2023-12-31 10:19:40
A predominantly male 2024 for Italian cinema. Scrolling through the distribution lists, it stands out that of the 52 films coming out, only 14 will be directed by women. And this despite the fact that, and Cinetel data confirms this, the most viewed work by the public in 2023 was ‘There’s Still Tomorrow’ by and with Paola Cortellesi, which beat US blockbusters such as ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ in takings .
Hopefully the situation will balance out in the future. Meanwhile, 2024 by Rai (Rai Cinema and 01 Distribution), writes the magazine ‘Cinematografo.it‘, after ‘Pare Parecchio Parigi’ by Pieraccioni (in cinemas from 18 January), will open with a love letter to the cinema and Cinecittà: ‘Finamente l’alba’ by Saverio Costanzo, an international co-production which is close to thirty million budget, after the Venetian competition, it will be in cinemas from 14 February. ‘Another End’ by Piero Messina also talks about love (scheduled release on February 24th). ‘Naples-New York’, a coming-of-age novel for two little brothers straddling the ocean with Favino as the protagonist, is also partly sentimental. Direction and screenplay are by Gabriele Salvatores, the subject by Fellini and Pinelli, the budget is a generous 18 million.
Said by Barbareschi psychiatrist in his The Penitent, here is the post-pandemic comeback horse Muccino who, after two seasons of ‘A casa tutti bene’, to boost the box office, bets on another teen feature film between America and Sicily: ‘ Here Now’. Speaking of islands, Virzì shot ‘Another Ferragosto’ in Ventotene after ‘Ferie d’agosto’ in 1996. It’s no longer time for comics, however, for the Manetti Bros.: once the triadic ‘Diabolik’ is over, here’s ‘U.S. Palmese’, an ensemble film about a Calabrian football team that plays in non-professional categories.
Meanwhile, after Andò’s ‘The Strangeness’, cinema continues to celebrate Pirandello. Fabrizio Bentivoglio embodies him in ‘Eterno Visionario’ by Michele Placido, perhaps because Servillo is involved in ‘Iddu’ by the Piazza – Grassadonia couple, a biopic centered on Matteo Messina Denaro. A project that also sees Elio Germano at the forefront, in the meantime the face of ‘The Great Ambition’ by Andrea Segre about Enrico Berlinguer. Another biography is the second work by Gianluca Jodice: after ‘The Bad Poet’ D’Annunzio, ‘The Deluge’ focuses on Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Second direction also for Leonardo D’Agostini: ‘Una storia nera’ is a detective story with Laetitia Casta and Andrea Carpenzano taken from the novel by Antonella Lattanzi (at least here the scriptwriter and co-screenwriter, together with Ludovica Rampoldi and D’Agostini himself , she is a woman).
Among the debutants, however, Neri Marcorè doubles in front and behind the camera for ‘Zamora’. But if there are three new female directors from Rai – the singer-songwriter Margherita Vicario with ‘Gloria!’, the actress Carolina Pavone with ‘Quasi a casa’ and the documentary maker Sara Fgaier with ‘Sulla terra leggi’ – the list of films by female filmmakers the autobiographical ‘Prima la vita’ by Francesca Comencini, ‘I saw a king’ by Giorgia Farina and ‘Let’s all hit the mark’ by Paola Randi remain.
But the male-centric tendency infects all productions. For 2024, Medusa, in addition to ‘Race for Glory – Audy vs Lancia’ an international co-production directed by Stefano Mordini, focuses on comedy as usual: after ‘Come pu un scoglio’ with Pio and Amedeo, the Bigio-Mandelli couple returns ( also director for the occasion) with ‘The Usual Idiots 3 – The Return’, eleven years after the second chapter. Then here is Abatantuono, protagonist of De Blasi’s ‘The Last Week of September’ and ‘Ricomincio da taac!’ with Germano Lanzoni, without forgetting ‘Un mondo a parte’ by Riccardo Milani with the faithful Antonio Albanese and Virginia Raffaele as protagonists, while Fabrizio Moro with Alessio De Leonardis makes his Breaking Bad: ‘Tuesday and Friday’ story of a broke father who becomes a criminal. Thus, to find a director promoted by Biscione you have to get to ‘Vesuvio’, the debut of Cécile Allegra with Marco D’Amore and Marianna Fontana.
