Matt Dillon, a tribute to Boris (the series), Elio Germano, Sandra Milo, Vinicio Marchioni: the protagonists and the events of the Lucca Film Festival e Europa Cinema
PRESS RELEASE
Effetto Cinema Notte inaugurates the 2020 edition. Among the many events, a tribute to Boris with Caterina Guzzanti.
Matt Dillon, a tribute to Boris (the series), Elio Germano, Sandra Milo, Vinicio Marchioni: the protagonists and the events of the Lucca Film Festival e Europa Cinema
Among the events, the masterclass of the director Thomas Vinterberg, one of the founders of Dogma 95,
and the preview of Valley of the Gods by the Polish director Lech Majewski.
Lucca – The master classes and the Lifetime Achievement Award to Matt Dillon; the Boris reunion with some of the series’ leading actors, including Caterina Guzzanti; Vinicio Marchioni with the screening of the documentary “Il terremoto di Vanja” (Vanja’s Earthquake), a tribute to Federico Fellini on the centenary of his birth with an original exhibition and the testimony of Sandra Milo; virtual reality according to Elio Germano; the Lifetime Achievement Award to Thomas Vinterberg, among the founding fathers of the Dogma 95 movement and the master of European cinema Lech Wajewski with the Italian premiere of his latest film, “Valley of the Gods”.
These are some of the highlights and guests of the Lucca Film Festival and Europa Cinema, one of the flagship events of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca, which will be held from September 25th to October 4th, between Lucca (at the Centrale and Astra cinemas) and Viareggio (Cinema Centrale) and on the on-line platform Più Compagnia, , a virtual movie theatre offered by La Compagnia, Fondazione Sistema Toscana’s cinema.
The festival (free entry) will feature both virtual and real-life events in various parts of the city, with screenings, meetings, digital and live events, such as Effetto Cinema Notte, which will open the festival with a programme in observance of all safety measures. This year, the event – which over the years has involved the city with unique and original performance programmes – will present a costume contest between the staff of the participating public exercises and the companies will perform on stage. Effetto Cinema Notte will also feature a social media campaign designed to raise awareness about health safety norms inspired by some of the most iconic movie scenes.
“The Festival – explained Marcello Bertocchini, president of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca – won a challenge in this ‘tragic’ 2020. In the latest months, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca has made an appeal to the many events that we have supported with conviction and passion for years. We asked them to keep culture alive, to commit themselves to any form of initiative. Not only did Lucca Film Festival and Europa Cinema take up this call, it also gave life to an edition that preserves its multidisciplinary style, offering films of remarkable quality and ensuring the presence of international guests and high-level jury members”.
Tribute to Boris, September 26th
The programme continues on September 26th with an Italian cinema reunion: a tribute to the famous tv series Boris with the actors Antonio Catania, Andrea Sartoretti, Valerio Aprea, Karin Proia, Alessandro Tiberi, Carlo De Ruggieri, Raffaele Buranelli, James Ciarrapico and Caterina Guzzanti. The tribute will be a conversation about Boris’ characters with the actors themselves, including interludes of scenes from the series and live comments.
Lifetime Achievement Award to Matt Dillon, September 27th and 28th
The great American movie star Matt Dillon will be in Lucca on September 27th to receive the Festival Award and present the film he directed, “City of Gost” (Astra cinema, 9 p.m.), starring Dillon himself and James Caan. The following day the American actor and director will meet the audience in a conversation on the theme “the actor-director relationship”, with anecdotes about his career and a sneak peek at his future, with the writer Nicola Lagioia (Astra, 5:30 p.m.).
Elio Germano and the virtual reality (September 29th, Centrale and Astra cinemas)
The project is the result of a play starring Germano – who also directed it – as a sole actor. Written by Germano himself and Chiara Lagani, the play became a VR movie in cooperation with Omar Rashid – who co-directed the movie – and Gold multimedia project, of which Rashid is founder. The Roman actor will be present at the two screenings of September 29th (Cinema Centrale, 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.) to meet the audience and lead them through an experience that will enable the spectator to relive the play: they will plunge into the pièce, until confusing reality and fantasy. The same day, he will present the film Volevo Nascondermi by Giorgio Diritti (01 Distribution) in the role of Italian painter and sculptor Antonio Ligabue (Astra, 9 p.m.), a film awarded at Nastri d’Argento and the Berlin Film Festival.
