Every Thursday, 7pm, FREE
Italian Embassy Cultural Office

THU 9 - Pontormo, 2004
The movie is set in Florence during the late Renaissence and relates the dramatic final months in the life of the painter Jacopo da Pontormo. Based on his personal journals, it describes the relationship between the painter - in his early sixties at the time and busy working on a (now lost) Final Judgment fresco in the choir of the church of San Lorenzo - and his newly-found muse Anna, a Flemish tapestry weaver in exile whose tongue was cut out during the war in the Flanders and who in Florence is accused of witchcraft.

Director: Giovanni FAGO
Cast: Joe Mantegna, Galatea Ranzi, Alberto Bognanni, Sandro Lombardi, Massimo Wertm¨¹ller, Laurent Terzieff, Toni Bertorelli, Mattia Sbragia
Italian with Italian subtitles, drama, 98 min

THU 16 - ¡±Buongiorno, notte¡± (Good Morning, Night), 2003
The kidnapping and killing of Aldo Moro, Italy¡¯s former prime minister and head of Christian Democrat party, was a cataclysm event no Italian can forget. Moro was taken hostage by Red Brigade members in March 1978 and almost two months elapsed while negotiations were pursued in vain. His bullet-riddled body was found on the May 9th after a phone call alerted the authorities.

Director: Marco BELLOCCHIO
Cast: Maya Sansa, Luigi Lo Cascio, Roberto Herlitzka, Paolo Briguglia
Italian with Italian subtitles, drama, 103 min

THU 23 - La felicit¨¤ non costa niente (Happiness Costs Nothing), 2003
Mimmo Calopresti, the director of this existential drama, stars as Sergio, a successful architect who is suddenly afflicted with a malaise. Haunted by the ghost of a co-worker, Sergio takes a mistress, offends his best friends, refuses to acknowledge guidance from his doctor, and eventually loses everything. He has a failed relationship with a woman named Sara (Francesca Neri). Only after losing it all does Sergio find something worthwhile in life.

Director: Mimmo CALOPRESTI
Cast: Mimmo Calopresti, Vincent Perez, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Francesca Neri, Fabrizia Sacchi
Italian with Italian subtitles, drama, 93 min

THU 30
Santa Maradona, 2001
This film talks about two vivacious, directionless, unemployed, passionate young men who share a spacious bachelor pad in Turin, Italy. Andrea, 27 year old, just graduated from University with a useless degree, spends his days looking for a job and killing time talking endlessly with room-mate Bart, a supposed literary critic who never works, and Indo-Italian friend Lucia. Everything changes when he meets Dolores, a beautiful teacher and actress. All the while, a youthful, carefree, sometimes defeatist dialogue continues, eventually leading back to a minor conversation from the beginning of the film that brings the story full circle, and presenting an honest and entertaining picture of recent graduates getting their first taste of life in the real world.

Director: Marco PONTI
Cast: Stefano Accorsi, Anita Caprioli, Libero De Rienzo, Mandala Tayde
Italian with English subtitles, comedy, 96 min