/ Director
Paolo Virzì
/ Cast
Corrado Fortuna, Rachel McAdams, Frank Crudele, Jessica De Marco, Mary Long.
/ Length
111 mins.
/ Year
2003
/ Sponsor
Date :: Friday, October 23
Time :: 7:00 pm
Location :: MoPA in Balboa Park
Cost :: $5.00 donation suggested
Language :: Italian with English subtitles
Tickets :: On location
My name is Tanino
While both La bella vita and Ferie d’agosto capitalize on well-known actors, Ovosodo and My Name is Tanino rely on young, unknown first-time-on-the-screen protagonists. A revelation of the 1997 cinematic season, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, Ovosodo takes place in the lower-class neighborhood of the same name in Livorno. Virzì used only non-professional actors, apart from Nicoletta Braschi, Roberto Benigni’s wife, to narrate the coming of age story of a youngster from a loving but troubled family. The voice-over narration does not detract from a story that is fast pacing and jam-packed with anecdotes and information, but always spirited and insightful. While hinting at a modern-day Amarcord, Fellini’s take on growing up in a provincial town, Virzì also anticipates Muccino’s movies. Ovosodo depicts the school years of Piero from elementary to high school. Despite financial challenges, he lives a healthy adolescence, unlike many of his well-to-do peers. The film celebrates a resourceful and unpretentious lower class rarely seen on screen and pays homage to the novels of formation of Twain and Dickens beloved by Virzì.
With the Virzì retrospective SDIFF celebrates the tradition of commedia all’italiana offering its audience the opportunity to enjoy a series of rare films that shed new light on aspects and characters of Italian society relevant to understand Italy’s recent history, faults and virtues.
Literature was also central to My Name is Tanino. Virzì likened the adventures of the protagonist to those of a contemporary Pinocchio whose good intentions and naiveté lead him into trouble. Tanino is bored by his Sicilian village and curious to explore the world. With the excuse of following an American girl he met during the summer, he embarks on a voyage that will bring him to “discover” America and a series of colorful characters. Like in La vera leggenda di Tony Vilar, that will also be screened in this year’s festival, My Name is Tanino paints an amusing picture of Italian American culture seen with the eyes of a dreamer.
The San Diego Italian Film Festival kicks off its 2009 annual festival with a retrospective of Paolo Virzì’s films. Born in Livorno in 1964, Virzì is one of the most talented directors working in Italy today and is considered the heir of the commedia all’italiana, a popular genre in Italian cinema that features characters in some kind of life crisis. As viewers we tend to identify with the protagonists even when their choices are questionable because we cannot help but love their flaws. Popular during the 1960s economic boom, commedia all’italiana intended to make viewers laugh while also making us think hard about the pressing social issues of the moment. Among the actors that made this genre famous were Alberto Sordi, Ugo Tognazzi, Vittorio Gassman and Nino Manfredi, all representatives of a particular Italian social “type.”
After graduating from the Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in Rome in 1987, Virzì embraced commedia all’italiana and its “civil passion” in a series of films that give voice to everyday working people struggling to find their place in a society in utter transition and in social, economic and political turmoil. SDIFF will present four of Virzì’s early films, all absolutely not to be missed for their quality and rarity in the US: La bella vita (Living It Up, 1994), Ferie d’agosto (August Vacation, 1995), Ovosodo (Hardboiled Egg, 1997), My Name is Tanino (2002).
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