This is K PBS midday edition. I'm Maureen Cavanagh. The San Diego Italian Film Festival kicks off its 12th year tonight with a mafia musical called Love and bullets at the Museum of Photographic Arts. Hey PBS film critic Betha Komando gets a preview with the festival's artistic director Antonio enough. De Antonio you are getting ready to kickoff the 12th annual San Diego Italian Film Festival and I am so excited about your opening night film because it's been described as a Mafia musical. Oh yes it's unique crazy movie the title is A Mora a Malavika and yes it's a crime musical it's a mafia movie a Camorra movie to be precise and buying. We have so much. We have songs that are some of them are original songs some of them are a cover of pieces that everybody will recognize. And hopefully you know then it's in the in the theater. The two directors are the Monetti Braza are two brothers from Roma but they're in love with Knepp Napolitan general. And so yeah I'm very glad that we're going to start with what was considered the best movie in last year season. Now audiences are used to Bollywood films where people break out into song all the time what's kind of the history of musicals in Italy. We don't have a big history of musical Neidl years. As you know we cannot rely on a tradition of musical saw in our history. Yeah we don't have anything like that. Well it's because these two guys the Monetti brothers come from. From TV they made a lot of bleeps video clips in the MTV Italian you know chapter and soul and they're very different from all the film industry that we have in Italy. They were considered like kind of you know nerds geeks. And then they finally won this big prize. And they couldn't understand why they won. You know there are interviews where they were shocked but you know when our audience will see the movie we will understand why most of your films are screening at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balbo Park. But you are having a documentary. Caravaggio's screening at the beautiful large cinema at the Natte. Tell me about that film. Caravaggio's monument somewhere the soul and the blood. I wouldn't call it a documentary something in between documentary and a fiction movie. We have the voice of Caravaggio telling his own story and we are also have you know like an actor impersonating some scenes at the same time is very well documented and is visually amazing. We're going to see how Caravaggio probably painted these masterpieces and visualizer is incredible. The centerpiece of your festival is your gala where you get film and food. Yeah last year we had you know a focus about Naples so two years ago we focused about aporia that is in the south of Italy and again this year we are in the south of Italy and the focus is on Calabria. So we're going to have food that is authentic Calabrian food. We're going to have music. Live music. And the movies a la their agenda. Tony Vilar and one of the actors of the movie pep rallies also performer and musician and agreed to come not to come again to San Diego. So he will perform live for 30 minutes before the movie. Well I'm very excited to be presenting with the San Diego Italian Film Festival a film with film geek San Diego and that is Sergio Leonis. Once upon a time in the West these are known as Spaghetti Westerns. What is it about spaghetti westerns that makes them unique. They really changed the way of doing westerns. In my opinion when Sergio Leone started doing them in mid 60s the whole war was I was amazed and shocked. How is possible that you know this guy from south of Italy again from Louisiana. He's doing something that Americans that invented the genre cannot do. So what we can do after him. So you really changed the course of the genre. In my opinion he did something really special at so many levels with actors with stories with with music. Of course I knew Morricone soundtracks are so important for this movie so we can close our eyes and imagine the whole movie listening to the to the score. And we would be satisfied. As you know both you know our mission is to bring the Woodies current into Italian film industry and all of our movies are very recent with the exception of Once Upon a Time in the West the fiftieth anniversary we had this opportunity to partner with film geeks and depart the partnership was very successful and so we're very happy to you know to bring to our audience a set of Julio and his masterpiece that we can share with with you. And Miguel Rodriguez of course. Yes. And with these getit westerns you really need to be seen on a big screen because there's so much about landscape and the landscape not only of the land but of the human face too. Yeah let's say the truth. We're doing that because we wanted to watch it on the big screen. You know I my my passion with with movies started with Martin Scorsese and Sergio Julio. And but I'm a little too young to have the opportunity to watch these movies on the big screen. So now we play with our festival and we have you know this masterpiece on the big screen and after the movie we're going to have a conversation with with you Beth and Miguel and our audience about it about the movie. And that's very important for us. And you were closing the festival with an animated film called Cinderella cat. I'm going to let you say in Italian because you'll say it much more beautifully than I can. Yeah your original title is got Chinderah and Tolla. Of course of Chinderah and Cinderella. We all know about the story of Cinderella. This one is based on the original story from the siccing and read of these Neapolitan rider bazillions. And yes it's an animated movies for adults. I want to be very clear about that. It's not for kids it's a science fiction thriller noir movie so it's not the usual Cinderella story and it's beautifully crafted by these Neapolitan group of young readers. One of the things about a film festival that's great is this opportunity to see films and then put them in a context through discussion. So you're actually having a director come down which film is that for Yeah the director is Andrea Cigarroa and he's Gaiman. Saturday the 6th of October 4. Do you order of things Lord into Gaza is a movie about the migration crisis. One of the big topics today in Italian in Italian movies. For the first time he has the point of view of a policeman not of a migrant but of special policemen that these sent from the Italian government to Libya to understand you know the situation between the two countries Libya Eataly Libya and Europe. So calm and have this unique opportunity to have a dialogue with him. That was KPBS film critic Beth Accomando speaking with San Diego Italian film festival artistic director Antonio nata. The festival runs tonight through October 14th.
