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The “Trains of Happiness,” or Treni della Felicità, emerged as a moving symbol of postwar perseverance in Italy. The Italian Communist Party launched this effort in the late 1940s to rescue children from the devastation of a war-torn society.

Over 70,000 children from impoverished Southern Italy were given the chance for a better life in the more opulent North due to the program’s humanitarian and practical goals. It’s a survival story with Dickensian overtones, where the promise of warmth, food, and education is called like a siren song. However, irony abounds; many families were originally dubious, believing their children might be pawns in a political game or worse.

The film depicts a civilization dealing with the memories of war against the backdrop of Naples in 1946. Poverty and disease are pervasive, casting long shadows over the lives of its residents. The significance of this milieu cannot be emphasized; it captures...

The Children’s Train is a one-of-a-kind story set in Italy post the Second World War. The entirety of Europe was in shambles, and Italy was one of the many countries that was facing rampant poverty as there was a lack of jobs and food in several parts of the country. Southern Italy was massively hit by these difficulties, and it’s this scenario The Children’s Train is based on. The children and their mothers play a major role in the film. These are the characters that make the film interesting and emotional at the same time.

Spoilers Ahead

Amerigo

Christian Cervone, the child actor, portrays the role of an eight-year-old Amerigo, who was born in Naples to Antoinette. From childhood he and his mother have had a complicated relationship. He is aware his father is in America seeking fortune while Amerigo and his mother are barely scraping by because of...

“The Children’s Train” is an Italian movie directed by Cristina Comencini. With Barbara Ronchi and Serena Rossi.

“The Children’s Train,” a film set in post-World War II Italy, has made its way to Netflix. The story unfolds across two regions of Italy: a small town near Modena in the north and Naples in the south, highlighting the stark contrasts between these areas in the aftermath of the conflict.

The narrative centers on Amerigo, a young boy from Naples who is sent north to live with a communist family for a period. During his stay, Amerigo experiences a joyful time with the local community and forms a bond with his foster mother, Denna. However, his eventual return to Naples forces him to confront the harsh realities of his hometown and his relationship with his birth mother, Antonietta.

Based on Viola Ardone’s novel, this Netflix offering presents a simple yet touching...

Set in 1940s Italy, “The Children’s Train” (Original title: Il treno dei bambini) is a tragic tearjerker now streaming on Netflix. Co-written by director Cristina Comencini, the film is based on Viola Ardone’s eponymous book. The story follows seven-year-old Amerigo, a boy from a struggling family in war-torn Naples, navigating life amidst poverty and conflict. Subsequently, his single mother makes a difficult decision to send him to the greener pastures in the North to protect his life. Christian Cervone stars as the young kid while Serena Rossi plays his mother. Barbara Ronchi plays the woman whose family adopts him.

Spoilers Ahead

The Children’s Train Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:

Set in the 1940s, Cristina Comencini’s “The Children’s Train” (Il treno dei bambini) follows a young boy from Naples being sent to the Northern part of the country to lead a better life, growing up to be an accomplished musician.

Netflix presented its first international showcase yesterday with a look at what is coming down down the pike. Below is a preview of what’s on deck for feature films. Of note, was the title announcement and treatment of the Japanese movie Bullet Train Explosion. Also made a official was Troll 2, the sequel to the streamer’s most watched non-English language film from Norway. Roar Uthaug returns to the director’s chair.

Also of note, the streamer dated the Mexican movie Los Dos Hemisferios de Lucca from Marina Chenillo for Jan. 31 next year.

Not made official by the streamer was a part two to their widely watched shark movie of 102.3M viewers, Under Paris, from director Xavier Gens and starring Oscar nominated The Artist actress, Bérénice Bejo.

Related: Shah Rukh Khan & Netflix Ready Series Set In Bollywood Film Industry

Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria announced the slate at...

"He forgot everything up North, even his mom." Netflix has unveiled the official trailer for The Children's Train, a story set in Italy right after World War II about kids being sent to the north of the country. Based on Viola Ardone's bestselling novel "Il Treno dei Bambini" being turned into a grand feature film. Set in the the cities of Naples and Modena just after WWII, The Children's Train follows the life of Amerigo Speranza, a seven-year-old boy who sets off on an extraordinary journey. It explore themes such as poverty, resilience, and humanity, offering an insight exciting and profound of an Italy marked by war but full of hope. With a star-studded cast featuring Serena Rossi, Barbara Ronchi, Stefano Accorsi, & Christian Cervone, and directed by the celebrated filmmaker Cristina Comencini, the film promises a poignant & emotional journey. We posted the teaser trailer earlier in 2024, now the official...

Little remains known today of Josef Mysliveček, an 18th-century composer who found immense fame and success in Italy during his lifetime. Born in what is now the Czech Republic, Mysliveček crafted magnificent operas that entranced Italian audiences, placing him among the most renowned musical talents of his time. Yet somehow, within just a few generations, his name and music were lost to the winds of history.

Director Petr Václav seeks to change that with his film Il Boemo. More than just tell Mysliveček’s story, Václav wants to resurrect the composer’s legacy and introduce new audiences to his beautiful compositions. No small task, pulling a virtually forgotten figure out of obscurity.

Through dramatizing Mysliveček’s journey from poverty to prominence and back again, does the film truly do justice to its subject? More importantly, does it accomplish what matters most—sparking modern interest in this talented man’s long-silent musical works?...

The 2024 Venice Film Festival kicked off August 28 with the long-awaited Tim Burton-Michael Keaton sequel Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opening the 81th edition, which runs through September 7 on the Lido. Deadline is on the ground to watch all the key films.

The lineup for the world’s oldest fest also includes world premieres of Todd Phillips’ Joaquin Phoenix-Lady Gaga pic Joker: Folie à Deux, Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, Pablo Larrain’s Maria Callas biopic Maria starring Angelina Jolie and new works from the likes of Alfonso Cuarón, Walter Salles, Harmony Korine, Thomas Vinterberg, Brady Corbet, Takeshi Kitano, Claude Lelouch, Errol Morris and others.

