Credits included ‘Happy As Lazarro’ and ‘Bread And Tulips’.
Swiss producer Tiziana Soudani, the long-term producer of Alice Rohrwacher, has died after a long illness. She was in her 60s.
Soudani, who hailed from the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino, founded Lugano-based company Amka Film in 1988 with her Algerian filmmaker husband Mohammed Soudani. It takes its name from the first names of their daughters Amel and Karima.
The couple had strong ties with Africa and many of their early productions were made on the continent including Ivorian director Roger Gnoan M’Bala’s 1993 comedy Au Nom Du Christ, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival,...
Swiss producer Tiziana Soudani, the long-term producer of Alice Rohrwacher, has died after a long illness. She was in her 60s.
Soudani, who hailed from the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino, founded Lugano-based company Amka Film in 1988 with her Algerian filmmaker husband Mohammed Soudani. It takes its name from the first names of their daughters Amel and Karima.
The couple had strong ties with Africa and many of their early productions were made on the continent including Ivorian director Roger Gnoan M’Bala’s 1993 comedy Au Nom Du Christ, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival,...
- 1/27/2020
- by 1100388¦Melanie Goodfellow¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Swiss producer Tiziana Soudani, who through her Amka Films shepherded prizewinning films by prominent directors from nearby Italy, such as Alice Rohrwacher and Silvio Soldini, as well as by emerging talents in Switzerland and Africa, has died after a struggle with brain cancer.
She was in her mid 60s, though her exact age was not immediately verifiable. Soudani’s death was announced on Sunday by several Swiss media outlets and by the Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland’s preeminent film event, with which Soudani had a long rapport.
Born in Locarno, the lakeside town in the Italian-speaking portion of Switzerland, Ticino, Soudani founded Amka Films in 1988 with her Algerian husband Mohammed Soudani, a former professional soccer player turned documentary director.
The previous year, in 1987, while attending the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso, Soudani had been profoundly struck by the film “Ablakan,” the first work by Roger Gnoan M’Bala...
She was in her mid 60s, though her exact age was not immediately verifiable. Soudani’s death was announced on Sunday by several Swiss media outlets and by the Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland’s preeminent film event, with which Soudani had a long rapport.
Born in Locarno, the lakeside town in the Italian-speaking portion of Switzerland, Ticino, Soudani founded Amka Films in 1988 with her Algerian husband Mohammed Soudani, a former professional soccer player turned documentary director.
The previous year, in 1987, while attending the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, in Burkina Faso, Soudani had been profoundly struck by the film “Ablakan,” the first work by Roger Gnoan M’Bala...
- 1/27/2020
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
- Antonio Capuano is one of those filmmakers whose pride and love for his home, for his city, for his Napoli, is overwhelming. His inspiration is the contemporary world that surrounds him and he turns that world into cinematic Art. He strives to tell the stories he wants to tell, they way he wants to tell them. Antonio Capuano is building a strong foundation for a body of work that will surely be remembered. The Department of Film and Mediaâ.s annual collaboration with N.I.C.E. (New Italian Cinema Events) features emerging directors whose innovative work is deserving of international recognition. Antonio Capuano, this yearâ.s artist in focus, is a well-known theater and television director, a painter and set designer, and a filmmaker. Capturing the maverick spirit flourishing in Naples today, the director is celebrated for his honest depiction of troubled teenagers and his ability to translate
- 11/3/2005
- IONCINEMA.com
Silvio Soldini's "Bread & Tulips" has seemingly won more film awards than "Gladiator" and "American Beauty" combined. So as it enters the homestretch of its triumphant worldwide tour in the United States, it's surprising to discover how unfulfilling and relentlessly saccharine the movie is. What a sad commentary on the state of adult comedies that this artificial concoction can win such plaudits.
With aggressive marketing by First Look that emphasizes all of those festival and Donatello awards, the film should open strongly in specialty venues. After that is anybody's guess. But Italian feel-good movies tend to win over audiences whatever their deficiencies.
In the early going, a young boy in a car on a highway holds up a sign reading "New Parents Wanted". That essentially sums up the situation in this film -- only in reverse. A bored housewife, played as a perpetual klutz by Licia Maglietta, desperately needs a new family. Only she doesn't realize it yet. Her husband is too busy with work and his mistress to pay her much heed. Her two teenage sons simply ignore her.
Opportunity arrives unexpectedly when she gets left behind at a rest stop during the family's annual bus holiday. She impulsively hitchhikes to Venice, where several scruffy folk teach her the joys of cheerful impoverishment and determined selfishness in the face of life's hardships.
At the heart of the story is a strange relationship that develops between Maglietta and a forlorn, aging waiter (veteran actor Bruno Ganz) who speaks in a vague foreign accent -- he claims to be Icelandic -- and absurdly flowery language. Maglietta discovers an accordion and remembers she once played the instrument. Ganz remembers he once sang on cruise ships. Duet, anyone?
