mhip just over a week and will finally kick off the Venice Film Festival 2023 in its 80th edition. Many titles expected at the Lido and, in particular, the Italian ones which contain the best of contemporary production. With the regret of not being able to see Challengers by Luca Guadagnino, first announced as the opening film and then withdrawn from production due to an actors’ strike. But which stories will we see come to life on screen? Here they are in detail.
Venice Film Festival 2023: Italian films
1. Finally dawn by Saverio Costanzo
Nine years after Hungry Hearts, the director of the series The brilliant friend returns to the cinema with a story set in Hollywood on the Tiber. We are in Rome, in 1953, a few hours after the murder of Wilma Montesi, a 21-year-old aspiring actress found dead in Torvaianica. In the movie, several people linked to a peplum set in ancient Egypt being worked on at Cinecittà find themselves sharing important moments.
Like Mimosa (Rebecca Antonaci), a simple girl, close to her wedding, in Cinecittà to act as an extra, just like Wilma. But there are also Josephine (Lily James), the Hollywood star, threatened by the new generation of actors, and Rufus Priori (Willem Dafoe), an American gallery owner and friend of Josephine who will lead the unlikely group on their journey through the night. In theaters from December 14th.
2. I Captain by Matteo Garrone
Written by the director, Massimo Gaudioso and by the actor Massimo Ceccherini, the film tells the adventurous journey of two young people, Seydou and Moussa, who leave Dakar to reach Europe. A contemporary Odyssey through the perils of the desert, the horrors of detention centers in Libya and the dangers of the sea. Played by non-professional actors, I Captain will be released in theaters on September 7 and is inspired by some true stories. Those of Kouassi Pli Adama Mamadou, Anaud Zohin, Amara Fofana, Brhane Tareke and Siaka Doumbia, all guys who have made the same journey as the protagonists.
A scene from “Io Capitano” by Matteo Garrone. (01 Distribution)
3. Lubo by George Rights
Starring the beautiful Franz Rogowskicurrently in theaters with Passages by Ira Sachs, the film tells the story of Lubo Moser, a young Jenisch or a member of one of the nomadic populations defined as “gypsies”. The man has a strong and at the same time cheerful character and is very attached to his family, made up of his wife Mirana and their three children. Lupo doesn’t mind the nomadic life, on the contrary he loves being free to move from time to time with the cart and raise money by playing the accordion in his shows in the square. However, we are in the 1930s and a wind of war is blowing from Germany, which has repercussions on every European border. In this tense climate, the Swiss government declares the mobilization of its male citizens, including gypsies. This is how Lubo finds himself in uniform with the task of controlling and defending the borders. Based on the novel by Mario Cavatore.
Franz Rogowski in a scene from “Lubo”. (01 Distribution)
4. Commander by Edoardo De Angelis
Set during the Second World War, the film stars Salvatore Todaro (Pierfrancesco Favino)who commands the Cappellini submarine of the Regia Marina in its own way: steel-reinforced bow for improbable ramming, cannon shots fired on the surface to face the enemy face to face. And a dagger-wielding crew for impossible hand-to-hand combat. In October 1940, while sailing in the Atlantic, the silhouette of a freighter is looming traveling with the lights offthe Kabalo, who will later be discovered to be of Belgian nationality and who suddenly opens fire on the submarine and the Italian crew. A short but violent battle breaks out in which Commander Todaro will have to make an important decision. Based on the book by Sandro Veronesi with soundtrack written by Robert Del Naja of Massive Attack.
Pierfrancesco Favino in a scene from “Comandante”. (01 Distribution)
5. Happiness by Micaela Ramazzotti
Debut behind the camera for the good Italian actress who directs a cast composed by Max Tortora, Anna Galiena and Sergio Rubini. The film tells a difficult family story or that of a dysfunctional family, made up of selfish and manipulative parents, which form a sort of two-headed monster. And that deprives their children of any possible hope of future freedom. The only one who can save Claudio (Matteo Olivetti) from this fate is his older sister Desirè (Micaela Ramazzotti). Determined to fight against every conviction and deprivation in the name of the only form of love that she knows and in order to achieve a shred of happiness.
