Glamour and spaces for reflection mark one of the key events in cinema worldwide. At the 74th Berlinale Piero Messina and Margherita Vicario represent Italy in competition.
There are two Italian films competing at the 74th edition of the Berlin Film Festival. Another End, the second feature film by Sicilian director and musician Piero Messina (following L’attesa (The Wait) in 2015 with Juliette Binoche, presented at the 72nd Venice Film Festival), tells the story of Sal, a man who relies on new technology to briefly bring back the consciousness of Zoe, the love of his life, but in another body. Alongside the protagonist Gael García Bernal, the cast also includes Bérénice Bejo, a star of French cinema recently seen in Francesca Archibugi’s Il Colibrì (The Hummingbird), and Olivia Williams, known for her role as the ‘second’ Camilla in the Netflix series The Crown. The second film vying to bring the Golden Bear back to Italy (the last to succeed was Gianfranco Rosi with Fuocoammare – Fire at Sea in 2016) is Gloria! by Margherita Vicario. For her directorial debut, the Roman actress and singer-songwriter, born in ’88, chooses a story set in a women’s institute in late 18th century Venice. A group of girls, led by the talented and visionary Teresa, forms a musical band that – in the director’s words – “skips centuries and challenges the dusty catafalques of the Ancien Régime by inventing rebellious, light, and modern music. Pop!” The film stars Galatéa Bellugi, born in ’97, already appreciated in Gabriele Salvatores’ The Invisible Boy (part two) and in the generational film Amanda, an engaging debut by Carolina Cavalli.
On the screen of the Berlinale Palast, the two Italians will have to contend, among others, with director Olivier Assayas (Hors du Temps) and one of the most anticipated titles of the season, Small Things Like These by Tim Mielants. Based on the novel by Irish writer Claire Keegan, the film opens the festival on February 15 with a remarkable cast (Cillian Murphy, Eileen Walsh, Michelle Fairley, Emily Watson). Besides Cillian Murphy, among the most anticipated stars on the Berlin red carpet will be Rooney Mara, Saoirse Ronan, Liv Lisa Fries, Fatih Akin, Nastassja Kinski, Sergei Loznitsa, Wim Wenders, and Isabelle Huppert. Thus, glamour will not be lacking in cold Berlin, but directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian also promise a moment of reflection on the Middle East, an open space for dialogue in stark opposition to the growing sentiments of anti-Semitism and anti-Islamism, with a view to understanding the different sufferings that are calling for the world’s attention from that area, confirming the ‘political’ vocation of a festival that over the years has honored directors such as Zhang Yimou, Robert Altman, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Jafar Panahi.
