A return to form for Italian cinema

Black Sea charts the relationship between an embittered and infirm widow and the Romanian immigrant who looks after her. Photo / supplied

Not a moment too soon, Italian cinema is going through a renaissance.

In the middle of last century Italian directors (Fellini, Visconti, Antonioni, De Sica, Bertolucci) were in the very front rank of film-makers, powerfully influential in the development of the language of cinema. But in the last generation the influence of a man named Berlusconi has been much more profound.

The priapic buffoon of the gossip pages has exerted an extraordinarily malign control over Italian culture in general and film in particular: he owns three of seven television channels and, as prime minister, unashamedly manipulates the state-owned RAI, his only competitor.

The effect on cinema, which relied on television for funding, has been baleful: a profusion of lightweight and banal comedies, funded cheaply to fill primetime schedules became the industry staple. Luca Guadagnino, director of I Am Love, told me in an interview that "Berlusconi has changed Italy completely. He has degraded and destroyed the texture of imagery".

In that context, it is cheering to see the boost in quality of recent releases - such as last year's Gomorrah - which get to grips with the concerns of a society in crisis. And most of them come to us courtesy of the annual Italian Film Festival, which marks its 15th year when it opens in Auckland next week.

Many of the films in the 15-strong line-up arrive after Australian releases and would otherwise not be seen here, so the programme rewards attention.

It's a strong selection, with some of the few previewed being among the more striking films I've seen this year. Most impressive was The Wind Blows Round. It's set in a remote and isolated valley in Italy's extreme northwest, in a village that is virtually inaccessible in winter.

Into this fiercely insular community (the local language is Occitan, related to Languedoc French; Italian is a foreign tongue) comes a French cheesemaker who wants to set up home. He's initially welcomed as offering the chance to boost their stagnant economy but things quickly turn sour.

The film can be read allegorically, as an anatomy of intolerance: anti-immigrant sentiment, encountered throughout the eurozone, is particularly strong in the more economically depressed parts of Italy. It also works on its own terms as a potent thriller.

Writer-director Giorgio Diritti is an experienced documentary-maker and his style - the film is shot on digital video but still looks ravishing - has the patient watchfulness and the ethnographic precision of the best documentary.

Meanwhile, the choppy narrative rhythm holds us at arm's length at first, letting us in only slowly and giving us the sense of being newcomers too. Every bit as good is Black Sea which charts the shifting relationship between an embittered and infirm widow from Florence and the Romanian immigrant woman hired to look after her.

Director Federico Bondi adopts a calm and contemplative visual style, often filming long takes with a stationary camera and allowing the action to occur at the edge of, or even outside the frame. And the film is remarkable for the two sensational performances at its centre, the deep humanity of its voice and the subtlety of its narrative.

Fortapasc is a routine but engrossing based-on-fact thriller about a young journalist assassinated in 1985 by the Neapolitan mafia; and the programme has its share of lighter fare including A Matter of Heart, a bitter-sweet comedy about the friendship that develops between a mechanic and a screenwriter who meet in the hospital after both have heart attacks.

LOWDOWN

What: 15th Italian Film Festival
Where: Rialto and Bridgeway Cinemas, September 29 to October 17
On the web: www.italianfilmfestival.co.nz

-TimeOut