All articles by Melanie Rodier – Page 18
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News
ITALY
Popular Italian actor-director Carlo Verdone's latest film, Love Is Eternal For As Long As It Lasts (L'Amore E Eterno Finch Dura) opened at number two at the Italian box office, grossing a strong $2,529,564. Released by Medusa Film on a wide 335 screens, the picture registered an impressive screen average ...
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Italy's Cinecitta launches acting academy
Rome's Cinecitta Studios has announced that it is setting up an Actors Studio-type academy for professional and emerging Italian talent.Named Campus, the 1000 square metre structure will be located inside the studios and will focus on theatre, cinema, TV, music and dance. It will kick off its activities in mid-March, ...
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Revamped Rome cinema commission launched
With a new private partner, Rome's Film Commission is ready to attract more international productions to the Italian capital by offering new and better financial incentives - just as the weakening dollar and high Euro are potentially putting off runaway productions.Rome's mayor Walter Veltroni has announced that the region's powerful ...
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ITALY
Three Italian films were released last weekend - although none of them performed outstandingly well.Ciro Ippolito's Italian title Vaniglia E Cioccolato, which stars Il Postino actress Maria Grazia Cucinotta as a wife who leaves her unfaithful husband in a desperate bid to save their marriage, opened at number 8 at ...
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Italians return laden from Berlin
In a swathe of deals closed by Italian distributors in Berlin, Rome's Istituto Luce has snapped up all Italian distribution rights to two of the festival's hottest titles, including Argentine director Daniel Burman's Lost Embrace - which won the Jury Grand Prix and the Best Actor Silver Bear at last ...
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Berlusconi benefits as Italy passes controversial media law
The Italian Parliament has finally passed the government's controversial Gasparri media law, which critics say will pump an extra Euros 163m into Silvio Berlusconi's companies.The law, which paves the way for digital TV transmission, will save Berlusconi's Rete 4 from shifting to satellite Tv, and will allow state channel ...
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Croff guarantees Biennale autonomy
Hours after his appointment was finally confirmed by the Italian parliament, new Venice Biennale president Davide Croff issued a statement saying that he intends to "guarantee the Biennale's autonomy" and appoint a festival director as soon as possible."The Venice Biennale needs stability and transparency at this delicate time. I therefore ...
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Francesca Neri to produce erotic adaptation
Italian actress Francesca Neri has announced that she will soon produce her first film, an adaptation of Italy's literary sensation of 2003: an erotic diary written by a 17-year-old Sicilian schoolgirl.The diary, entitled Cento Colpi Di Spazzola Prima Di Andare A Dormire (literally, one hundred brushes before bed time) was ...
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Fandango increases its international activities
Dynamic Italian producer Domenico Procacci, whose Fandango outfit produced Critics Week closing film B&B and The Cormoran, is continuing to ramp up his international production and distribution labels.Procacci has boarded upcoming Australian picture Missing Tom, through the Australian company he runs with directors Rolf de Heer and Richard Lowenstein.At the ...
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ITALY
Le Barzellette, the latest Italian comedy to be produced by the all-powerful Aurelio De Laurentiis, opened at number one at the box office, becoming the first picture in three weeks to knock : The Return Of The King off the top spot.Directed by Carlo Vanzina, Le Barzellette, a collection of ...
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Political turmoil returns to Italy
Italy is once again in the throes of the political turmoil which has gripped its film and TV institutions for decades.Two events this week have yet again shone the spotlight on Italian prime minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi.Firstly, the Italian parliament has surprisingly failed to pass his government's controversial ...
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ITALY
Pupi Avati's Italian comedy sequel La Rivincita Di Natale, opened at number six at the box office, grossing $550,673 for Medusa Film seventeen years after the original film's release.Rivincita Di Natale, which features the same cast as Avati's 1980 comedy Regalo Di Natale including Diego Abantatuono, was released on ...
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Berlusconi government boosts support for Italian film
A report has surprisingly revealed that while the Italian government upped its investment in Italian films by 34.8% last year compared to 2002, private investment in local titles dropped a worrying 5.25%,The Italian film industry invested a total of Euros 301.7m in films in 2003, up 8.68% on the previous ...
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Italy confesses to highest level of piracy in western world
Italy has the highest level of piracy in the western world, according to the latest data released by national anti-piracy watchdog FAPAV.While legal DVD and video sales netted Euros 417m in Italy last year, the black market was estimated at more than Euros 250m - around 30% of the total ...
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Merchant eyes Venice festival slot
The Merchant Of Venice producer Barry Navidi has confirmed that he hopes to premiere the film at the next Venice Film Festival, which runs from Aug 27-Sep 5."The Merchant Of Venice belongs to Venice," Navidi told ScreenDaily.com from the 15th century villa in the suburb of Mestre where the picture ...
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Laudadio named director of Rome's Casa del Cinema.
Felice Laudadio, director of the Taormina Film Festival and former head of the Venice Film Festival, has been named the director of the "Casa del Cinema", an ambitious new cinema and cultural complex that will be unveiled in Rome in September 2004.The brain-child of Rome mayor and cinephile Walter Veltroni, ...
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ITALY
E Gia Ieri, Columbia TriStar's Italian-language remake of the Bill Murray vehicle GroundHog Day, opened at number four at the Italian box office last weekend, grossing a strong $566,200 from 148 screens.Directed by Giulio Manfredonia with Italian comic Antonio Albanese in the lead role, the Italian-Spanish production registered a healthy ...
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Italian government approves new cinema law
The Italian government has approved culture minister Giuliano Urbani's new cinema law.Under the new law, state funding for Italian films will now only cover up to 50% of a project's budget, compared to 70-80% under the current system.The new system, which has received widespread backing from the local film industry, ...
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Croff confirmed as Biennale boss
As expected, Italian culture minister Giuliano Urbani confirmed on Thursday the appointment of Davide Croff as the new president of the Biennale, the organization that runs the Venice Film Festival. (See ScreenDaily.com, Jan 15)Croff's appointment will now have to be ratified by the both the parliament and the senate's cultural ...
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Italian industry worried as admissions slip in 2003
Admissions in Italy slipped by just 1.92% in 2003, but the drop has worried industry observers as it comes in spite of the fact that 182 new screens were built in the country last year.According to data released by Cinetel, which monitors around 75% of cinemas nationwide, Italian cinemas recorded ...