Below is a compilation of our reviews from the fest, which last year awarded its Golden Lion for best film to Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, starring Emma Stone, who went on the win the Best Actress Oscar. Isabelle Huppert heads the competition jury this year.

Porn king Riccardo Schicchi was, according to Giulia Louise Steigerwalt’s bubbly, shallow “Diva Futura,” named after Schicchi’s now-defunct multimedia adult-entertainment enterprise, a really sweet guy. Moreover, the film insists, his vision for pornography was similarly wholesome: a means to liberate prudish late-20th century Italian society by celebrating the beauty of women as he saw it — with the dazzled, goofy gaze of the permanent adolescent peering through an uncurtained bedroom window.

But what may have been charmingly unworldly in a man becomes disingenuously simplistic in a film that refuses to really look into the forces that propelled his giddy rise and blameless fall, just as Schicchi, gifted a peeping-Tom telescope by his porn-positive dad as a kid, could look away when the women were clothed, or the curtains were closed.

Confusingly, and with no real reason, the movie hops about in time, so we begin in the middle...

Harking back to a simpler, more innocent time, when porn stars got elected to Parliament and the “sexual revolution” was still shiny and new, the comic-tragic feature Diva Futura pays tribute to the Italian adult entertainment empire of the same name and the colorful characters who founded and worked for it. Comparisons to Paul Thomas Anderson’s similarly themed Boogie Nights (1997) will be inevitable and probably not flatter the much messier, less bravura Diva Futura. Nevertheless, writer-director Giulia Louise Steigerwalt’s (Settembre) sophomore effort definitely has its moments and some standout performances.

Moreover, most of the characters met here — such as La Cicciolina (Lidija Kordic), aka Ilona Staller, the porn-star politician, and her tragic fellow star Moana Pozzi (Denise Capezza) — correspond to real-life figures. Only insiders from that time will know exactly how much of this movie (and the memoir by Debora Attanasio on which it’s based) is true.

There are two kinds of pornography, according to movie mythology. One kind is sordid, exploitative, and supported by shady money and even shadier characters. Then there is the cuddly, family kind, as fluffy and innocently randy as a burrow full of bunnies, that flourished on video before the horrible internet spoiled everything and made porn rapey. Italian director Giulia Louise Steigerwalt’s Diva Futura returns us to this Eden of sex tapes and strippers in a scattergun biopic of Riccardo Schicchi, impresario of club, talent farm and film production house Diva Futura. You can decide how much to believe.

As a boy in the 1960s, Schicchi tells his new secretary Debora (Barbara Ronchi) that he never grasped the first principles of machismo. Bullied by other little boys, by day he enjoyed giggling with the girls at school. By night, his father would lend him his binoculars to spy on women through their windows,...

The 81st Venice International Film Festival has announced the opening night films for its Horizons and Horizons Extra competition sections.

Nonostante, the second feature from Italian director Valerio Mastandrea (2018’s Ride) will open the Horizons competition section on August 28. The Horizons Extra competition section will kick off on August 29 with September 5, Tim Fehlbaum’s historical drama about the 1972 Munich Olympics starring Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro and Ben Chaplin.

September 5 focuses on a sports broadcasting team who suddenly find themselves covering a hostage crisis when the Palestinian militant organization Black September infiltrates the Olympic Village, kills two members of the Israeli Olympic team, and takes the other nine hostage. The Teacher’s Lounge breakout Leonie Benesch also co-stars. Fehlbaum is best known for his sci-fi features Hell (2011) and The Colony (2021).

September 5 was produced by BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion and Projected Picture Works, in co-production with Constantin Film and Erf Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion. Fehlbaum,...

A searing historical drama set in mid-19th century Bologna, and a TIFF award winning coming-of-age story open in limited release. The fascination with female conductors continues in doc Maestra. Netflix starts a small run with Richard Linklater comedy Hit Man. A24’s I Saw TV Glow is steady on under 400 screens. Evil Does Not Exist from Sideshow/Janus Films pops up to 138 runs.

Marco Bellocchio’s Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara, which premiered at Cannes a year ago (see Deadline review) opens in NYC at Film at Lincoln Center and the Quad Cinema, expanding to LA and top 10 markets next week. Based on the true story of a six-year-old Jewish boy in Bologna abducted in 1858 by the all-powerful Catholic Church and its menacing grand inquisitor in the city after a former housekeeper’s dubious claim to have secretly baptized him as a baby.

He was rushed secretly to...

"This will create new tensions." Cohen Media Group has unveiled an official US trailer for the Italian dramatic thriller now titled (in full) Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara. This premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival last year under the shorter title Rapito. This is legendary Italian director Marco Bellocchio's period drama, depicting a scandalous & captivating true story. It also played at TIFF, New York, Mill Valley, and AFI Fest last year. This grand, historical fresco depicts the true story of a young Jewish child who, in mid-19th century Bologna, was abducted from his family by the church on the Pope's orders. The child had been secretly baptized by his nurse as a baby, and the papal law is unquestionable: he must now receive a Catholic education. Edgardo's parents, distraught, will do anything to get their son back. Supported by public opinion and the international Jewish community,...

Marco Bellocchio is the 84-year-old Italian director behind films like “Fists in the Pocket” from 1965, “Vincere” from 2009, and “Devil in the Flesh” from 1986. His strict Catholic upbringing has led him to make films that take a critical eye toward the Church, condemning its politics and documented history of abuse. Now, he is taking the Church to task once again with his latest film, “Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara,” out May 24 from Cohen Media Group. Watch the trailer, an IndieWire exclusive, below.

Here’s the official synopsis: “In 1858, in the Jewish quarter of Bologna, the Pope’s soldiers burst into the home of the Mortara family. By order of the cardinal, they have come to take Edgardo, their seven-year-old son. The child had been secretly baptized by his nurse as a baby and the papal law is unquestionable: he must receive a Catholic education. Edgardo’s parents, distraught, will do...

