Teatro Petruzzelli

Special Events

The non competitive section “International Premières” will present in the Petruzzelli Theatre evening gala screenings of six films, absolute Italian premières, and the following Special Events:

• ULTIMO TANGO A PARIGI by Bernardo Bertolucci with Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Maria Michi, Massimo Girotti, Italy-France 1972, 129’

A recently widowed man, after his wife’s suicide, roams the streets of Paris overwhelmed by melancholy due to, besides the loss of his partner, a confused past and the loss of his youth. The meeting with a young bourgeoise girl and their immediate sexual relationship will change the life of both. But the man seems imprisoned by an erotic obsession, which the young woman shares only initially.

“Ultimo tango a Parigi” Event

The Petruzzelli Theatre in Bari will host on April 28th at 20.30 the world première of Ultimo Tango a Parigi, in a 4k restoration by the great cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (winner of 3 Academy Awards) for the Cineteca Nazionale of Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. The legendary film by Bertolucci – 2 Academy Awards nominations, a Nastro d’argento award, a David di Donatello award, and two Golden Globes nominations – will be released in Italy in May by CSC Distribution. It is an event of great relevance. The film, nowadays a cinema classic, caused a scandal when it was released; censorship gave way to a legal action against the film, which ended with a ban on January 29, 1976. The film was later redeemed in 1987. Ultimo tango a Parigi was a great success in terms of audience, the film was in second place at the Italian box office in 1972-1973 and then, once redeemed in 1987, became the top-grossing ever in Italian cinema.  Up to 2016 Bertolucci’s film was the most successful Italian film in terms of sales, with 15,623,773 tickets. In 2002 it ranked 48 in the list of “100 best romantic films of all times” by the American Film Institute.

• ARMANDO TROVAJOLI, MUSIC BETWEEN THEATRE AND CINEMA. Cine-concert with Rita Marcotulli, piano, Peppe Servillo, voice, Luciano Biondini, accordion, Daniele Tittarelli, sax, Ares Tavolazzi, double bass, Alessandro Paternesi, drums, Enrico Rava, trumpet. Produced by Festival Creuza de Mà – Musica per Cinema, conceived by Gianfranco Cabiddu, musical direction by Rita Marcotulli.

Special Event introduced by Pippo Baudo, a great friend and admirer of Trovajoli.

Besides the films, the evening program of the Petruzzelli Theatre will present a special event on April 22nd: a cine-concert of 90 minutes commemorating the great Maestro on the 100th anniversary of his birth, with images from his films and with his music and songs, newly arranged and played by renown musicians, as an homage to Trovajoli’s passion for jazz. He also wrote the scores of almost all the films by Ettore Scola, honorary president of Bif&st and actual president until his passing. The event will also include the last audiovisual interview of the Maestro (17’), made for the 2013 edition of Bif&st, just a few days before his death, and the documentary Armando Trovajoli. Cent’anni di musica by Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri, programmed in the Galleria Multiscreen on April 21st at 17 in Screen 1.

• NUOVO CINEMA PARADISO. 30 YEARS LATER

At 4pm on April 28th, in the Petruzzelli Theatre, the festival will present, introduced by the film director, the restoration by Cineteca di Bologna of Nuovo cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore (125’), 30 years after September 29th, 1988, when Bari hosted the triumphant absolute world première with the entire cast in attendance (Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin, Brigitte Fossey, Salvatore Cascio, Antonella Attili and music composer Ennio Morricone).

International Panorama

It is a competitve program, with 12 films from all over the world having their Italian or international première at Bif&st. An audience jury of 30 selected members, chaired by renowned novelist and former judge Gianrico Carofiglio, will confer the following awards:

• Bif&st International Award for Best film director
• Bif&st International Award for Best lead actor
• Bif&st International Award for Best leading actress

NOTE – Selected films in both programs International Premières and International Panorama will be announced on April 13th during the press conference in the Casa del Cinema in Rome, also live-streamed on the festival website.

Cinema Lessons

Prestigious film and culture professionals will be on stage each morning in the Petruzzelli Theatre around 11am, after the screening of a film by or with them, and will hold a Cinema Lesson. Here are invited professionals, and related films:

• Pierfrancesco Favino – ACAB, All Cops Are Bastard by Stefano Sollima (April 21^st)
• Pippo Baudo (22nd) – screening of clips with the famous showman
• Micaela Ramazzotti – La prima cosa bella by Paolo Virzì (23^rd)
• Cinema professional tbc (24^th)
• Mario Martone – Il giovane favoloso by Mario Martone (25^th)
• Margarethe von Trotta, Gianrico Carofiglio, Giancarlo De Cataldo – Il lungo silenzio by Margarethe von Trotta (26^th)
• Vittorio Storaro – Il conformista by Bernardo Bertolucci (27^th)
• Bernardo Bertolucci – Strategia del ragno by Bernardo Bertolucci (28^th).

