Cinema Italia: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (Elio Petri, 1970)

By: börek - December 12th, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 17 Dcember 2023, Cinema Italia: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion [INDAGINE SU UN CITTADINO AL DI SOPRA DI OGNI SOSPETTO] (19709) * Directed by Elio Petri * 115min * 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!

This unique thriller tells the story of a Roman police inspector known as “Il Dottore” (The Doctor, starring Gian Maria Volonté at his best) who has to investigate a crime in which he is involved. The moves of the inspector transform the thriller into a sharp critique of the Italian government in the 1960s and, more in general, on the oxymoronic relation between the state power and its abuse by people who should carry public responsibility over their shoulders. The system is inescapable, but, at the same time, we cannot avoid to have one — or not? The chaos produced by The Doctor’s behaviour is an invitation to reflect on our current world situation and our place in it. What kind of society do we want to live in? In the first film of an ideal trilogy on the concept of nevrosis, Elio Petri, the director of this feature film, decides to start from Power. The film had a great success internationally at its time and it became a classic, as it has something to say even after over half a century from its release.

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: The Conformist (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)

By: börek - November 10th, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 26 November 2023, THE CONFORMIST [IL CONFORMISTA] (1970) * Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci * 108min * 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!

Marcello Clerici (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is a member of the secret police in Mussolini’s Fascist Italy. He and his new bride, Giulia (Stefania Sandrelli), travel to Paris for their honeymoon, where Marcello also plans to assassinate his former college professor Luca Quadri (Enzo Tarascio), an outspoken anti-Fascist living in exile. But when Marcello meets the professor’s young wife, Anna (Dominique Sanda), both his romantic and his political loyalties are tested.

In his perhaps most appreciated film, Bertolucci depicts the psychology of Fascism through a series of hypnotic shots using lush colors, striking contrasts, and stylized lighting. A surrealistic environment constellated by political and moral symbolism helps us recall a brutal, but still sought-after, ideology.

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: Blown to the heart (Gianni Amelio, 1982)

By: börek - October 23rd, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 29 October 2023, BLOWN TO THE HEART [COLPIRE AL CUORE] (1982) * Directed by Gianni Amelio * 105min * 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!

Dario is a university professor who wants to live a quiet life, dealing with research and being a good husband. What is happening in Italy does not concern him. His son, Emilio, does not confront with him, so he tries to connect with him at the university, listening to his father reading poetry in French. He becomes intrigued by politics, thanks to a friend of his father’s, Giulia. Then, a terrorist act attributed to the Red Brigades changes the perception by Emilio forever.

Considered a masterpiece in the depicting the psychology of its characters, Gianni Amelio’s Colpire al Cuore shows a turbolent moment of the Italian recent history (early 80s) through the lenses of the conflict father-son. Notwithstanding the political background, Amelio puts intimacy and emotional transformations at the heart of his poetic view of cinema.

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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Voku Benefit for Family Reunification

By: börek - October 1st, 2023  Filed under: Benefiet, Volkseten/Voku

Monday 2 October 2023, Voku Benefit for Family Reunification. Food served from 7pm, no reservation.

Ciao! Two friends that some of you may know need some assistance! Gift and her husband John have had their three children taken from them by the Italian social services. There is an ongoing process to reunite the family who have been separated for almost 1year. A requirement of the court is that both parents have to recuperate their residence permit, and for this they need to have their Nigerian Passport. The waiting time for the next appointment at the Nigerian embassy is 2028 but the children’s court want the documents for the next hearing which is at the end of September this year. For this reason to get the passport as quickly as possible 2000€ is to be paid and for this reason we ask for help.

Volkseten Vegazulu is a people’s kitchens existing since the very beginning of Joe’s Garage, June 2005. Your donations are welcome. Food is vegan, no reservation. All benefits go to social & political struggles. Joe’s Garage is a space run by volunteers. Without a collective effort, without your active participation, we’re remaining closed. Get in touch in you feel like giving a hand. We’re always looking for cooks. Any help is welcome in the kitchen. Experience not required. If you want to know which days are still available, mail us.

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Cinema Italia: Bianca (Nanni Moretti, 1984)

By: börek - September 22nd, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 24 september 2023, Cinema Italia: BIANCA (1984) * Directed by Nanni Moretti * 96 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!

