Jornal da Mostra

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“Ugly, Dirty and Bad”, by Ettore Scola

ITALIAN POLITICAL FILM IS THE THEME OF A NEW BOOK, DEBATE AND RETROSPECTIVE

This important period of the modern Italian cinema is brought back by the 30th Mostra in an unprecedented initiative in the international festival circuit. Political Italian cinema is represented in the 30th Mostra not just in a 26-full-length film-exhibition-retrospective, many of which were never shown in Brazil, but also in two other occasions. The first, a debate on the subject, featuring the Italian film master Vittorio De Seta (Bandits of Orgosolo; Letters from Sahara), will take place on 28th Saturday, at 7:00 p.m., in the Mostra’s lounge. Researchers Angela Prudenzi and Elisa Resegotti will be taking part in the debate, along with journalist Alvaro Machado and the actress, director and producer Florinda Bolkan, who is also a member of the 30th Mostra’s jury.

The second occasion is the release of the book Cinema Político Italiano – Anos 60 e 70, which will also take place on Saturday at 8:00p.m. in the lounge. This book, a publication of Cosac & Naify with editorial partnership of Mostra, was organized by Mostra’s director Leon Cakoff, and by the journalist Alvaro Machado. It is an original work. Cakoff says the interest sparked from the fact that political the cinema is very important to Brazil, since at the time, the country was living under military dictatorship and facing censorship. People feared that films wouldn’t be allowed into Brazil and that if they did, they would be incomplete. Cakoff also outlines that the interviews with directors were carried out in the course of one year. Editing is still important because of the parallel it makes with reality, the new political ebullition moment. It is also possible that, after its release in Brazil, the book also be launched in the editorial Italian market. Mostra’s director outlines that the work was only made possible thanks to the partnership with Cosac & Naify, that he considers as a “blessing”, since they are one of the few publishing houses interested in cinema, a needy segment of the Brazilian market.

Cinema Político Italiano – Anos 60 e 70 has unpublished interviews with important people of this cinematographic period. Researchers Prudenzi and Resegotti were able to get amazing declarations from the filmmakers who, with social and political commitment, brought to light their country’s social tragedies. Among the people interviewed are De Seta, Marco Bellocchio, Vittorio Taviani, Bernardo Bertolucci, Damiano Damiani, Ettore Scola, Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Giuliano Montaldo and Francesco Rosi. Florinda Bolkan, the Brazilian leading actress of the main film of the period – Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1969, directed by Elio Petri) -, was also interviewed. The book has photograms of over fifty films and historical pictures taken by the Italian newspapers of that time, shown in a graphic project by Flavia Castanheira.