June 23, 2015

Three Films of Note by Sorrentino, Moretti and Garrone in 2015

Paolo Sorrentino, Nanni Moretti, Matteo Garrone Photo Courtesy of ilfoglio.it — Paolo Sorrentino, Nanni Moretti, Matteo Garrone
Photo Courtesy of ilfoglio.it

At the 68^th annual Cannes International Film Festival, three Italian films made a splash and were closely considered for the Palme d’Or award.

Nanni Moretti and Margherita Buy. Photo courtesy of The Guardian. — Nanni Moretti and Margherita Buy in *Mia Madre*. Photo courtesy of The Guardian.

Seasoned director, Nanni Moretti (61), debuted his film Mia Madre, starring Italian actress Margherita Buy, as a film director making a movie about a factory protest while coping with her relationship troubles and her mother’s declining health. John Turturro plays Barry Huggins, a difficult to work with Italian-American actor, whom Margherita must also deal with. Moretti is also casted in the movie as Giovanni, Margherita’s brother who’s better at dealing with their mother’s illness while Margherita loses control. Mia Madre is Moretti’s seventh film competing at Cannes, since his first debut in 1978 with the film Ecce Bombo. His career went international when he was awarded Best Director for Caro Diario at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.

Salma Hayek and John C. Reilly in Il racconto dei racconti. Photo courtesy of The Guardian. — Salma Hayek and John C. Reilly in *Il racconto dei racconti*. Photo courtesy of The Guardian.

Contrasting Moretti’s film about the difficult realities of life is Matteo Garrone’s (46) world of folk tales and creatures in Il racconto dei racconti (Tale of Tales) .The film stars Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones and John C. Reilly and focuses on three kingdoms based on Neapolitan writer Giambattista Basile’s book of fairy tales. The film tells the stories of a king and queen who can’t have children, an oversized flea, and a monarch who falls in love with the voice of a woman who’s not who she says she is.

Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel in Sorrentino’s "Youth." Photo courtesy of The New York Times — Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel in Sorrentino’s *Youth*. Photo courtesy of The New York Times

After his critically acclaimed film The Great Beauty (2013), which won an Academy Award for best foreign language film, Paolo Sorrentino’s (45) film Youth is creating a lot of buzz. The film stars Michael Caine as a retired orchestra conductor who takes a trip to the Alps and is invited by Queen Elizabeth II to perform at Prince Phillip’s birthday. Also starring in the movie are Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano and Jane Fonda with a musical score by David Lang. Six of his seven films have competed at Cannes. Sorrentino recently announced his new eight-part drama called “The Young Pope,” which stars Jude Law. The HBO mini-series focuses on Italian-American Lenny Belardo and his journey to becoming a pope.

-Meki Shewangizaw