“Federico Fellini Platinum Award for Cinematic Excellence”

The awards with Federico Fellini’s profile, sketched by Ettore Scola, made in platinum by our sponsors Monile and MarioMossaGioielliere will be conferred to actor Pier Francesco Favino, to actress Micaela Ramazzotti, to film director Mario Martone, and to multiple Academy Award winner Bernardo Bertolucci, who will receive the award from the hands of another Academy Award winner, Giuseppe Tornatore.

Pippo Baudo will receive the “Federico Fellini Platinum Award for Artistic Excellence”.

Galleria Multiscreen

ItaliaFilmFest – Feature films competition

The permanent Bif&st jury of 9 film critics – Francesco Alò (Il Messaggero), Valerio Caprara (Il Mattino), Paolo D’Agostini (La Repubblica), Francesco Gallo (ANSA), Alessandra Levantesi Kezich (La Stampa), Paolo Mereghetti (Corriere della Sera), Franco Montini (president of SNCCI), Federico Pontiggia (Il Fatto Quotidiano and La Rivista del Cinematografo), Silvana Silvestri (Il Manifesto) – will confer the following awards among the best Italian feature films selected by the festival director, either released or presented in international festivals between April 2017 and April 5th 2018 or absolute premières: Mario Monicelli Award Best director; Franco Cristaldi Award Best producer; Tonino Guerra Award Best storyline; Luciano Vincenzoni Award Best screenplay; Anna Magnani Award Best lead actress; Vittorio Gassman Award Best lead actor; Alida Valli Award Best supporting actress; Alberto Sordi Award Best supporting actor; Ennio Morricone Award Best score composer; Giuseppe Rotunno Award Best director of photography; Dante Ferretti Award Best set designer; Roberto Perpignani Award Best editor; Piero Tosi Award Best costume designer.

The awards of the ItaliaFilmFest section will be announced on April 13th and will be conferred every evening from April 21 to 27 in the Petruzzelli Theatre. The winners, before the screening of their film in the Galleria Multiscreen, will participate in a Focus on… hosted by Franco Montini in the Barion Club.

ItaliaFilmFest – Debut or second feature films competition

An audience jury of 30 selected members, chaired by renowned novelist and script writer Giancarlo De Cataldo, will confer the following awards to 12 Italian films selected by the artistic director among the best debut or second features either released or presented in international film festivals by April 5th, 2018, or absolute premières: Ettore Scola Award Best director of debut or second film; Mariangela Melato Cinema Award Best lead actress; Gabriele Ferzetti Award Best lead actor; two Nuovo IMAIE Awards Breakthrough Actor. These are the first 11 selected films:

• Brutti e cattivi by Cosimo Gomez
• Cuori puri by Roberto De Paolis
• Gatta Cenerentola by Alessandro Rak, Ivan Cappiello, Marino Guarnieri and Dario Sansone
• Hannah by Andrea Pallaoro
• Figlia mia by Laura Bispuri
• Il contagio by Matteo Botrugno, Daniele Coluccini
• La ragazza nella nebbia by Donato Carrisi
• L’intrusa by Leonardo Di Costanzo
• Sicilian Ghost Story by Fabio Grassadonia, Antonio Piazza
• Tito e gli alieni by Paola Randi
• Veleno by Diego Olivares

Most of the directors of the films competing in the two sections of ItaliaFilmFest will be at Bif&st, often together with the main cast.

Cinema & Science: Werner Herzog

Following the extremely successful “Cinema & Science” program in 2017, with the patronage of Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) and of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Bif&st 2018 will present seven documentaries by the great German director Werner Herzog. After each screening an eminent scientist will comment, for and together with the audience, the images previously screened. The event is coordinated by Orsetta Gregoretti and Silvia Mattoni, of CNR communication office, and organized in collaboration with Bari’s Università degli Studi Aldo Moro, with Politecnico and with Goethe-Institut Rom. The seven Herzog films in the Galleria Multiscreen will be introduced by Margarethe von Trotta – together with film critic Klaus Eder – and will be commented by scientists Enrico Alleva, Carlo Doglioni (president of INGV), Domenico Laforenza, Antonio Meloni, Massimiliano Pasqui, Guido Ventura, and by Vito Pertosa.

• Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World by Werner Herzog – USA 2016, 108’
• Into the Inferno by Werner Herzog. With Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer, Tim White, Adam Bobette, Yun Yong Gun – United Kingdom, Austria 2016, 104’
• Cave of Forgotten Dreams by Werner Herzog. With Werner Herzog, Charles Fathy, Jean Clottes, Julien Monney, Jean-Michel Geneste – France, Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Germany 2010, 95’
• Encounters at the End of the World by Werner Herzog – USA 2007, 99’
• Grizzly Man by Werner Herzog – USA 2005, 103’
• The White Diamond by Werner Herzog – United Kingdom, Germany 2005, 90’
• Fata Morgana by Werner Herzog. With Lotte Eisner, Wolfgang Bachler, Manfred Eigendorf, Wolfgang Von Ungern-Sternberg – Germany 1970, 78’.

Also, three other works by and with Herzog will be presented:

• Cinema Lessons by Werner Herzog. Orientation in Cinema, 1991, 35’. Video
• Cinema Lessons by Werner Herzog. About and With Volker Schlöndorff, 1991, 29’. Video
• A Comment by Werner Herzog, 43’. Video

Cinema & Art

An inseparable match with dozens of film masterpieces which blended images of art and of (moving) cinema. Three important films will be presented, one if which – by Luca Verdone – will be a world première. It will be an experiment, in order to develop a much larger program in future editions of Bif&st:

• THE GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING (La ragazza con l’orecchino di perla) by Peter Webber with Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson, UK-Luxembourg 2003, 90’
• LE MEMORIE DI GIORGIO VASARI: UN ARTISTA TOSCANO by Luca Verdone with Brutius Selby, Dino Santoro, Daniele Monterosi, Italy 2018, 94’, world première
• LA MIGLIORE OFFERTA by Giuseppe Tornatore with Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Sylvia Hoechs, Donald Sutherland, Italy 2013, 131’

Cinema & Music: Luis Bacalov

In memory of Maestro Luis Bacalov, who recently passed away, the festival will present four films among the many he scored. Luis Bacalov, an Academy Award winner, has also been the main director of ICO Orchestra of Magna Grecia in Taranto. These are the films:

• IL POSTINO by Michael Radford with Massimo Trosi, Philippe Noiret, Italy 1994
• DJANGO by Sergio Corbucci with Franco Nero, Italy 1966
• IL CONSIGLIO D’EGITTO by Emidio Greco with Silvio Orlando, Italy 2002
• HOTEL MEINA by Carlo Lizzani with Ivana Lotito, Ernesto Mahieux, Italy 2007

Cinema & Medicine

Cinema and medicine are closely related: cinema has narrated suffering, illness, joys and tragedies, and medicine has conveyed its successes, its uncertainties, doubts and certainties though what is surely one of the greatest cultural media. Bif&st hosts the program and “Cinema and Medicine” in 2018, a sort of pilot meant to become a structured yearly collaboration, drifting among various branches of medicine and focused on dysfunctions of the autism spectrum of children and on pathologies of sense organs (sight and hearing).

Saturday April 21st, Galleria Multiscreen, Screen 3:

• 10.00 Io sono Mateusz by Maciej Pieprzyca, Poland 2103, 112’ Followed by a meeting with prof. Nicola Laforgia (Direttore Neonatologia Università) and Prof.ssa Lucia Margari (Direttore Neuropsichiatria Infantile Università). With the participation of prof.ssa Maria Elisabetta Baldassarre and dott. Antonio Di Mauro, parent groups.
• 15.00 Non guardarmi, non ti sento by Arthur Hiller, USA 1989, 103’ Followed by a meeting with prof. Antonio Quaranta (Direttore Otorinolaringoiatria Università) and prof. Giovanni Alessio (Direttore Clinica Oculistica Università). With the participation of dott. Giuseppe Porro and of dott. Ugo Procoli.
• 18.00 La Magnifica ossessione by Douglas Sirk, USA 1954, 108’ Followed by open discussion.