This is the kind of movie where characters' occupations -- a detective-plumber and a holistic beautician/masseuse -- are funnier than the characters. The pudgy detective-plumber and coy masseuse fall for each other for no clear reason. (This being Venice, one is tempted to say there must be something weird in the water.)
The actors do their best -- perhaps even more than their best because overacting is the order of the day here. But there is not a shred of credibility in this connection even for those who are, in the original English-language title of this movie, "Hopelessly Romantic".
Seldom is one so aware of a moviemaker's strain at creating "enchantment." Each character is given some shtick, such as Maglietta's clumsiness or the masseuse's New Age accouterments, but no sense of character. Even Maglietta's bored housewife has no real personality.
At 116 minutes, the movie staggers rather than prances to the finish line. Technical credits on the well-crafted movie are adroit as Soldini and his crew show off a nontouristy side to Venice and its fabled canals.
BREAD & TULIPS
First Look Pictures
Instituto Luce/Monogatari SRL/RAI Cinema
Producer: Daniele Maggioni
Director: Silvio Soldini
Screenwriters: Doriana Leondeff, Silvio Soldini
Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi
Production designer: Paola Bizzarri
Music: Giovanni Venosta
Costume designer: Silvia Nebiolo
Editor: Carlotta Cristiani
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rosalba: Licia Maglietta
Fernando: Bruno Ganz
Costantino: Giuseppe Battiston
Grazia: Marina Massironi
Mimmo: Antonio Catania
Running time -- 116 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
With aggressive marketing by First Look that emphasizes all of those festival and Donatello awards, the film should open strongly in specialty venues. After that is anybody's guess. But Italian feel-good movies tend to win over audiences whatever their deficiencies.
In the early going, a young boy in a car on a highway holds up a sign reading "New Parents Wanted". That essentially sums up the situation in this film -- only in reverse. A bored housewife, played as a perpetual klutz by Licia Maglietta, desperately needs a new family. Only she doesn't realize it yet. Her husband is too busy with work and his mistress to pay her much heed. Her two teenage sons simply ignore her.
Opportunity arrives unexpectedly when she gets left behind at a rest stop during the family's annual bus holiday. She impulsively hitchhikes to Venice, where several scruffy folk teach her the joys of cheerful impoverishment and determined selfishness in the face of life's hardships.
At the heart of the story is a strange relationship that develops between Maglietta and a forlorn, aging waiter (veteran actor Bruno Ganz) who speaks in a vague foreign accent -- he claims to be Icelandic -- and absurdly flowery language. Maglietta discovers an accordion and remembers she once played the instrument. Ganz remembers he once sang on cruise ships. Duet, anyone?
This is the kind of movie where characters' occupations -- a detective-plumber and a holistic beautician/masseuse -- are funnier than the characters. The pudgy detective-plumber and coy masseuse fall for each other for no clear reason. (This being Venice, one is tempted to say there must be something weird in the water.)
The actors do their best -- perhaps even more than their best because overacting is the order of the day here. But there is not a shred of credibility in this connection even for those who are, in the original English-language title of this movie, "Hopelessly Romantic".
Seldom is one so aware of a moviemaker's strain at creating "enchantment." Each character is given some shtick, such as Maglietta's clumsiness or the masseuse's New Age accouterments, but no sense of character. Even Maglietta's bored housewife has no real personality.
At 116 minutes, the movie staggers rather than prances to the finish line. Technical credits on the well-crafted movie are adroit as Soldini and his crew show off a nontouristy side to Venice and its fabled canals.
BREAD & TULIPS
First Look Pictures
Instituto Luce/Monogatari SRL/RAI Cinema
Producer: Daniele Maggioni
Director: Silvio Soldini
Screenwriters: Doriana Leondeff, Silvio Soldini
Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi
Production designer: Paola Bizzarri
Music: Giovanni Venosta
Costume designer: Silvia Nebiolo
Editor: Carlotta Cristiani
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rosalba: Licia Maglietta
Fernando: Bruno Ganz
Costantino: Giuseppe Battiston
Grazia: Marina Massironi
Mimmo: Antonio Catania
Running time -- 116 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
Silvio Soldini's "Bread & Tulips" has seemingly won more film awards than "Gladiator" and "American Beauty" combined. So as it enters the homestretch of its triumphant worldwide tour in the United States, it's surprising to discover how unfulfilling and relentlessly saccharine the movie is. What a sad commentary on the state of adult comedies that this artificial concoction can win such plaudits.
With aggressive marketing by First Look that emphasizes all of those festival and Donatello awards, the film should open strongly in specialty venues. After that is anybody's guess. But Italian feel-good movies tend to win over audiences whatever their deficiencies.
In the early going, a young boy in a car on a highway holds up a sign reading "New Parents Wanted". That essentially sums up the situation in this film -- only in reverse. A bored housewife, played as a perpetual klutz by Licia Maglietta, desperately needs a new family. Only she doesn't realize it yet. Her husband is too busy with work and his mistress to pay her much heed. Her two teenage sons simply ignore her.
