in the Nielsen ratings. Enter The Name of the Rose TV series. Based on the 1980 Umberto Eco novel of the same name, which also spawned the 1986 Sean Connnery—Christian Slater film, this show is billed as a mini-series, but is that set in stone, or could it change? Will The Name of the Rose be cancelled or renewed for season two? Stay tuned.

A SundanceTV medieval detective drama, The Name of the Rose stars John Turturro, Damian Hardung, Rupert Everett, Greta Scarano, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, and Michael Emerson. The series unfolds in northern Italy in 1327 and centers on brilliant English Franciscan friar William of Baskerville (Turturro) and Adso of Melk (Hardung), a young novice. When the...

How compelling is the first season of The Name of the Rose TV show on SundanceTv? As we all know, the Nielsen ratings typically play a big role in determining whether a TV show like The Name of the Rose is cancelled or renewed for season two. Unfortunately, most of us do not live in Nielsen households. Because many viewers feel frustration when their viewing habits and opinions aren't considered, we'd like to offer you the chance to rate all of The Name of the Rose season one episodes here.

A SundanceTV medieval detective drama, The Name of the Rose stars John Turturro, Damian Hardung, Rupert Everett, Greta Scarano, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, and Michael Emerson. Based on the 1980 Umberto Eco novel, the series unfolds in northern Italy in 1327 and centers on brilliant English Franciscan friar William of Baskerville...

Network: SundanceTV.

Episodes: Ongoing (hour).

Seasons: Ongoing.

TV show dates: May 23, 2019 — present.

Series status: Has not been cancelled.

Performers include: John Turturro, Damian Hardung, Rupert Everett, Greta Scarano, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Michael Emerson, Richard Sammel, Stefano Fresi, Roberto Herlitzka, Nina Fotoras, Benjamin Stender, Claudio Bigagli, Corrado Invernizzi, Max Malatesta, James Cosmo, Rinat Khismatouline, David Brandon, Peter Davison, Fausto Maria Sciarappa, and Piotr Adamczyk.

TV show description:

From creator Giacomo Battiato, The Name of the Rose TV show is a medieval detective drama, based on the 1980 Umberto Eco novel of the same name, which also inspired the 1986 film, starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater.

The series, which first debuted in Italy on March...

AMC Networks has set premiere dates for several new and returning series including season 2 of Lodge 49 and The Terror: Infamy, the second installment of the horror anthology series.

The Terror: Infamy will debut Monday, August 12 at at 9 Pm Et/8 Pm Ct, and will be followed by Season 2 of Lodge 49 at 10 Pm Et/ 9 Pm Ct.

Set during World War II, Season 2 of The Terror: Infamy centers on a series of bizarre deaths that haunt a Japanese-American community, and a young man’s journey to understand and combat the malevolent entity responsible.

The Terror: Infamy is an AMC Studios production produced by Scott Free, Emaj Productions and Entertainment 360.

Created by Jim Gavin, Lodge 49 is a modern fable set in Long Beach, CA that centers on likable “Squire” and ex-surfer Sean “Dud” Dudley (Wyatt Russell), whose beloved fraternal order — the Ancient and Benevolent Order of the Lynx — is suffering under...

John Turturro and the producers of “The Name of the Rose” unveiled their ambitious English-language TV adaptation of Umberto Eco’s murder mystery in Rome on Thursday ahead of its global rollout, which will kick off March 4 on Italy’s Rai.

Producers and the Italian pubcaster have high hopes the show will expand the international footprint of Italy’s high-end dramas following “My Brilliant Friend,” based on a more recent bestseller. The $30 million, eight-episode series is produced by Rome-based companies 11 Marzo and Palomar and Rai Fiction, and will go out in the U.S. via AMC on May 1.

John Turturro, who plays the central character of Franciscan monk William of Baskerville, said that Eco’s novel, which has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide since first being published in 1980, was very relevant today.

“There is a power structure – the church – which also represents the government or politics,” he said. “Then there is suppression of women.

Tele München Group’s world sales unit, Tm International, has sold its high-end television series “The Name of the Rose,” starring John Turturro, to multiple territories, including the BBC in the U.K., Sky in Germany and Ocs in France.

