Nobody does soaring landscapes, azure waters, glorious architecture, mouthwatering pasta and sweeping romance like the Italians. And with the current travel limitations making it almost impossible to experience the beauty and passion of Italy in real life, going to the movies is the next best thing.
New Zealand’s Italian Film Festival launches at the beautiful Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth on June 17th and will run for six months in 20 cinemas around the country. You’ll be able to dive into Italian culture in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Waiheke Island, Matakana, Tauranga, Whakatane, Taupo, Napier, Havelock North, New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Masterton, Nelson, Blenheim, Dunedin and Arrowtown.
Paolo Rotondo, the director of the Studio Italia Cinema Italiano Festival, says the festival’s 2021 theme –“dream now, travel later” – is a reminder that good things will come to those who wait. “It may sound sentimental, but working on this festival constantly reminds me to have gratitude. I’m talking to Italian and international distributors all the time, and they often remind me that sharing cinema together here in New Zealand – where Covid is no longer a large-scale threat – is rare and unique. They look to us with wonder, and therefore I am compelled to appreciate it!”
“I feel very distinctly that another pervading theme this year is ‘change’. Il Gattopardo shows change through the fading aristocracy during the infancy of the republic, and The Goddess Fortune speaks of the changing structures of what family is today. Another example is The Traitor, which chronicles the first Mafia turncoat. Revolution, transformation and challenges seem to be peppered thematically in every film, from comedies to documentaries. Our change – the ability to explore the world again – is not too far away either.”
Two of the masterpieces you’ll be able to see also feature the legendary Sophia Loren – Marriage Italian Style and La Ciociara, for which she won an Oscar.
Tickets available at cinemaitalianonz.com