The persistent vibrancy of Italian cinema, despite increasing financing difficulties, is undisputable if you look at the range of the country’s current output and what’s percolating in the pipeline.
It spans from highly sophisticated new works by maestros such as Paolo Sorrentino and Luca Guadagnino to crassly commercial global megahits like Netflix Italy original “The Tearsmith” and promising fresh fare from Cinema Italiano’s next generation.
Below is a compendium of new Italian movies in various stages.
“Parthenope” Paolo Sorrentino is in Cannes for the sixth time with this love letter to his native Naples, which segues from his Oscar-nominated “The Hand of God,” also set in the sensual southern port city. Main cast comprises Luisa Ranieri, who played the emotionally troubled aunt Patrizia in “The Hand of God,” Gary Oldman and Silvio Orlando, who was Cardinal Voiello in “The Young Pope.” Lead producers are Lorenzo Mieli for Fremantle’s The Apartment Pictures and Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent. Sales: Fremantle
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“Queer” Luca Guadagnino’s William S. Burroughs adaptation features Daniel Craig playing the renowned counterculture author’s alter ego, an outcast drugged-out, American expat, who lives in Mexico, and “Outer Banks” star Drew Starkey as a younger man, a discharged American Navy serviceman, with whom he becomes madly infatuated. Sales: TBA.
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“The Tearsmith” This young adult romance based on a turgid Italian best-seller and directed by Alessandro Genovesi shot to number one in April on Netflix’s global non-English language movies chart, an unprecedented feat for an Italian-language film. Set in the U.S., “Tearsmith” follows two diametrically different orphans named Nica and Rigel who are adopted by the same family. While Nica is naive and innocent, Rigel – who was her nemesis at the abusive orphanage – is a violent bully. In their new home the pseudo siblings fall in love, of course. Produced by Iginio Straffi and Alessandro Usai via Rainbow Group’s Colorado Film.
Untitled Gabriele Mainetti Film Mainetti, known internationally for genre-bending titles “They Call Me Jeeg” and “Freaks vs. the Reich,” is in post on this kung fu movie set in Rome’s multi-ethnic Piazza Vittorio quarter. The genre-bender stars Chinese martial artist Liu Yaxi, who was Liu Yifei’s stunt double in Disney’s “Mulan,” alongside Italy’s Enrico Borello (“Lovely Boy”), Sabrina Ferilli (“The Great Beauty”), Marco Giallini (“Perfect Strangers”) and Luca Zingaretti (“Montalbano”). Produced by Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Fremantle’s Wildside. Sales: Vision Distribution
“First Life, Then Cinema” Francesca Comencini (“The White Space,” “Gomorrah,” the series) is in post on this personal film that will indirectly pay homage to her father Luigi Comencini, the Italian master who made Oscar-nominated Cinema Italiano classic “Bread, Love and Dreams.” The intimate Paris-set drama stars Fabrizio Gifuni (“Kidnapped”) and hot newcomer Romana Maggiora Vergano (“There’s Still Tomorrow”). Produced by Simone Gattoni via his Kavac Film. Sales: TBA
“Le déluge” This sophomore work by Gianluca Iodice (“Bad Poet”) follows the last days of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette before their execution. Shot in the Royal Palace of Caserta, which rivals Versailles, and featuring costumes by Italy’s Oscar-nominated Massimo Cantini Parrini (“Cyrano”) it has the makings of a classy non-conventional period drama. Produced by Matteo Rovere’s Ascent Films. Sales: Goodfellas
“Iddu” Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”) direct Italian A-listers Toni Servillo (“The Great Beauty”) and Elio Germano (“Our Life”) in this drama about Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro, dubbed “the last godfather.” The film looks at a time during Denaro’s three decades as a fugitive from Italian justice, when he was at the peak of his nefarious powers. The roles respectively being played by Servillo and Elio Germano are being kept under wraps. Co-produced by Indigo Film and Les Films Du Losange. Sales: TBA
“Basileia” A promising first work developed by young director Isabella Torre at the Sundance Lab about an archaeologist who while exploring a tomb in Southern Italy’s rugged Aspromonte mountains awakens ancient presences. The cast comprises Angela Fontana (“Indivisibili”) and Danish-American actor Elliott Crosset Hove (“Godland”). Produced by Jonas Carpignano’s Stayblack and RAI Cinema. Sales: LuxBox