3rd NYDFF - May 30, 2010
Sunday, May 30 - Anthology Film Archives - Maya Deren Theater
6:30 PM
ITALIAN CHRONICLES - FOCUS on ALESSANDRO ROSSETTO
CLOSING, by Alessandro Rossetto
(Italy/Germany/Finland/UK, 2001, color, 75’)
The film describes the closing-down of Flavia’s old hairdresser salon in the southern outskirts of the city. Along with the story of the closing down, the film describes the little/big universe of the neighbourhood that surrounds the salon and about Flavia, who leaves her job after forty-five years. A small travelling circus, a female soccer team: the last days in the life of Flavia’s salon are intertwined with the surrounding neighbourhood, blending together thanks to the delicate narration of CLOSING.
Q&A with Alessandro Rossetto.
8:30 PM
THE FEELING OF BEING THERE (1958 - 1965)
SEVEN YEARS OF DOCUMENTARY CINEMA
A journey through the creative forces that have crossed (and continue to cross) modern cinema. Eleven short films that have changed documentary film history in a period of great creative fervor corresponding to the birth of the Festival dei Popoli.
LA CASA DELLE VEDOVE, by Gian Vittorio Baldi
(Italy, 1960, color, 13')
In a run-down four-storey house in the heart of the old city, thirteen women live on modest means, beset by the ailments of old age and memories of the past. Baldi probes this corner of the world with acute perception, sensitively bringing out the women’s different characters. The film won the Golden Lion for Best Short Film at the 21st Venice Film Festival.
COLLAGE DI PIAZZA DEL POPOLO, by Sandro Franchina
(Italy, 1960, b&w, 12’)
A curious eye casts around Rome’s Piazza del Popolo. A film that is also an electrifying journey on the hunt for faces, bodies, expressions and gestures of pedestrians in one of the most famous piazzas of the capital, with continuous turns and improvised leaps through both common and exceptional situations. A film that is also an example of free cinema that, while seeking out day to day reality, is also mysterious.
ITALIAN CHRONICLES - FOCUS on ALESSANDRO ROSSETTO
FIRE OF NAPLES, by Alessandro Rossetto
(Italy, 1996, color, 58’)
From the dawn of civilization, the spirit of man has always been fascinated by fire. And it is through the art of pyrotechnics and fireworks that the ancient relation between man and fire is celebrated. We find ourselves in Naples, in the shadows of Mount Vesuvius and in a land of violent contrasts going from unchangeable traditions to fierce modernization. FIRE OF NAPLES outlines the story of a man named Giuseppe Scudo and his passion for fireworks. His art and his life blend as one. This Neapolitan firework-maker challenges danger with clear-headedness and intelligence. His work is a delicate equation of ancient knowledge, imagination and courage.
Q&A with Alessandro Rossetto.
Anthology Film Archives, 32 Second Avenue (at 2nd Street), New York, NY 10003
www.nydff.org