15 Dec 1993 Director: Paul Schrader Italy, UK 1990 104 min Paul Schrader’s film of Ian McEwan’s novel adapted by Harold Pinter is a strange and unsettling thriller set in Venice where Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson are second honeymooning. They encounter the aristocratic Robert who is the catalyst for what remains of the couple’s… Continue reading The Comfort Of Strangers
Tag: Italy
La Reigne Margot (Queen Margaret)
20 Oct 1999 Director: Patrice Chéreau France, Germany, Italy 1994 162 min Marguerite is the proud and beautiful sister of the Catholic King of France. It is August 1572. The nation is being torn apart by religious hatred and Margot is forced to marry the Protestant Duke of Navarre in an effort to reconcile her… Continue reading La Reigne Margot (Queen Margaret)
Life Is Beautiful (La Vita é Bella)
5 Jan 2000 Director: Roberto Benigni Italy 1987 114 min Set during the horror of the second World War our film begins in 1939. Guido (Benigni) a childlike dreamer, comes to a Tuscany town looking to open a bookstore. There he falls in love with the beautiful Dora whom he charms by constantly popping up… Continue reading Life Is Beautiful (La Vita é Bella)
The Decameron
30 October 2002 Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini Italy 1971 111 min This is the first of Pasolini’s ‘Trilogy of Life’ films, the others being The Canterbury Tales (1971) and The Arabian Nights (1974). He wrote and directed this richly textured epic based on eight sexually charged tales from the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio. Pasolini plays… Continue reading The Decameron
The Red Violin – Le Violon Rouge
20 Nov 2002 Director: Frangois Girard Canada, Italy, UK 1998 140 min In Montreal, a famous Nicolo Bussotti violin, known as ‘the Red Violin’, is up for auction. A collector tries to establish its identity and secrets. As he does, we follow the story of the violin in flashback, starting its journey with its creation… Continue reading The Red Violin – Le Violon Rouge
Io Capitano
6 Nov 2024 Director: Matteo Garrone Italy, Belgium, France 2023 121 min From Matteo Garrone comes this searing tale of two young boys’ migration from Africa to Europe. Io Capitano is an odyssey traversing city, desert and ocean from West Africa to the Mediterranean Sea. Two Senegalese teenagers, Seydou and Moussa, leave Dakar for Italy.… Continue reading Io Capitano
Kidnapped
4 Dec 2024 Director: Marco Bellochio Italy 2023 125 min Veteran director Bellochio brings to life an almost unbelievable true story from a shocking and turbulent period in Italian history. In 1858, six-year-old Jewish boy, Edgardo Mortara, lived with his family in Bologna. Claiming that the boy was baptised by the family’s maid as a… Continue reading Kidnapped
Redoubtable
20 Feb 2019 Director: Michael Hazanavicius Italy, France, Myanmar 2017 108 min Adapted from the autobiographical novel Un An Après by actor Anne Wiazemsky, Redoubtable portrays her tumultuous relationship with Godard, from its start on a film set to its eventual unravelling in the midst of his spectacular philosophical and artistic meltdown during the political… Continue reading Redoubtable
La Strada
29 Nov 2017 Director: Federico Fellini Italy 1954 108 min Winner of the first Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1957, Federico Fellini’s heartbreaking tale of broken outsiders has lost none of its power to move audiences. Giulietta Masina plays Gelsomina, a naïve young woman sold, by her poverty-stricken and desperate mother, to boorish… Continue reading La Strada
The Past
21 Feb 2018 Director: Asghar Farhadi Iran, France, Italy 2013 130 min In this intricate drama, Marie attempts to resolve difficulties with her estranged husband. Following a four year separation, Ahmad returns to Paris from Tehran, upon his French wife’s request, in order to finalise their divorce procedure. During his brief stay, Ahmad discovers the… Continue reading The Past