The San Diego Italian Film Festival kicks off its 12th festivale with a Mafia musical called "Ammore e malavita" ("Love and Bullets") at the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) in Balboa Park.
Antonio Iannotta, SDIFF artistic director, is quick to point out that the more accurate description for this crime film would be a Camorra musical since the film is set in Naples and the crime syndicate in that part of southern Italy goes by that name. "Ammore e malavita" won the Donatello Award (the Italian equivalent of the Oscar) for Best Film earlier this year and is the festival choice for opening night film.
Although Italy is the birthplace of opera, musicals are not really a part of its cinema. Iannotta said that Italian cinema doesn't have a tradition of musicals to draw on but that the filmmakers, Antonio and Marco Manetti, come from outside the film industry and with a background making music videos.
As part of the festival's dedication to providing a context for films and a discussion about them, it has produced a series of what it calls Points of View videos in which individual films are analyzed by festival associates. The analysis of "Ammore e malavita" is provided by Cinema Junkie guest blogger Rebecca Romani.
These discussions also extend to the festival itself as filmmaker Andrea Segre will be on hand after the screening of his film "L’ordine delle cose" ("The Order of Things") on Oct. 6. The film deals with the issue of immigration but from the point of view of Corrado, a policeman for the European task force in charge of immigration control rather than from the perspective of an immigrant. Iannotta provides his point of view of the film in this festival video.
Midday guest and Moviewallas podcaster Yazdi Pithavala serves up his analysis of "A ciambra." The film looks to Pio Amato, who at 14 years old wants to grow up fast.
Most of the films at the feStivale will screen at MOPA, but the film "Caravaggio: The Soul and the Blood" required something bigger so it will play at the San Diego Natural History Museum's impressively grand film venue. Iannotta described the film as "something in between a documentary and a fiction movie" as it chronicles the life and art of painter Caravaggio.
As part of Film Geeks SD, I will be co-presenting the single retro screening of the festival, the 50th-anniversary tribute to Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time in the West." After the film, Iannotta, Miguel Rodriguez (also of Film Geeks SD), and I will hold a discussion about the film and spaghetti westerns. This is an epic film that deserves to be seen and savored on the big screen. It showcases Leone and composer Ennio Morricone at the height of their craft, and dazzles us with epic landscapes as well as lingering close-ups exploring the terrain of the human face. These spaghetti westerns reflected a modern and more jaded sensibility than found in earlier American examples of the genre.
The feStivale also features a gala event on Oct. 7 featuring food, music, and film from the region of Calabria. Actor and musician Peppe Voltarelli will provide the music and then you can watch him in the film "La vera leggenda di Tony Vilar."
The feStivale closes on Oct. 14 with the adult animation "Gatta Cenerentola" ("Cinderella the Cat"), which uses the classic fairy tale for the starting point of what Iannotta called "a science fiction noir thriller."
San Diego Italian Film Festival's 12th feStivale runs from Oct. 3 through 14.
You can also enjoy the other SDIFF Points of View videos in preparation for seeing the films.