Matteo Garrone’s refugee drama Io Capitano, an Oscar nominee this year for Italy in the best international feature category, was the big winner of this year’s 2024 David Di Donatello Awards, Italy’s equivalent to the Oscars, winning best film and director for Garrone.

Io Capitano also picked up prizes for best cinematography, editing, sound, and visual effects.

Paola Cortellesi’s There’s Still Tomorrow, a black-and-white feminist dramedy that became the top-grossing film in Italy last year, won Cortellesi the Donatello honors for best actress, directorial debut, and original script for the screenplay she co-wrote with Furio Andreotti and Giulia Calenda.

“I want to thank those who gave me the opportunity to write this role as I wanted it,” she said, accepting her actress honor.

Cortellesi’s film, a dramedy about an abused woman in post-wwii Rome that manages to combine serious social drama with situational comedy, sight gags and even a musical number,...

Matteo Garrone’s Oscar-nominated drama Io Capitano triumphed in Italy’s David di Donatello film awards on Friday evening, winning best film and best director.

The film about the trials and tribulations of two Senegalese teenagers as they try to make it to Europe via the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea, also won best producer for companies Archimede, Rai cinema, Pathé and Tarantula as well as best sound, special effects, cinematography and editing.

Io Capitano premiered at the Venice Film Festival last September, where it won best director for Garrone and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor for Seydou Sarr.

The movie went on to enjoy a buzzy awards season, securing a Golden Globe nomination for best non-English language film and an Academy Award nomination for best international film.

“This film tells the stories of those who are not listened to,” said Garrone, on receiving the best director award.

"Sometimes those who let you go love you more... than those who hold you back." Netflix has revealed a quick teaser trailer for The Children's Train, an upcoming adaptation set in Italy right after World War II about kids being sent away. Based on Viola Ardone's bestselling novel "Il Treno dei Bambini" turned into a grand feature film. Set in the the city of Naples just after WWII, The Children's Train follows the life of Amerigo Speranza, a seven-year-old boy who sets off on an extraordinary journey. It explore themes such as poverty, resilience, and humanity, offering an insight exciting and profound of an Italy marked by war but full of hope. With a star-studded cast featuring Serena Rossi, Barbara Ronchi, Stefano Accorsi, and Christian Cervone, and directed by the celebrated filmmaker Cristina Comencini, the film promises a poignant & emotional journey. The story is about a group of children...

Comencini’s feature credits include Venice competition titles ’Don’t Tell’ (2005) and ’When The Night’ (2011).

Netflix has added two original features and two scripted series to its Italian slate.

The slate includes the latest film from Italian director and screenwriter Cristina Comencini, whose feature credits include Venice competition titles Don’t Tell (2005) and When The Night (2011). Produced by Palomar, Il Treno Dei Bambini, is based on the book by Viola Ardone and is billed as a journey through the misery but also the generosity witnessed in postwar Italy, as seen through the eyes of a child torn between two mothers.

The feature is written by Furio Andreotti,...

Netflix’s next Italian originals will be pairs of series and feature films from the likes of Stefano Mordini, Alessandro Genovesi and Cristina Comencini.

The projects were unveiled at a See What’s Next event in Rome today, in front of several stars, directors and stars.

Tinny Andreatta, Vice President of Italian Content at Netflix, said the orders showed the streamer remains “committed to our investment in Italy and Italian stories with conviction, continuing our long-term commitment to the country and its creative community.” Netflix opened an Italian office in May last year.

Namely, pics are Cristina Comencini’s Il Treno dei Bambini and Fabbricante di Lacrime from director Alessandro Genovesi. TV shows comprise Storia della mia Famiglia and Adorazione.

Il Treno dei Bambini is based on Viola Ardone’s bestselling novel pf the same name and is billed as as an “epic and poignant film” set in post-war Italy...

Marco Bellocchio excels at grand gestures. The Italian title of the filmmaker’s latest, Kidnapped, appears on screen in large, blood-red letters, like the screaming headline of a tabloid news article. Yet it’s placed over a deceptively serene scene, circa the late-1850s, of servant woman Anna Morisi (Aurora Camatti) strolling into a store across the street from her Bologna-residing employers, the Jewish Mortara family. The clashing juxtaposition of words and images is apt, for none of the characters suspects that history is about to be made.

The Mortara case is one of the most egregious stains on the legacy of the Catholic Church. It captured the world’s attention at a particularly fraught moment, right as the Papal States (occupied Italian territories that had for centuries been under the direct rule of successive popes) were close to permanent dissolution, and global antisemitism was on a genocidal rise.

In...

Following the announcement of the North American acquisition by Cohen Media, The Match Factory has revealed further sales in key territories for Marco Bellocchio’s Cannes Competition title “Kidnapped.”

The film adapts the true story of the kidnapping of the young Jewish boy Edgardo Mortara, starring Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi, Enea Sala and Leonardo Maltese.

The film has its release secured in the following territories: U.K. and Ireland (Curzon), Australia and New Zealand (Palace Entertainment), Japan (Fine Films), Latin America (Cine Video y TV), Spain (Vertigo Films), Benelux (Cherry Pickers), Switzerland (Agora Films), Poland (Best Film), Portugal (Alambique), Greece and Cyprus (Rosebud.21), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Aerofilms), Ex-Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), Hungary (Vertigo Media), Baltics (Kino Pavasaris), Bulgaria (Art Fest), Israel (United King Video), Ukraine (Traffic Films), Taiwan (Light Year Images) and Indonesia (Falcon Pictures). Further territories are in negotiation.

The film is a production by Ibc Movie...

At a spry 83-years-old, director Marco Bellocchio is about 18 months the junior to last year’s Cannes acclaimed octogenarian, “Eo” prizewinner Jerzy Skolimowski, though the Italian maestro’s latest film has a much creakier feel. That’s hardly a fatal flaw, as Bellochio’s Cannes-premiering “Kidnapped” offers the comforting pleasures of a cracking tale well told, a handsome tour of Old World locales and a throwback mix of Big Themes served on heaping platters.

