CINEMA ITALIAN STYLE 2021

The American Cinematheque has once again joined Cinecittà and the Italian Ministry of Culture to present this year's Cinema Italian Style, a celebration of new films from Italy. While most of this festival will be presented virtually from December 8th to 15th, there will be in-person screenings in Los Angeles of a new documentary about the late composer, Ennio Morricone from Giuseppe Tornatore and the latest from Paolo Sorrentino with "The Hand of God" which has been selected to represent the country for this year's Best International Feature for the 2021 Oscars. Both screenings will be held at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica.

"Ennio: The Maestro" looks at the career of the legendary Morricone who created more than four hundred musical scores for cinema and television. Tornatore traveled across the globe to interview over seventy renowned filmmakers and musicians to share their experiences on working with the composer along with some never-before-seen archival footage involving Morricone at home and work.



Paolo Sorrentino will come to Los Angeles on December 10th to present, "The Hand of God", set during the 1980's in Naples when it was a tumultuous city. Loosely based on Sorrentino's life, the film explores a tale of fate and family, sports and cinema, love and loss. This will be a double feature with his 2016 Best Foriegn-Language Oscar winner, "The Great Beauty" with Sorrentino holding a Q&A in between the films.

The virtual screenings will feature the recent Italian films, "Blue Eyes", "Ezio Bosso: The Things That Remain", "Futura", "Like a Cat on a Highway 2", "Lovely Boy", "The Hole", "The Image Machine of Alfredo C." and "The Macalusco Sisters".









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Cinema Italian Style 2021

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND (2021)

Directed by Todd Haynes



Where & When: Nuart Theater, West Los Angeles, CA. October 20, 2021 5:10 PM

Available to stream now on AppleTV+  


While "The Velvet Underground" is being labeled as Todd Haynes' first documentary, this low-key yet appealing non-fiction film doesn't feel far removed from his previous narrative feature work. Utilizing a vivid, cinematic approach with split-screens filled with energized, montage images and little-seen archival footage from the Warhol Foundation, the filmmaker behind "Poison", "Far From Heaven" and "I'm Not There" realized that this avant-garde band deserved and required a non-fiction film that documented their story unconventionally.

And the Velvet Underground were definitely not a traditional rock band, experimenting with unusual pop structures while taking on subversive subject matter in their songs. Not surprisingly, this group was not appreciated during their time beginning in the late '60's, critically panned and largely ignored by the public. But time eventually allowed listeners to catch up to what the Velvet Underground were creating; merging a bold, offbeat artistic vision with rock music that would become highly influential, leading to the sounds of glam rock, new-wave and punk rock to emerge from their early accomplishments.

It began with the meeting of two disparate musicians; the New York born and raised, Lou Reed, a self-taught guitarist who loved rock and r&b and John Cale, a Welsh multi-instrumentalist who relocated to New York in 1963 to study classical music. They had each performed with varied musicians in style and skill (Reed performed with some short-lived garage bands and Cale worked with a few progressive composers including John Cage) before joining forces, realizing they had a shared taste for the offbeat and experimental.

They recruited Sterling Morrison to play guitar and Angus MacLise on drums, performing together under a variety of different band names before settling on "The Velvet Underground". On the eve of their first paying gig, MacLise quit the band, feeling like they were selling out, and was replaced by Maureen "Moe" Tucker. The Velvet Underground began to draw attention in the local music scene around the city, leading the pop artist, Andy Warhol to become intrigued. He viewed this band as a perfect accompaniment to the unorthodox art he was creating, becoming their manager and producer, although his involvement in the creation of their music was clearly minimal. What Warhol did contribute was getting the Underground signed to a record label, designing their debut album cover art and suggesting that Christa Päffgen, known as Nico, join this band. And while the former German model may not have possessed the best voice for singing, she did have a commanding presence and more than willing to work hard in achieving the desired emotion in the music.