Nanni Moretti, director and main actor in many of his movies, in Bianca explores the genre of crime. But it is a Moretti’s film, so it’s not a real crime film, but a film with his alter ego Michele Apicella — here at its debut — travels from romantic comedy to political, engaged film, in a surrealist humorous way, with a touch of grotesque here and there.

Most of the plot happens inside a school, where portraits of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis are juxtaposed to Dino Zoff, the Italian national hero of football, as well as Descartes, Pythagoras, and Kant.

If you have never seen a Nanni Moretti’s movie, Bianca is for you. If you have seen his classics like Caro Diario, you will understand with Bianca when everything started. If you watched Il sol dell’avvenire and you did not understand anything, come and watch Bianca as well.

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: The Mafia Kills Only in Summer (Pierfrancesco Diliberto, 2013)

By: börek - July 8th, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 9 july 2023, THE MAFIA KILLS ONLY IN SUMMER [LA MAFIA UCCIDE SOLO D’ESTATE] * Directed Pierfrancesco Diliberto (Pif) * 90 min * In Italian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:30, film starts at 21:00. After the film, please engage and share comments, ideas, and inspiration with the host(s) of the evening!

Mafia! You may have seen it in “The Godfather”, in “Goodfellas”, in “The Sopranos”, and you may think that you have seen it all, that you know what it looks like. But if you did, you would be wrong.

The real Mafia, in this case Sicilian “Cosa Nostra”, in this movie is told through the eyes of two children who turn young adults in the Palermo of the 1980s. Together they will experience the mafia phenomenon as it was lived in real lives in Sicily: an intricate relationship of things said and not said, of politics and common people, of journalists investigating, of absences at funerals, of the tireless work of judges and their ultimate sacrifice.

The key take away of this story on the Mafia war against the Italian State is not how strong crime is, but how noble the fight against it is, and how normal and extraordinary were the people who laid down their lives to defeat this cancer that has now spread, silently, all over Europe. In the end, you will want to learn and remember the names of the heroes of these real stories, from Rocco Chinnici to Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.

A story that will make you laugh, will make you cry, will make you see a world of sweetness, of love, and of grief transpiring from the eyes of the child who tells it. Be careful, though: this movie will be shown in July – and Mafia only kills in Summer.

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: Perfect Strangers (Paolo Genovese, 2016)

By: börek - June 3rd, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 4 june 2023, Perfect Strangers [Perfetti sconosciuti] * Directed by Paolo Genovese * 96 min * In Italian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:30, film starts at 21:00. After the film, please engage and share comments, ideas, and inspiration with the host(s) of the evening!
Before the film * Selection of trailers of the 24 remakes made all over the world

We all have our secrets. The problem is, we keep them inside our smartphones. What happens if, during a dinner among friends, we let everybody listen to calls, read our messages, and so on?

Perfect Strangers is the film that has more remakes than any other in the entire history of cinema: from Spain (Perfectos desconocidos) to Greece (Τέλειοι ξένοι), from China, India until, recently, to Iceland (Villibráð). Why? Because it tells a truly universal story of our times: how our most intimate aspects of our lives changed forever because of the pervasiveness of smartphones in all aspects of our lives, including Romantic relationships, marriages (they may coincide or not), and — of course — sexual desires.

Beware: if you are in a happy, stable, relationship, you may want NOT to watch this!

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: The Country Boy (Franco Castellano and Giuseppe Moccia, 1984)

By: börek - May 3rd, 2023  Filed under: Filmavond

Sunday 7 may 2023, THE COUNTRY BOY [IL RAGAZZO DI CAMPAGNA] * Directed by Franco Castellano and Giuseppe Moccia * 92 min * In Italian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30. After the film, please engage and share comments, ideas, and inspiration with the host(s) of the evening!
BEFORE THE FILM * Video * Punx Creatività e Rabbia Punk Milano 1984 (by Elisabetta “Betty 23” Altomare)

According to the UN, more than half of the population of the world is urbanized. This film tells the story of a young man from a rural area coming to Milan in the 1980s, where the local government was suffocating alternatives and protests (as seen in the video before the film). Edonism, consumerism started to become mainstream, and eventually it was that version of Milan which became the cradle of berlusconism, and the deep transformation of Italy, for the worse.
The Cradle Boy is a gentle, poetic film, with a touch of humour, and a couple of surrealist moments. It’s an absolute cult film in Italy, starring the comedian Renato Pozzetto in his best role 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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