 

RETROSPECTIVES

Memory, History: Festival Marco Ferreri

Bif&st presents a large retrospective dedicated to Marco Ferreri – in collaboration with Cineteca Nazionale of Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia and Cineteca di Bologna – with these titles:

Feature films:

• El pisito, co-directed by Isidoro Ferry (1958)
• El cochecito – La vetturetta (1960)
• Una storia moderna: l’ape regina (1963)
• La donna scimmia (1964)
• Marcia nuziale (1965)
• L’harem (1967)
• Break up/L’uomo dei cinque palloni (1968)
• Dillinger è morto (1969) 2017 restoration by CSC-Cineteca Nazionale
• Il seme dell’uomo (1969)
• L’udienza (1971)
• La cagna (1972)
• La grande abbuffata (1973)
• Non toccare la donna bianca (1974)
• L’ultima donna (1976)
• Ciao maschio (1978)
• Chiedo asilo (1979)
• Storie di ordinaria follia (1981)
• Storia di Piera (1983)
• Il futuro è donna (1984)
• I Love You (1986)
• Come sono buoni i bianchi (1988)
• La casa del sorriso (1991)
• La carne (1991)
• Diario di un vizio (1993)
• Nitrato d’argento (1996)

Short films

• L’infedeltà coniugale (Gli adulteri) episod of Le italiane e l’amore (1961)
• Il professore episod of Controsesso (1964)
• L’uomo dei cinque palloni episod of Oggi, domani, dopodomani (1965)

Documentaries

• Perché pagare per essere felici by Marco Ferreri (1971, 46’)
• Corrida! by Marco Ferreri (1966, 88’)

TV Films

• Yerma by Marco Ferreri with Edmonda Aldini, Franco Citti, Michele Placido, Italy 1978, 151’

Documentaries about Marco Ferreri

• La lucida follia di Marco Ferreri by Anselma Dell’Olio, 2017, 80’
• Marco Ferreri. Il regista che venne dal futuro by Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri, 2007, 95’
• Irriverente Ferreri by Maite Carpio, 2007, 60’

Photo exhibition dedicated to Marco Ferreri

Around 90 images from the Photo Archive of Cineteca Nazionale, b&w and colour, shot on the sets of Ferreri’s films, will be included in the large photo exhibition set, as in previous years, in open air all around the Petruzzelli Theatre.

Meetings on Marco Ferreri and Franco Cristaldi. Books on Laura Morante and Luciano Tovoli

In collaboration with La Feltrinelli bookshop, seven meetings will take place in the Barion Club at 7pm, from April 22 to 28, dedicated to the personality and the work of Marco Ferreri and Franco Cristaldi, coordinated by French film critic Jean Gili, one of best experts on Italian cinema. The meetings will see the participations of actors and actresses, of other collaborators who have worked with Ferreri, and of directors of documentaries about the great filmmaker, such as Andréa Ferréol, Serge Toubiana, Nicoletta Ercole, Tilde Corsi, Maurizio Donadoni, Piera Degli Esposti, Anselma Dell’Olio, Mario Canale, Maite Carpio and more.

Invited guests for the Franco Cristaldi meetings are Maurizio Nichetti, Paola Pitagora, Marco Bellocchio, Giuseppe Tornatore, Antonella Attili, and of course Zeudi Araya and Massimo Cristaldi and many more to be confirmed.

Moreover, two books will be presented in La Feltrinelli bookshop: one on actress Laura Morante by Stefano Iachetti and a second one on the great director of photography Luciano Tovoli.

Memory, History: Festival Franco Cristaldi

In 1988 the EuropaCinema festival created and directed by Felice Laudadio presented the world première of Giuseppe Tornatore’s Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, which later obtained the Jury Special Award in Cannes festival and the Academy Award. This has prompted the tribute to the great producer Franco Cristaldi, organized in collaboration with Cineteca Nazionale and Cineteca di Bologna. In the hall of the Palazzo della Provincia an iconographic exhibit will be displayed, curated by Ninni Panzera and focused on Tornatore’s film in the 30^th anniversary of its Bari première. These are the feature films, together with the documentary by Massimo Spano Franco Cristaldi e il suo cinema “Paradiso” (2008, 102’):

