Jonathan Melville: Feast of delights at Italian film fest

BELLA! Bella! Never mind that the sum knowledge of my Italian is based on a scene from Gregory’s Girl, from Monday there’s a chance to brush up on your lingo with the arrival of the 2012 Italian Film Festival at the Filmhouse.

Box office smashes rub shoulders with a few Oscar winners as 11 films are shown between April 16-26, Edinburgh joining in a Scotland-wide celebration of Italy’s finest exports.

The season kicks-off with Andrea Molaioli’s 2011 thriller, The Jewel, which follows the rise and fall of a food company that comes undone as a result of some dodgy dealing. The film is based on a true story and sheds some light on the recent issues affecting Europe’s financial problems.

Tuesday’s Our Life stars Elio Germano as Claudio, a building site foreman who must reassess his life when his wife dies and he’s left to look after his two sons. There are no easy answers for Claudio in a film which saw Germano win the Best Actor prize at Cannes for his role.

Fans of the classics can see Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1964 drama, The Red Desert, starring Monica Vitti and Richard Harris. Vitti is a mentally ill woman making her way through the modern world. A visual and aural triumph, this is one that needs to be seen on the big screen.

Other films worth searching out include Edoardo Leo’s 18 Year Later, 1970’s Investigation Of A Citizen Above Suspicion and the smash hit comedy, The Immature, which follows a group of men forced to reunite 20 years after they sat an exam when they discover their original results are void.

@jon_melville

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