The story certainly lends itself to such heft, as it follows the true tale of Edgardo Mortara, a Jewish boy confiscated from his family by the all-powerful church and raised to be a priest. What pushed the local authorities to turn up unannounced one night — making demands of a Jewish family that would echo persecutions past and to come – becomes clear when church police set their sight on a 6-year-old boy and tell his parents, “Someone betrayed you.

Solid, stately and — like the collapsing Papal States of the Italian Peninsula in the late 1800s — just a little too tradition-bound for its own good, Marco Bellocchio’s “Kidnapped,” based on a 19th-century case of religious abduction, opens with an eavesdrop. Anna (Aurora Camatti), the Catholic servant to the Jewish Mortara family of Bologna, pauses on the stairs after a tryst and spies her employers, Momolo Mortara (Fausto Russo Alesi) and his wife Marianna (Barbara Ronchi), murmuring a blessing in Hebrew over their newborn baby boy. It is not clear yet why the sight should make her stop in her tracks, but over the course of over two sedate but mostly absorbing hours, the veteran director follows its repercussions with a singleminded, narrow dedication that sits strangely at odds with the film’s immaculately expansive production design.

Six years later, the Mortara family has itself expanded greatly. The boy, Edgardo...

At 83 years-old, Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio has been on a hot streak these past years, with the success both at home and abroad of his 2019 Sicilian mafia epic, The Traitor, and his first ever TV miniseries, Exterior, Night, playing well around Europe.

His latest feature — the 31st in a prolific career that began at age 24 with his breakout drama, Fists in the Pocket — is probably not his greatest, but that’s not really a put-down in a filmography filled with memorable work, including other recent movies like Vincere and Good Morning, Night.

Kidnapped (Rapito), a period piece about a Jewish boy taken away from his family to live in the Vatican in 1858, may not be on par with those titles, but it’s still an engaging and somewhat fascinating film, telling a true story that probes historic Italian antisemitism and the follies of the Catholic church.

Filled with the director...

Belgian directors Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s Italian-language drama The Eight Mountains and veteran Marco Bellocchio’s Exterior Night topped the 68th edition of Italy’s David di Donatello Awards on Wednesday evening.

The Eight Mountains won best film as well as best non-original screenplay, photography and sound.

Based on the novel of the same name by Paolo Cognetti, it stars Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi as two men from different backgrounds who form a life-long bond during summers spent together as children in a remote mountain village.

The film world premiered in Competition at Cannes last year where it co-won the Jury Prize. Read the Deadline review here.

It is the second time in the history of the awards that a film by non-Italian directors has clinched the best film prize.

The last time was in 1971 when the Dino de Laurentiis-produced epic Waterloo by Russian director Sergei Bonderchuk,...

“The Eight Mountains,” Belgian directors Felix Van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s Italian-language drama about friendship, mountains and growing up, scored the top prize at Italy’s 68th David di Donatello Awards.

Besides winning best picture, the film also scooped statuettes for best non-original screenplay, photography and sound.

Given that the directors are not Italian, it was a particularly significant victory for “Mountains,” which was praised as “quietly magnificent” by Variety critic Jessica Kiang. The film, which is currently playing well on the U.S. arthouse circuit, tracks the decades-long friendship between two Italian boys named Pietro and Bruno — one from the city, the other a shepherd boy from the Alps.

“It’s pretty incredible,” commented a visibly moved Van Groeningen. “Two Belgians who win this prize in Italy for an Italian movie.” “Thank you for this declaration of love,” added Vandermeersch, his partner in life. “We love Italy very much.

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Marco Bellocchio’s “Kidnapped” (Rapito), which has its world premiere in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

The film starts in 1858 in the Jewish quarter of Bologna, when the Pope’s soldiers burst into the home of the Mortara family. By order of the cardinal, they have come to take Edgardo, their seven-year-old son. The child had been secretly baptized by his nurse as a baby and the papal law is unquestionable: he must receive a Catholic education.

Edgardo’s parents, distraught, will do anything to get their son back. Supported by public opinion and the international Jewish community, the Mortaras’ struggle quickly takes a political dimension. But the Church and the Pope will not agree to return the child, to consolidate an increasingly wavering power.

The film stars Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi, Enea Sala (as the...

Still Time (Era ora) is an Italian film directed by Alessandro Aronadio starring Edoardo Leo, Barbara Ronchi and Mario Sgueglia.

An Italian film that starts out as a “romantic comedy”, and that threatens to dive into middle-aged drama and ends up turning it into Groundhog Day with a man trapped in a time he… can no longer remember.

An interesting premise about turning back time in the genre of movies that turn back time… with a much more sentimental than comedic approach.

About the Movie

If you are in the mood for a movie about watching life go by, this is a good opportunity to let yourself be imbued with nostalgia, and search – like Proust – for time lost in an amount of time that is much shorter than the French author’s novel.

As for the film, good performances, especially by Edoardo Leo, who knows how to compose the different...

Netflix has acquired global rights to Italian rom-com “Era Ora” (“Still Time”), marking a rare instance in which an Italian comedy is set to gain worldwide visibility.

“Still Time” is directed by Alessandro Aronadio, a Los Angeles Film School graduate whose first work “One Life, Maybe Two” launched from Berlin’s Panorama section.

The comedy stars Edoardo Leo (“Perfect Strangers”) as a workaholic named Dante who is perpetually late to everything important, and Barbara Ronchi (soon to be seen in Marco Bellocchio’s “La Conversione”) as his girlfriend Alice. The twist comes when Dante winds up leaping ahead a year in his life every few hours, just as he wants to slow down.

After showing up hours late for his 40th birthday party, Dante wakes up the next day and it’s already the day of his 41st birthday and Alice is four months pregnant. Then, upon waking up again,...

