Italian cinema is still one of the great ones on the European scale, even though it is rarely present in our theatres, as well as other non-Hollywood productions. Therefore, we have missed many valuable and interesting Italian films on the big screen. The informal monopoly of American films is not much smaller in other countries and even if today Italians had so many great films as they had in several decades after the WW II, it is not likely that they would have such an impact as they had had in the past. One of the films shown in this valuable program of new Italian films, Latin Lover directed by Cristina Comencini, refers to that golden age of Italian cinema in a very interesting manner. The story takes place on the tenth anniversary of death of one great actor from the times of Italian cinema’s greatest successes, when his daughters and former wives gather to pay him respect. The actor was a handsome man whose charm could not be avoided by any woman and he evokes to our memories the unforgettable faces of De Sica, Gassman or Mastroianni. Also, the director’s last name, Comencini, is reminiscent of those times as her father, Luigi (1916 – 2007) was one of the greatest directors of at the time very popular typical Italian comedies. He is a father who enabled the now successful director Cristina, to take her first steps in film directing. She is the director of several interesting comedies and her Latin Lover successfully combines elements of comedy and drama.

This year’s program shows films by popular and awarded directors in Italy as well as Europe and since it includes three very different comedies, offers the opportunity to see how much commedia all'italiana has changed over time. In the film Scusate se esisto! Ricardo Milani creates humor by treating a serious topic in an original way. It is a story about inequality of genders in contemporary Italy that does not allow a capable and highly educated woman to find a job. She manages to get employment only after making a curious deal with a man, which results in a series of comical situations. Confusi e felici, a story about a seemingly bizarre situation between a psychotherapist and his group of patients who are mostly social outsiders, the director MaBruno poses an interesting question by a way of humorous scenes: is it more important that the protagonist is not following the rules of his profession to treat his patients or that he manages to make his patients, who all suffer from severe emotional wounds, a little bit happier. Having had more work for television and filming commercials and videos, Davide Morengo accepted to direct the film Un fidanzato per mia moglie, remake of the Argentinian comedy Un novio para mi mujer from 2008, and successfully adapted it to Italian mentality while still realistically portraying the environment in which the story takes place.

Even though there is no doubt that these comedies manage to provide quality entertainment for the audience, other films form the program received better reviews and more awards. Among those is one of the best Italian films from the last year – biographical drama about the great peot Giacomo Leopardi (1798 – 1837), magnificently portrayed by Elio Germano. One of the most esteemed Italian directors of the last few decades, Mario Martone concentrated on the protagonist’s personal drama and showed his directing skills in recreating historical events and the unique visual beauty of each and every scene. Director Ivano De Matteo shows his precise and nuanced directing style in his film The Dinner (I nostri ragazzi) manages to create a frightening drama from a simple monthly dinner meeting of the two brothers and their wives whose motif might be the fact that their children committed a terrible crime. Family drama is the central topic of the film Un ragazzo d’oro in which the respected film veteran Pupi Avati varies his usual theme of the relationship between a father and a son who are in severe conflict. In this film he uses an unexpected way to portray this relationship through a story about a son who, after his unloving father’s death, promises to a publisher to write the biography of his father in his name. Avati started to make films in 1960’s during the time when the greatness of Italian cinema was not yet questionable and he held a special place within it, which he earned by deviating from the prevailing tendencies in his numerous films, some of which were of exceptional value. Therefore, this film complements in an interesting way the possible comparisons of the former and contemporary Italian cinema, which is another interesting offer of this selection of seven exceptionally well-done films from Italy. (Tomislav Kurelec)