In fact, in Stories of Love, Claudia enjoys a liaison with a former female student (Valentina Bellé, who also stars in A Private Affair, discussed below), an affair that represents her newfound self-acceptance. It is not an affair Comencini expects her audience to understand, as evinced by the title, but Claudia’s self-centered and somewhat masochistic protagonist characterizes it as “Proustian.” The filmmaker’s masterful, highbrow comedies often feature complicated, intractable women who never find their place in the world through their heterosexual relationships. Claudia (Lucia Mascino) is a literature professor and obsessive-compulsive who, at 50-something, falls for Flavio (Thomas Trabacchi), a colleague whose opinions she despises. With their rather studied cinema-vérité style, the camera always in close-up or extreme close-up, Luzi and Bellino call too much attention to their mise en scène, but Crater is nevertheless a brilliant portrait of a psychologically unstable parent’s exploitation of his daughter.Īn obsessive personality of another sort is the subject of veteran writer-director Francesca Comencini’s Stories of Love That Cannot Belong to This World, an adaptation of her novel.
At one point, Rosario ruminates that the lyrics seem to tell his story whether it is that of his own childhood or his parenting is not clear, nor is whether the lyricist drew his inspiration from the Caroccia family. The irony at the center of the film is that Sharon’s breakout song is about a father who abandons his children. Rosario Caroccia’s unnatural obsession with his talented adolescent daughter Sharon leads her to a life-altering decision. Silvia Luzi and Luca Bellino’s disturbing documentary Crater is a portrait of these personalities. This wonderful bio-doc is the Neapolitan filmmaker’s follow-up to other excellent documentaries, The War of the Volcanoes (2012), about the women at the center of Roberto Rossellini’s life, Anna Magnani and Ingrid Bergman, and Naples ’44 (2017), a valentine to that city, based on a British soldier’s wartime memoir.Īs cineastes know from Luchino Visconti’s Bellissima (1953), behind every diva is an ambitious parent-although unlike Anna Magnani in that film, real-life stage parents often resemble men like Lindsay Lohan’s father, who destroyed a fledgling star. Patierno’s tribute is based on the 95-year-old actress’ recently published memoir, Quanti sono i Domani Passati (“The Many Days that Have Gone By”).ĭiva! is comprised of film clips, archival photographs and eight outstanding performances by popular Italian actresses, such as Anita Caprioli ( Corpo Celeste, 2010), Isabella Ferrari ( The Great Beauty, 2013), and Czech actress Barbora Bobulova, who portray Cortese at different periods of her life. Cortese appeared in Hollywood movies as well, where she met her American husband, Richard Basehart. Fellini fans will recall her role as one of Giuiletta’s fashionable friends in Juliet of the Spirits (1965) also memorable is an early star turn in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Le Amiche ( The Friends, 1955). It is about Valentina Cortese (1932-), the talented screen and stage actress best remembered here for her Oscar-nominated performance in François Truffaut’s Day for Night. The festival is a reminder of Italy’s unique contributions to the cinema, including Italian Neo-Realism and commedia all’Italiana, but also its reputation for fine screen acting-and an undying affection for prima donnas.ĭiva!, a documentary by Francesco Patierno, revels in that Italian preoccupation. Organized by The Film Society of Lincoln Center and Istituto Luce Cinecittà, “Open Roads” familiarizes audiences with the longstanding and contemporary concerns of Italians, among them the problem of organized crime, and the role of the Roman Catholic Church in Italian society. Most screenings are followed by question-and-answer sessions with the filmmakers and members of the cast. Reflecting the zeitgeist, “Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2018" offers several female-centered stories this year, although of the 17 feature-length narrative films and documentaries at the festival, only two are directed by women.
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