Focaccia Blues (2009) Screening Nov. 5 at 7 p.m.
Followed by Q&A session with movie director Nico Cirasola
Duration: 78 min
Director: Nico Cirasola
Cast: Dante Marmone, Luca Cirasola, Tiziana Schiavarelli, Lino Banfi, Renzo Arbore
The movie tells the story of two bakers from Altamura who put the local McDonald’s out of business by stealing away their customers, enticing them with the local version of fast food: delicious focaccia wrapped goodies like meats and cheeses. Altamura is well known for its doughy delicacies. Road signs welcome visitors to ‘‘The City of Bread’’ upon entering the city limits. Earlier this year the film was given the distinction, Best Picture from the Association of Italian Film Critics. Based on a true story chronicled in a 2006 NY Times article The Bread Is Famously Good, but It Killed McDonald’s, the tale of two bakers able to topple a McDonald’s has become the stuff of legends. —–
Italian Cultural Institute of New York.
OGGI Magazine
Cibo e film a braccetto
di Giovanna De Luca
SEBBENE la parola tenda a bloccarsi alla gola, “glocalism” è un concetto che sta diffondendosi rapidamente nel mondo. L’idea si riferisce al modo in cui le società, soprattutto quelle urbane, partecipano attivamente alle operazioni dei mercati globali anche se focalizzano la loro attenzione sempre di più sulle attività economiche locali.
To read more view the pdf.
September 24, 2009
La Gran Bouffe ( La Grande Abbuffata) (1973) – Screening Nov. 6 at 4:30 p.m.
NC-17 for Adult Themes
Marco Ferreri won the FIPRESCI Prize given by the International Federation of Film Critics at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival.
Duration: 2hr 9m
Director: Marco Ferreri
Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Ugo Tognazzi
Perhaps the most notorious film in director Marco Ferreri’s career, this pointed and scatological satire provoked controversy and outrage upon its release, and remains perverse and hilarious to this day. Four well-to-do friends gather at a charming villa for a feasting and debauchery—with the proclaimed purpose of eating themselves to death. Bouffer is French slang for eating but with the added nuance of stuffing oneself (the Italian “abbuffata” means “great eating”). Three prostitutes and a kindly schoolteacher join the festivities, which escalate to lethal degrees. The all-star cast gamely commits to Ferreri sense of comedy, making “La Gran[de] Bouffe” one of the funniest movies about food ever made. —adapted from The New York Times, Robert Firsching
September 24, 2009
Mid-August Lunch ( Il Pranzo di Ferragosto) (2008) – Screening Nov. 6 at 7 p.m.
Duration: 75 min.
Director: Gianni di Gregorio
Cast: Valeria de Franciscis, Marina Cacciotti, Maria Cali
A middle-aged man looks after his elderly mother as unpaid bills pile up around him. As the traditional Italian holiday weekend of 15 August approaches, the hapless hero is offered a partial solution to his pecuniary problems. His landlord, one of his friends and even his doctor each persuade him to let them dump their elderly relatives on him. Notwithstanding his reluctance to take on such responsibility, the possibility of relief from his financial straits is irresistible, so an assortment of ill-matched, elderly ladies descends on the tiny flat. Written and directed by one of Italy’s most celebrated screenwriters, Gianni di Gregorio (who most recently contributed to the acclaimed Gomorrah), here making his feature debut, “Mid-August Lunch” is a miniature gem, by turns comic, embarrassing, engaging and emotionally affecting. This is a small but beautifully rendered drama of manners that captures the nuances of people’s behavior and shows a misfit group of individuals, coping (or not) with each others’ idiosyncrasies. “Mid-August Lunch” is a charming and convincing first feature from di Gregorio.
—adapted from The Times, Adrian Wootton
September 24, 2009
Lessons in Chocolate (Lezioni Di Cioccolato) (2007) – Screening Nov. 7 at 4:30 p.m.
Duration: 1hr 40m
Director: Claudio Cupellini
Cast: Luca Argentero, Violante Placido, Neri Marcorè, Hassan Shapi, Josefia Forlì, Monica Scattini, Francesco Pannofino
Winner of Best Comedy and Best Actress (Violante Placido) at the 2007 Monte Carlo Comedy Film Festival, Lessons In Chocolate is a fresh and delightful comedy where humor and pathos are mixed in the right proportions.
Mattia, a building contractor on a promising career path, is about to close the biggest deal of his professional life, when his illegally-hired worker Kamal falls off some scaffolding, suffers a severe break and threatens to sue and press charges against Mattia unless… Unless Mattia takes his place in an advanced course for pastry makers! This is the reason Kamal came to Italy from his native Egypt and that will allow him to realize his dream of opening his own pastry shop… Mattia has no choice but to take Kamal’s place in the school and pretend to be him. Among laughs and mouth-watering recipes, Mattia will discover a way to bring his and Kamal’s disparate cultures together.—Filmitalia.org
September 24, 2009
Terra Madre (Mother Earth) (2009) – Screening Nov. 7 at 6 p.m.
Screening will be followed by a panel discussion hosted by Slow Food Charleston
Duration: 78 Min.
Director: Ermanno Olmi
Cast: Vandana Shiva, Ampello Bucci, Marco Rizzone, Pier Paolo Poggio, Aldo Schiavone, Carlo Petrini, Maurizio Gelati, Angelo Vescovi, Wangari Maathai, Winona Laduke
Narrator: Omero Antonutti
Ermanno Olmi returns to his documentary roots with “Terra Madre.” This is an international organization promoting local farming economies to ensure that traditional methods of sustainable agriculture shorten the distance between producer and consumer. Though the subject is inspiring, and the final section displays Olmi’s affinity for man’s symbiotic relationship with nature. The mixture of footage ranges from the annual Turin Terra Madre conference, to a farm in India, to Scenes from the newly inaugurated Svalbard Global Seed Vault, to an orchard in northern Italy, accompanied by narrator Omero Antonutti. The last 10 minutes, however, shot at a farm in Italy’s Adige Valley, is a ravishingly evocative mood poem to a genuine prelapsarian Garden of Eden. —Variety, Jay Weissberg
September 21, 2009