Cinema Italia: Not Of This World (Giuseppe Piccioni, 1999)

By: börek - February 5th, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 5th February 2023, Cinema Italia: Fuori dal mondo [Not Of This World] (1999) * Directed by Giuseppe Piccioni * 100 min * In Italian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30. After the film, please engage in sharing comments, ideas, and inspiration with the host(s) of the evening.

What does it mean to become a nun in Italy by the end of the 20th century? Caterina has taken temporary vows and is walking in a park. One day she meets a man who gives her an abandoned baby. This encounter will change her life forever. Giuseppe Piccioni introduces us to a secret world of the Roman Catholic Church with a gentle touch and a sharp eye. We are invited to think about the relationship between individual choices and the society we decide to live in.
Far from being only an unusual portrait of Italy — with a soundtrack by Ludovico Einaudi –, this feature film has a universal message about the reasons why we are in this world and what our purpose is in life. Not Of This World is a forgotten jewel of Italian cinema, almost neglected in Italy because of the topic, which is, in many ways, still taboo in the country.
Winner of 5 David di Donatello, including best actress to Margherita Buy, in one of her more complex roles ever.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Cinema Italia: Caos calmo (Alessandro Grimaldi, 2008)

By: börek - December 1st, 2022  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 3rd December 2022, Cinema Italia: Caos calmo [Quiet Chaos]. Directed by Alessandro Grimaldi, 2008 * 104 min * In Italian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30. After the film, please engage in sharing comments, ideas, and inspiration with the host(s) of the evening!

What may happen to a grown-up man, when a tragedy strikes him, unexpectedly and without any reason? In the case of the protagonist of this film, Pietro Paladini, interpreted by Nanni Moretti, he enters a state of ‘quiet chaos’, a kind of suspension that makes him retreat from social contact. Unlike what others would have done, Pietro Paladini does not fight back against this quiet chaos but embraces it. Instead of talking, he listens. And waits. This film tells the life journey of Pietro and his encounters with many people, the most diverse, from his brother to a foreigner, Steiner, interpreted by Roman Polański. It is a story of death and rebirth. It is a hymn to the possibility of changing the world for the better, even when the world seems to work against you.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Cinema Italia: Sostiene Pereira (Roberto Faenza, 1995)

By: börek - November 2nd, 2022  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 27 November 2022, Cinema Italia: Sostiene Pereira (Roberto Faenza, 1995)* 104 min * In Italian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30. After the film, please engage in sharing comments, ideas, and inspiration with the host(s) of the evening!

Based on the homonymous novel by Antonio Tabucchi, this Italian drama is set in Lisbon, in the days when Salazar’s dictatorship was getting into power, in 1932. Pereira is the editor of the cultural pages of a supposedly independent paper. He is a translator into Portuguese of contemporary French literature and is obsessed with the idea of death and the biographies of writers, poets, and novelists. An unexpected event brings him out of his comfort zone, fronting his past, present and future.

Pereira is interpreted by Marcello Mastroianni, who will pass away a few months after the publication of this film. He was awarded the David di Donatello as Best Actor for this role. It also is an occasion to see an icon of Italian beauty and passion in his last season of life, in a film that goes to the essence of cinematography and the meaning of life.

Sostiene Pereira is a film that talks about the passage from democracy to fascism, which is an actual theme in many countries across Europe nowadays. Interestingly, the title was translated According to Pereira in English, Pereira prétend in French, Afirma Pereira in Portugal and Páginas da revolução in Brazil.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Cinema Italia: Selfie (Agostino Ferrente, 2019)

By: börek - October 20th, 2022  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 30 October 2022, Cinema Italia: Selfie (Agostino Ferrente, 2019), 78 minutes. In Neapolitan and Italian with English subtitles. Doors open at 20:00, Film starts at 20:30.

This documentary has been shot by Neapolitan teenagers living in Traiano, a neighbourhood where Camorra, the local Mafia, is an everyday presence. And yet their stories tell not only about violence but also friendship, hope, and intimate relations. The director gave a phone to them, letting them choose the way to tell their lives. A film made possible by smartphones only, where subjectivity and objectivity are inextricably intertwined in a unique mix, that opens a window to an angle of the world otherwise impossible to see for outsiders.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Cinema Italia: Marrakech Express (Gabriele Salvatores, 1989)

By: börek - August 31st, 2022  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 18 September 2022, Cinema Italia: Marrakech Express (Gabriele Salvatores, 1989), 104 minutes. In Italian with English subtitles. Doors open at 20:00, Film starts at 20:30.

Marrakech Express (1989) is the first film by Gabriele Salvatores on the topic of escaping, which is precisely the opposite of escapism. In the latter everything still and we allow ourselves a moment to forget how pointless is our way of life enjoying otherworldly stories. On the contrary, if we decide to escape we break the rules and get into the adventure of life, far from our comfort zone, without knowing in advance what we are doing, just living life, moment by moment. Marrakech Express is a story not only of escaping but also of life-long friendships, love, and the paradox of exoticism, the more you know it, the more it becomes familiar, losing its charm of distance. Salvatores here is somehow still an unripe fruit but, in his immaturity, he made a film that is forever green.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Cinema Italia: Ovosodo (Paolo Virzì, 1997)

By: börek - August 17th, 2022  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 28 August 2022, Cinema: Ovosodo / Hardboiled egg (Paolo Virzì, 1997), 96 minutes. In Italian with English subtitles. Doors open at 20:30, Film starts at 21:00.

Ovosodo is a coming-of-age film set in Livorno, an industrial city in Tuscany. We follow the life of Piero from childhood to adulthood, in his struggle to get out of the limitations his family life history poses. The protagonist is a working-class member, and slowly but steadily, through his endless search for love, he becomes aware of what this means. The film is also a sharp critique of left-winged Italians who come from other social classes. Moreover, it depicts Italy just before the computer’s revolution with the World Wide Web deeply transforms society, with its omnipresent mobile phones. That was a society where people met face-to-face, without the mediation of technology. A society where contacts were more real and full of solidarity, as in the 1950s, but soon to disappear.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Cinema Italia: Pane e tulipani (Silvio Soldini, 2000)

By: börek - August 17th, 2022  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 21 August 2022, Cinema: Bread and Tulips / Pane e tulipani (Silvio Soldini, 2000), 114 minutes. In Italian with English subtitles. Doors open at 20:30, Film starts at 21:00.

Bread and Tulips is first and foremost an act of love towards Venice. The protagonist is a woman, interpreted by Licia Maglietta, who wants to escape a meaningless housewife life. She meets a mysterious man, interpreted by Bruno Ganz, who is exceptionally acting in Italian. Aside from the comedy and the beauty of Venice, also shot in angles that you do not expect, this film presents a multi-layered message of social critique of an Italy of fin de siècle (meaning 1990s), stuck between a glorified past and the desire to live life here and now, without compromises.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net

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Movie Night: The Battle of Algiers

By: börek - February 1st, 2013  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday February 24th 2013, Movie night: The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, Italy, Algeria, 1966, 121′). English subtitles. Door open at 20pm, film begins at 21:00.

After a humiliating retreat from Indo-Chino, France has no intention of releasing its grip on Algeria. After some civil unrest, the French authorities clamp down on the native Arab population. This leads to the creation of the FLN, the Algerian National Liberation Front, who decide that terrorist activity is the only way to achieve independence. Such acts of violence is countered by an even more violent response from the French. The situation soon escalates to a bloody war between the French government and the Algerian people. […Lees verder]

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