2014 marks the 38th year of the Italian Film Festival founded by director Lido Cantarutti.
This year’s program showcases 8 critically acclaimed Italian films and adds two Sunday evening shows to its regular six Saturday schedule running through November.
Mr. Cantarutti kicked off the Bay Area-beloved event on Saturday, September 27, with a screening of the first film: Women Drive Me Crazy (Pazze di me), directed by Fausto Brizzi.
My experience of the Italian Film Festival begins on Sunday, September 28. Arriving from San Francisco, heading north on 101, and exiting at North San Pedro Road, a spectacular view opens up before me: the Frank Lloyd Wright’s elegant Civic Center in Marin. Up close, the low-slung building, with its recurring archways motifs, looks like a futuristic palace. It features an intensely blue dome with a towering church-like spire. The Showcase Theatre, a plush auditorium that seats 348, and the designated venue for the Festival, is at the end of the huge complex of the Marin Center.
At the box office I meet Jo Ann, a gracious volunteer of the Festival since 2008. “Working here is really fun”, says Jo Ann, “Every year I see familiar faces. A lot of people who come to the Festival often buy series tickets, and come back every week until the end of the program”. She says that on the opening day, almost 800 people attend the two film showcases, and they are expecting even more during the upcoming dates.
Soon after entering the theatre I make the acquaintance of another collaborator of Lido Cantarutti’s, Rich Denney, a graphic designer who has been working with the Festival since the early 90s. An aficionado of Italian culture, Rich initially attended Lido’s Italian classes at the College of Marin. In the early days of the festival, Rich produced slide shows for the audience before the film screening, using photos taken during his many trips to Italy. Nowadays, he explains, the preshow is completely manufactured digitally.
And finally, I meet Lido! He warmly welcomes me after the first screening of the day. I walk to the Theatre with him, while he tells me that the Showcase Theatre has been the official venue of the Italian Film Festival for 25 years. He finds the amphitheater’s shape very intimate and perfect for its purpose.
I am very curious about the film selection process for the Festival; Lido explains to me that after reading about the latest Italian movies, and discussing them with Italian distributors, and other film festivals directors, he starts requesting preview screeners of them, watching them one by one, and thoroughly reviewing them for the final selection.
“I usually preview 30 or 40 films for a year, and make my “wish list” of about 15, which I further narrow down by 6 or 8”, explains Lido, “after that, I contact the distributors, see what is available for the dates of the Festival, and make sure that they are subtitled”. “Another important question that I ask myself before choosing a film -especially a comedy- is ‘Is this a film that American audience will understand?’, and I admit that a lot depends on the quality of the subtitles”. This year, having available more films than he expected, he decided to showcase them all and added two extra Sundays, for the happiness of his audience.
Our delightful chat gets stopped by the beginning of the second screening: Scattered Clouds (Qualche nuvola), the first featured film directed by Saverio Di Biagio . It is a romantic comedy that follows the story of Diego, a construction worker who was born and raised in a working class community on the outskirts of Rome. Diego is engaged to Cinzia, whom he has known his entire life, and dated for ten years. She has a very clear idea of how her life should be: she wants to be Diego’s wife. Their relationship takes an unexpected turn, when he meets his boss’s beautiful and free-spirited cousin.
The San Rafael’s Italian Film Festival is a special and beloved event that has been drawing crowds for the last three decades: what started with a mere 50 person audience has become regularly sold out venue. All of the films are presented in their original Italian language with English subtitles. Whether an Italian-speaker or not, I recommend everyone to partake in this enriching experience: not only is it a terrific opportunity to hear the language, it is also a great way to familiarize yourself with Italian culture, customs, and humor: a slice of Italian life.
The Festival definitely reflects the grace, magnanimity, and passion of its dedicated organizer.
Buona visione a tutti!
ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM
Saturday, September 27 – 5:30 and 7:45 PM
Women drive me crazy (Pazze di me)
Directed by Fausto Brizzi
Sunday, September 28 – 4:00 and 6:30 PM
Scattered clouds (Qualche nuvola)
Directed by Saverio Di Biagio
Saturday, October 4 – 5:30 and 7:45 PM
Zoran, my nephew the idiot (Zoran, il mio nipote scemo)
Directed by Matteo Oleotto
Sunday, October 5 – 4:00 and 6:30 PM
Out of the blue (Buongiorno papà)
Directed by Edoardo Leo
Saturday, October 11 – 5:30 and 7:45 PM
Shun Li and the poet (Io sono Li)
Directed by Andrea Segre
Saturday, October 25 – 5:30 and 7:45 PM
Us in the U.S. (Mai stati uniti)
Directed by Carlo Vanzina
Saturday, November 1 – 5:30 and 7:45 PM
Dry land (Terraferma)
Directed by Emanuele Crialese
Saturday, November 8 – 5:30 and 7:45 PM – Closing night
White as milk, red as blood (Bianca come il latte, rossa come il sangue)
Directed by Giacomo Campiotti
Info & Tickets: www.italianfilm.com
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