19/03/2015 - There are six new Italian releases this week, including the latest film by Cristina Comencini and Sworn Virgin, while Ozon’s The New Girlfriend is one of the new European arrivals

Francesco Mandelli and Fabrizio Biggio in La solita commedia – Inferno

Dante Alighieri has been sent back up to Earth to classify all the new sins because down there, in Hell, they really don’t know where to put the hackers and the stalkers. In their new film, La solita commedia – Inferno [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (lit. “The Usual Comedy – Hell”, which they wrote, starred in and directed), Fabrizio Biggio and Francesco Mandelli start from this premise, which is more than enough to whet one’s appetite, and breathe life into a showcase of horrors of the modern age, in which the new circles are known as “bar at eight in the morning” and “rush-hour traffic”, and the new sinners are “tragedy worshippers”, “techno-dependents” and “sowers of ugliness”. It is a successful comedy in sketch form, in which the duo from I soliti idioti [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (in their third movie outing) play around 20 characters each – with the customary liberal and varied use of make-up, wigs and false teeth – and they are backed up by a cast of equally quick-changing supporting actors, who include Gianmarco Tognazzi and Tea Falco. “After we portrayed the mannerisms, the shortcomings and the neuroses of Italian people, we wanted to go even further and consider these mannerisms and neuroses as out-and-out deadly sins,” explain the creators of the film, for which the subtitle could just as well have been The Great Ugliness, because “the biggest sin nowadays is the ugliness that is taking over, which is less costly and it therefore even allows you to make a profit”. Produced by Wildside, La solita commedia – Inferno comes out today in 380 theatres courtesy of Warner.

Meanwhile, 01 Distribution is releasing the new film by Cristina Comencini, Latin Lover [+see also:
trailer
making of
interview: Cristina Comencini
film profile] (read the interview), in 330 cinemas. It boasts an exceptional cast of actresses, including the late Virna Lisi as well as Marisa Paredes, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Candela Peña, who gather around the ghost of a great actor from the past (played by Francesco Scianna), a husband, a father and a man with a thousand secrets. Another dad is hitting screens this Thursday (Father’s Day in Italy) in My First Time [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by and starring comedian Riccardo Rossi (read the article), who makes his directorial debut with this movie (Universal across 177 screens). There is yet more comedy in the guise of Fino a qui tutto bene [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Roan Johnson, which won the BNL Audience Award at the most recent Rome Film Festival (read the article) and is being released in 100 theatres via Microcinema; this week’s Italian releases are rounded off by Sworn Virgin [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Laura Bispuri
film profile] by Laura Bispuri (in competition at the most recent Berlinale – read the review), arriving in 31 cinemas courtesy of Istituto Luce Cinecittà, and N-Capace, by and starring Eleonora Danco (which bagged two Special Mentions at the most recent Torino Film Festival – read the review), distributed by Bibi Film.

Among the new European titles seeing the light of day in Italy this week are The New Girlfriend [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: François Ozon
film profile] by François Ozon, starring the beautiful Anaïs Demoustier and Romain Duris as a cross-dresser (distributed by Officine UBU across 50 screens), and Bekas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Karzan Kader
film profile] by Karzan Kader (Sweden, Finland, Iraq), which is reaching theatres thanks to Minerva Pictures. Lastly, among the US releases, we have The Divergent Series: Insurgent (Eagle in 350 theatres) and The Drop (Fox in 110 cinemas), a thriller starring James Gandolfini, Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace.

(Translated from Italian)