La conversione

The true story has put the fear of god in the directors who consider making it, but finally, it was Italian maestro Marco Bellocchio who took on the project on a person who goes by the name of Edgardo Mortara. An almost three-plus month shoot in Bologna and Rome, Marco Bellocchio co-wrote with Susanna Nicchiarelli, this is the true-life drama set in 1858. La Conversione stars Paolo Pierobon, Barbara Ronchi, Fausto Russo Alesi, Filippo Timi, Fabrizio Gifuni, Enea Sala, playing Mortara as a child, and Leonardo Maltese, playing Mortara as an older boy.…...

The Czech composer who inspired Mozart is the subject of Il Boemo, a handsome period biopic that premiered in competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Written and directed by Petr Vaclav (Marian), it’s an entertaining insight into Josef Mysliveček’s music and his hedonistic lifestyle, with an operatic running time of 140 minutes. While the film is mostly in Italian, it’s the Czech entry for the International Feature race at the Academy Awards and should attract an audience of mature music lovers.

Czech actor and musician Vojtěch Dyk puts in a dashing performance as the musician who became a celebrated composer in 18th century Italy, and was all but forgotten by a history that celebrated the younger Mozart. But there’s no doubting the talent of the man nicknamed “Il Boemo,” as the film’s many musical scenes attest.

Photo Gallery: Past International Feature Film Oscar Winners

We...

At the height of his career, Czech-born composer Josef Mysliveček was the most prolific and sought-after figure in Italian opera, bound for immortal celebrity. Nearly three centuries later, his name isn’t forgotten to classical music scholars, but neither does it have anything approaching household status; the facts and records of his personal life, meanwhile, have largely been lost to history. Via a blend of free narrative speculation and exacting musical presentation, Petr Vaclav’s stately, sumptuous biopic “Il Boemo” seeks to restore a degree of iconic status to a talent latterly overshadowed by relative 18th-century contemporaries, albeit not with much swagger or modernity of its own: This is costume drama of a traditional, ornately brocaded stripe, a classical music lesson for classicists.

That’s not likely to do “Il Boemo” any harm as it further travels the festival circuit following its world premiere in San Sebastian’s main competition,...

Shooting has begun in Roccabianca in the province of Parma, Italy, on Marco Bellocchio’s new film, “La Conversione” (The Conversion), inspired by the story of Edgardo Mortara, the Jewish child who in 1858 was removed from his family to be raised as a Catholic in the custody of Pope Pius IX. Bellocchio is pictured, above, on set in Roccabianca this week.

“La Conversione” stars Paolo Pierobon, Barbara Ronchi, Fausto Russo Alesi, Filippo Timi, Fabrizio Gifuni, Enea Sala, playing Mortara as a child, and Leonardo Maltese, playing Mortara as an older boy.

The film is an IBCmovie and Kavac Film production with Rai Cinema, with the support of the Emilia Romagna region and its film commission, in co-production with Ad Vitam Production in France, and Match Factory Productions in Germany. It is produced by Beppe Caschetto and Simone Gattoni.

The screenplay is by Bellocchio and Susanna Nicchiarelli, with the collaboration of Edoardo Albinati and Daniela Ceselli,...

The year is sometime in the near future, apparently, and society has collapsed for vague reasons. Well, some of it has. Some of it hasn’t. Or maybe it only has if you squint really hard.

The Italian post-apocalyptic coming-of-age crime drama “Mondocane” is big on attitude but very short on details, presenting a world of violent gangs and oppressive police against a backdrop that’s so similar to what’s going on today, and so unexplored in all its sci-fi trappings, that one can’t help but wonder why it’s set in the future at all.

Dennis Protopapa, in his feature film debut, plays the title character, Pietro, who quickly earns the name “Dogworld” after he torches a pet shop to earn his place in a gang called “The Ants.” He’s grown up by the seashore with his best friend Cristian, and if you thought “Dogworld” was an unfortunate nom de guerre,...

Sometimes it can be a little sad to watch a director blatantly make a bid for mainstream American acceptance (or rather future Marvel gig), and in the case of Mondocane (Italian for Dogworld) this couldn’t be more apparent. What seemed an exciting prospect, a potential throwback to trashy Italian post-apocalyptic films (or just a bleak arthouse sci-fi), Alessandro Celli’s feature debut rather feels like minor adjustments to an ’80s Amblin fantasy film above all––a few more blatant references to child molestation notwithstanding. Though perhaps having children as the protagonists should’ve been the tip-off to what flavor of sci-fi adventure we’d be getting, one still replete with sleek nighttime motorcycle chases and gunfire to feel just “modern” or “adult” enough.

A brief title crawl informs us the Italian town of Taranto is now a wasteland devastated by climate change, a power plant blotting the skyline and barbed wire guarding the borders.

The stakes at the center of “Mondocane” aren’t without importance or tragedy: two boys search in the rubble of civilization for wealth, safety, and friendship. Owing to the lineage began by “Lord of the Flies,” this dreary and distant tale, backgrounded by glittering seas and abandoned buildings, should follow in the footsteps of Kim Nguyen’s harrowing film “War Witch” or Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s shocking “Johnny Mad Dog” — two movies about wayward children navigating harsh environments rendered harsher due to their age. But

In his narrative debut feature, Celli and co-writer Antonio Leotti have clearly taken all of the notes: The messianic leader who’s far less virtuous than he appears to be is there, as are the common initiations requiring children to lose their humanity and innocence to harden them. There’s even the girl who comes between two friends. Those familiar pieces, however, are shaken up and jumbled,...

"We weren't meant to be here. We're Ants or have you forgotten?" Kino Lorber has revealed an official US trailer for a film from Italy titled Mondocane, which premiered at Critics Week at the Venice Film Festival last year. The title translates to Dogworld in English, describing this "proto-cyberpunk" post-apocalyptic film set in a city called Taranto. In the near future, Taranto is a ghost town surrounded by barbed wire that no one, not even the police, dares to enter. The poorest are left fighting for survival, while gangs compete for territory. Two 13-year-old orphans, who grew up together, dream of joining one of the gangs. "Recalling everything from Mad Max to Lord of the Flies to City of God, director Alessandro Celli's thrilling feature debut is a stylish post-apocalyptic vision and an inspiring testament to the power of friendship in an unjust world." This stars Dennis Protopapa, Giuliano Soprano,...

