(from Rome Luigi Noera with the kind collaboration of Stefano Sica and Valentina Vignoli – The photos are published courtesy of the Fondazione Cinema peri Roma)
Nobody talks about it but Monica Vitti's portrayal in Roberta Torre's film captivated us
PROGRESSIVE CINEMA COMPETITION
FREMONT in the Jalali Round, United States, 2023, 88’
SYNOPSIS
Donya works for a Chinese fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. Formerly translator for the US Army in Afghanistan, he struggles to find his life again. In a moment of sudden revelation, decides to send a special message in a cookie.
REVIEW
Fremont is a suburb far from NYC where many Afghans live who fled their country following the sudden American disengagement with an unprecedented mass evacuation and the rise of the Taliban to power. It is a debacle that mainly involved Afghan women and men who worked for the American army as translators to train the ramshackle Afghan army which dissolved in an instant.
Donya is one of the many young Afghans who found herself in America after these tragic events and works in a Chinese laboratory that produces "fortune cookies". It is an invention that in our country is known by the most famous Baci Perugina, but the trading mechanism is the same.
The rhythms of his life are marked by those of the small laboratory and by fleeting relationships with some compatriots who live in a sort of Afghan Ghetto condominium.
Like many other compatriots, she is haunted by feelings of guilt for her relatives who remained at the mercy of the Taliban dictatorship. The occasion is a psychiatric medical examination at a center for refugees.
Alternating scenes from his life with meetings with the doctor, the film tells us the drama of a people. The only reference is a work colleague of hers who is also looking for affection through so-called "blind encounters".
The film is shot in black and white and 4/3 to convey Donya's drama to the viewer. When the protagonist is removed from work due to a mistake, she suddenly finds an unexpected opportunity in the empathetic encounter that will revolutionize her life. It is a training film that aims to highlight the fact that it is not just post-traumatic shock experienced by soldiers that exists, but also of civilians uprooted from their homes for humanitarian reasons
MY HAIR HURTS by Roberta Torre, Italy, 2023, 83’
SYNOPSIS
A beautiful blonde lady on the beach, orme, Where, she picking something up from the sand. Then she approaches a boy and tells him she's lost. From a nearby house a man watches her: Monica is losing her memory, Edward, the husband, he accompanies her tenderly in the lives that she reconstructs through Monica Vitti's films, The night, The eclipse, Red desert, Teresa barks at her, My love help me, Stardust… Antonioni, Michele Placido, Alberto Sordi, with whom she converses through a mirror, clothes, hair, feelings, sperdimenti. After many stories from the South and Shakespeare's Richard and his fabulous ladies, Roberta Torre outlines with elegance, participation and modesty, a tribute to Monica Vitti and the strength of the dream. Alba Rohrwacher twirls between memories and illusions, while a sorrowful Filippo Timi tries to keep her in our world.
REVIEW
The incipit tells us all the drama of a woman who gets lost in the infinite space of a beach (which is that of Sperlonga in lower Lazio). Director Roberta Torre tries to imagine Monica Vitti's drama in the ordeal of her illness which makes her invisible. It is a tribute to the Italian actress of the last century who made so many of us dream. Together with the excellent interpretation of Alba Rowacher there is Filippo Timi as Vitti's loving husband.
The film describes duality in its completeness, indeed the duplicity of cinema in its essence by mixing in a bold montage clips of the actress's most applauded films with scenes of everyday life in her intimate journey through the disease.
The use of 4/3 in the scenes of amateur films that recall the profound bond between Monica Vitti and her inseparable companion of a lifetime, they flow in a succession of memories that border on reality precisely in the duplicity of cinema. Fiction or reality.
Sublime images show an ornament of holes that progressively lose their petals, shreds of Monica's life. Images of the mirrors where the actress sees her partners again by Marcello Mastroianni, Alain Delon and the legendary Alberto Sordi.
A particular tribute is dedicated to the latter by showing hidden parts of his villa (now Museum) to the viewer.