Additionally it has been acquired by Yle in Finland, Nrk in Norway, Dr in Denmark, Sbs in Australia, Vrt in Belgium, Rtp in Portugal, Ceska TV in Czech Republic, Sky in New Zealand, and Iti in Poland. As previously announced, AMC’s SundanceTV holds the rights for the U.S. and Canada, and Rai will air the show in Italy.

As well as Turturro, the cast of the eight-hour series includes Michael Emerson, Rupert Everett (“Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”), Damian Hardung (“Red Band Society”), Sebastian Koch (“Homeland”), James Cosmo (“Game of Thrones”), Richard Sammel (“Inglourious Basterds”), Fabrizio Bentivoglio (“Human Capital”) and Greta Scarano (“In Treatment”).

The series...

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but what about a different one of the same name? SundanceTV has ordered The Name of the Rose TV show. The new series is based on the 1980 Umberto Eco novel, which previously inspired the 1986 feature film starring Sean Connery and Christian Slater. . A SundanceTV medieval drama, The Name of the Rose stars John Turturro, Michael Emerson, Rupert Everett, Damian Hardung, Sebastian Koch, James Cosmo, Richard Sammel, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, and Greta Scarano. The Name of the Rose TV show will premiere Tbd in 2019 on SundanceTV in the Us, Sundance Now in the Us and Canada, and on Italy's Rai. Read More…...

SundanceTV has boarded The Name of the Rose, a limited international drama series based on Umberto Eco’s acclaimed novel, that stars John Turturro (The Night Of), Michael Emerson and Rupert Everett (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children).

AMC Networks’ cable network as well as Sundance Now have joined the series, which will also air on Rai in Italy in 2019 and is produced by 11 Marzo Film, Palomar and Tele München Group. Damian Hardung (Red Band Society), Sebastian Koch (Homeland), James Cosmo (Game of Thrones), Richard Sammel (Inglourious Basterds), Fabrizio Bentivoglio (Human Capital) and Greta Scarano (In Treatment) also star in the series, which is currently in production in Italy.

Set in Italy in 1327, The Name of the Rose follows the Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (Turturro) and his novice Adso von Melk (Hardung) as they arrive at a secluded monastery in the Alps. There...

After Paolo Sorrentino’s virtuoso evisceration of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti in “Il Divo,” expectations were sky high that the distinctive director would bring a similar caustic bravura to his treatment of Silvio Berlusconi. Yet “Loro 1,” the first of a two-part kaleidoscopic consideration of the four-time prime minister and the Italy he fostered, is not so much an invigorating acid bath as a subtly written, stylistically more classical look at one of the most divisive European leaders in recent memory. It aims to peer not just into Berlusconi’s monomaniacal soul, but to expose, as with “The Great Beauty,” the apotheosis of vulgarity and craving for attention that’s been the canny politician and media magnate’s lasting imprint on Italian society.

Whether it’s successful depends very much on “Loro 2,” to be released in Italy on May 10, roughly two weeks after this installment. Rumor has it the...

Germany’s Tele München Group has secured a host of international deals for its television adaptation of Umberto Eco’s “The Name of the Rose.” Sky has taken the high-end English-language Italian production for German-speaking Europe, while Orange has acquired rights in France. Sales have also been secured across most of Scandinavia with DRtv taking it for Denmark; Yle for Finland; and Nrk in Norway.

Tele München boarded the project as co-producer and international sales agent in November last year. The 8-part series, which is budgeted at €26 million ($30 million), stars John Turturro (pictured) as 14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville, who investigates a series of grisly murders. Rupert Everett co-stars as antagonist Inquisitor Bernard Gui, with German actor Damien Hardung as Baskerville’s apprentice Adso.

The novel, which has sold over 50 million copies worldwide since it was first publiched in 1980, was previously adapted as a 1986 movie by Jean-Jacques Annaud, which starred Sean Connery,...

The adaptation of Umberto Eco’s book has distribution in German-speaking Europe amongst others.

Tele München Group (Tmg) has announced a range of sales on its series The Name Of The Rose, the adaptation of Umberto Eco’s novel about monks investigating a slew of murders.

