Italian films cater for all tastes

Now into its eighth year as a fixture on the local cinematic calendar, the Italian Film Festival starts in Auckland tonight before taking its programme to points further south.

There are 15 films in this year's Auckland programme which is spread between cinemas in Mission Bay, Takapuna and Whangaparaoa.

Among them are Ask Me If I'm Happy (2001) and The Legend Of Al, John And Jack (2003), two more films by the comedy trio Aldo, Giovanni, and Giacomo, who are household names in Italy and whose previous Three Men and a Leg, which screened at last year's festival, is now showing at the Academy Cinema in the city.

This year festival director Tony Lambert says he has fixed one of his annual headaches of the event - finding Italian distributors who can be depended on to deliver their product - by going into partnership with Australia's Palace Pictures, the main distributors of Italian films across the Tasman.

But he says he is still having little luck sourcing Italian cinema classics to show alongside the contemporary films. However, among this year's batch - as well as the slapstick-styled comedies of the aforementioned Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo - the festival line-up includes dramas of crime, romance, political and social change and sexual exploration.

Among the highlights are:

* Casomai: A modern stylish romantic comedy set in Milan about the happily married parents-of-one, Tommaso and Stefania whose happiness begins to be threatened by those around them.

* The Hundred Steps(I Cento Passi): Based on a true story, a drama about one man's fight against the mafia overlords in his Sicilian seaside town.

* Our Tropical Island (Mari del Sud): Comedy about how the stresses and strains of modern life threatens to tear a family apart just as they're about to head off on holiday.

* Light of My Eyes (Luce Dei Miei Occhi): Love story about one lonely guy who decides to dedicate his life and income to caring for a woman and daughter he meets one night.

* From Zero to Ten (Da Zero a Dieci): Comedy about four friends who return to the beach resort of Rimini to finish a weekend that was interrupted twenty years earlier.

On Screen

* What: Italian Film Festival 2003

* Where & When: Starts today at Berkeley Mission Bay; tomorrow at Berkeley Whangaparaoa; Thursday October 16 at Berkeley Takapuna

* Italian Film Festival website