The Girl By The Lake Trailer

NICE Films

The NICE, New Italian Cinema Events, film festival is going to be in Amsterdam April 2nd-15th and in Moscow and St. Petersburg as well, April 22nd-May 2nd. The NICE film festival was started in 1991 and was intended to promote current Italian films in different parts of the world. This years films include “Black Sea”, “The Girl By The Lake”, and “Lessons In Chocolate”. Each year the committee for the NICE festival picks 7 of the best films produced for that year and showcases them in very popular cities around the world. The NICE films that are presented in the USA are eligible to win the Premio Città di Firenze (City of Florence Award). The prestige of the NICE film festival has grown over the years partly because of the established relationships with well known producers and distributors such as Miramax, Touchstone, and MGM. The festival was already featured in New York and San Francisco in the fall of 2008.

Short Clip of 2006 David di Donatello Awards

The David di Donatello Awards

The David Di Donatello awards ceremony will be held on Friday, May 8th, in Italy. The awards ceremony is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Awards here in the United States and it is presented by La Accedemia del Cinema Italiano (The Italian Cinematic Academy). This years nominees include “Il Divo”, the story of a veteran politician and “Gommorah”, a film that revolves around the mafia in Naples. “Il Divo” has 16 nominations and “Gommorah” has a total of 11 nominations. The event will be televised in Italy.

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The Recent Death of Salvatore Samperi

(Picture borrowed from: http://www.italica.rai.it/cinema/biografie/samperi/1.jpg)

Salvatore Samperi, an Italian film director, died on March 4th, 2009 at the age of 64. He was best known for directing erotic comedies which tested the ethical beliefs of Italy’s middle class population. He died at his house situated approximately 30 miles north of Rome, on Lake Bracciano. His brother declined to give the reason for Samperi’s death. He left behind a wife and son.

Salvatore Samperi directed 24 films including “Malizia” (Malice), “La Bonne” (The Corruption), and “Scandalo” (Scandal). In addition to directing many films he also wrote, produced and acted as well. Most people consider Samperi’s biggest achievement to be the release of “Malizia” in 1973. The film turned the actress, Laura Antonelli, into a star and a sexual icon. Salvatore Samperi struggled with his career immediately after “Malizia”, so he began working on television shows when he got older, until his death.

The Release of Gommorah

The Italian Film Commission’s release of Gommorah, a Martin Scorsese presentation, is said to be the next big mafia film release. The film has won the grand prize at Cannes Film Festival and other European awards. It was filmed in Naples, Scampia, and Venice, directed by Matteo Garrone. In a quote taken from www.filminginitaly.com, Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly) quoted, "No matter how many Mafia movies you've seen, no matter how wise you think you are about wiseguy culture, you've never seen anything like GOMORRAH. An electrifying dramatization of Roberto Saviano's jolting book. This is one of the very best movies I've seen in 2008, and it'll be a knockout for lucky viewers all over again in 2009." The author of the book that inspired the film, Roberto Saviano, has been forced to live under police protection since the publication of the book because of its contents.

La Presa Di Roma

A Brief History

The history of Italian movies almost goes as far back as film capturing motion itself. The film industry in Italy only consisted of three main organizations in the beginning. One of the first films, shot in 1905, was a historical piece titled “La presa di Roma” (The Capture of Rome).
Soon after film making had begun in Italy a board was formed to supervise and dictate popular culture in Italy. This board put forth the idea that structures needed to be created for Italian cinema which Mussolini approved of. The end result of this idea was a studio situated in southeast Rome that was named Cinecittà. The purpose of this studio was to provide all the things needed in the movie industry which ranged from theaters, equipment, and a cinematography school.
In the 1980s Cinecittà neared bankruptcy so it was privatized by the government of Italy. Like the United States Italian cinema decided to give new young directors a chance, in the 1990s, to see if they could revive the industry, which they did.