The cast of “Happiness” directed by Micaela Ramazzotti. (01 Distribution)
6. Aeneas by Pietro Castellitto
Second work by the young director, the film tells the story of the friendship between Enea (Pietro Castellitto) and Valentino (Giorgio Quarzo Guarascio). In addition to drug dealing and partying, the two share youth and an incorruptible vitality. Beyond the boundaries of the rules, on the other side of morality, there is a sea full of humanity and symbols to discover and the two friends will fly over it to the most extreme consequences. However, drugs and crime are the invisible shadow of a story that talks about something else: a melancholy father, a brother who fights at school, a mother defeated by love and a beautiful girl. It is in the midst of the cracks of everyday life that the adventure of Enea and Valentino will slowly appear criminal, but which for them is, and will be, above all, an adventure of friendship and love. In the cast also dad Sergio and Benedetta Porcaroli, with whom Pietro Castellitto had a short and passionate love story.
A scene from the film “Enea” by Pietro Castellitto. (Vision Distribution)
7. Slowly by Sergio Sollima
Last chapter of the crime trilogy after ACAB And Suburathe film features Manuel, a sixteen-year-old boy, who tries to enjoy life as best he can, while taking care of his elderly father. Victim of blackmail, he goes to a party to take some photos of a mysterious individual but, feeling cheated, decides to run away. He thus finds himself chased by blackmailers who turn out to be dangerous and determined to eliminate what they consider an inconvenient witness. Manuel he will understand that he is entangled in something that is bigger than him and will be forced to ask for protection from two ex-criminalsold acquaintances of the father. In the cast we find Pierfrancesco Favino, Toni Servillo, Adriano Giannini and Valerio Mastandrea and the soundtrack of Subsonica.
A scene from “Adagio” by Sergio Sollima. (Vision Distribution)
8. The order of time by Liliana Cavani
Based on the homonymous essay by Carlo Rovelli, the film by the director Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement tells the story of a group of longtime friends, who all meet together every year in a villa by the sea in Sabaudia to celebrate the birthday of one of them. During the festivities the party learns terrible news: the world, as we know it, could end in a matter of hours. The time that separates them from the apocalypse seems to pass differently, sometimes fast and sometimes eternal, as the group of friends faces its last hours on a summer night that will change their lives forever. With an all-star cast that includes Alessandro Gassmann, Claudia Gerini, Edoardo Leo, Ksenia Rappoport, and Valentina Cervi. In theaters from August 31st.
Edoardo Leo and Alessandro Gassmann in a scene from “The Order of Time”. (Vision Distribution)
9. El Paraíso by Enrico Maria Artale
In competition in the Horizons section, the film tells the life of forty-year-old Julio (Edoardo Pesce) who still lives with his mother in the house they have near the river in the maritime area of Fiumicino, near Rome. The woman (Margarita Rosa De Francisco Baquero), forced to leave Colombia in her youth pregnant with her child, is a strong woman with whom Julio has a complex, symbiotic, deep and morbid relationship. A bond that leads them to share everything from a passion for Latin American dances to work as drug couriers. Is that will be upset by the arrival of a young Colombian (Maria Del Rosario) also involved in drug trafficking.
Margarita Rosa De Francisco Baquero and Edoardo Pesce in a scene from “El Paraíso”. (Rai Cinema)
10. Invelle by Simone Massi
A scene from “Invelle” by Simone Massi. (Biennale Cinema Press Office)
Animated feature film in competition in Orizzonti at the Venice Film Festival 2023, the film is set in 1918 and tells of Zelinda, a motherless peasant girl with her father at war. Having abandoned childhood games, she has to look after the house, the stable and her brothers but one day, at the village fair, she discovers how fantasy and imagination can bring her mother back to life.
Another protagonist, this time in 1943, is little Assunta who balances on one leg, with her head looking at the sky and keeping her foot in another war but, as soon as she can, Assunta she sews a colorful dress, takes a leap and as if by magic the war was all a jokeor at least now it’s gone.
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