Deals include German-speaking Europe (Sky), France (Orange), Finland (Yle), Norway (Nrk) and Denmark (DRtv).

Produced by 11 Marzo Film, Palomar and Tele München Group in association with Rai Fiction, the series has a 19-week shoot currently underway in Italy and is set for a world premiere in spring 2019. Tmg’S world sales unit Tm International is handling worldwide distribution.

The adaptation of Umberto Eco’s book has distribution in German-speaking Europe amongst others.

Tele München Group (Tmg) has announced a range of sales on its series The Name Of The Rose, the adaptation of Umberto Eco’s novel about monks investigating a slew of murders.

Deals include German-speaking Europe (Sky), France (Orange), Finland (Yle), Norway (Nrk) and Denmark (DRtv).

Produced by 11 Marzo Film, Palomar and Tele München Group in association with Rai Fiction, the series has a 19-week shoot currently underway in Italy and is set for a world premiere in spring 2019. Tmg’S world sales unit Tm International is handling worldwide distribution.

Paolo Virzì with Anne-Katrin Titze at the St. Regis: "For me, Donald Sutherland is many things. He is Casanova and the wonderful English professor in Animal House ..." Photo: Lilia Blouin

In 2014, Paolo Virzì's Human Capital (Il Capitale Umano), starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Valeria Golino, and Fabrizio Gifuni was Italy's Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film. Paolo's latest, The Leisure Seeker, his first film in English, stars Helen Mirren and Donald Sutherland as a couple on the road, unlike Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider. The screenplay by Stephen Amidon, Francesca Archibugi, Francesco Piccolo, and Virzì is based on the novel by Michael Zadoorian.

Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren are John and Ella Spencer

At the St. Regis hotel in New York, our conversation takes us to how Donald Sutherland is many things (from Federico Fellini's Casanova to Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now...

Exclusive: Italian sales company has also acquired street art documentary Vertical Conquests.

Italian sales company FilmExport has acquired world sales rights to Italian director Sergio Rubini’s couples comedy Let’s Talk (Dobbiamo Parlare) and street art documentary Vertical Conquests.

Let’s Talk revolves around two couples – one conventionally married, the other cohabitating — whose friendship and lives are laid bare over the course of one evening following the revelation that one of the partners is having an affair.

Rubini plays 50-year-old writer Vanni who lives in a beautiful central Rome loft with his 30-year-old girlfriend Linda, played by former Efp Shooting Star Isabella Ragonese.

Fabrizio Bentivoglio co-stars as Alfredo, a heart surgeon conventionally married to Constance, played by Gomorrah co-star Maria Pia Calzone.

The film grossed $600,000 when it was released in Italy at the end of 2015.

Other new titles on FilmExport’s slate include found footage French Riviera-set thriller Wax: We Are The X and In The...

Receiving its North American premiere last spring at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, where it snagged a Best Actress award for Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Paolo Virzi’s Human Capital was Italy’s submission for this year’s Best Foreign Language contender. Ultimately it wasn’t selected for a nomination, even though its considerable critical acclaim made it a wise choice (in 2014, Paolo Sorrentino’s sublime The Great Beauty took home the award, but Virzi beat out Sorrentino for Best Film on home turf), as Virzi’s familial drama is an expertly paced dramatic thriller crafted around what could easily been a generic narrative. Meanwhile, the momentum behind the film has instigated a reunion of Virzi with Bruni-Tedeschi for his next feature, even if its box office success wasn’t replicated after it reached Us theaters. A well-paced and engaging thriller, Virzi’s film is a triptych of perspective-based characterizations coalescing into an...

For What It’s Worth: Virzi’s Leftist Neo-Noir a Capitalistic Parable

Receiving its North American premiere last spring at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, where it snagged a Best Actress award for Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Paolo Virzi’s Human Capital is Italy’s submission for this year’s Best Foreign Language contender. They’ve chosen wisely once again (last year Paolo Sorrentino’s sublime The Great Beauty took home the award, but Virzi beat out Sorrentino for Best Film on home turf), as Virzi’s familial drama is an expertly paced dramatic thriller crafted around what could easily been a generic narrative. A triptych of perspective based characterizations coalesce into an arresting finale engendering Verzi’s foreboding title.

