RETURN TO THE PALAIS Nanni Moretti’s long wait has been rewarded: he is the only Italian director in competition with “Tre piani”. An Italian film, “Small Body” at La Semaine de la Critique, and four at the Quinzaine des Realisateurs. Honorary Palme d’Or for Marco Bellocchio. Dario Argento: a leading actor in the new Cannes Premieres section
“T
re piani” by Nanni Moretti is in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The director is competing for the Palme d’Or For the eighth time with a movie he wrote together with Federica Pontremoli and Valia Santella, based on the novel of the same name by Eshkol Nevo. Starring Margherita Buy, Riccardo Scamarcio, Alba Rohrwacher, Adriano Giannini, Elena Lietti, Alessandro Sperduti, Denise Tantucci, Nanni Moretti, Anna Bonaiuto, Paolo Graziosi, Stefano Dionisi and Tommaso Ragno, the film is produced by Sacher Film and Fandango with Rai Cinema and Le Pacte and will be released in theaters on September 23 by 01 Distribution. There is an Italian presence (albeit only in the production phase) in another two titles in competition. Palosanto Films and Rai Cinema are the co-producers of “The Story of My Wife”, the theatrical adaptation of the novel of the same name by Milán Füst directed by the Hungarian Ildikó Enyedi, starring Léa Seydoux, Gijs Naber, Louis Garrel, Sergio Rubini and Jasmine Trinca. Léa Seydoux turns up again, this time in the role of a journalist and television star, busily moving between TV sets and her frenetic family life, in “France” by Bruno Dumont, the international production team of which again includes Rai Cinema alongside Tea Time Film and Matteo Rovere and Andrea Paris’ Ascent Film. Young Italian directors are present in force in the autonomous and parallel sections: newcomers (like Laura Samani at La Semaine de la Critique [International Critics’ Week] with “Small Body” produced by Nefertiti Film, the winner of When East Meets West 2018), or festival regulars like Jonas Carpignano who, after “Mediterranea” and “A Ciambra”, returns to Cannes in the Quinzaine des Realisateurs [Directors’ Fortnight], with the closing chapter of his trilogy set in Gioia Tauro: “A Chiara” a co-production between Italy (Stayblack with Rai Cinema), France and Sweden (Haut et Court, Arte France Cinéma). The film is being sold around the world by France’s MK2. There are another three Italian titles in the Quinzaine. Alice Rohrwacher (another talent who is well known in Cannes), together with Pietro Marcello and Francesco Munzi, curated the direction of “Futura”, a documentary conceived as “a reportage, a journey to Italy, a message directed by kids towards the future, to new generations”. This is how it was defined by Pietro Marcello and it is no coincidence that 2021 JULY
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