News from Italy
Taormina Film Festival begins
Vita gazette – 68. Taormina Film Festival starts today. The festival, which will last until Saturday, July 2, is inaugurated with the remastered version of the 50th anniversary of the movie “The Godfather”, one of the masterpieces of cinema history, and with legendary director Francis Ford Coppola.
The 68th edition of the Taormina Film Fest kicks off today with the opening ceremony presented by Anna Ferzetti, in the presence of the legend of world cinema and 6 times Oscar winner Francis Ford Coppola, guest of honor of the evening. Coppola, protagonist of the renewal of Hollywood cinema of the seventies for the elaboration of original forms and languages, on the occasion of his presence at the glorious Ancient Theater of Taormina, will give the public the vision of his greatest cinematographic masterpiece The Godfather.
.The great director, screenwriter, producer and film icon without equal, will take the stage where the Directors of the Festival Francesco Alò, Alessandra De Luca and Federico Pontiggia will celebrate him by giving him the Taormina Award: “For his ability to become a cinematographic legend without ever detaching himself from reality. With productive courage and poetic vision, Francis Ford Coppola was able to revolutionize American and world cinema: the fiftieth anniversary of Il Padrino that he wanted to celebrate here in Taormina.
On stage, the Italian-born director will receive the Keys to the City from the Mayor of Savoca Massimo Stracuzzi, the place where some scenes of the unforgettable film were shot and where one of the most famous bars in all of Sicily is located, the Vitelli bar. Afterwards, the Orchestra in Plettro Città di Taormina will perform, together with Kaballà, a medley from the trilogy of Il Padrino and then the piece ‘Burn the earth’ taken from the soundtrack of Il Padrino – Part III.
Six-time Oscar winner, two-time Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a Lifetime Achievement Lion at the Venice International Film Festival, in his 70-year career Francis Ford Coppola has been the author of great masterpieces such as The Conversation, Apocalypse Now and the same Godfather trilogy.
And tonight at the Ancient Theater, also a tribute to the unforgettable season of the “Italian comedy” with Gian Marco Tognazzi who remembers his father Ugo 100 years after his birth.
Names such as Francis Ford Coppola Eva Longoria, Sofia Carson, Diane Warren, Giuseppe Tornatore, Catherine Hardwicke, Marco Giallini, and Isabella Ferrari participate in the evening hosted by Anna Ferzetti.
There are six works divided into first and second works in the international competition, which explore different worlds and themes. The screenings open with New York director Matthew Gentile’s action thriller “American Murderer” based on a true story. Actor Philip Barantini’s directorial debut “British Boiling Point” chronicles what happens in a restaurant on the busiest day of the year. Femininity is at the centre of Danish director Cecilie McNair’s debut, “The Baby Pyramid” a psychological drama about fertility. She is the determined protagonist of western The Drover’s Wife, written, directed and directed by Molly Johnson. Leah Purcell, of Australian Aboriginal descent, stars in the lead role. Italy is in the selection under two headings: Andrea Brusa and Marco Scotuzzi, together with Giovanni Storti, reflecting the side effects of social media in an unusually dramatized style. I and Spotty is Cosimo Gomez’s second film with Filippo Scotti.
A shower of emotions for an audience in a Festival dotted with musical interludes with the performances, among others, of Raphael Gualazzi who will perform for the public in a performance dedicated to music for cinema, Kaballà, Lello Amalfino, Max Dedo, Nicola Costa, Mario Venuti.
An event that, underlines the Mayor of Taormina Mario Bolognari:
“It is not to pass as a purely cinematographic fact, but a cultural one. Sicily has built a global image, not a local one, capable of reaching American literature and cinema
