The first “hits” of the Rome Film Fest (14-24 October) are Quentin Tarantino e Tim Burton. Two “irregular” and just a shot to recognize the style, which will be released from promotional opportunities, will receive the career award and will speak in the close encounters of the director of the review Antonio Monda. The first says: «There was a moment in my life when I watched any Italian film. And I’ve spent the best years of my career making my own version of these films. Receive the award at the Rome Film Fest it’s fantastico»(He writes it in Italian). And the other: «This recognition is special, Federico Fellini, Mario Bava and Dario Argento have been important sources of inspiration in my life. I love Rome, it is a city that makes you feel the protagonist of your own film ».
Last year the Festival was in attendance but with a number of limitations and constraints due to Covid. Nobody has a crystal ball but it is hoped that the measures will be relaxed by scientists and the government. “We are adjusting to the distancing, to date we have no guarantees, for now we have to stick to the limited capacity of last year”, explains the general manager Francesca Via. And Monda: «We are preparing to organize a part of online activities in an emergency, like last year. But a party wants sharing, we all work to make a 100 percent review. The move from Cannes to July had very little impact on our program. But we have to wait what happens in Venice ».
The Village around the Auditorium will be back, and a first signal the confidence of the sponsors comes from the increase in the budget, which goes from 3.5 million to 4 million; the total budget of the Cinema per Roma Foundation for its annual activity, on the other hand, falls from 6 million to 5 million 600 thousand euros. The founding members cover 70 percent of the budget: ministry, municipality, region, chamber of commerce, auditorium. President Laura Delli Colli says that “the heart of the festival is becoming the city, in addition to the Auditorium”. Screenings confirmed at the Casa del Cinema and in other rooms, at Maxxi, at the Rebibbia prison, in independent bookstores.
Among the first appearances announced, Emily Mortimer not as an actress (you will remember her in Match Point, The Party and in The Return of Mary Poppins) but as a director of The Pursuit of Love: a film based on the TV series based on the novel of the same name by Nancy Mitford, the search for love through a series of characters and above all of a couple who take, leave, damn each other, but, in fact, never move away from ‘love. The famous writer Zadie Smith (her debut White Teeth was a worldwide case) will talk about the cinema she loves, starting with Taxi Driver. A retrospective curated by Mario Sesti on Arthur Penn, the director of Little Big Man a little forgotten, and the cycle Guilty Pleasures: «Those films light or not completely successful but, at the same time, irresistible », says Monda.
Italian cinema, in the official selection which will include about 40 titles, will be present on the basis of the “dictatorship of quality” and not of a share regardless. Before the films, the clips dedicated to duels, both physical and verbal. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn always dueled, Monda recalls. The vaccines continue (and you will have to live with one of the Hubs at the Auditorium), the hope is that the red carpet will not die of loneliness as in 2020.
June 21, 2021 (change June 21, 2021 | 20:39)
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