The San Diego Italian Film Festival celebrates its third year, starting October 16 through November 7. The festival provides an opportunity for all Italians and lovers of Italian culture to rediscover passion, love, and the best flavors of life in this season’s festival.
This year's San Diego Italian Film Festival features major recently released Italian films by internationally acclaimed award-winning directors. Festival films have English subtitles.
The Festival is made possible through a collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Los Angeles, the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park, and the Ministero degli Affari Esteri in Rome and independent distributors.
Festival continues until Saturday November 7
The film for October 31st is: "Una Notte Blu Cobalto Cobalt Blue Night."
Admission: Free, but $5 donation requested.
For more information, please call: (619) 238-7559
or visit: www.sandiegoitalianfilmfestival.com
This year's San Diego Italian Film Festival features major recently released Italian films by internationally acclaimed award-winning directors. Festival films have English subtitles.
The Festival is made possible through a collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Los Angeles, the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park, and the Ministero degli Affari Esteri in Rome and independent distributors.
Festival continues until Saturday November 7
The film for October 31st is: "Una Notte Blu Cobalto Cobalt Blue Night."
The hero of "Una Notte Blu Cobalto Cobalt Blue Night," Dino Malaspina (Corrado Fortuna), wakes up being not very heroic -- he’s depressed, crying, and clinging to his fantasies like a baby latched on to its bottle, even though the bottle is empty. Tears might be normal for a baby, but how does a young man get past that moment, jump over his depression, find some new nourishment, maybe grow up? How does he get over being rejected by the beautiful Valeria (Regina Orioli) and move on with life?
He wanders the streets of Catania at night until he finds a mystical pizza parlor, or rather, a wizard pizza maker Turi (Alessandro Haber) who, pipe in hand, needs to hire a new delivery boy, dishes out curt commands and seems to have a somewhat desperate clientele who need that magic pizza from La Blu Cobalto. And Dino, struggling with a busted love affair, unable to get past his own misery, is left with nothing but his nocturnal delivery duties. In fact, he begins to discover that those people to whom he’s bringing this tasty pizza all seem to be a bit strange, quite lonely, and maybe a bit addicted to the pizza. Is there something else being delivered with the pizza?
Dino has not seen his own depression as an addiction, but as he drives around the spooky Baroque city, up and down dark ways and mysterious places, encounters strange folks and parties where people he’s just met seem to make odd appearances, he makes choices that slowly put him into action again. So that finally he puts himself entirely in the hands of the wizard who, with blue bubbles galore, gives Dino the chance to take a deep look into himself and find a way out of his misery.
This is a night for shedding old habits, for marching steadily on, for giving up baby bottles and setting sail for new destinations. With a little magical realism, and the help of a magical bubbling night, Dino finds his way to a new day.
Like other movies shown at the SDIFF, this film was produced completely locally, with business people of the city joining to give a young filmmaker Daniele Gangemi the opportunity for his first feature length film. The musician Giuliano Sangiorgi, of the famed Italian rock group Negramaro by chance encountered the production and loved it so much that he volunteered to compose the film’s soundtrack. (Review by Prof. Pasqual Verdiccio, UCSD)
Admission: Free, but $5 donation requested.
For more information, please call: (619) 238-7559
or visit: www.sandiegoitalianfilmfestival.com