The screenwriter’s debut film starring Barbara Ronchi, Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Thony is produced by Lynn, Groenlandia’s new division dedicated to projects directed by women. Filming wrapped last week on Settembre, the first feature film to be directed by Giulia Steigerwalt, which has now entered into post-production. Based upon the 2019 short film of the same name which was written and directed by Steigerwalt herself, the film stars Barbara Ronchi, Fabrizio Bentivoglio and Thony in lead roles and tells the ironic and emotional tale of an adolescent’s sentimental education. Penned in its entirety by the director, Settembre tells the story of 14-year-old Maria who comes to the attention of Cristian, a boy she’s always had a crush on, following the school summer holidays. Via...

Italy’s period of combatting terrorism from the late 1960s to the late ’80s, known as the “Years of Lead,” remains a richly-mined topic in cinema, more successfully processed on screen than through any of the official bodies charged with accountability. Digging into his personal trauma from that era, director Claudio Noce (“The Ice Forest”) takes some of the basic facts from the attempted assassination in 1976 of his father, a deputy police chief, and aims to process how that affected him and his family. “Padrenostro,” or “Our Father,” is , at its best when it sticks to the tense rapport within a family terrified they’ll be targeted again. The subject together with the fine ensemble cast will likely see strong interest at home, but any kind of significant travel is unlikely apart from Italian showcases.

Noce was two years old when the attack occurred, old enough for him to feel...

The old adage about babies having babies gets markedly grown-up treatment in “Sole,” a crisp, reserved debut feature from Italian writer-director Carlo Sironi that examines the concept of parental instinct from an unusual point of view: that of a directionless young man play-acting the role of fatherhood, and finding himself unexpectedly broody in the process. An Italian-Polish co-production in which both nationalities feel narratively and spiritually integral to proceedings, Sironi’s film effectively blends the warm-blooded emotional stakes of classic Italian melodrama with the cooler, more rigorous language of new Eastern European cinema. It’s a head-turning hybrid that, while a little over-studied in parts, will travel well on the festival circuit, and is sure to feature prominently in new-director showcases.

Besides its more substantial virtues, “Sole” is surely notable for being among the bluest films ever committed to the screen — literally, that is, as Sironi bathes the screen in more shades of sky,...

Sole

Director Carlo Sironi makes his directorial debut with Sole, a project which was selected for several notable initiatives during its development, including Residence de la Cinefondation at Cannes, the Script Station in Berlin, the Sundance Mediterranean Lab and TorinoFilmLab, where it won a Production Award. An Italian-Polish production through Rai Cinema, Kino Produzioni and Lava Films, the film stars Sandra Drzymalska opposite newcomer Claudio Segaluscio with a supporting cast of Barbara Ronchi, Bruno Buzzi, Marco Felli, Vitaliano Trevisan, and Orietta Notari. His short film Cargo (2012) was part of the Venice Film Festival.

Gist: Frittering away his days on slot machines, everything changes for Ermanno when Lena turns up in Italy trying to sell her baby and start life afresh.…...

Title: Fai Bei Sogni (Sweet Dreams) Director: Marco Bellocchio Starring: Valerio Mastrandrea, Barbara Ronchi, Nicolò Cabras, Guido Caprino, Bérénice Bejo, Pier Giorgio Belloccio, Dario Dal Pero, Dylan Ferrario, Emanuelle Devos Massimo Gramellini is one of Italy’s most prominent journalists and writers. In 2012 he published the autobiographical book ‘Fai Bei Sogni,’ where he retraced his inner journey while growing up, to overcome the grief and sense of abandonment felt ever since he was nine years old, caused by the death of his mother. Director Marco Bellocchio ? who encompassed a wide range of genres and subjects during his 50-year career, conquering worldwide audiences, festivals and prestigious retrospectives (such as the [ Read More ]

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Italians certainly do worship their Mammas, or so goes the narrative of Marco Bellocchio’s Sweet Dreams, which opened the Cannes Director’s Fortnight sidebar tonight. It’s the second film in less than a year from the veteran Italian director and is the slighter of the two. Blood of My Blood (which premiered in Venice last Fall) spanned centuries and genres while leaning on two of the great themes of Italian cinema: the church and the mob. Sweet Dreams is a little long and overly nostalgic at times, but it’s authentic to the last and, rather neatly, it focuses on that third great theme: the matriarch.

Based on the bestselling 2012 biographical novel by Massimo Gramellini — the Turin-born journalist and current deputy director of Italian rag La Stampa — Sweet Dreams offers a sweetly sentimental and fluidly cinematic memoir of the writer’s life, from his time as a young...

Sweet Dreams

Director: Marco Bellocchio

Writer: Massimo Gramellini

Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio shows no signs of slowing down in his sixth decade of filmmaking. Hot off his Venice 2015 premiere of his intriguing historical drama/social comedy Blood of My Blood, Bellocchio set to work on filming Sweet Dreams, an adaptation of a novel by Massimo Gramellini about a secret kept sealed in an envelope for forty years, and a woman assisting a man who suffers from unresolved issues over the death of his mother when he was a young boy. French actress Bérénice Bejo joins a cast of notable Italian actors, including Valerio Mastandrea as the tortured protagonist.

Cast: Bérénice Bejo, Valerio Mastandrea, Fabrizio Gifuni, Barbara Ronchi

Production Co./Producers: Ibc Movie’s Beppe Caschetto, Kavac, Rai Cinema

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available. Tbd (domestic) Match Factory (international).

Release Date: Though he premiered Vincere at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, Bellocchio...

