Italian Film Fest Returns to WRL

By WYDaily Staff Saturday, January 02, 2010

The third annual Italian Film Festival begins at the Williamsburg Library Theatre on Tuesday, Jan. 12, with the romantic drama “Incantato,” to be followed Tuesday, Feb. 9, by the hilarious satire of classic caper films “Big Deal on Madonna Street.” The annual fest concludes Tuesday, March 9, with the high-spirited love story “Respiro.”

The Festival is co-sponsored by Williamsburg Regional Library and the Colonial Italian American Organization (CIAO). The films, in Italian with English subtitles, will be shown at 7 p.m. each date in the Williamsburg Library Theatre, 515 Scotland St. in the city. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend both the film and the reception following. No tickets are required.

Bob Rescigno, Festival chairman, said “The third annual Italian Film Festival marks CIAO’s continuing efforts to highlight and promote the rich cultural traditions of its members’ Italian heritage and share those traditions with the entire community.” Patrick Golden, WRL’s program services director, said “The library is pleased to partner with CIAO on these wonderful films which, besides being great works of art, are reflections of the vibrancy of life we associate with Italy and the Italians.”

“Incantato” was released in 2003 as “Il Cuore Altrove” and won an Italian Academy Award for best director. Set in Rome and Bologna in the 1920s, it is the story of Nello, 35, a shy and clumsy bookworm in search of a soul mate equal to those in the Latin and Greek verses he teaches. His lack of interest in women becomes an increasing source of anxiety to his father, a tailor, who sends Nello to teach in a high school in Bologna in the hope he will find a wife. After a series of mishaps and against all odds, Nello meets Angela at a dance in a home for blind women. But her blindness turns out to be more than meets the eye when her previous life catches up with them both.  In color, 107 minutes.

“Big Deal on Madonna Street” was released in Italy in 1958 as “I soliti ignoti” and nominated in 1959 for the “best foreign film” Academy Award. It details the plight of a sad-sack group of bumbling thieves and their desperate attempts to pull off the perfect heist. Vittorio Gassman plays the gang’s leader, a punchy boxer with more attitude than ability, and in the cast are a young Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale. An aging Toto, a legendary comedic actor with incredible screen presence, plays the “technical adviser” of this rag-tag group. The real strength of the film, however, lies in its writing, for each joke is subtly conceived and wonderfully delivered. Black and white, 106 minutes.

“Respiro” (breath) was released in 2002 and won several awards at the Cannes Film Festival. It tells the story of Grazia, a mother of three married to shy fisherman Pietro and living on the idyllic Mediterranean island of Lampedusa. Her free spirit contrasts with the smothering world around her and she shows signs of manic-depressive behavior. When family members vaguely discuss sending her to a facility in the north, she hears the talk and hides in a cave on the shore, where her oldest son, Pasquale, secretly tends to her. Pietro doggedly searches for Grazia but his friends conclude she has drowned. Pietro never gives up the search, however, and the results are miraculous. Color, 95 minutes.