UW Rome Center Second Annual Film Series - Winter 2006

OVOSODO
(Hardboiled Egg), 1997
Monday >> February 13 >> 11 a.m.
at Cinema Alcazar
Via Merry del Val 14
(corner of Viale Trastevere, near Standa; be on time!)

Fast, funny and refreshingly generous with its characters, "Ovosodo" charts a boy's coming of age in a working-class quarter of Tuscan harbor town Livorno. Having reinvigorated the classic commedia all'italiana formula in 1996 with "August Vacation," director Paolo Virzi again captures the vintage spirit of directors like Mario Monicelli, adding a judicious thread of social realism that recalls Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. Performed with gusto by a mostly novice cast.
-- David Rooney, Variety

CATERINA VA IN CITTA' (Caterina in the Big City), 2003
Tuesday >> February 21 >> 5 p.m.
7 p.m.>> MEET THE DIRECTOR
following the film, the director will participate in a question-and-answer session; refreshments follow at UW Rome Center, 1st floor conference room

In his sixth and latest feature, Paolo Virzì, one of Italy's most talented young filmmakers, takes wicked satirical swipes at both Left and Right as he relates the tragicomic coming-of-age tale of a young provincial girl newly moved to the big city. "Caterina in the Big City offers a hilarious and bracingly bitter critique of contemporary Italian society.
-- Pacific Cinémathèque

Paolo Virzi's delightfully deceptive "Caterina in the Big City" is one of the richest, most satisfying Italian films of recent years. Its premise seems simple enough, which is to take Caterina (enchanting Alice Teghil), a lovely, intelligent teenager, from the provinces and drop her into a vast and venerable school in Rome whose students' parents are among the country's elite. Gradually, the film becomes as much about Caterina's parents as it is about her, and in the process Virzi offers a mural of contemporary Italian society as rich as that of Mexico in "Y Tu Mamá También" but with an even more biting point of view.
-- Kevin Thomas, L.A. Times

BONUS:
MY NAME IS TANINO, 2002
Wednesday >> February 15 >> 5 p.m

A clueless Italian film student on the loose in America is the premise of Paolo Virzì's picaresque comic romp My Name Is Tanino. Twenty-year-old Tanino (newcomer Corrado Fortuna) has a holiday romance with American tourist Sally (Canadian Rachel McAdams, recently seen in Mean Girls) in his Sicilian hometown, and mistakes it for something serious. He decides to set out for the New World, in search of Sally and the American Dream. What follows is a series of American misadventures as Tanino's illusions are shattered, his naivety lands him in plenty of trouble, and he meets up with his dubious idol, an underground filmmaker (Canadian Don Franks) living on the skids in New York City. Much of the film was shot in Toronto. The songs of Nike Drake and Italian band Tiromancino are featured on the soundtrack. "Infectiously humorous . . . consistently amusing and enjoyable . . . Affectionately recalling the comedies of Alberto Sordi . . . [Virzì] once again resurrect[s] a consecrated tradition of Italian comedy."
-- David Rooney, Variety

Winter 2008 -- Director Alex Infascelli
Winter 2008 -- Director Edoardo Winspeare
Fall 2007 -- Actor Luigi Lo Cascio
Fall 2007 -- Director Daniele Luchetti
Spring 2007 --Actress Maya Sansa
Winter 2007 -- Gabriele Salvatores
Fall 2006 -- Giuseppe Piccioni
Spring 2006 -- Mimmo Calopresti
Winter 2006 -- Paolo Virzi'
Fall 2005 -- Matteo Garrone