Vinicio Marchionni (September 30th, Astra cinema)
In addition, there will be the presentation of the documentary Il Terremoto di Vanja (Vanja’s Earthquake) in the presence of the actor and director Vinicio Marchioni and of Milena Mancini, actress and screenwriter of the documentary (September 30th, Astra). The actor will tell the audience about the journey that led him to the making of “Il terremoto di Vanja”, which starts from Chekhov’s masterpiece to investigate Italy’s post-earthquake immobility thanks to an imaginary dialogue between Marchioni and Chekhov, voiced by Toni Servillo.
Retrospective and tribute to Thomas Vinterberg
Great international cinema comes back to Lucca with a tribute to Thomas Vinterberg, who won the Jury Price at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival with the movie “Festen”, as well as founding the Dogma 95 movement with Lars Von Trier. The festival will award him the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Danish director – who will be in Lucca from the 1st to the 4th of October – will be the protagonist of a masterclass on his career (4/10, 4:30 p.m., Centrale). The festival’s tribute will retrace his greatest successes as a director: from Festen (The Celebration) in 1998 to Riunione di Famiglia (A Man Comes Home) in 2007 from Via dalla pazza folla (Far from the Madding Crowd) in 2015 to Il suspetto (The Hunt) in 2012 to La Comune (The Commune) in 2016.
Tribute to Federico Fellini with Sandra Milo (October 3rd)
The programme also features a tribute to Federico Fellini on the centenary of his birth, with the direct testimony of the actress Sandra Milo, one of the Italian movie stars of the Sixties and Fellini’s muse. The actress will be at the cinema on October 3rd to present the 1965 film Giulietta degli Spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits), the first full-colour feature film by the director from Rimini, where the actress played Susy, Iris, Fanny and Sylva and won the Best Supporting Actress award at David di Donatello. The actress will speak before and after the festival and will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. She will also pay homage to the exhibition Alberto Sordi, Fellini e i Vitelloni: 100 anni insieme, that will take place in Palazzo Pfanner: the show is a tribute to Federico Fellini and Alberto Sordi and will feature original movie posters, the paintings that inspired them, lobby cards, sketches, books, film stills, vinyl and CD movie soundtracks, all from the private collection of Alessandro Orsucci from Lucca. The tribute to Fellini, to whom the festival’s poster is dedicated, includes, among the live events, a concert in the church of San Francesco on the music of the composer Nino Rota, the director’s closest musical collaborator. The concert, curated by pianist Massimo Salotti, includes the participation of the Associazione Musicale “Sinfonia” and the Tuscan Chamber Orchestra of Etruria Musica, and will represent a real journey through the soundscapes of cinema, with references to the melodies and colours of musical literature of the most famous auteur cinema. Susanna Rigacci will also be at the concert as a special guest. She is internationally known thanks to her voice and because she is the legendary singer of the soundtracks of Sergio Leone’s films, starring music by Ennio Morricone.
Among the exhibitions, besides the one dedicated to Fellini and Sordi, the restaurant-gallery Olio su Tavola will present L’amore durante la fine del mondo, a collection of drawings by Antonio Sidibè dedicated to the relationship between cinema, literature and other forms of art. Both exhibitions will open to the public on September 25th. The one in Palazzo Pfanner will then continue until October 15th, the one in Olio su Tavola until October 4th.
Out-of-competition previews (feature films, short films, documentaries)
The section Anteprime fuori concorso, dedicated to premières and their authors, will feature the movie Valley of the Gods starring Josh Hartnett and John Malkovich and directed by Polish director Lech Majewski, who will be in Lucca from the 1st to the 4th of October). The movie is inspired by the Hittite legend of Ullikummi.
The programme includes the Italian premiere of “Anja – Real_Love_Girl” by Pablo Benedetti and Paolo Martini. The movie tells the story of André Golubev, who lives in a port city and works as a water bottling company worker in a suffocating routine until he meets Anja Lùkina, a young girl with ambiguous manners, and a soft porn actress who changes his life. After the preview the film will make its debut exclusively on demand in Italy on the platform CG Digital: until October 19th, you will be able to rent or download the film in digital format on your device and watch it from home by accessing www.cgdigital.it.
