L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2018 www.italoamericano.org 4 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS W hen summer pas s es the torch of sea- s o ns to fall an d people start getting back into their rou- tines after weeks at the beach, Italy enjoys one last sparkle of glamour on her most famous Lido, that of Venezia. Between the end of August and the begin- ning of September, Venice and its Festival del Cinema - along with the Biennale dell'Arte of which the kermess is part - bring to Italy the glitz and charm of international stars, fantastic fashion and, most importantly, a plethora of artistically valuable movies. The Mostra Internazionale del Cinema - this is its complete name - is the oldest movie festi- val on earth: it came before Cannes and Berlin, before Sun- dance and Tribeca. In 1932, the Biennale's president, Giuseppe Volpi, decided cinema deserved a space in it, so he asked support and creative input from sculptor Antonio Maraini and Luciano de Feo to organize the first edition. To it, movies such as Capra's It Happened One Night, Gould- ing's Grand Hotel and Clair's La Liberté participated, while the faces and voices of Greta Garbo, Clarke Gable, Joan Crawford and Vittorio de Sica animated the screens. It was repeated in occasion of the following Biennale, in 1934, but its incredible success forced its organizers to turn it into a yearly rendezvous in 1935. Immediately, the festival became synonym with high quality cinema and glamour: the best movies of the time partici- pated, with the world's most beautiful actors and actresses smiling and waving to fans and journalists even then, when Italy was a dictatorship and the pesti- lential stench of war had already begun to rise from the earth. The Mostra took place for three years during the conflict, but those editions, 1940, 1941 and 1942, were eventually not recognized as official. In the 1950s, it helped Japanese master Akiro Kurosawa to get fame in the west and it etched the names of Marlon Brando and Brigitte Bar- dot into the sky of movie star- dom; but the Mostra also bowed to the talent of some of Italy's very own best talents: Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman and Sil- vana Mangano, for instance, who were all to star in Mario Monicelli's La Grande Guerra, the Leone d'Oro movie of 1959. In the 1960s, the Festival embraced with pleasure the new artistic views of great directors - think Pasolini, Bertolucci, the Taviani brothers, but it lost some of its artistic and social glam in the following decade. In the 1980s, however, thanks to the open minded views of new director Carlo Lizzani, the Mostra returned to be a central event in the world of cinema, a place where the art of making movies was discussed, where participating was already in itself a stamp of artistic and aes- thetic approval. In the 1990s and the 2000s, the Mostra greatly supported the careers of Asian directors, think of Anh Hung Tran and Zhang Yimou, but also those of new American talents like James Gray, Bryan Singer and Guillermo Del Toro. But the Mostra del Cinema has always been, since its very beginning, more than movies and actors: born within a highly respected artistic event, it shared aesthetic values and canons with it and a consequent interest for quality over quantity. Indeed, the Mostra always attracted great artists, just like in 1974, when immense Andy Wharol chose Venice to premiere his movie, Heat. Forty years before, the Festival was pivotal in making of a relatively new form of art, animation, recognized part of the movie industry, when it intro- duced an "animated movies" cat- egory to its selection: it was 1934 and Walt Disney won with his Funny Little Bunnies. And then, there was -there is - Venice. When it comes to loca- tion, la Serenissima cannot be surpassed: with its canals, its artistic charms and its immense historical patrimony, the city has no equals. It is haughty, it is regal, it is timeless and stars know it: they can't come to Venice looking anything less than perfect. And so, the beauty of Venice turns into the glam of the Mostra. Because we must realize than at the Festival del Cinema in Venice, the whole city becomes a glorious, incredi- ble red carpet: lashings of red cover the Lido, of course, but VIPs know well how every cor- ner, every canal and every calle are "the place to be seen." And even if contemporary crassness and vulgarity tried in more than one occasion to leave a dent in the Mostra's gilded frame - just like last year, when two unknown Italian starlets walked the Lido wearing skirts slit up to their crotch and no underwear - they never succeeded: Venezia remains noble and superior, barely bothered by such issues. The Mostra del Cinema di Venezia, it is evident, has an incredible importance from an artistic point of view and it truly represents the most traditional of all movie festivals, because it's the oldest and, probably, the most iconic of them all. To Italy, though, it is more. Because every year since 1932 the coun- try watches, during those ten eventful days, itself in the mir- ror: Venice is the place where the actors and directors who told the story of our postwar strug- gles threaded, and where our most beautiful stars show them- selves to the world. It is the place where Hollywood comes visiting us. Throughout the decades, the Mostra, just like the Festival di Sanremo, has been Italy's way of checking the trends and looks of popular cul- ture, and a moment to recognize the emergence of new talents. The Mostra is that time of the year where everyone in the country becomes a cinema expert, just like we all turn into soccer connoisseurs during the World Cup: because we feel involved, but mostly because we are proud to be the centre of the world, even if only for a while, we are proud of showing to everyone we still matter cultural- ly, that not all has been con- quered by today's disposable aesthetics and trends. It is a tradition that belongs to the whole country: it is ours, and only ours, even if it says, and rightly so, "international" in its name. Ours, because in that glamour, in that interest to art before trends, in that slightly old fashioned atmosphere one breathes in the city all year round, lies the heart of a country. Italy, just like the Mostra del Cinema di Venezia, is the oldest and its beautiful and, in spite of fashion changing and times passing, it never goes out of style. The Mostra Internazionale del Cinema was born as - and still is part of - the Venice Art Biennale © La Biennale di Venezia-foto Asac (9) SIMONE SCHIAVINATO Cinema in Venice: why is the Festival del Cinema di Venezia so different? The Leone d'Oro, or golden lion, embodies the city itself and has been inspired by Venice's own symbol

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