GENOVESE FILMS FOR FESTIVAL
The Italian Film Fest at Cinema Nouveau features the work of the influential filmmaker
Every year at about this time Cinema Nouveau hosts the Johannesburg Italian Film Festival. It is curated by Claudio Cocci, an Italian film buff, and this year showcases movies by director Paolo Genovese, one of Italy’s most successful contemporary filmmakers. Genovese’s 2016 film, Perfect Strangers , was awarded the David di Donatello award at the Venice film festival and best screenwriter at Tribeca Film Festival.
The comedy-drama revolves around friends who decide to bare their secrets at a dinner by exposing the contents of their smartphones for all to see. It has been remade in several languages and countries after grossing more than €14m at the Italian box office in 2016.
Cocci says he started the Joburg Italian Film Festival because he wanted to share his passion for Italian films.
“I have clear memories as a young boy of discussing cinema into the late hours at our dining-room table with my parents. The idea to launch an Italian film festival presented itself when I became president of the Italian-South African Cultural Centre. It was a perfect platform from which I could celebrate and share the films, and promote Italian cinema, which doesn’t get the attention it deserves in SA,” says Cocci.
Cocci chose the films of Paolo Genovese for this year’s festival because he is one of the more influential current filmmakers. “Genovese is in his 50s which means he bridges the gap of the great Italian Neo-Realist filmmakers such as Federico Fellini, Dario Argento, Roberto Rossellini, Bernardo Bertolucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini, and some of the younger directors such as Gabriele Muccino and Giuseppe Tornatore,” says Cocci.
“His films, though modern, are still steeped in and influenced by the golden generation of 20th-century Italian cinema.”
According to Cocci, Italian film is special because Italy has for millennia been a nation of art. “It is home to the biggest amount of Unesco World Heritage sites — all of which are immersed in some art form or other,” he says. “Italian cinema is an extension of the culture of art in Italy. The film history in Italy is long — it is the secondoldest filmmaking nation, and the fact that Italy has won the largest number of best foreign films at the Academy Awards is testament to the country’s passion for the medium.
“I’m still a romantic — I love the thrill of going to a theatre, having the lights dim and seeing an amazing film on the big screen. The films we screen may be in Italian — but they have universal appeal,” says Cocci. “Because of the generous support from institutions including the consulate general of Italy in Johannesburg and the Italian Cultural Institute in Pretoria we’re able to make the event free and open to anyone who wishes to attend. I hope that people take advantage of this.”
Genovese was scheduled to be in Joburg for the festival, but had to pull out. Paolo Costella, screenwriter of
Perfect Strangers, will be here and will host a Q&A with students.
JIFF takes place at Rosebank Cinema Nouveau from November 16-18. Entry is free, on a first-come first-served basis. Films will be screened in Italian with English subtitles. www.jiffestival.com