In these situations there is always the bad part of humanity that takes advantage of it in the character of Ugo who steals the assets of the unaware Vitti who is submerged by the debts contracted by her husband to deal with the terrible illness of the actress.
Lastly, the comment taken from one of his films: “I have to think that everything that happens to me is my life” which allows the actress to move forward in real life.
Of course we know nothing about this dark period during which Monica Vitti was removed from the spotlight of the newspapers, but we can imagine the great pain as the director delicately shows it.
FREESTYLE – ARTS
JEFF KOONS. A PRIVATE PORTRAIT of Pappi Corsicato, Italy, 2023, 100’ | Doc |
SYNOPSIS
Jeff Koons is considered one of the most influential artists, popular and controversial of recent decades. During his career, he experimented with new approaches to the readymade, tested the boundaries between advanced art and mass culture, challenged the limits of industrial manufacturing and transformed artists' relationship to the cult of celebrity and the global marketplace. He has managed to elevate kitsch and pop and transform them into masterpieces like few visionary artists in recent history. Inevitably, for such a polarizing character, critics are sharply divided in their opinions of Koons: some see him as a pioneer of great art-historical importance, others dismiss his work as crass and based on cynical self-merchandising. A debate that has fueled its indisputable success for decades. JEFF KOONS. A PRIVATE PORTRAIT is a totally new portrait and tells the hidden dynamics behind the person, the artist and the brand Koons. Moving from America to Europe and Qatar through various decades, the film represents a unique opportunity to understand the man who took mass-produced everyday objects and transformed them into the highest form of art and elevated their status from ordinary to sublime. Through the words of Koons, of the sister, of his wife and children, but also of critics and gallery owners, the docu-film takes you on an intimate journey into the mind of Jeff Koons, with the aim of discovering what motivates him today and what has shaped his incomparable vision throughout his career. A world where everyday objects and nostalgia for 20th century pop transcend their original forms and transform into works of art, letting the viewer look inside their own reflections. Creations that require the work of his team of highly qualified assistants in the New York studio to bring maniacal details to light. An unprecedented combination that unites creativity and contemporary art industry.
REVIEW
By the well-known New York artist, Coming from a wealthy family, Corsicato perhaps unconsciously shows us his true side.
As for each of us, family was a starting point, it is also true for Jeff who learns obsessive perfection from his father.
Jeff confides candidly in front of the camera, recalling how his childhood influenced his style by learning from his father, interior decorator who had a furniture ateier.
The interview takes place in the enormous estate he purchased (I would say recovered) in Pennsylvania once owned by his paternal grandfather.
Jeff was married to the porn star Cicciolina with whom he had a son for whom he waged a battle in the courts.
Through interviews with those who knew him closely in his first artistic performances, what emerges is an artist who, I would say, was almost obsessive in his use of balloons and similar from his happy childhood in his family of origin..
By personally committing himself to working on Wall Street to obtain money for his artistic passion, Jeff broke through in the 1990s with unprecedented installations of commonly used tools such as vacuum cleaners to dictate a new way of representing reality with modern art.
However, we were struck by his atelier where the artist does not "get his hands dirty", but he manages a staff of collaborators who, with the aid of computers, present the icons of ancient Greece in a "modern" guise using bright colors, memories of the artist's childhood.
Artist Jeff doesn't mind, but we are very far from Abramovic who makes her body available or Christo with his planetary installations. Yet Jeff managed to build an empire for himself and his countless children! In this regard, we thank Corsicato for opening our eyes with his innocent gaze.
For the collateral section ALICE IN THE CITY in another article you will find the Focus by Stefano Sica of this second day.
COMPETITION
Excursion by Una Gunjak – Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, France, Norway, Qatar, 2023, 93’
In Blue by Stéphane Vuillet & Stéphane Xhrouet – Belgium, 2023, 80’
PANORAMA ITALIA Competition
We were children by Marco Martani – Italy, 2023, 101’