Cleaning up after what appears to have been a large banquet, a member of the serving staff takes off into the cold Italian evening on his bicycle, shortly run off the road and into a ditch.

Film Movement's "Human Capital," Italy's Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film, opens this week and Indiewire has an exclusive clip of one of the drama's pivotal scenes.  Valeria Bruni Tedeschi leads the ensemble cast including Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Valeria Golino and Fabrizio Gifuni in director Paolo Virzì's character study of two families in different social classes who are inextricably linked by a tragic accident. "'Human Capital' begins at the end as a cyclist is run off the road by a careening SUV the night before Christmas Eve," the film's synopsis reads. "As details emerge of the events leading up to the accident, the lives of the well-to-do Bernaschi family, privileged and detached, will intertwine with the Ossolas, struggling to keep their comfortable middle-class life, in ways neither could have expected. Dino Ossola (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), in dire financial straits, anticipates the birth of twins with his second wife...

Human Capital (Il Capitale Umano) director Paolo Virzì in New York Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences yesterday announced the Oscar shortlist for Best Foreign Language Film. Paula van der Oest's Accused (Netherlands); Giorgi Ovashvili's Corn Island (Georgia); Ruben Östlund's Force Majeure (Sweden); Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida (Poland); Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan (Russia); Alberto Arvelo's The Liberator (Venezuela); Zaza Urushadze's Tangerines (Estonia); Abderrahmane Sissako's Timbuktu (Mauritania); and Damian Szifron's Wild Tales (Argentina) are the nine films. Earlier this month, Human Capital (Il Capitale Umano) director Paolo Virzì and I discussed Slavoj Žižek's reading of Kierkegaard, an old theatre in the Como backyard of George Clooney and Giorgio Armani, Sebastião Salgado's Genesis photography exhibition, what's coming up next with Francesca Archibugi, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Micaela Ramazzotti and the responsibility of having his film as Italy's Oscar submission.

Fabrizio Bentivoglio as...

Human Capital (Il capitale umano) director Paolo Virzì with Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: Dov Mamann

During the Tribeca Film Festival, I spoke with Human Capital (Il Capitale Umano) director Paolo Virzì and two of his stars, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Valeria Golino. Since then his film, which also stars Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Fabrizio Gifuni, has been selected as Italy's Oscar submission for Best Foreign Language Film, following in the footsteps of Paolo Sorrentino's Oscar win for The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza).

Valeria Golino as Roberta with Fabrizio Bentivoglio as Dino: "They are all fragile and at the same time they are funny."

This time we discussed what it feels like for him to represent his country and go up against filmmakers such as Dominik Graf, Pawel Pawlikowski, Bertrand Bonello, Ruben Östlund, Damián Szifron, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne. The Como connection to George Clooney, Giorgio Armani and...

Written and directed by Paolo Virzi, this layered ensemble drama opened in Italy to the tune of $8 million and seven Donatello Awards, and later premiered at Tribeca where Valeria Bruni Tedeschi won Best Actress. Film Movement opens the film in the new year. Academy word-of-mouth is high on this film, which just played AFI Fest in Los Angeles among a bevy of other foreign Oscar contenders. Here's the synopsis: "'Human Capital' begins at the end, as a cyclist is run off the road by a careening SUV the night before Christmas Eve. As details emerge of the events leading up to the accident, the lives of the well-to-do Bernaschi family, privileged and detached, will intertwine with the Ossolas, struggling to keep their comfortable middle-class life, in ways neither could have expected. Dino Ossola (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), in dire financial straits, anticipates the birth of twins with his second wife (Valeria Golino). Meanwhile,...

Paolo Virzi

“Human Capital” is a term used to assign a monetary value to an employee based on their knowledge, habits, personality, and creative and physical qualities. According to an insurance company, our lives have value, or in some cases very little.

Upon speaking with Paolo Virzi, the Italian director of his 12th and newest film Human Capital, he revealed he had calculated his own. Though he felt his value was awfully low given his age and his health, he’d agree that the real value of a human life is determined by the actions and behavior of humans that can only be considered priceless.

