A young mum tragically died from a blood clot just months after giving birth.
12.09.2023 - 15:09 / variety.com
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian producer and director Ginevra Elkann, whose delicate first feature “If Only” opened the 2019 Locarno fest garnering critical praise, is at the Toronto Film Festival with her tonally different follow-up, “I Told You So.” The movie features a group made up mostly of women who are having a mental meltdown amid an unprecedented January heat wave in Rome. As the heat rises, so do the characters’ obsessions with sex, food, drugs, alcohol, and religion. The eclectic ensemble film, which was conceived by Elkann and her co-writers during the pandemic, features a star studded cast comprising Danny Huston – speaking perfect Italian on screen – as a heroin-addicted Italian-American priest.
Then there is Valeria Golino as a past-her-prime porn star named Pupa; Valeria Bruni Tedeschi as a psychopathic mother who happens to be obsessed with Pupa; and Alba Rohrwacher as an alcoholic artist who loses custody of her son to her heartbroken ex played by Riccardo Scamarcio. Elkann spoke to Variety about finding humour in the emotional turmoils of these characters which reflect her own anxieties. In ‘Magari’ you were basically drawing from your childhood. Where did you, Chiara Barzini and Ilaria Bernardini draw inspiration from for ‘I Told You So’? I think it’s a film that stems from anxiety, really.
From an anxiety of being in Rome on a very, very hot July and thinking: ‘What if the world is going to be like this forever?’ And then we just went and explored. I wanted to put characters in an extreme situation and work on that. The characters all have issues with all sorts of addictions, and they are working with their addiction at different levels.
A young mum tragically died from a blood clot just months after giving birth.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian multi-hyphenate Ilaria Borrelli’s Arabic-language feminist drama “The Goat” – featuring Mira Sorvino and John Savage, alongside a stellar Egyptian cast – is set for back-to-back launches at Egypt’s upcoming El Gouna Film Festival, followed by the closing film slot at the Rome Film Festival. A rare, if not unique, case of an Arab production directed by an Italian, “The Goat” stars young Egyptian TikTok star Jessica Hosam as an 11-year-old pregnant orphan named Hadya who after being forced into marriage becomes the target of a western corporation that seeks to control the only water source in her village.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Fandango Sales has taken international distribution rights to quirky comedy “Volare” about the fear of flying that marks the directorial debut of actor Margherita Buy. Buy is known internationally for frequent roles in Nanni Moretti movies, most recently in “A Brighter Tomorrow” that launched from Cannes. Her smart concept movie is being lead-produced by Simone Gattoni for Kavac Film, the company founded by veteran auteur Marco Bellocchio.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italy’s Indiana Production – which has just become part of pan-European studio Vuelta Group – is staying true to its roots with production kicking off this month on gender swap movie “Romeo is Juliet,” directed by quality comedy specialist Giovanni Veronesi, just as the company expands its horizons. This latest title in Indiana’s slate stars A-lister Sergio Castellitto and Pilar Fogliati (“Romantiche”) who plays an actress named Vittoria who after being brutally rejected by a cynical stage director when she auditions to play Juliet in Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” decides to reinvent herself as a man to audition for Romeo and gets the part.
Christine McGuinness has been told 'you can’t buy happiness' as she was seen beaming in snaps shared on social media. The model has been relatively quiet on Instagram lately but has now returned to tease a special 'adventure' that fans won't get to know more about until next year.
A young woman lost her job and was forced to drop out of university after suffering from long Covid.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Netflix on Tuesday unveiled four new Italian originals – two feature films and two series – that confirm its continued investment in Italy as local subscribers grow. The new projects also bolster the fact that the bulk of the streamer’s Italian productions are not high end and have a primarily local focus.
Phil Mickelson is having an honest conversation about his personal experiences with gambling addiction.
EXCLUSIVE: Shudder has snapped up rights for North America, the UK and Ireland to You’ll Never Find Me, an Australian horror thriller marking the feature directorial debut of Josiah Allen and Indianna Bell, from international sales agent Blue Finch Films. The Shudder Original is next set to play Fantastic Fest, after world premiering at Tribeca in June, and will launch on the platform in 2024.
Trends change and ebb and flow, but in years past, winning the Toronto International Film Festival audience award used to be a surefire way to mean you were getting an Oscar nomination for Best Picture and, and many instances, winning the big Academy Award prize. And while the winning element of that trend has somewhat waned in recent years, the power of the prize is still there.
Kim Kardashian arrives in style for a youth basketball game in Los Angeles on Friday evening (September 15).
Amazon is giving all customers a free £5 voucher to spend to mark its 25th anniversary. The voucher can be claimed from 9am on Friday, September 15, but savvy shoppers will have to act quickly to take advantage, as it only lasts until midnight.
The View moderator Whoopi Goldberg brought a political discussion – and today’s episode – to a weird, out-of-the-blue halt today when she stunned co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin by asking, “Are you pregnant?”
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Emmy-nominated “The White Lotus” star Sabrina Impacciatore will play the Venice Film Festival’s master of ceremonies in the upcoming second season of the Italian version of “Call My Agent,” which will also feature a cameo by Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera. Impacciatore, wearing a red gown, disembarked from a water taxi at the Excelsior Hotel pier on the Venice Lido on Saturday welcomed by Barbera, as cameras rolled for a key scene in the show.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Oscar-winning writer-director Bobby Moresco (“Crash”) is set to direct “Ferrari vs. Mercedes,” the latest movie set in Italy’s vintage auto racing world – following Moresco’s “Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend” and Micheal Mann’s “Ferrari” – being produced by Andrea Iervolino. Just like “Lamborghini,” which in the U.S.
Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Does it count as a white savior movie if the white character is the one who needs saving? In “Next Goal Wins,” the world’s top-grossing indigenous director, Taika Waititi, retells the story of how American Samoa went from having the world’s worst soccer team to, well, not the worst. While a white man was involved, the movie — which suggests how a film like “Cool Runnings” might be made with 30 years’ more cultural enlightenment — is mostly about how their coach (Michael Fassbender) needs an attitude adjustment. Come to think of it, that’s essentially the formula for most white savior movies.
Taika Waititi returned to TIFF tonight with his underdog soccer story about the American Samoa team, Next Goal Wins, which received great cheers and a heartfelt response.
The western genre has been so pervasive throughout the entire history of the movies, and it is hard to imagine doing anything in it that hasn’t already been done. Viggo Mortensen, in writing, directing, producing, and co-starring in only his second film behind the camera (after 2020’s Falling) finds a moving, if tragic, love story to play against the stunning landscape of the circa 1860’s west, and somehow it all feels new. John Ford and Howard Hawks would love this movie.
EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate has just tied up an eight-figure deal for domestic rights to The Crow reboot, we can reveal.
Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Italian genre specialist Stefano Sollima – who is known in Hollywood for “Sicario: Day of the Soldado,” “Without Remorse” and the TV series “Gomorrah” – is in the Venice competition for the first time with Rome-set crime drama “Adagio.” This beautifully shot picture features an ensemble cast of Italian A-listers comprising Pierfrancesco Favino (“Nostalgia”), Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”), Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”) and Adriano Giannini (“The Ties”). It’s the tale of three old – and once mighty – mobsters searching for redemption in a cutthroat contemporary Rome that is literally burning. They find it in the form of a 16 year old named Manuel who is being blackmailed after venturing too deep in a rotting Roman underworld world that he doesn’t understand.