The ICFF is back, or shall I say the Lavazza IncluCity Festival, organized by the ICFF? Once Toronto's Italian film fest, IncluCity has rebranded in recent years into a multicultural (and multi-disciplinarian) visual arts festival. The core remains Italian films, but IncluCity has expanded its tent to include even Jewish and Chinese cinema, not to mention painting, opera, fashion and this year horror films. All in all, IncluCity will screen more than 50 feature films drawn from 26 countries.
From June 27 to July 22, the center of IncluCity will be the Distillery District with screenings taking place in oversize, plush seats beneath the stars (rain or shine) on this historic district's cobblestone avenue. It is, without a doubt, the most gorgeous setting to watch a film.
There's a lot to unpack with IncluCity 2023, and here are the highlights:
Written by Fabio Morici with Claudia Gerini and Antonio Baioccio (story)
ChinoKino score: A-
On Our Watch (E Noi Come Stronzi Rimanemmo A Guardare)
Directed by Pif
Written by Michele Astori & Pif
ChinoKino score: B
The Italian Contemporary Film Festival returns to Toronto's big screens in 2022 following an absence during the pandemic. The ICFF coped well by offering a fine selection of drive-in movies, but this year returns to the cinema proper as well as to home computer in a hybrid model. Directly and indirectly influenced by the pandemic, two of the best films involve technology, The Treadmill and On Our Watch.
The Treadmill stars Italian's renown Claudia Gerini who also directed and co-wrote. She plays a therapist named Emma who treats "clients" via videophone (a la Zoom) while she runs on a jogging machine. Why? It's good for her body and mind.
She offers comfort to a depressed artist, persuades an abused wife to flee her abusive husband and helps a teenage boy accept his homosexuality despite living in a strict Catholic family. She listens and empathizes, even when a suicidal man insults her. Here, technology bridges patient with therapist, but therapist also uses technology to distance herself from others.
Emma herself reveals her own vulnerabilities when a long-lost sister tracks her down and begs her to see their dying father. Emma shuts her down and wants nothing to do with that man. Emma resumes jogging on her treadmill, but she can't flee anywhere.
Though a lot of the action on screen happens in Emma's condo, The Treadmill keeps moving and never feels stuck. The audience sticks with Emma from the first frame and follows her as she treats her client-patients as well as heal her own family rift. Gerini portrays Emma with natural ease, offering her character complexity and authenticity. All supporting characters are fleshed out and feel real. Gerini carries the film, which she scripted with writer Fabio Morici and Antonio Baioccio who conceived the story. The Treadmill is superb and marks a fine directorial debut by star Gerini.
On Our Watch takes a lighter, slightly comedic view of technology through Arturo, a mid-manager at a company who unsuspectingly introduces the algorithm which renders him redundant. Overnight, Arturo loses his job and girlfriend, and resorts to delivering food on his bike at a tech behemoth called FUUBER. Think Uber Eats and Foodora, but also Facebook, Google and Amazon all rolled into one suffocating megatech that tracks its users' lives across the internet.
Wisely, Fabio De Luigi plays Arturo deadpan. The satire is already in the script on screen and director Pif controls the comedy to avoid it tipping into silliness. There is no shortage of mayhem. Anything that can go wrong for Arturo delivering food, goes badly. He pays FUUBER for a virtual girlfriend, rents a room to a real-life roommate who has his own digital problems, and keeps getting penalized at his job. He can't catch a break in this digital world. Eventually, Arturo gets fed up with FUUBER enslaving him, and crosses the ocean to find the real woman behind his virtual girlfriend.
In doing so, Arturo rips the mask off FUUBER and exposes its totalitarian grip on him and countless others. The end of the film takes a jarring dramatic turn and suffers from preachiness, but this is foregivable. On Our Watch is a witty, observant warning of the perils of digital privacy.