Honey (Miele) Emerging Pictures Director: Valeria Golino Screenplay: Angela Del Fabbro Cast: Jasmine Trinca, Carlo Cecchi, Libero De Rienzo, Vinicio Marchioni, Laia Forte, Roberto De Francesco, Barbara Ronchi, Masssimiliano, Claudio Guain, Valeria Bilello Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 2/27/14 Opens: March 7, 2014 For all we know, Dr. Kevorkian is chatting amiably now with some of the folks he dispatched at their request, but though Dr. Death is not with us here in Earth any longer, the subject of assisted suicide comes up now and then. In the U.S. Oregon has been the leader among the progressive states that rationally allow people to do what they want with their own  [ Read More ]

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Emerging Pictures recently announced “Cinema Made In Italy,” a major new initiative between Istituto Luce- Cinecittà, the Italian Trade Commission and Emerging Pictures that will pro-vide distribution and marketing support to five major Italian films with the goal of broadening the audience for Italian cinema in the United States. Emerging will oversee the initiative and distribute Gianni Amelio’s L’Intrepido, Marco Bellocchio’s Dormant Beauty, Bernardo Bertolucci’s Me And You and Valeria Golino’s Honey in 2014.

These four recent Italian works will receive marketing and distribution support from a fund created by Istituto Luce- Cinecittà and the Italian Trade Commission. The first film in the series was Paolo Sorrentino’s masterful Academy Award nominated The Great Beauty. Since it was released by Janus Films with support from the Cinema Made In Italy program, it has become one of the most acclaimed foreign language films of the year. It also won the Golden Globe, European Film Award and is nominated for the BAFTA and Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film.

All five films will receive a nationwide release. Theaters will be announced shortly. Each of the films will have a full marketing and publicity campaign overseen by Emerging Pictures and supported by Istituto Luce-Cinecittà and the Italian Trade Commission.

Ira Deutchman, Managing Partner of Emerging Pictures, said, “Italian cine- ma has always captured the imagination of American audiences since the hey-day of Fellini, Pasolini, Visconti, De Sica and Rossellini. Our goal is to create a marketing and distribution initiative that will allow new Italian films to regularly enter the marketplace with a presence and to help create an ongoing new audience. We’re thrilled to be working with Istituto Luce-Cinecittà and the Italian Trade Commission to create this truly groundbreaking program.”

“Luce Cinecitta' is proud to test this new way to promote Italian cinema abroad,” said Istituto Luce-Cinecitta’ Chief Executive Officer Roberto Cicut- to. “Thanks to the funds provided by the Ministry of Economic Development and The Italian Trade Commission (Agenzia Ice) in addition to those provid- ed by the Ministry of Culture in partnership with Emerging Pictures, we will be able to give the largest theatrical distribution to recent Italian titles direct- ed by very prestigious auteurs. Italian cinema is well known worldwide for its glorious past and for such great contemporary directors as Bertolucci, Bellocchio, Moretti, Sorrentino, Garrone, Amelio and others. This new platform will give our movies the chance to be seen in a wide array of theaters throughout the U.S., and not just in specialized art houses in a few big cities. The recent outstanding success of Sorrentino's ‘Great Beauty,’ a Janus release, with our support, shows there is great potential here for Italian cinema. We look for- ward to increasing the availability of Italian films to our American friends.”

Dr. Carlo Angelo Bocchi, Trade Commissioner, Italian Trade Commission, said, "We have been working in the past two years with all the institutions mentioned by Roberto with two main goals: to get the Italian movie industry as the most important made-in-Italy tool for the commercial promotion of our country in the U.S., to try to reach the widest possible audience for viewing Italian movies. The support of different public institutions was central to building a project that was from the outset commercial: the movie industry is quintessentially important to promoting wine, food, fashion, design, technology, tourism and Italian style, together with the expression of our cultural values, trends and innovations. Italian cinema provides a single, comprehensive tool for achieving that meaningful goal. With ‘The Great Beauty,’ our first film, Cinema Made in Italy makes its debut in 25 cities, in more than 100 theaters in 15 states. This far-reaching exposure is exactly what we were searching for in our partnership with Emerging Pictures, and we are very happy that this first film in our Italian movie series is already appearing throughout the United States.”

About Emerging Pictures

Emerging Pictures, managed by Barry Rebo and Ira Deutchman, is the pre- mier all-digital Specialty Film and Alternative Content network of theaters in the United States. The company delivers independent films, cultural pro- grams and special events to a network of approximately 400 North American venues encompassing traditional art houses, museums and performing arts centers as well as commercial multiplexes including Allen Theatres, Angelika/ Reading Theatres, Big Cinemas, Bow Tie Cinemas, Marcus Theatres, Carmike Cinemas, Digiplex Destination Cinemas, Harkins Theatres, Laemmle Theaters, Muvico Theaters, Regency Theatres and others. The company also distributes live and captured live performances worldwide of the Bolshoi Ballet and some of the world’s foremost opera houses, including Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, under its Ballet in Cinema and Opera in Cinema brands.

About Istituto Luce-Cinecitta

Istituto Luce - Cinecittà (www.cinecittaluce.it) is the state-owned company whose main shareholder is the Italian Ministry for Culture. Istituto Luce - Cinecittà’s institutional work includes promoting Italian cinema both at home and abroad by means of projects dedicated to the great directors of the past and their classic films, as well contemporary ones. During the main In- ternational Film Festivals Istituto Luce - Cinecittà prepares multifunctional spaces that help to the promotion of our cinematography and it is the refer- ence place for all Italian and foreign operators Istituto Luce - Cinecittà holds one of the most important film and photographic archive both of its own pro- ductions, and private collections and acquisitions from a variety of sources. Istituto Luce - Cinecittà also distributes films made by Italian and European directors and guarantees they are given an adequate release on the national market. The team for the promotion of contemporary cinema continues to col- laborate with all of the major film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Shanghai, Tokyo, Locarno, New York , London, etc, by orga- nizing the national selections, the presence of Italian films and artists in the various festivals, and providing an expository and promotional space within all the major International film markets. We are also involved with the orga- nization of numerous events which take place in countries with strong com- mercial potential such as : The Italian cinema festival in Tokyo, Open Roads – New Italian cinema in New York, Cinema Italian Style in Los Angeles, The Festival of Italian cinema of Barcelona and The Mittelcinemafest. Istituto

Luce - Cinecittà also owns a film library, Cineteca, which contains around 3000 titles of the most significant Italian film productions, subtitled in foreign languages, which serve in promoting Italian culture at major national and in- ternational Institutes around the world. Istituto Luce - Cinecittà is also re- sponsible for editing a daily news magazine on-line: CinecittàNews (news.cinecitta.com) which delivers the latest breaking news on the principal activities involving Italian cinema as well as its developing legislative and in- stitutional aspects.

