Seven Beauties: The Movies by Lina Wertmüller
The retrospective Seven Beauties, dedicated to acclaimed Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller and organized by the Italian Cultural Institute in collaboration with the Randwick Ritz Cinema and Cinema Reborn, with the support of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, ends with the screening of the movie Io speriamo che me la cavo (Ciao, professore!) (1992).
Irreverent, rule-breaking and impossible to define, Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller broke ground as the first woman to be nominated for an Oscar as Best Director in 1977. An unabashed feminist and non-conformist, her films take the absurdities of society and turn them on their heads – the results being sometimes witty, sometimes shocking, always political. The series celebrates her work with seven of her best films.
The movie will be introduced by Professor Jane Mills of the School of the Arts & Media University of New South Wales. Jane is a writer, lecturer, editor, member of the Film Advisory panel for the Sydney Film Festival and Associate Programmer for the Antenna Documentary Festival.
Io speriamo che me la cavo (Ciao, professore!) (1992)
Cast: Paolo Villaggio, Paolo Bonacelli, Isa Danieli, Gigio Morra
The script was inspired by the 1990 Italian bestseller Io speriamo che me la cavo (Me, Let’s Hope I Make It), written by primary school teacher Marcello D’Orta. The book is a collection of essays written as homework by the students of an Italian primary school based in in Corzano, a suburb of Naples, where D’Orta was teaching. In the essays the children describe in vivid details the difficulties they and their families encounter (poverty, drugs, crime, the disrepair of their city etc.). In the movie the teacher often reads the essays from the book, while their content is displayed through live-action scenes, although some other ones are simply adapted into plot elements and scenes.
Information and bookings:
https://www.ritzcinemas.com.au/festivals/seven-beauties-by-lina-wertmller and 02 8324 2500