By popular demand, the Cineforum (Film Club) of the Italian Cultural Institute in Vienna reopens its doors. This year’s programme will be dedicated to a number of real or missed birthdays of famous figures who have left their mark on Italian cinema.
Liliana Cavani and Sandra Milo turned 90. Jean-Paul Belmondo, who died in 2021, would also have turned 90 this year. Although he played very few roles in Italian films, he had an important part in Vittorio De Sica’s masterpiece La Ciociara (“Two Women”). Catherine Deneuve turns 80.
To celebrate these great artists, the Cineforum proposes an itinerary through eight films that give an account of the richness and variety of Italian cinema, accompanied by introductions and debates conducted by Bruno Ciccaglione, with the poster by Andrea Antinori. The reopening was inaugurated with the screening of the 1970 film I cannibali (“The Cannibals”) by Liliana Cavani, starring Pierre Clémenti, Britt Eckland and Tomas Milian. The Italian director will receive this year’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 80th Venice International Film Festival. Liliana Cavani’s 1974 film Il portiere di notte (“The Night Porter”), starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling, has already been screened, while on 17 May it will be the time of the 1972 movie Milarepa, starring Lajos Balázsovits, Paolo Bonacelli and Marisa Fabbri.
On 21 June, the Cineforum screens 8½ by Federico Fellini, with Marcello Mastroianni and Sandra Milo; on 27 September La visita by Antonio Pietrangeli, starring Sandra Milo and François Périer; on 25 October La Ciociara (“Two Women”) by Vittorio De Sica, with Sofia Loren and Jean Paul Belmondo; on 22 November Speriamo che sia femmina by Mario Monicelli, starring Liv Ullmann and Catherine Deneuve and finally, on 20 December, Anima persa by Dino Risi, with Vittorio Gassman and Catherine Deneuve.