Human Capital is a three-part story surrounding a hit-and-run car accident as viewed by three different characters. It’s less Rashomon, more Amores Perros, capturing the dark edges, social commentary and young love embedded deep within the story. Following openings abroad, an American premiere in...

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Valeria Golino at the Tribeca Film Festival for Paolo Virzì's Human Capital (Il Capitale Umano) Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In my conversation with Paolo Virzì on his dynamic exploration of guilt and innocence in Human Capital (Il Capitale Umano), he described the relationship between Carla (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) and her successful husband Giovanni (Fabrizio Gifuni) as "completely desperate and unhappy." Valeria Golino plays pregnant Roberta, married to Dino (Fabrizio Bentivoglio). They have their own kind of disenchantment which Virzì says, "comes really from a true observation of the reality of our middle class."

Valeria Golino as Roberta: "I have the identity and she [Carla] has the good life."

Human Capital is a tale of people trapped in the wheels of money, prestige and unfulfilled longings, disguised as a thriller. Some create the wheels, some spin them and others run in them. Two families are tied together by...

Paolo Virzi on Human Capital: "Money knows no borders."

When I spoke with Paolo Virzì the day before the Tribeca Film Festival Us premiere of his film Human Capital (Il Capitale Umano) we discussed Alexander Payne with a touch of Como, George Clooney's clothes in The Descendants, François Truffaut's La Peau Douce, guilt, his choice of music from Amy Winehouse to Vivaldi and the impact a sweet and sour Frank Sinatra Christmas rendition can have.

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as Carla and Valeria Golino as Roberta give brilliant performances entangled in the web of what is perhaps the most revolting selection of male characters in a film I have seen at least this year. Fabrizio Gifuni and Fabrizio Bentivoglio play two of the men in their lives.

Human Capital director Paolo Virzì with Anne-Katrin Titze on globalization: "We seem like each other more than before." Photo: Will Carrington

On...

Film Movement has picked up Us rights from Bac Films to Paolo Virzi’s Italian drama head of its North American premiere at Tribeca on April 18.

Human Capital charts the fall-out of a pivotal incident on the lives of a well-to-do family.

The film will play at several Us festivals after Tribeca prior to receiving a theatrical release in early 2015 and subsequent VOD and home video roll-out.

Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Valeria Golino and Fabrizio Bentivoglio star.

Exclusive: Bac inks trio of deals on Paolo Virzi drama at market.

Bac Films continues to see strong demand for Paolo Virzi drama Human Capital with deals closing at the Efm with UK (Arrow), Germany (Movienet) and Australia (Hi Gloss Entertainment).

UK and Australian deals closed on Saturday evening. Bac is in discussions with Us buyers.

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Valeria Golino, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Luigi Lo Cascio and Fabrizio Gifuni star in Virzi’s drama, which charts the destinies of two families irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit by a jeep.

Rai has recently raked in more than €5m in Italy on the film which Bac has sold well since Afm.

Arrow’s acquisition director Tom Stewart told Screen: “Arrow Films are delighted to be able to bring such a smartly executed thriller to the UK/Eire shores later in 2014 and to be finally collaborating with the great team at Bac Films.”

Also on Bac...

Exclusive: Bac Films finalises deals on Italian box office hit Human Capital.

Bac Films has finalised a string of deals on Paolo Virzi’s Italian box office hit Human Capital.

Deals have closed with Brazil (Imovision), Canada (Axia), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Benelux (Imagine), Austria (Filmladen), China (Champlis), Turkey (Filmarti), Poland (Against Gravity), Portugal (Film4You), Greece (Strada Film), India (Star Entertainment) and Eastern Europe TV (HBO).

Rai has raked in more than €5m after four weeks on Virzi’s drama in which the destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.

Cast includes Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Valeria Golino, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Luigi Lo Cascio and Fabrizio Gifuni.

Also on Bac’s Efm slate are Rotterdam hit The Quiet Roar, El Ardor, Run, The Strange Color of Your Body’s Tears,which was recently sold to Strand Releasing for the Us, and Fool Circle...

Director Marco Tulio Giordana's Romanzo Di Una Strage has landed 16 nominations for Italy's David di Donatello Awards just two weeks after the film's release.

