Vancouver Goes Italian
by Roberta McDonald, West Coast Editor
(January 3, 2017 – Vancouver, BC) Renowned for succulent films that immerse us in beauty and truth, Italian cinema offers revelatory and sublime films to treasure. The 2017 Italian Film Festival (IFF) is gearing up for their fourth festival with a lineup of sumptuous films. In partnership with the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) and the Il Centro Italian Cultural Centre, the six-day event aims to raise awareness around the groundbreaking new cinema coming out of Italy, while honouring some of the countries most lauded works.
The programme blends timeless cinema with contemporary innovators. Classics include the opening night gala, Fellini’s Roma (pictured), and Mario Monicelli’s scathing yet campy portrayal of upper middle class snobbery, Viva Italia!
Other films include Laura Morente’s Assolo, which explores a divorced woman’s yearning for approval and awakening to self-sufficiency while Io e lei (Me, Myself and Her) directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi, is a 
portrait of a mature female couple grappling with life’s distractions and upheavals. L’amore Molesto, a noir mystery, which also played at VIFF and garnered a best actress nod at Cannes for Anna Bonaiuto and a David Di Donatello best director award for Mario Martone.
From high satire to timeless masterpieces, this year’s IFF has plenty of gorgeous options to invigorate and entrance us, a much welcome antidote to the post holiday blues.
The Italian Film Festival runs from January 6th-12th at the Vancity Theatre. Click here for a link to the 2017 Italian Film Festival and other January 2017 film festivals.
Based in Vancouver, Roberta McDonald is West Coast Editor for Northernstars.ca. She is a best selling writer, arts journalist and photographer. She has profiled extraordinary filmmakers, including Ang Lee and Sturla Gunnerson. Her short film The Spiral was released in 2014 and she is currently writing her first feature screenplay.
