Fra Noi Embrace Your Inner Italian
The 82nd Venice International Film Festival is upon us and as usual, offers a diverse lineup, embracing many genres of film with dozens of Italian works spanning across the festival’s programs and five in the main competition.
Paolo Sorrentino’s “La grazia” starring Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti opens the festival on August 27.
“I am very happy that the 82nd Venice International Film Festival will open with the new and highly anticipated film by Paolo Sorrentino,” stated the festival’s artistic director, Alberto Barbera, on the festival’s website.
Sorrentino has a long history with the festival having made his debut there in 2001 with his first film, “One Man Up,” during Barbera’s early years as the artistic director. The festival continued its support for Sorrentino with the presentation of the first episodes of the HBO series “The Young Pope” (seasons one and two) and then in 2021 with “The Hand of God,” for which Sorrentino won the Silver Lion-Grand Jury Prize.
Among the other Italian directors with new projects in the main competition are Pietro Marcello, Gianfranco Rosi, Leonardo Di Costanzo and Franco Maresco.
One of the highlights this year is the Venice Classics section, which includes the world premiere screenings of 18 restored film masterpieces. These restorations, completed over the past year, come from film libraries, cultural institutions, and productions worldwide.
“Year after year, the lineup of Venice Classics seeks to pursue even greater openness, celebrating on the one hand the great masterpieces and indisputable masters in the history of cinema, and striving on the other to discover – or rediscover – films and filmmakers who have been ungenerously relegated to the shadows, Barbera said.”
Barbera highlighted the inclusion of four Italian films in the selection, noting the diversity and historical significance of each. Among them is “Roma ore 11” (Rome 11:00) by Giuseppe De Santis, a cornerstone of Neorealism, and “Lo spettro” (The Ghost) by Riccardo Freda, a rediscovered gem of Italian genre cinema. The lineup also features two interpretations of Italian-style comedy: “Il magnifico cornuto” (The Magnificent Cuckold) by Antonio Pietrangeli, starring Ugo Tognazzi, and “Ti ho sposato per allegria” (I Married You for Fun) directed by Luciano Salce, with Monica Vitti in the lead role. During the restoration process, Cinecittà was able to reintegrate two sequences that had been cut by censors and were thought to be lost.
The section also includes American classics such as “The Delicate Delinquent” starring Jerry Lewis and “House of Strangers” by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, featuring Edward G. Robinson as an Italian-American banker.
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