St.Ali Italian Film Festival
Now in its 24th year, the ST. ALi Italian Film Festival presented by Palace Cinemas returns to cinema screens across all the major Australian cities in October/November, presenting the best of contemporary Italian cinema as well as some classics. In Sydney the Festival will run between 19 September and 18 October.
In addition to a rich selection of films recently released in Italian cinemas, this year the Festival presents, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute of Sydney, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of his birth, a retrospective dedicated to Massimo Troisi, the late Neapolitan actor, comedian, director and screenwriter who died prematurely in 1994 at only 41 years of age. The review includes the films Ricomincio da tre (I’m Starting from Three), Splendor, Non ci resta che piangere (Nothing Left to do but Cry), Il postino (The Postman), the last film starring Troisi, which will close the Festival, and the recent documentary by Mario Martone dedicated to the actor, Laggiù qualcuno mi ama (Somebody Down There Likes Me).
Massimo Troisi would have celebrated his 70th birthday this year. Remaining a revered figure in Italian cinema over thirty years after his untimely passing, Troisi had a successful career in cabaret, theatre, television and cinema. Born into a large family in San Giorgio a Cremano, outside Naples, on 19 February 1953, as a child, Massimo Troisi suffered from rheumatic fever and serious heart conditions. His acting career started at 15, when he began acting on stage at the Centro Teatro Spazio, going on to set up an acting group (La smorfia) with fellow Neapolitan actors Enzo Decaro and Lello Arena. A successful career ensued, with the group appearing on Italian television in the late 1970s. Moving into cinema in 1981, Troisi achieved widespread recognition with his debut film Ricomincio da tre (I’m Starting from Three), which he wrote, directed and starred in, before starring opposite Roberto Benigni in their 1984 classic Non ci resta che piangere (Nothing Left to Do But Cry). In 1989, he starred alongside Marcello Mastroianni in Ettore Scola’s Splendor. Troisi was seriously ill during the filming of Il postino (The Postman), and died of a heart attack on 4 June 1994, merely a day after filming was completed.
The Italian Film Festival was inaugurated in 2000 by Antonio Zeccola, founder of Palace Cinemas, whose mission has been over the years the presentation and distribution in Australia of quality cinema, as well as dedicating regular annual events to the most interesting and successful movies of the international cinema production. Throughout the years the Italian Film Festival has attracted an ever-growing audience of over 80,000 people attending nationally.
The Institute’s members will be entitled to a discount on the entry fee.
For the complete program visit the Festival’s website: www.italianfilmfestival.com.au