Opportunity arrives unexpectedly when she gets left behind at a rest stop during the family's annual bus holiday. She impulsively hitchhikes to Venice, where several scruffy folk teach her the joys of cheerful impoverishment and determined selfishness in the face of life's hardships.
At the heart of the story is a strange relationship that develops between Maglietta and a forlorn, aging waiter (veteran actor Bruno Ganz) who speaks in a vague foreign accent -- he claims to be Icelandic -- and absurdly flowery language. Maglietta discovers an accordion and remembers she once played the instrument. Ganz remembers he once sang on cruise ships. Duet, anyone?
This is the kind of movie where characters' occupations -- a detective-plumber and a holistic beautician/masseuse -- are funnier than the characters. The pudgy detective-plumber and coy masseuse fall for each other for no clear reason. (This being Venice, one is tempted to say there must be something weird in the water.)
The actors do their best -- perhaps even more than their best because overacting is the order of the day here. But there is not a shred of credibility in this connection even for those who are, in the original English-language title of this movie, "Hopelessly Romantic".
Seldom is one so aware of a moviemaker's strain at creating "enchantment." Each character is given some shtick, such as Maglietta's clumsiness or the masseuse's New Age accouterments, but no sense of character. Even Maglietta's bored housewife has no real personality.
At 116 minutes, the movie staggers rather than prances to the finish line. Technical credits on the well-crafted movie are adroit as Soldini and his crew show off a nontouristy side to Venice and its fabled canals.
BREAD & TULIPS
First Look Pictures
Instituto Luce/Monogatari SRL/RAI Cinema
Producer: Daniele Maggioni
Director: Silvio Soldini
Screenwriters: Doriana Leondeff, Silvio Soldini
Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi
Production designer: Paola Bizzarri
Music: Giovanni Venosta
Costume designer: Silvia Nebiolo
Editor: Carlotta Cristiani
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rosalba: Licia Maglietta
Fernando: Bruno Ganz
Costantino: Giuseppe Battiston
Grazia: Marina Massironi
Mimmo: Antonio Catania
Running time -- 116 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
With aggressive marketing by First Look that emphasizes all of those festival and Donatello awards, the film should open strongly in specialty venues. After that is anybody's guess. But Italian feel-good movies tend to win over audiences whatever their deficiencies.
In the early going, a young boy in a car on a highway holds up a sign reading "New Parents Wanted". That essentially sums up the situation in this film -- only in reverse. A bored housewife, played as a perpetual klutz by Licia Maglietta, desperately needs a new family. Only she doesn't realize it yet. Her husband is too busy with work and his mistress to pay her much heed. Her two teenage sons simply ignore her.
Opportunity arrives unexpectedly when she gets left behind at a rest stop during the family's annual bus holiday. She impulsively hitchhikes to Venice, where several scruffy folk teach her the joys of cheerful impoverishment and determined selfishness in the face of life's hardships.
At the heart of the story is a strange relationship that develops between Maglietta and a forlorn, aging waiter (veteran actor Bruno Ganz) who speaks in a vague foreign accent -- he claims to be Icelandic -- and absurdly flowery language. Maglietta discovers an accordion and remembers she once played the instrument. Ganz remembers he once sang on cruise ships. Duet, anyone?
This is the kind of movie where characters' occupations -- a detective-plumber and a holistic beautician/masseuse -- are funnier than the characters. The pudgy detective-plumber and coy masseuse fall for each other for no clear reason. (This being Venice, one is tempted to say there must be something weird in the water.)
The actors do their best -- perhaps even more than their best because overacting is the order of the day here. But there is not a shred of credibility in this connection even for those who are, in the original English-language title of this movie, "Hopelessly Romantic".
Seldom is one so aware of a moviemaker's strain at creating "enchantment." Each character is given some shtick, such as Maglietta's clumsiness or the masseuse's New Age accouterments, but no sense of character. Even Maglietta's bored housewife has no real personality.
At 116 minutes, the movie staggers rather than prances to the finish line. Technical credits on the well-crafted movie are adroit as Soldini and his crew show off a nontouristy side to Venice and its fabled canals.
BREAD & TULIPS
First Look Pictures
Instituto Luce/Monogatari SRL/RAI Cinema
Producer: Daniele Maggioni
Director: Silvio Soldini
Screenwriters: Doriana Leondeff, Silvio Soldini
Director of photography: Luca Bigazzi
Production designer: Paola Bizzarri
Music: Giovanni Venosta
Costume designer: Silvia Nebiolo
Editor: Carlotta Cristiani
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rosalba: Licia Maglietta
Fernando: Bruno Ganz
Costantino: Giuseppe Battiston
Grazia: Marina Massironi
Mimmo: Antonio Catania
Running time -- 116 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13...
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