December 4–22
Now in its 37th year, the AFI European Union Film Showcase continues its tradition of bringing the best in European cinema to Washington, DC-area audiences. This year’s selection includes international film festival award winners, European box office hits and debut works by promising new talents, plus many countries’ official Oscar® submissions for Best International Feature Film.
The Italian Cultural Institute of Washington will present C’è ancora domani (There’s Still Tomorrow) by Paola Cortellesi, Gloria! by Margherita Vicario, Parthenope by Paolo Sorrentino and Vermiglio by Maura Delpero.
More info: click here
LOCATION
📍AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center
8633 Colesville Rd
Silver Spring, MD 20910
THERE’S STILL TOMORROW
[C’È ANCORA DOMANI]
A whip-smart satire and a rich, comic melodrama, THERE’S STILL TOMORROW broke box office records in Italy and inspired a national conversation about domestic violence both past and present. Writer/director Paola Cortellesi (in her directorial debut) stars as Delia, a hardworking mother of three, silently suffering at the hands of her merciless husband in post-World War II Italy. When her daughter gets engaged to a well-to-do young man, it seems like the familial cycle of oppression might be broken. But it isn’t until a mysterious letter arrives that Delia finally decides to take charge of her own life. Inspired by the classic Italian neo-realist films of the 1940s, Cortellesi navigates a tonal high wire, finding an enlightening tale of female empowerment amidst both tragedy and comedy. Winner of 6 Italian Academy Awards, including Best New Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. –Josh Gardner
DIR/SCR Paola Cortellesi; SCR Furio Andreotti, Giulia Calenda; PROD Lorenzo Gangarossa, Mario Gianani, Vindhya Sagar. Italy, 2023, b&w, 118 min. In Italian with English subtitles. NOT RATED
GLORIA!
Tradition and the nouveau clash in this poppy feminist romp about a quartet of renegade musicians. It is the late 18th century in a deteriorating Catholic music institute for girls, and a silent, downtrodden young lady Teresa (jeeringly nicknamed “The Mute”) works as the ground’s maid. As whispers of excitement at the imminent visit of the new Pope Pius VII spread through the halls and the institute’s maestro struggles with his new composition for the orchestra, Teresa makes a grand discovery in the shape of a pianoforte that will change the course of her and her peers’ lives.
With a singer-songwriter background, first-time director Margherita Vicario crafts an energetic, unapologetic musical set to remixed beats of Vivaldi, charting the boldly reimagined lost history of women composers and artists. Winner of Best Original Score and Best First Feature at the Italian Golden Globes, GLORIA! will have you clapping and swaying to its catchy tunes. (Note courtesy AFI FEST.)
Official Selection, 2024 Berlin, Seattle and Karlovy Vary film festivals. DIR/SCR Margherita Vicario; SCR Anita Rivaroli; PROD Carlo Cresto-Dina, Valeria Jamonte, Manuela Melissano. Italy/Switzerland, 2024, color 106 min. In Italian with English subtitles. NOT RATED
PARTHENOPE
Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta), a young woman possessed of near supernatural beauty, embarks on a sentimental education in her life and academic career in Naples in Paolo Sorrentino’s gorgeous dreamworld of a film. Named for the mythical siren who lent her name to the ancient Greek settlement where Naples now exists, Parthenope grows into a great beauty, one whose presence often unnerves the men around her. But Parthenope has a great thirst for knowledge and is devoted to her studies with her anthropology professor Devoto Marotta (Silvio Orlando), who encourages her career.
Part bildungsroman and part tribute to his hometown of Naples, PARTHENOPE reunites Sorrentino with his HAND OF GOD cinematographer Daria D’Antonio who presents a feast of intoxicating imagery, with newcomer Dalla Porta emerging as a most convincing screen siren. But for all of the film’s emphasis on image and surface beauty, it is the cultivation of an inner life and the probing conversations Parthenope has with a variety of mentors — Professor Marotta, the notorious screen actress Greta Cool (Luisa Ranieri), the sozzled American novelist John Cheever (Gary Oldman) and a most disreputable bishop (Peppe Lanzetta) — that make PARTHENOPE most enticing. –Todd Hitchcock
Official Selection, 2024 Cannes Film Festival. DIR/SCR/PROD Paolo Sorrentino; PROD Lorenzo Mieli, Ardavan Safaee, Anthony Vaccarello. Italy/France, 2024, color, 136 min. In Italian and Neapolitan with English subtitles. RATED R
VERMIGLIO
Director Maura Delpero examines the intersection of midcentury gender politics, imposed tradition and religion in this year’s Silver Lion Grand Jury Winner from the Venice Film Festival. It is 1944 in the remote alpine village of Vermiglio, Italy. Removed from the immediacy of World War II, a big family lives under a strict patriarch, Cesare (played by a hard-headed Tommaso Ragno), who serves as the highly respected local schoolteacher. His wife, Adele (Roberta Rovelli), tends to their dairy cow and their handful of offspring, including obedient Ada who has her little secrets; intelligent, booksmart Flavia; and the oldest, reserved Lucia who longs for a different future. Under the guise of structure in church, school and chores, their ordinary routines seem idyllic — that is, until the arrival of a young army deserter threatens to change the trajectory of everyone’s lives. Against the backdrop of the ravishingly austere mountain vistas beautifully realized by cinematographer Mikhail Krichman (THE RETURN, LOVELESS), family secrets and devastating lies are unearthed in this evocative melodrama. (Note courtesy AFI FEST.)
DIR/SCR/PROD Maura Delpero; PROD Francesca Andreoli, Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli, Santiago Fondevila. Italy/France/Belgium, 2024, color, 119 min. In Italian with English subtitles. NOT RATED