For its 75th edition, Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival, long known as a global indie cinema temple, is looking to the future while repositioning itself as a forward-thinking hub for a wider range of movies, including studio and streamer titles, with broad audience appeal.
“We believe that entertainment can be both serious and fun: I don’t see an opposing scenario where entertainment is only cheap, and seriousness is only extremely highbrow,” says the fest’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.
Now on his second edition at the fest’s helm, the Italian critic is putting his stamp on Locarno with a lineup that, along with straightforward auteur movies of various kinds, increasingly includes comedies and genre films. The fest’s eclectic nature is illustrated by t he choice of the opener, Sony ’s frothy action thriller “Bullet Train,” directed by David Leitch, which Aaron Taylor-Johnson will be tubthumping on Aug.
“We believe that entertainment can be both serious and fun: I don’t see an opposing scenario where entertainment is only cheap, and seriousness is only extremely highbrow,” says the fest’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.
Now on his second edition at the fest’s helm, the Italian critic is putting his stamp on Locarno with a lineup that, along with straightforward auteur movies of various kinds, increasingly includes comedies and genre films. The fest’s eclectic nature is illustrated by t he choice of the opener, Sony ’s frothy action thriller “Bullet Train,” directed by David Leitch, which Aaron Taylor-Johnson will be tubthumping on Aug.
- 7/30/2022
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Italian film director and screenwriter who established a new school of social-realist comedy
The Italian film director Mario Monicelli has died aged 95, after jumping out of a hospital window in Rome. Monicelli directed more than 60 films, most of which he co-wrote. He was best known for I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal On Madonna Street, 1958), which was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film. It was remade by Louis Malle as Crackers (1984) and turned into a Broadway musical, Big Deal, by Bob Fosse in 1986. Monicelli's original is one of the most internationally admired Italian comedies of the past 60 years.
Born in Viareggio, Tuscany, Monicelli was the son of a journalist, Tomaso Monicelli, who founded one of the earliest Italian film magazines. Tomaso killed himself in 1946. Mario studied at the universities of Milan and Pisa and took an early interest in films. With the future publisher Alberto Mondadori, he collaborated...
The Italian film director Mario Monicelli has died aged 95, after jumping out of a hospital window in Rome. Monicelli directed more than 60 films, most of which he co-wrote. He was best known for I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal On Madonna Street, 1958), which was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film. It was remade by Louis Malle as Crackers (1984) and turned into a Broadway musical, Big Deal, by Bob Fosse in 1986. Monicelli's original is one of the most internationally admired Italian comedies of the past 60 years.
Born in Viareggio, Tuscany, Monicelli was the son of a journalist, Tomaso Monicelli, who founded one of the earliest Italian film magazines. Tomaso killed himself in 1946. Mario studied at the universities of Milan and Pisa and took an early interest in films. With the future publisher Alberto Mondadori, he collaborated...
- 11/30/2010
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
One of Italy's leading screenwriters, he worked on 140 films
One of Italy's most respected and prolific screenwriters, Furio Scarpelli, who has died aged 90, worked on the scripts of about 140 films, sometimes without a credit, and received three shared Oscar nominations, for I Compagni (The Organiser, 1963), Casanova '70 (1965) and Il Postino (1994). Scarpelli enjoyed a lengthy writing partnership, from 1949 until 1985, with Agenore Incrocci, also known as Age. The pair collaborated on the 1958 film I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street), about a team of makeshift thieves, which owed much of its success to the brilliant comic characterisations. The film, starring Vittorio Gassman and Marcello Mastroianni, helped to launch the genre of commedia all'italiana ("comedy Italian-style").
Scarpelli was born in Rome. His Neapolitan father, Filiberto, was a satirical writer who founded a humorous magazine, Il Travaso delle Idee. Furio began his own career as a cartoonist. It was after the second world war,...
One of Italy's most respected and prolific screenwriters, Furio Scarpelli, who has died aged 90, worked on the scripts of about 140 films, sometimes without a credit, and received three shared Oscar nominations, for I Compagni (The Organiser, 1963), Casanova '70 (1965) and Il Postino (1994). Scarpelli enjoyed a lengthy writing partnership, from 1949 until 1985, with Agenore Incrocci, also known as Age. The pair collaborated on the 1958 film I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street), about a team of makeshift thieves, which owed much of its success to the brilliant comic characterisations. The film, starring Vittorio Gassman and Marcello Mastroianni, helped to launch the genre of commedia all'italiana ("comedy Italian-style").
Scarpelli was born in Rome. His Neapolitan father, Filiberto, was a satirical writer who founded a humorous magazine, Il Travaso delle Idee. Furio began his own career as a cartoonist. It was after the second world war,...
- 5/17/2010
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
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