The out-of-competition short films are: Misophonia by Filippo Guarna; Amoruccio di Nonna by Maria Teresa Elena; Giuseppe Magi. A Century Long Story of Emigration and dreams by Francesco Tomei; Oteme e c’è qualcuno, video clip by Stefano Giannotti. The programme also moves to Viareggio, on September 25th (Cinema Centrale), with the screening of Torve fantasie by the director Diego Bonuccelli from Viareggio, with Simone Tessa, Irene Menichetti, Valentina Sorice, Francesco Baldi (II), Stefano Jacurti. Among the world premiere and hors concours events, the screening of the short film Different Century, Same shit by Alessia Alciati, starring actress Francesca Inaudi. A story of racism, discrimination and prejudice set in a dystopian future ruled only by women, where there is a fight between blondes and brunettes for an event organized in collaboration with the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Italia Foundation and the network of film festivals “Film for our future”, that the festival is a part of. In the section there is also Soffitta, a short film by Nicola Barsottelli (first work of the director from Viareggio) set in an attic, where some young people are confronted with their present and their past; and Ripartenza, an 8k short film about Covid-19 by Alessio Focardi, a choral project to tell the story of the recovery of the entertainment world after the Covid-19 pandemic, in which five directors told how painting, music, cinema, dance and theatre got back on their feet after this difficult moment.
About the out-of-competition documentaries: the screenings of Mr Wonderlad by Valerio Ciriaci (USA, 2019), on the extraordinary story of Sylvester Z. Poli, emigrated in the 1920s from Lucca to America, the greatest cinema owner of his time, and Pastrone by Lorenzo De Nicola, on the figure of Giovanni Pastrone, director of Italian silent films, are worthy of note. The programme also features the screening of Andrej Tarkovskij, il cinema come preghiera, a documentary on the great director with the director’s son on Saturday, October 3rd.
The competition
The festival’s pride and joy is the competition section, the Feature and Short Film Competitions, where all the films are Italian premieres to “discover new talents”. The films in the competition will be programmed both in theatres and online on Più Compagnia, the virtual room of the Fondazione Sistema Toscana. For the Feature Film Competition there will be 12 films in Italian premiere and they will compete for the “Best Film” award (worth three thousand euros awarded to the director), which will be awarded by the international jury composed of industry professionals and Italian film stars: Daniele Ciprì, Massimo Gaudioso, Anita Kravos, Claudio Giovannesi and Roberta Mastromichele. The films will also compete for the “Best feature film – university jury” award, awarded by the students’ jury and for the “Best feature film – popular jury” by the popular jury.
For the historic Short Film competition, there will be 19 films selected and they will compete for the “Best Film” award (worth 500 euros), which will be awarded by the international jury composed of great personalities from the cinema industry. The films will also compete for the “Best short film – university jury” award, awarded by the students’ jury and for the “Best short film – popular jury” by the popular jury. The official selection was curated by Rachele Pollastrini, from the Festival’s artistic committee.
Collaborations on the territory, book presentations
Among the synergistic collaborations worth mentioning there is the one with Lucca 48, a film festival where participants will be required to make a short film in 48 hours and the winners screened at the festival on the last day. The 48 hours of the competition will therefore be held from 7:30 p.m. on September 25th to 7:30 p.m. on September 27th. Three novelties of this edition (in addition to the prize of 1500 euro for the best film) the recognition of “Unrolling ” the Future – “The Sustainability Short Film Award” for those who knew how to better address issues related to sustainability and as a tribute to the new prestigious sponsor Sofidel, world leader company in the paper industry. Among the collaborations on the territory, there is the fifth edition of Over The Real – International Videoart Festival, in co-production and as part of the Lucca Film Festival – Europa Cinema programme, from September 30th to October 4th 2020, which will see the extraordinary participation of Fabrizio Plessi. Following the great success of his latest installation “L’età dell’Oro” in Venice, Plessi will hold a meeting at the Fondazione Ragghianti on Friday October 2nd at 3.30 p.m. during which the most important moments of his formidable career will be retraced. Among the events, the presentation of the book “S’è svejatooo! Ricciotto racconta ‘Il marchese del Grillo’ di Giorgio Gobbi (published by Bibliotheka Edizioni, with a preface by Max Tortora (at Palazzo Pfanner, October 4th). It will be followed by the screening at the Cinema Centrale of Il Marchese del Grillo. During the festival guided tours will be organized in Lucca’s cinema places (26/09; 1/10; 3/10) to discover the film sets of the city. The tours are organized by Alexandra Onorato (for more information write to info@toscanaconalexandra.it).