As a young queer man trying to find his way, Haynes found comfort and solidarity in the rebellious music of David Bowie, Roxy Music, the New York Dolls before discovering the Velvet Underground while in college, realizing that this band's singular sound had clearly influenced many of these performers that had followed them. The filmmaker would go on to make "Velvet Goldmine" in 1998, a fictionalized look at the glam rock scene in the 1970's featuring a thinly veiled character based on "Ziggy Stardust"-era Bowie and using details from the lives of Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.

Now with an opportunity to examine the Velvet Underground's legacy, Haynes decided to avoid having music scholars, critics or fans interviewed to discuss the band in the film, using only people who were there to share their thoughts and experiences. That includes the now seventy-nine year old Cale and seventy-seven Tucker; Reed's sister, Merrill Reed Weiner; Mary Woronov, an actress who was a part of Warhol's entourage and Jackson Browne, the musician that was romantically linked to Nico and played on her debut solo album. Morrison (who died at fifty-three in 1995) and Reed (who passed away in 2013 at seventy-one) make appearances through footage of previous interviews.

Despite the inventive visual flourishes and electrifying music, the film rarely matches the same intensity, remaining strangely lo-fi and static. And once the film reaches the Warhol connection and the striking Nico joins the band, "The Velvet Underground" settles in to a more traditional documentary. Yet the film does succeed in capturing the moments of what made the Velvet Underground such a groundbreaking and essential rock band. 

With "The Velvet Underground", Haynes has crafted an entertaining and informative documentary that generates long overdue attention to a musical group that was far ahead of it's time. The director wanted to share what had drawn him to their esoteric music, with an ultimate goal to inspire a new generation to seek out this unsung band.

2021 AFI FILM FESTIVAL

This year's American Film Institute's annual celebration of new cinema will be taking place starting this week on November 10th and through the 14th. This film festival, considerably shortened than previous years, will be a hybrid of virtual and in-person screenings with them being held at the TCL Chinese theatres in Hollywood. All festival-goers will be required to be fully vaccinated in order to attend in person screenings and events.

The Opening Night film will be the world premiere of  "Tick, Tick... Boom!", Lin-Manuel Miranda's cinematic debut as a director with the adaptation of the first musical by Jonathan Larson, the creator of "Rent". This semi-autobiographical story stars Andrew Garfield as an aspiring theatre composer who suffers from a life crisis as he approaches thirty and he hasn't accomplished what he had hoped by this point. "Tick, Tick... Boom!" is scheduled to be released in theaters on November 12th before streaming on Netflix on November 19th.



Other red carpet premieres will include Pedro Almodóvar's latest colorful melodrama, "Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers)" with Penelope Cruz; "Swan Song", a drama by Benjamin Cleary with two-time Oscar winner, Mahershala Ali staring as a man diagnosed with terminal cancer and is offered a radical alterative solution for treatment by his doctor, played by Glenn Close; "Sing 2", the sequel to the 2016 film "Sing", continues the story of Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey) with his new cast who have their sights set on putting on a new show at the Crystal Tower Theater in Redshore City. This animinated film also features the voices of Scarlett Johansson, Reese Witherspoon, Taron Egerton and Nick Kroll. And there is the world premiere of Halle Berry's first film as director with "Bruised". The Academy Award winner also stars as an aging mixed martial arts fighter who seeks redemption by accepting an offer to fight the top fighter in an unsanctioned bout while also dealing with the unexpected return of the child she gave up for adoption.







And the Closing Night film will be "King Richard". Will Smith plays Richard Williams, a determined father who sets out to help make his young, talented daughters, Venus and Serena, two of the greatest athletes of all-time. Reinaldo Marcus Green directs. "King Richard" will be released theatrically and streaming on HBO Max on November 19th.



The rest of the fest will feature new works of world cinema, documentaries, short film competition, "Meet The Press" film festival which will spotlight compelling short documentaries involving issues facing society and AFI Conservatory Showcase that will feature the short films by recent graduates of AFI.

For the complete list of films and to purchase tickets and passes, please click below:

AFI 2021