• 1988 Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (producer)
• 1986 Il nome della rosa (co-producer)
• 1980 Cafè Express (producer)
• 1979 Ratataplan (producer)
• 1979 Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (producer)
• 1973 Amarcord (producer)
• 1973 Lucky Luciano (producer) restoration by Cineteca Bologna
• 1972 L’udienza (producer) also part of the Marco Ferreri Festival
• 1972 Il caso Mattei (producer)
• 1971 Nel nome del padre (producer)
• 1965 Vaghe stelle dell’Orsa… (producer)
• 1964 Gli indifferenti (producer)
• 1964 Sedotta e abbandonata (producer)
• 1964 La ragazza di Bube (producer)
• 1963 I compagni (producer)
• 1963 Omicron (producer)
• 1962 Salvatore Giuliano (producer)
• 1961 Divorzio all’italiana (producer)
• 1960 Kapò (producer)
• 1959 I magliari (producer)
• 1958 La sfida (producer)
• 1958 L’uomo di paglia (producer)
• 1958 I soliti ignoti (producer)
• 1958 Un ettaro di cielo (producer)
• 1957 Le notti bianche (producer)

Special Events in Galleria Multiscreen

• Dei by Cosimo Terlizzi, Italy 2017, produced by Riccardo Scamarcio and Valeria Golino.
• The Fabulous Trickster by Luigi Cinque, Italy 2017, 96’ (première), followed by a concert dedicated to Antonio Infantino, the famous musician, poet and artist from Lucania region, who passed away recently. The event is organized by Lucana Film Commission (April 27th)
• Io sono qui by Gabriele Gravagna, Italy 2017, 33’, a UNICEF documentary.
• Pertini il combattente by Graziano Diana and Giancarlo De Cataldo, Italy 2018, 76’

Workshops (Palazzo ex Poste – Università degli Studi)

Following the positive experience of countless workshops in the past 9 years, Bif&st 2018 will organize two workshops, each one limited to 30 young participants, selected through their C.V.: one workshop is dedicated to the work of the director of photography, held by Luciano Tovoli; the second one is dedicated to film criticism, held by renown daily film critic Paolo D’Agostini.

Conferences and Meetings in Colonnato del Palazzo della Provincia

All films presented in the various sections – except for the retrospective ones – will have a press conference, also open to the public, the day after the screening. Also the following meetings will take place:

• Meeting on UNICEF activities with Rossella Del Conte (April 22^nd, h. 15.45)
• Forum on “China and cinema” curated by Apulia Film Commission (23^rd, h. 15.45)
• Nuovo IMAIE. Its history, its activities, with president Andrea Micciché (26^th, h 15.45)

BIF&ST FOR SCHOOLS

From April 21 to 28 the Galleria Multiscreen, in Screen 1, will host 8 screenings with free admission for high school students of Bari. Films in this program are part of the Tribute to Franco Cristaldi: I soliti ignoti by Mario Monicelli, Divorzio all’italiana by Pietro Germi, Salvatore Giuliano by Francesco Rosi, Nel nome del padre by Marco Bellocchio, Amarcord by Federico Fellini, Ratataplan by Maurizio Nichetti, Café express by Nanni Loy and Nuovo cinema Paradiso by Giuseppe Tornatore.

BIF&ST

Bif&st 2018, ninth edition of Bari International Film Festival, is under the High Patronage of the President of the Republic of Italy, and is promoted by Apulia Region – Michele Emiliano, President; by the Regional Department of Touristic and Cultural Industry, headed by Loredana Capone; with the collaboration of the City of Bari, Antonio Decaro, Mayor. The festival is produced by Fondazione Apulia Film Commission, Maurizio Sciarra, President, Antonio Parente, General director. Main media partner: RAI. Media partner: Corriere del Mezzogiorno, La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, La Repubblica, Ilikepuglia, La Feltrinelli. In collaboration with Università degli Studi Aldo Moro and Politecnico in Bari.

President of Bif&st – created and directed by Felice Laudadio –  is the film director Margarethe von Trotta, honorary president is Ettore Scola. Artistic direction consultant: Fabio Ferzetti, Executive director: Angelo Ceglie. RUP: Cristina Piscitelli. Coordinator: Angela B. Saponari. Project manager: Serge D’Oria.

Sponsors of the event – which in 2017 had an audience of over 75,000 people – are Confindustria Bari e BAT headed by Domenico De Bartolomeo, ANCE Bari e BAT headed by Giuseppe Fragasso, Gruppo Menelao headed by Michele Boccardi and Gruppo Marino Automobili headed by Luisa Cavallo Marino. Technical sponsors are Monile di Aldo Arata and MarioMossa Gioielliere, Aeroporti di Puglia, Circolo Barion.

Bif&st is an initiative of Apulia Region – Department of Touristic and Cultural Industry, financed by FSC 2014-2020, Patto per la Puglia, Area di intervento IV.