The Italian Contemporary Film Festival opened at Toronto's TIFF Bell Lightbox Thursday night with star Paola Cortellesi (above) presenting the crowd-pleasing comedy, Qualcosa di nuovo (Something New) (see here for review). Ms. Cortellesi also stars in Mamma o Papa? (Mom or Dad?) playing at the ICFF.
You gotta love the Italians for opening their film festival, the ICFF on June 8 in Toronto, with a romantic comedy about two older women and a younger man.
In Qualcosa di nuovo (Something New), best friends Lucia (Paola Cortellesi, above right) and Maria (Micaela Ramazzotti, above left) fall for the same younger man, Luca (Eduardo Valdarnini, above center) without knowing it. Luca's finishing high school, and Paolo and Micaela have finished past marriages. They feel exhilarated being with 19-year-old Eduardo, but also uneasy. Sure, the sex is fantastico, but when they try to relate to him outside the bed the differences between them emerge: divorces, children, career. Things don't help when the two good friends discover they're seeing the same younger guy.
Directed by Cristina Comencini, Qualcosa di nuovo is a breezy comedy, a crowd-pleaser and a decent choice to open this year's ICFF. Lucia and Maria offer some dimension, though Luca remains a callow, young man interested only in getting laid. The comedy is more cute than cutting, squarely in the tradition of mainstream Italian cinema. Cortellesi shines, offering some vulnerability to her Lucia. She will grace the red carpet at the ICFF opening gala in Toronto on Thursday, June 8 at 7:00 pm with further screenings in Montreal and Vaughan.
The line-up of the sixth ICFF (The Italian Contemporary Film Festival) was unveiled at Toronto's Ritz-Carlton earlier today, highlighted by Christian De Sica (above), son of iconic director and actor Vittorio De Sica (The Bicycle Thief), who will receive the ICFF’s Lifetime Achievement Award. De Sica will also present his latest films, Poveri ma ricchi (Poor but Rich) and Fraulein/Una fiaba d’inverno. Past recipients include Al Pacino, Roberto Benigni and Claudia Cardinale. The ICFF will also his present is father's classic comedy, Matrimonio all’italiana (Marriage Italian Style) and host a live talk, In conversation with Christian De Sica, where he will discuss his and his father's work.
As in recent years, the ICFF will take place in several cities at once. A total of 180 screenings will grace screens from June 8-16 at Toronto's TIFF Bell Lilghtbox as well as in Vaughan, Hamilton, Montreal, Québec City and Vancouver. To honour Canada's 150th birthday, the ICFF will host From Bello to Beautiful: The Art and Impact of Italian-Canadian Cinema, seven days of free screenings starting with Noelle’s Journey, a documentary by Peter Gentile about two immigrants who left southern Italy for a new life in Canada.
From June 9-19, Italian cinema rules Toronto and Vaughan (with screenings in Hamilton, Quebec City and, new this year, Niagara Falls) with the Italian Contemporary Film Festival. The ICFF offers another entertaining year of movies, mostly drawn from Italy with a few from Canada, but this year the overall program skews towards comedy and romance.
The films of neo-realist pioneer, Vittorio De Sica, are being celebrated this summer at an exhibition taking place at Toronto's Italian Cultural Institute. Last night marked the North American premiere of Tutti De Sica, presented in collaboration with TIFF Cinematheque and curated by Italian-Canadian artist Mimmo Baronello.
The 59 photographs, two video stations, a projection of De Sica's signature film, The Bicycle Thief, and the bicycle used in that film amount to a scaled-down version of an exhibit presented in Rome at Ara Pacis in 2013. (Actually, the bicycle was missing during last night's opening, courtesy of Canada Customs which has held it up. It will be in the exhibit as of today.)
The fourth Italian Contemporary Film Festival wrapped on Friday evening with a lavish red-carpet gala party at the Ritz-Carlton. Italian comedy star Edoardo Leo picked up The People’s Choice Award for his film, Noi e la Giulia, that he both directed and starred in. Leo also appeared at ICFF in the comedy, I Can Quit Whenever I Want.
