Writers write, that's what they do. Jep Gambardella still qualifies, just barely. After the publication of his acclaimed first novel, he chose to spend the rest of his career penning Vanity Fair-style celebrity profiles. It was much easier, but far less satisfying. Gambardella belatedly realizes this holds true for all aspects of his life in Paol...

By Claire Taddei Kairos Italy Theater, the preeminent Italian theater company in NYC, will present its second In Scena! Italian Theater Festival (www.inscenany.com) in all five boroughs from June 9 to 24, 2014. The event will feature six full productions and four readings.   Production highlights include "Hanno tutti ragione" (Everybody's R...

21-23 August, Vogue Theatre, 3290 Sacramento St, SF. Frank Sinatra would be 100 this year and to celebrate Jack Daniel's is presenting "Ring-A-Ding-Ding: The Movies of Frank Sinatra" at the Vogue Theatre in San Francisco.   Over the weekend of August 21, 11 of Sinatra's most iconic roles will be screened, a carefully curated selection o...

di Roberto Bonzio   Lo stralunato "Doc", il dottor Emmet Brown di "Ritorno al Futuro" è ispirato proprio a lui, che negli anni Settanta è stato una figura di punta della scienza quantistica e contemporaneamente della controcultura californiana. Scienziato eccentrico, Jack Sarfatti classe 1939 vive ancora a San Francisco, dove Italiani di Fro...

By Charlie Schmidlin   The word "grand" is bound to crop up when describing the films of Paolo Sorrentino. The director traffics in the type of grandeur that evokes Fellini, yet finds an alternate route, as well as the type that divides audiences immediately.   Seven features in —including 2013's Oscar-winning "The Great Beauty"— Sorr...

This roundtable discussion by leading California scholars in Italian American cinema and culture will cover some of the following questions related to Italian American media, representation, and history. What is the role of film and mass media in the constant reconstruction or refreshing of Italian and Italian American iconic images?  ...

Il Sundance Film Festival, in corso in Utah in questi giorni, è il paradiso degli indie di celluloide. In America la segmentazione del mercato del cinema tra mainstream e underground, tra cinema di Hollywood ed indipendenti, è sensibile e feconda. La libertà creativa si respira in ogni film. Nessuna sceneggiatura è scontata: il pubblico chiede un i...

It’s generally agreed that the most popular Italian-American in Hollywood were from the seventies and the eighties. That’s because they were often first generation from immigrant parents and the link to their roots still very well regarded in their life.   Younger generations often have it in the name but sometime they have lost touch with m...

Francesco Rosi was one of Italy's most acclaimed and influential film-makers from the 1950s to the '90s.  Committed to portraying social issues, he continued the post-war neo-realist style, often examining corruption and criminality in his movies. His film The Mattei Affair won the Palme d'Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.   "Hands O...

The short film CHILD K, based on a little known page in history which was the first case of Genetic and Ethnic Cleansing in Germany, which lead the horrific stigma of what was to be the Holocaust, has met the preliminary requirement for the 2015 Best Live Action Short Film Oscar selection. Produced by Colorado Film, and Dinamo Film with the contri...