61st Locarno International Film Festival (August 1-18)

61st Locarno International Film Festival
Locarno (Switzerland)
August 1-18, 2008

Throughout its 60 year history, the Locarno International Film Festival has occupied a unique position in the landscape of the major film festivals.

Here is a list of Italian films in programme.

The Piazza Grande programme:
- Lezione 21, the first film by Italian writer Alessandro Baricco (the movie conducts an intriguing investigation into Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, starring Noah Taylor and John Hurt)

International Competion:
- Mar Nero by Federico Bondi (the movie is a lyrical observation of the relationship that develops between an elderly woman and her young Romanian servant)

Filmmakers of the Present Competition:
- Becket by Davide Manuli (the movie takes three wandering characters into an absurd and crazy no man’s land – an unusual film for Italian cinema, shot in three weeks on a tiny budget, and with the participation of Fabrizio Gifuni and Paolo Rossi)
- Napoli Piazza Municipio, a poetic documentary by Bruno Oliviero (the town square in the port of Naples becomes a metaphor for the whole of society)

The Leopard of Tomorrow:
- Camille e Mariuccia by Samuele Romano

Auteur Shorts:
- Basette by Gabriele Mainetti

Ici & Ailleurs [Here & Elsewhere]:
- Il sol dell’avvenire by Gianfranco Pannone (it invites us to confront contemporary Italy and that of the 70s, via an encounter with former activists in the "Reggio Emilia cell" which was at the origin of the foundation of the Red Brigades)
- Petites historias das crianças by Fabio Scamoni, Gabriele Salvatores and Guido Lazzarini (a touching documentary about the InterCampus project, launched ten years ago by the leaders of Milan’s Inter club, to offer children in countries affected by war or poverty an escape route from their plight through football)
- Possibili rapporti. Due poeti. Due voci by the poet and filmmaker Nelo Risi (a privileged encounter with the major Italian poet Andrea Zanzotto)
- There is also an opportunity to rediscover, 40 years later, a legendary Nelo Risi feature film, Diario di una schizofrenica (1968), an account of a psychoanalytical therapy in Italy in the 60s.
- CIMAP ! Cento italiani matti a Pechino by Giovanni Piperno (The film of Nelo Risi is shown in counterpoint to the stunning documentary by Piperno in which a group of mentally ill patients, accompanied by their doctors and families, make an unusual train journey from Venice to …Beijing!)
- Non chiederci la parola by Elisabetta Sgarbi
- Parafernalia by Massimo Coppola and Giovanni Giommi
- Preparativi di fuga by Tommaso Cotronei
- Reta Nece Biti (Non ci sarà la guerra) by Daniele Ganaglione
- Sognavo le nuvole colorate by Mario Balsamo
- Strade trasparenti by Augusto Contento [France]

- Confini d'Europa, six films by Corso Salani
The section Ici & Ailleurs offers the whole set of six films from the Italian filmmaker about unusual and little known places in Europe – a series whose third episode, Imatra, won the Special Jury Prize in the Filmmakers of the Present Competition at Locarno in 2007
- Ceuta e Gibilterra – Italy – 2006 – 54 min.
- Rio de Onor– Italy – 2006 – 54 min.
- Imatra – Italy – 2007 – 75 min.
- Talsi – Italy – 2007 – 60 min.
- Chisinau – Italy – 2007 – 52 min. – International Première
- Yotvata – Italy – 2007 – 52 min. – International Première

Section Play Forward:
- Anorexia. Storia di un’immagine by Leandro Manuel Emede (the short revisits last year’s controversial poster campaign by Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani – 2008 – Italy – 25 min.)
- Beijing Sky by Olivo Barbieri – 2007– Italy – 15 min.
- Desertogrigio by Maria Arena – 2008 – Italy – 15 min.
- Glima by Masbedo – 2008 – Italy – 17 min.
- Hitler vs Gandhi by Maia Guarnaccia – 2008 – Italy – 11 min.
- Il Ciclope by Debra Werblud – 2008 – Italy – 3 min.
- The Moving Town by Alberto Nacci – 2008 – Italy – 10 min.
- Wart. La bellezza della tragedia by Leandro Manuel Emede – 2007 – Italy – 6 min.

Section “Appellation Suisse 2008”
- Days And Clouds (Giorni e nuvole) by Silvio Soldini – 2007-

Retrospective Nanni Moretti