Mischa Barton (Hope Lost) received an Award of Honour from the festival. Sergio Navaretta, an Italian-Canadian director, captured the Castlepoint Numa Award for his romantic-comedy, The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship, at the gala. (Full review here.)
The second half of the Italian Contemporary Film Festival offers some gems, with screenings in Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City and Vaughan through Friday.
Directed by Sydney Sibilia, I Can Quit Whenever I Wantis a lively comedy bout a university science researcher (Italian star Edoardo Leo, center above) who loses his job and turns to making a potent synthetic drug to get by. He hires his academic buddies, all of them underemployed now washing dishes or pumping gas but were once chemists and economists, to form his gang to sell his "non-illegal" drug to clubbers.
The comedy obviously tips its cap to Breaking Bad and Weeds, but fortunately steers clear of corniness and cuteness that plagues so many Italian comedies. Instead, the movie is a deadpan and surprisingly tongue-and-cheek critique of modern Italian society where even the most educated can't land a job. I Can Quit Whenever I Want, however, ends abruptly and the story could've used one last turn, but it's still a fun, entertaining romp.
The Italian Contemporary Film Festival (ICFF) is enjoying one of its stronger years. From drama to documentary, the films in 2015 are consistently rewarding. Though I haven't seen a terrible movie yet, I also haven't found a superb one either. To speak in baseball terms, the ICFF films are hitting singles and doubles, but no homers yet. Here are a few to consider this weekend at screenings in Toronto, Vaughan, Montreal and Quebec City. (Check here for screening times in your city.)
Midnight Sun is an entertaining family film about a boy who befriends a lost cub in frigid northern Canada. Think boy-and-his-dog adventure, except the dog is a polar bear and the terrain is covered in snow and ice flows. It stars Toronto's own Dakota Goyo.
Sin, redemption, family. These are well-worn themes that drive the thriller Perez. It's about an incorruptible lawyer from Naples who defends underdogs until his daughter hooks up with a mobster. Not a smart move. Without spoiling the film, let's say that daddy lawyer Perez has to compromise his ethics by striking a deal with the mobster's boss to help him recover some precious diamonds. Perez is slick and stylish, and lead Luca Zingaretti is a strong, stoic presence as Perez. However, as mentioned above the movie doesn't tread new ground.
You gotta hand it to the Italians: They know how to party.
The Italian Contemporary Film Festival opened in Toronto last night with a screening of the biopic, L'Oriana, about legendary journalist Oriana Fallaci (review here) at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, then a gala party at Roy Thompson Hall.
Savoury samples, including pork sandwiches, pizza and lobster rolls, were served indoors while the outdoor patio hosted a live band and a dizzying array of Italian sweets from the likes of The Big Cannoli, Exquisitely Yours and Dolcini that would kill any diabetic.
Screenings continue all weekend in Toronto, Vaughan, Montreal and Quebec City. Check back here for reviews.
This year's Italian Contemporary Film Festival (ICFF) opens Thursday night in Toronto and Vaughan with L'Oriana, a biopic about Oriana Fallaci, one of the most fearless and celebrated journalists of the 20th century.
The Florence-born Fallaci was known as a formidable interviewer, getting heavyweights such as Henry Kissinger to admit Vietnam was a "useless war" and having the gall to calls Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini a "tyrant" to his face.
Fallaci was a passionate personality who survived war zones and covered world politics with an intensity that this film, directed by Marco Turco, succeeds in capturing. Fallaci is a natural subject for the silver screen. Her words spring to life on screen and its through her words that her fiery intellect shines like a laser beam. Vittoria Puccini nicely balances Fallaci's ferocious drive and compassion.
On May 22, the ICFF presented the Canadian premiere ofMidnight Sun (Il Mio Amico Nanuk), starring Toronto’s own Dakota Goyo who plays a boy living in icy northern Canada and befriends a young polar bear.
