Viva Italia! The Passion of Italian Cinema
February 28–April 24
Wednesdays at 7:30 PM | SIFF Cinema Uptown
Festa Italiana and Greg Olson Productions present: Viva Italia! The Passion of Italian Cinema.
Series Pass (includes all nine films): $90 General | $80 Members of SIFF, Festa Italiana, SAM, UW Italian Studies and Cinema Studies, Alliance Francaise de Seattle, Cornish, NWFF, SFI, TheFilmSchool, Scarecrow Video and KING FM.
Individual tickets: $15
SIFF year-round passes and vouchers are not valid for this series.
See life as a human comedy, embrace beauty, feel deeply, pursue the sweet life with Italian gusto. Festa Italiana and Greg Olson Productions present a series of nine films that illuminate the golden age of 1960s-1970s Italian cinema. When traditional ways of thinking and behaving were challenged by liberated philosophical, political, social and sexual views and mores.
We begin with a three-film tribute to supreme Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni (Divorce, Italian Style, The Organizer, and La Notte). La Grande Bellezza presents a stunning Oscar-winning reflection and progression of the 60s-70s spirit. Rare 35mm prints and 4K restorations by Martin Scorsese and Gucci, Cinecitta, Cineteca di Bologna, Foundazione Bernardo Bertolucci, Cineteca Nationale, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Films in Italian with English subtitles. Poet and film curator Tova Gannana will provide a pre-film Viva Italia! Music Playlist.
Present your ticket on the day of the film at any Tutta Bella Pizzeria and receive a 10% discount on the total price. Series tickets can be used each of the series' nine weeks. Ticket buyers can use the code ITALIA for a 10% discount at the Mediterranean Inn, across from the Uptown Theater, any night from February 28 through April 24.
Viva Italia: Divorce, Italian Style (35mm)
Italy | 1961 | 108 min. | Pietro Germi
February 28, 2024
Supreme Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni plays a Sicilian nobleman who imagines whimsical ways of getting rid of his nagging wife, so he can be with his true love (Stefania Sandrelli). Mastroianni's Oscar nominated, macho-satirizing performance set the whole world laughing, and Germi's screenplay took the golden statue home to Italy. Presented on 35mm.
Viva Italia: The Organizer (35mm)
Italy | 1963 | 130 min. | Mario Monicelli
March 6, 2024
A vivid example of the commedia al'italiana genre and style, which portrays social problems with satire and dark comedy. Marcello Mastroianni stars as a professor who rallies a group of exploited Turin textile factory workers for better working conditions. Presented on 35mm.
Viva Italia: La Notte
Italy | 1961 | 122 min. | Michelangelo Antonioni
March 13, 2024
Iconic actress Jeanne Moreau plays the wife of intellectual novelist Marcello Mastroianni, her eloquent face like a modern art Mona Lisa as she wanders alone through Milan, her interiority separate from, yet mated with, that of her husband.
Viva Italia: Il Sorpasso
Italy | 1961 | 105 min. | Dino Risi
March 20, 2024
In Rome a shy, law student (Jean-Louis Trintignant) is hitting the books, when his his introverted cocoon is pierced by a charming, extroverted hedonist (Vittorio Gassman) in a sports car.
Viva Italia: Rocco and His Brothers
Italy | 1960 | 180 min. | Luchino Visconti
March 27, 2024
Writer-director Visconti (The Leopard, Death in Venice) brings his characteristic visual lushness, operatic sweep and gritty realism to this family epic of Italy, north and south. Luchino Visconti Best Director, Venice Film Festival.
Viva Italia: Mamma Roma
Italy | 1962 | 110 min. | Pier Paolo Pasolini
April 3, 2024
Anna Magnani stars as Mamma Roma, a former prostitute wanting to start life anew with her now teenage son. The road is bumpy, but with her warm heart, free-flowing laughter, tears and insulting banter, Mamma seems to be the resilient, earthy madonna of the entire Eternal City.
Viva Italia: The Conformist
Italy | 1970 | 116 min. | Bernardo Bertolucci
April 10, 2024
A complex man's (Jean-Louis Trintignant) mission of pursuit is powered by his psychological evasion. Adapted from Alberto Moravia's celebrated novel, The Confomrist's thematic and artistic richness stunned the world's literati, filmmakers, architects, interior and fashion designers.
Viva Italia: Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
Italy | 1970 | 115 min. | Elio Petri
April 17, 2024
Charismatic Gian Maria Volonte stars as a Roman Police Squad kingpin who thinks he can get away with murder, and even purposely leaves clues to see if his detectives can solve the case. Best Foreign Film Oscar.
Viva Italia: La Grande Belleza
Italy | 2013 | 115 min. | Paolo Sorrentino
April 24, 2024
Overflowing with the sensual pleasures of Rome, this enchanting film could be called ROMA in homage to the realm of Maestro Federico Fellini's cinematic art, he who called Rome "the Internal City" of soul-searching.