If Greenlandia produces ‘Six Brothers’ by Simone Godano and ‘Diva Futura’, Giulia Steigerwalt’s second film, Laura Samani will also return to theaters: after the applause at Cannes for ‘Piccolo Corpo’, she is busy making ‘Un anno di scuola’ , a true story from the beginning of the twentieth century centered on a high school student in an all-boys class set in Trieste and inspired by the novel of the same name by Giani Stuparich. Wanted, on the other hand, will distribute ‘Maria Montessori’ in Italy, another Italian-French co-production directed by Léa Todorov: Jasmine Trinca is the famous pedagogist from the Marche region.
Despite the Cortellesi phenomenon, even the price list of Vision Distribution, the company that distributed ‘There’s Still Tomorrow’, speaks predominantly to men: with the exception of ‘The Immortals’ by Anne Riitta Ciccone and the directorial debut of Michela Giroud who also starred in ‘Flaminia’, the house led by Orfei, after ‘Enea’ by Castellitto which will arrive at the cinema on 14 January, focuses on ‘Indagine su una storia d’amore’ by Gianluca Tavarelli, ‘Non sono che sono – The tragedy of Othello by William Shakespeare’ by Leo (passed at Locarno 2023), ‘Confidenza’ by Daniele Luchetti dealing with another novel by Starnone, ‘Romeo is Juliet’ by Giovanni Veronesi and ‘Caracas’ second directorial for Marco D’amore.
Fandango will instead distribute, after the preview at the Rome Film Festival, ‘Volare!’ Margherita Buy’s aerophobic directorial debut. Ginevra Elkann (Grand Public section) also stopped by the Roman event with ‘Te l’attotto’, while ‘Girasoli’ by Catrinel Marlon (Europictures), ‘Holy Shoes’ by Luigi Di Capua, and ‘Punto’ will arrive from the Turin Film Festival. of dew’ by Marco Risi, like the excellent ‘Non riattacche’ by Manfredi Lucibello (I Wonder). Other titles looking for programming: ‘Wanted’ by Fabrizio Ferraro and ‘The Well’ by singer-songwriter Federico Zampaglione.
What about ‘international’ films? Needless to say, they are all directors. Marco Tullio Giordana will present ‘Life Next’, written with Marco Bellocchio. But if Martone moves to Rome from Naples for a new yet untitled effort dedicated to Goliarda Sapienza, Sorrentino continues in the ‘Neapolitan phase’: after ‘It was the hand of God’, the Oscar winner will return to theaters with a film yet to be named , however dedicated to Partenope, a protagonist called “like her city, but she is neither a mermaid nor a myth”, as stated in the cryptic synopsis. Meanwhile, his ‘his son’ Filippo Scotti will become a young, psychotic writer infatuated with an American soldier in 1940s Bologna. Story (the novel ‘The American Garden’) and direction are by Pupi Avati.
To form an opinion on Luca Guadagnino’s ménage à trois, however, first announced and then withdrawn from the Venice Film Festival due to the Hollywood Strike, it seems that we will have to wait until late spring: the American release of ‘Challengers’ is set for April 25th, Italian the next day. Love triangle also for Gianni Amelio, not on a tennis court, but on the front: Alessandro Borghi and Gabriel Montesi will be doctors during the First World War in ‘Battlefield’, and rivals in love of the nurse Anna (Federica Rossellini).
Finally, Gabriele Mainetti’s family style kung fu movie set on the Esquiline hill but still looking for a title should also be released within the year with Lucky Red, as is ‘Hey Joe’, a Neapolitan love story directed by Giovannesi between a girl and a US soldier against the backdrop of Naples bombed during the war.
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