The stirring movie, which chronicles the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing, picked up Best Film, Best Director and Best Producer nods, while leading man Valerio Mastandrea was nominated among the Best Actor hopefuls.

The film was released in Italy on 30 March to huge national acclaim.

Close behind Giordana's film among the nominees announced on Thursday, were Nanni Moretti's comedy Habemus Papam (15 nods) and Paolo Sorrentino’s This Must Be the Place (14 nods), which features Sean Penn as a fallen rock star.

Also up for Best Film: Cesare deve moriere and Terraferma, while Mastandrea will fight it out with Frenchman Michel Piccoli (Habemus Papam), Elio Germano (Magnifica presenza), Fabrizio Bentivoglio (Scialla!) and Marco Giallini (Posti in piedi in paradiso) for the Best Actor award.

The Best Actress nominees are: Donatella Finocchiaro (Terraferma), Micaela Ramazzoti (Posti in piedi in paradiso), Claudia Gerini (Il mio domani), Valeria Golino (La kryptonite nella borsa) and Chinese actress Zhao Tao (Io sono Li).

Roman Polanski’s Carnage, Melancholia, Le Havre, Oscar winner The Artist and Intouchables are all up for the Best European Union film trophy, while Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, Ides of March, The Tree of Life and Asghar Farhadi’s Best Foreign Film Oscar winner A Separation will compete for the Best Foreign Film prize.

The awards will be announced on 4 May.

Emanuele Gargiulo, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Pianese Nunzio Pianese Nunzio, Fourteen in May (2006) Franklin J. Schaffner-Gore Vidal's The Best Man: Sex Scandals and Politics at the Movies Pt. 3 Writer-director Antonio Capuano's Pianese Nunzio, Fourteen in May focuses not on a political figure, but on a politically active religious one. Set in Naples, Pianese Nunzio chronicles the anti-mafia crusade waged by Don Lorenzo Borrelli (Fabrizio Bentivoglio). Worshiped by the local population, Don Lorenzo is both feared and hated by the Camorra. How can the relentlessly determined priest be stopped? Well, it turns out that Don Lorenzo has fallen in love with thirteen-year-old Nunzio Pianese (Emanuele [...]...

RomaCinemaFest

ROME -- Carlo Mazzacurati's The Right Distance may not be the director's best film, but is stronger and tighter than what he's produced in the last decade. An inconsistent director, Mazzacurati does warm to making movies about marginalized characters without dipping too far into the syrupy posturing that passes as small-town nostalgia in much of today's Italian cinema. Despite overreaching ambitions, word-of-mouth and positive local reviews could help boost figures as it carves out an arthouse niche for itself. Released in Italy by 01 Distribution on October 20, the day after its RomeCinemaFest screening, it modestly grossed under half a million euros in its first week.

This film opens with a spectacularly sunny and sweeping shot of the lush countryside along the banks of the River Po, the best camerawork by an otherwise underused Luca Bigazzi. It then homes in on a bus carrying -- we are told through a young man's voiceover -- Mara (Valentina Lodovini), the pretty elementary school substitute teacher who will change his life forever, to his sleepy town of Concadalbero.

A loner who recently lost his mother, 18 year-old Giovanni (Giovanni Capovilla, making an impressive feature debut) tells us about his first "adult" crush on 30 year-old Mara, along the way providing background information on Concadalbero and its inhabitants.

Giovanni is a budding journalist obsessed with a recent rash of serial dog killings. He lands a job writing anonymously for a local paper, whose stereotypically cantankerous editor (Mazzacurati regular Fabrizio Bentivoglio) tells him to always keep the "right distance" between himself and a story -- not too far so as to lose empathy, not too close so as to become emotionally involved.

The story then shifts to Mara, who in emails to a friend back in Florence exalts the peace of rural living but complains that pickings are slim among the local men. The Only Ones interested are philandering tobacconist Amos (Giuseppe Battiston, who picked up a best acting award at the Fest for his performance) and Hassan (Ahmed Hafiene), a Tunisian mechanic who spies on Mara from the woods by her house, and is in turn spied on by Giovanni.

