Cinema Italiano: Moments of Truth

Les sept capitaines

The neon sign ‘Circus’ illuminates the wide street of Naples’ suburbs: four circus families were abandoned by the institutions, and now they’re awaiting the pandemic will disappear, like a magic show. The circus has stopped, but their lives go on.

World-renowned director Martin Scorsese narrates this journey through his favorites in Italian cinema.

A Mondo documentary focused on the 1960's American lifestyle, consumerism, religion, adversity, and oddity. An outsider's look at a country afflicted by episodes of racism and neo -Nazism. Scenes of a Ghost Town, LSD in NYC, Sunset Strip Los Angeles California, Amish, Klu Klux Klan, African-American Fashion Show, etc.

Homo Cinematographicus is a human species whose unit of measurement and point of reference is the cinema and its derivative, television. Filmed at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, the film offers an unspecified number of statements, talking about memories and a thousand fragments of stories, titles and film scenes, the warp of a gigantic collective Chanson de geste.

The film was shot on the occasion of the Italian Geographical Expedition to Karakorum, conceived in 1926 and held in May-August 1929, under the guidance of Aimone di Savoia, duke of Spoleto. The expedition, twenty years after that of the uncle of Aimone, the Duke of Abruzzi, had as its declared objective the exploration of the Baltoro glacier area and explores the possibility of an attempt at K2. The film ends, however, hastily: the prohibitive weather conditions conditioned the production. A young geologist and geographer, Ardito Desio (head of the italian expedition to K2 in 1954), took part in the expedition.

In September 1932, a party of climbers composed of Bruno Detassis, Gino Corrà and Nello Bianchini completed the first ascent of the Paganella direct route. After having reached the summit, the group is received with honors by the people who celebrate the feat. The movie also shows brief images of the inauguration of the 'Cesare Battisiti' refuge. The film, of great historical importance, was shot in 8mm by Aldo Pedrotti.

A documentary illustrating the mountain sports activities of the university students of the GUF (Gruppi universitari fascisti) in Val Gardena, Madonna di Campiglio and Roccaraso. The film starts with a rock climbing winter ascent to Sasso Lungo (Langkofel). A party of four men make an approach on skis and climb roped from the base of the mountain to the summit. Then the film shows images of different competitions: ski (cross country, slalom, ski jumping), skating (figure, speed) and biathlon. A propaganda film of the Italian fascist regime.

Ferruccio Castronuovo was the only authorized eye, between 1976 and 1986, to film the brilliant Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini (1920-1993) in his personal and creative intimacy, to capture the gears of his great circus, his fantastic lies and his crazy inventions.

To honor the memory of the famous guide Luigi Comici, two climbers climb a sixth grade wall of one of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo. The adventure of the two climbers, forced to stay overnight on the rocks, sometimes takes on dramatic aspects. During the break, one of the two mountaineers tells the other an episode of the First World War, which took place in those mountains. Two Italian Alpines, attacked by two Alpenjäger armed with hand grenades, repulsed them with stones. The film, originally titled 'Il richiamo dell'Alpe splendente' was distributed in 1949 by the Metro Goldwyn Mayer under the title of 'Cavalieri della montagna'.

Zinal

In the Valley of the Moon, follows a young man working as a hitman for the Italian mob in 1977. He takes a job in Petaluma, California, posing as a potential buyer at an open house to confront the realtor who he suspects has a sinister connection to his past.

The film takes place over the course of a single night: the longest night of the year, between December 21 and 22 (the winter solstice), when the sun sets around 4:30 p.m. and rises the next day at 7:30 a.m. A long night in which the stories, destinies, anxieties, and dramas of a provincial town in the south (Potenza) intertwine, even if only briefly. Fifteen hours of uninterrupted darkness in which human destiny becomes exceptional, as the night causes the anchors of the day to be lost and four personal stories suddenly accelerate.

A businessman swims away from time and reality...

A young woman remains prisoner of a cursed forest infested with strange creatures. Olivia Is a short film written and shot in only four days by the Oredilm troupe with the help of the students of Liceo Artistico Federico II of Corato, for the contest 4 days a week. Under the pretext of the Fantasy-horror Fairy tale the work of the director Byron Rink tries to tell the Italian problem of the plague of the olive trees caused by the bacterium Xilella fastidiosa. The Eco-horror becomes then the metaphor to tell monsters much more scaring than the cinematic ones. The short film has already received some honorary mentions and it is winner of the Apulia Web Fest in the category ‘”Best Cinematography” and at Golden Lion Film Festival as “Best Fantastic Short Film”. It has been defined as a ”black and white small, deep, heart breaking poem”

In a small town, every inhabitant lives his daily life without asking too many questions and ignoring the disappearance of some women, until one day someone will put them in front of the possibility that they could be brutal serial murders. From that moment, fear will make its way and every balance will be shaken. To reach the denied truth denied for so long, the protagonists will find themselves losing much more than one can imagine.

Grigorij Efimovic Rasputin (1869-1916) the mystic and self-proclaimed holy man. The saint-demon and the simple peasant. About the plot against Rasputin, hated and feared at the highest levels of government because of his surreal influence on the Tsar.

The tale of an Irish writer who moves to Northern Italy, finding a new sense of tranquility in life after experiencing heartache.

The mountain guide and ski instructor Hans Turri has been hired by the tourist Gregory Milacz to make a route in the mountains. Both are caught by a storm, so while Milacz is waiting at the Concordia Hut, Turri returns to the valley again. On the way back, Milacz has disappeared. Suspicions turn against Turri as a murder suspect for the jealousy he might have for the beautiful Mary Dulac. To get rid of the accusation of murder, Turri sets out to find Milacs. French version of the film ‘Der sohn der weissen berge’, shot the same year by the same team but with different actors.

The mountain guide and ski instructor Hans Turri has been hired by the tourist Gregory Milacz to make a route in the mountains. Both are caught by a storm, so while Milacz is waiting at the Concordia Hut, Turri returns to the valley again. On the way back, Milacz has disappeared. Suspicions turn against Turri as a murder suspect for the jealousy he might have for the beautiful Mary Dulac. To get rid of the accusation of murder, Turri sets out to find Milacs. There is a French version of the film (Les chevaliers de la montagne), shot the same year by the same team but with different actors.