About The Italian Trade Commission The Ice-Italian Trade Promotion Agency is the government organization which promotes the internationalization of the Italian companies, in line with the strategies of the Ministry for Economic Development. Ice provides in- formation, support and advice to Italian and foreign companies. In addition to its Rome headquarters, Ice operates worldwide from a large network of Trade Promotion Offices linked to Italian embassies and consulates and work- ing closely with local authorities and businesses. Ice provides a wide range of services overseas helping Italian and foreign businesses to connect with each other

About The Films

Dormant Beauty (Bella Addormentata)

Release Date: Tbc Director: Marco Bellocchio Producer: Riccardo Tozzi, Fabio Conversi, Marco Chimenz, Giovanni Sta- bilini

Screenplay: Marco Bellocchio, Veronica Raimo, Stefano Rulli Cast: Toni Servillo, Isabelle Huppert, Alba Rohrwacher Festivals: Venice 2012, Toronto 2012

Three stories, taking place over the course of a few days, involving a con- science-stricken politician, an obsessive mother and two young protestors on different sides, are skillfully interwoven in this gripping, beautifully realized film. Set against the background of the emotional and controversial real-life 2008 euthanasia case of Eluana Englaro, Dormant Beauty is a subtle and complex depiction of recent Italian history.

The Great Beauty

(released by Janus Films) - In Release Director: Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo) Producer: Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima Screenwriter: Paolo Sorrentino, Umberto Contarello Cast: Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferrili, Carlo Buccirosso, Iaia Forte, Pamela Villoresi, Galatea Ranzi with Massimo de Francovich, Roberto Herlitzka, and with Isabella Ferrari Festivals: Cannes (Competition) 2013, Toronto 2013, AFI 2013, Italy’s Official Entry to the 2014 Academy Awards Awards: 4 European Film Award nominations (Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor and winner for Best Editing), Best Foreign Film nominee for British In- dependent Film Awards

Journalist Jep Gambardella (the dazzling Toni Servillo, Il Divo and Go- Morrah) has charmed and seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades. Since the legendary success of his one and only novel, he has been a permanent fixture in the city's literary and social circles, but when his sixty-fifth birthday coincides with a shock from the past, Jep finds himself unexpectedly taking stock of his life, turning his cutting wit on himself and his contemporaries, and looking past the extravagant nightclubs, parties, and cafés to find Rome in all its glory: a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.

Honey (Miele)

Release Date: March 7, 2014 Director: Valeria Golino Producer: Viola Prestieri, Riccardo Scamarcio, Anne-Dominique Toussaint, Raphael Berdugo Screenplay: Valeria Golino, Valia Santella, Francesca Marciano, from the novel by Angela Del Fabbro with the same title Cast: Jasmine Trinca, Carlo Cecchi, Libero De Rienzo, Vinicio Marchioni, Iaia Forte, Roberto De Francesco, Barbara Ronchi, Claudio Guain, Teresa Acerbis, Valeria Bilello, Massimiliano Iacolucci Festivals: Cannes (Un Certain Regard) 2013, Toronto 2013 Prizes: Winner Special Mention from the Ecumenical Jury, Cannes 2013 Nominated for European Discovery at the European Film Awards 2013

Actress Valeria Golino makes her directing debut with Honey. Irene lives alone on the coastline outside Rome. To her father and her married lover, she’s a student. In reality, she often travels to Mexico where she can legally buy a powerful barbiturate. Working under the name of Miele ("Honey"), her clandestine job is to help terminally-ill people to die with dignity by giving them the drug. One day she supplies a new “client” with a fatal dose, only to find out he’s perfectly healthy but tired of life. Irene is determined not to be responsible for his suicide. From this point on, Irene and Grimaldi are unwill- ingly locked in an intense and moving relationship which will change Irene’s life forever.

L’Intrepido

Release Date - To Be Confirmed Director: Gianni Amelio Producer: Carlo Degli Esposti Screenplay: Gianni Amelio, Davide Lantieri Cast: Antonio Albanese, Sandra Ceccarelli, Livia Rossi, Gabriele Rendina, Alfonso Santagata

Festivals: Venice 2013, Toronto 2013

Set in modern day Milan, this is a Chaplinesque odyssey through the world of work – every type of work, but primarily unskilled manual labor – seen through the eyes of a kind, middle-aged man who takes on every conceivable temporary job in order to be useful and have self respect. This really is a por- trait of the highs and lows of modern life. At its heart is a sympathetic man (Antonio Albanese) who, despite loneliness and personal family problems, es- pecially around his gifted but troubled musician son, remains defiantly opti- mistic even when terrible things happen to him and the people he meets.

Me And You (Io E Te)

Release Date: To Be Confirmed

Director: Bernardo Bertolucci Screenplay: Bernardo Bertolucci, Niccolo Ammaniti, Umberto Contarello Producer: Mario Gianani Cast: Tea Falco, Jacopo Olmo Antinori Festivals: Cannes, Toronto

Lorenzo, a solitary 14-year-old with difficulties relating to his daily life and the world around him, chooses to spend a week hidden in the basement of his house. But Lorenzo’s fragile and rebellious stepsister, Olivia, appears at her brother’s place of refuge and disturbs the quiet.