After catching Hassan in the act, Mara first scorns him but is won over by his gentle shyness and they begin dating. He falls hard, yet she is just passing through, en route to more gratifying work in Brazil.

Just when you think that apart from their personal drama, and the disturbing canine slayings, nothing much happens in Concadalbero -- even the racism endured by many immigrants in Italy seems relatively benign here -- an unexpected brutal murder turns the film into a whodunit in the third, and weakest, act.

Throughout the music by San Francisco acoustic chamber trio Tin Hat is appropriately haunting but Distance ultimately stretches itself thin. Two of its plot threads -- the poignant tale about growing up in Anytown, Italy and the unfulfilled love story -- are almost overshadowed by a facile courtroom drama and investigation that belie the emotional realism of the first two thirds of the film. Which is a shame, because what lies beneath is a compelling story on how human triumphs and tragedies stem, in equal measure, from our inability to maintain the right distance in life.

THE RIGHT DISTANCE

Fandango, RAI Cinema

Credits:

Director: Carlo Mazzacurati

Writers: Carlo Mazzacurati, Doriana Leondeff, Marco Pettenello, Claudio Piersanti

Producer: Domenico Procacci

Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi

Production designer: Giancarlo Basili

Music: Tin Hat

Costume designer: Francesca Sartori

Editor: Paolo Cottignola

Cast:

Giovanni: Giovanni Capovilla

Mara: Valentina Lodovini

Hassan: Ahmed Hafiene

Amos: Giuseppe Battiston

Bencivegna: Fabrizio Bentivoglio

Bolla: Roberto Abbiati

Franco: Natalino Balasso

Guido: Stefano Scandaletti

Running time -- 107 minutes

No MPAA rating...

• Pictured above: Laurence Kardish (MoMa) Antonio Monda (Nyu), Giampoalo Letta (Medusa Films), Salvatore Ferragamo (Ferragamo), and Mario Sesti (Film Critic) MoMA has done it again. Another tribute to Italian Cinema has arrived at the Museum of Modern Art. Following the tribute to Antonio Capuano and the tribute to Gianni Amelio, MoMA has hooked up with Medus Films and Salvatore Ferragamo to celebrate Medusa Film’s 10th Anniversary. As I was sitting in at the press conference for this event, I looked on stage and saw Ettore Scola. I turned to my right and saw Dario Argento. I look behind me and saw Paolo Sorrentino. I looked in front of me and saw Stefano Accorsi. It was the who’s who of Italian Cinema yesterday and today. To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the production and distribution company Medusa, the president of Medusa donated 14 of their most popular titles to

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• Antonio Capuano is one of those filmmakers whose pride and love for his home, for his city, for his Napoli, is overwhelming. His inspiration is the contemporary world that surrounds him and he turns that world into cinematic Art. He strives to tell the stories he wants to tell, they way he wants to tell them. Antonio Capuano is building a strong foundation for a body of work that will surely be remembered. The Department of Film and Mediaâ€.s annual collaboration with N.I.C.E. (New Italian Cinema Events) features emerging directors whose innovative work is deserving of international recognition. Antonio Capuano, this yearâ€.s artist in focus, is a well-known theater and television director, a painter and set designer, and a filmmaker. Capturing the maverick spirit flourishing in Naples today, the director is celebrated for his honest depiction of troubled teenagers and his ability to translate

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NEW YORK -- Continuing to forge local production and acquisitions alliances in Italy this year, Warner Bros. Pictures International said Thursday that it will co-produce and distribute the Italian-language features L'Amore Ritorna (Love Returns) and Tre Metri Sopra Il Cielo (Three Steps Over Heaven) in Italy. The move marks WBPI's third and fourth Italian-language collaborations to date. The studio will partner with BiancaFilm on Love and with Cattleya on Steps. Sergio Rubini will helm and co-star in Love, which goes before cameras Aug. 18. The project is a comedic drama centering on a famous actor forced to reconsider his life and relationships after he is afflicted with a serious illness. Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Margherita Buy and Giovanna Mezzogiorno round out the cast. As an actor, Rubini has a role in Mel Gibson's latest directorial effort, The Passion, and he directed L'Anima gemella (Soul Mate) last year.