4 - 9 March - Ciné Lumière - South Kensington London
Women directors claim the spotlight in this 10th annual Italian film festival, not least Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter (1974) screened as the ‘Sunday Classics Matinee’. In Cavani's contentious feature, Dirk Bogarde, a former SS officer, reignites a role-reversal relationship with a concentration camp survivor (Charlotte Rampling) when she arrives at his hotel in Vienna in 1957 where he works as a porter.
THE NIGHT PORTER (Il portiere di notte) 118 mins
Sunday 8th March 2.00 pm/Tuesday 10th March 6.00pm
REVIEWING SOON!
Capital Reviewer selects three films for review: IF ONLY (Magari) which opens the festival, directed by Ginevra Elkann, with the versatile Riccardo Scamarcio; SIMPLE WOMEN directed by Chiara Malta as a response to Hal Hartley's Indie 1992 classic Simple Men, starring the Romanian actress Elina Löwensohn and BANGLA, an Italian-born Bangladeshi, coming of age movie directed by and featuring Phaim Bhuiyan.
All three features are followed by Q&A's with the directors. However, only Adrian Wootton, the programmer, can answer why The Night Porter is in the line-up. It might have something to do with notoriety and the beguiling cast. Or it might have something to do with Cavani belonging to the same peer group as Bernardo Bertolucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini. Nothing is mentioned about co-inciding with International Women's Day, but whatever the answer, Made in Italy 2020 is certainly worth checking out.
https://vimeo.com/393498511/b8f662ff0b
IF ONLY (Magari) 100 mins Intro and Q&A with Ginevra Elkann (director)
Wednesday 4th March 8.30 pm
SIMPLE WOMEN 85 mins Intro and Q&A with Chiara Malta (director)
Monday 9th March 6.30 pm
BANGLA 84 mins Intro and Q&A with Phaim Bhuiyan
Monday 9th March 8.50 pm
Italian Cultural Institute in London www.icilondon.esteri.it
Ciné Lumière: www.institutfrancais.org.uk/cinema-italy
@CinemaMadeinIt