05/08/2013 - Scola out of competition, Segre in the Horizons section, Gaglianone at the Venice Days, and many others. Here is an overview of the Italians taking part in the festival

Gianni Amelio, Emma Dante and Francesco Rosi will be representing the Italian flag at the 70^th Venice Film Festival, taking place from August 28 to September 7. Many more Italians will be present in the other sections of the festival, from Ettore Scola (out of competition) and Andrea Segre (Horizons), to Salvo Cuccia (out of competition – documentaries) and Daniele Gaglianone (Venice Days). Matteo Oleotto’s latest work has been selected for Critics’ Week, among others (for a link to the official selection, click here).

The three Italian films in competition are promising. Gianni Amelio returns to Venice with L'Intrepido [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gianni Amelio
film profile] (photo – the director, former head of the Turin Film Festival, won the last Golden Lion given to an Italian, in 1998 with Così ridevano), starring Antonio Albanese who plays a man going through a crisis and invents a job for himself: that of substitute, which has him replacing people who have to leave their jobs for a while, even if it is just a few hours. Theatre director Emma Dante is behind Via Castellana Bandiera, an all-female dual taking place in two cars facing each other in a narrow Palermo street, with neither willing to back out. Francesco Rosi will be presenting a documentary, Sacro GRA, which is a journey and inquest into the motorway going round Rome, during which the director of Le mani sulla città (Golden Lion in 1963) has collected stories from those who live around the enormous and chaotic road surrounding the capital.

The out of competition section includes Ettore Scola with Che strano chiamarsi Federico [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile], a homage to Fellini which mixes repertoire images with reconstructed episodes in the Cinecittà Rome area. Four Italians will feature in the Horizons section with La prima neve [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Andrea Segre (Lux 2012 Award for Shun Li and the Poet [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrea Segre
interview: Andrea Segre
film profile]), a story set in Trentino on the difficulties of being a father and the relationship between man and nature. Il terzo tempo by Enrico Maria Artale is a film on rugby as a school of life. Medeas [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Andrea Pallaoro, is an American Italian production which explores a particular family reality, with Catalina Sandino Moreno (Maria Full of Grace). Piccola patria [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Alessandro Rossetto is the story of marginalised people in North Eastern Italy.

Daniele Gaglianone will return to Venice Days, two days after Ruggine [+see also:
trailer
interview: Daniele Gaglianone
film profile] with La mia classe, set in the mixed Pigneto neighbourhood in Rome, starring Valerio Mastandrea. The tenth edition of the autonomous section of the festival (read the news story) will open with L’arbitro, a debut film by Paolo Zucca, with Stefano Accorsi (special events will include Venezia Salva by Serena Nono). Critics’ Week will also host Zoran, il mio nipote scemo, Matteo Oleotto’s debut comedy filmed and produced between the Friuli region and Slovenia, with Giuseppe Battiston. The Art of Happiness by Alessandro Rak, an animation film made in Naples (read the news story) will open the out of competition section.

The out of competition section will also include Summer 82 When Zappa Came to Sicily [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Salvo Cuccia (Italy/USA),with music and images from Frank Zappa’s historical concert in Palermo in 1982, Con il fiato sospeso by Costanza Quatriglio (Nastro d'argento 2013 for Terramatta [+see also:
trailer
interview: Costanza Quatriglio
film profile]), the story of Stella divided between punk and chemistry, with Alba Rohrwacher and Michele Riondino, and La voce di Berlinguer by Mario Sesti and Teho Teardo. Among cinema based documentaries will be Bertolucci on Bertolucci by Luca Guadagnino and Walter Fasano, Profezia. L'Africa di Pasolini curated by Gianni Borgna and Lino Micciché, mio padre. Una visione del mondo by Francesco Micciché.

(Translated from Italian)