“The Beautiful Things” (Le cose belle) [2013, 88’] by Agostino Ferrente and Giovanni Piperno
“In Naples, time doesn’t exist. This is a popular belief, a superstition, a good luck charm, a trick, a song. In Naples, you spend your time waiting, and then, all of a sudden, you spend it just remembering. So will the beautiful things arrive? Or have they already happened? We compare four lives in a Naples of 1999 – full of hope, and then today, in a totally paralysed Naples. “Four Neapolitan youngsters give an insight into the burden of becoming adults: Fabio and Enzo, two twelve year-old boys, still children… And Adele and Silvana, two little women of fourteen… Four gazes full of beauty, sadness, ingenuity, fragility, fear, hope and cynicism.
A ‘film of the real’ shot over 13 years, recounting the hardship – and the beauty – of growing up in Southern Italy. Adele, Enzo, Fabio and Silvana are shown in two crucial periods of their lives: as youngsters in a Naples full of hope in 1999 and then on the cusp of adulthood ten years later, in a documentary mash-up of film time and real time. All set in a city seething like magma, where good and evil are always so, so close, shaping the complex course of human lives.” Read more
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He-2dq5JF7c
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Agostino Ferrente was born in Cerignola (Italy) in 1971. He produced and directed with Giovanni Piperno “Intervista a mia madre” and “Il film di Mario”. In 2001, he founded in Rome the group “Apolloundici” with which he creates the Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio, the protagonist of a documentary with the same name.
Giovanni Piperno was born on January 28, 1964 in Rome, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for “The Explosion” (2003), “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” (1988) and “Le cose belle” (2012).
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The screening of “Le cose belle” will be preceded by a brief introduction by journalist Magica Fossati. Magica is Italian born-and-bred but moved to Australia in early 2003. Even though she now calls Australia home, she maintains strong links to Italy and the Italian language and culture, both for personal and professional reasons. Magica has been working as a broadcast journalist for the daily Italian program on SBS Radio since 2004 and has been the program’s executive producer since 2010
Free event. RSVP essential: E iicmelbourne@esteri.it; T 9866 5931
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Dates – Coming soon screenings
22nd November: Andrea Segre, Dagmawi Ymer, “Come un uomo sulla terra” [2008, 60’];
Stefano Liberti, Andrea Segre, “Mare chiuso” [2012, 60’]
29th November: Roberto Minervini, “The other side” [2015, 92′]
6th December: Alina Marazzi, “Vogliamo anche le rose” [2007, 84’]
Reservation no longer available