The festival and the schools
The festival, especially this year, is committed to consolidating collaboration with schools and teachers in the area in order to offer them a series of tools to learn about the history of Italian and International cinema. Thanks to the MIUR call for bids “Cinema per la Scuola –Buone Pratiche, Rassegne e Festival”, the festival has activated new projects that will involve the classes of the province of Lucca in a special programme featuring web conferencing and in-presence events that will not only include the screening of films but also presentations and masterclasses by the Festival guests. Moreover, for the entire duration of the event, the films screened will be available to students on-demand (even after school hours), in order to encourage their viewing. The commitment will continue throughout the school year, further offering three training courses, two of which are aimed at teachers and one dedicated to secondary school students.
During the festival the “non-woven fabric” masks, made of bamboo compostable with organic waste, will be distributed by Fabio Perini, a company from Lucca and world leader in the converting sector, which this year supports the festival.
Lucca Film Festival and Europa Cinema
The Lucca Film Festival and Europa Cinema, presided over by Nicola Borrelli, over the years has paid tribute to the great names of International cinema from Oliver Stone to David Lynch, from Rutger Hauer to George Romero, from Paolo Sorrentino to Willem Dafoe. It is among the leading events organized and supported by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca. Banca Generali Private Wealth Management (Paolo Tacchi) and Banca Pictet are the Main Sponsors of the event and the exhibitions are produced with the support of Société Générale. The festival is also supported by Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca, Sofidel, Audi Center Terigi, Martinelli Luce, Fabio Perini S.p.A, Garinucci Napoli, Wella, Luccaorganizza, Il Ciocco S.p.A, Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo, Ministero dell’Istruzione, Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca, Regione Toscana, Fondazione Sistema Toscana, The lands of Giacomo Puccini, Comune di Lucca, Comune di Viareggio and the collaboration and co production of Provincia di Lucca, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Italia, Teatro del Giglio di Lucca, Fondazione Giacomo Puccini e Puccini Museum – Casa Natale, Fondazione Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara, CNA Cinema e Audiovisivo Toscana, Istituto Luigi Boccherini and Liceo Artistico Musicale e Coreutico Augusto Passaglia. We would also like to thank Federazione Italiana Teatro Amatori (FITA), A.C.S.I. Associazione Centri Sportivi Italiani, Lucca Comics & Games, the Regional Direction of Trenitalia, Unicoop Firenze, Confcommercio delle Province di Lucca e Massa Carrara, the Degree Course in Discipline dello Spettacolo e della Comunicazione of the Dipartimento di Civiltà e Forme del Sapere dell’Università di Pisa and Photolux Festival for their collaboration.
Didactic project “Lucca Film Festival – Europa Cinema”. Languages and practice of the cinema and the audiovisual for the school related to the Call for Proposals: Cinema per la Scuola –Buone Pratiche, Rassegne e Festival.
Main partner of the event is MyMovies.it
Media partner of the festival: Movieplayer.it and Badtaste.it
Lucca Film Festival and Europa Cinema
segreteria@luccafilmfestival.it; www.luccafilmfestival.it
Press Office Lucca Film Festival and Europa Cinema:
PS Communication by Antonio Pirozzi (339 5238132) with Valentina Messina and Martina Angeli;
www.pscomunicazione.it
Exhibition Press Office: Davis & Co. Lea Codognato e Caterina Briganti; 055/2347273; info@davisandco.it | www.davisandco.it
Communication and External Relations Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca: Marcello Petrozziello and Andrea Salani (0583 472627; 340 6550425); comunicazione@fondazionecarilucca.it
