LOS ANGELES:

Michael Caine and Paolo Sorrentino will kick off the Cinema Italian Style showcase of contemporary Italian films in Los Angeles by introducing a pre-opening event screening of Sorrentino’s “Youth,” the tender reflection on old age that just swept the European Film Award Nominations, ahead of its upcoming release via Fox Searchlight in the US.

Caine in “Youth” plays a retired orchestra conductor contemplating the indignities of old age and the trappings of celebrity while staying at a luxurious Swiss mountain resort. Pic on Saturday scored EFA nominations in all five top categories — Best European Film, Director, Screenwriter, Actor (Michael Caine) and Actress ( Rachel Weisz).

Fox Searchlight is releasing Sorrentino’s English-language follow-up to 2014 Foreign Language Oscar-winning “The Great Beauty” on Dec 4. It also stars Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, and Jane Fonda. The pre-opening gala will be on Nov 11 at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

Cinema Italian Style will subsequently launch the Oscar campaign for gritty drama “Don’t Be Bad,” which is Italy’s candidate film for this year’s foreign-language Academy Award, directed by deceased helmer Claudio Caligari. Italo A-list actor Valerio Mastandrea, who shepherded this Pasolini-esque look at contempo low life on Rome’s outskirts will be on hand. (RTRS)