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Netflix’s next Italian originals will be pairs of series and feature films from the likes of Stefano Mordini, Alessandro Genovesi and Cristina Comencini.

The projects were unveiled at a See What’s Next event in Rome today, in front of several stars, directors and stars.

Tinny Andreatta, Vice President of Italian Content at Netflix, said the orders showed the streamer remains “committed to our investment in Italy and Italian stories with conviction, continuing our long-term commitment to the country and its creative community.” Netflix opened an Italian office in May last year.

Namely, pics are Cristina Comencini’s Il Treno dei Bambini and Fabbricante di Lacrime from director Alessandro Genovesi. TV shows comprise Storia della mia Famiglia and Adorazione.

Il Treno dei Bambini is based on Viola Ardone’s bestselling novel pf the same name and is billed as as an “epic and poignant film” set in post-war Italy...

Across Amanda, Carolina Cavalli’s writing and cinematic style dovetail with lead actor Benedetta Porcaroli’s calibrated strangeness to express a sensibility that feels genuinely new. It’s also the rare film about mental instability (among other things) that doesn’t pathologize and reduce its characters to a diagnosis. Rather, it’s a vindication of idiosyncrasy.

The younger of two daughters in an Italian family that runs a chain of pharmacies across Europe, Amanda (Porcaroli) is a loner. While her harried sister, Marina (Margherita Missoni), has resigned herself to the family’s bourgeois responsibilities, the 25-year-old Amanda rejects them to the best of her ability, and to the aggravation of everyone around her. Her only friend is the family’s domestic worker, Judy. Amanda lives on her own in a barebones apartment but, without a job or an income, still begrudgingly depends on her family’s financial support.

Stubbornly opposed...

"It just so happens that I'm looking for a best friend." Oscilloscope Labs in the US has revealed an official US trailer for an indie film from Italy titled Amanda, a wacky drama about a young woman who prefers to stay by herself at home. This first premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival last year, and it also played at the Toronto and Tromsø Film Festivals. It will be opening in July in a few art house theaters if anyone is curious about it. Amanda, age 24, lives mostly isolated and has never had any friends, even if it's the thing she wants the most. Amanda chooses her new mission to accomplish now - to convince her childhood friend to believe that they are still best friends. A playful, provocative feature debut from writer / director Carolina Cavalli. Benedetta Porcaroli stars as the titular Amanda, with a small Italian cast including Giovanna Mezzogiorno,...

The Paris-based outfit also co-produced the Italian coming-of-age drama.

Oscilloscope Laboratories has acquired US and Canadian distribution rights and Curzon has taken UK rights to Italian coming-of-age story Amanda sold by co-producer and Paris-based international sales house Charades.

The debut feature of writer/director Carolina Cavalli premiered in Venice’s Horizons Extra section in September before screening in Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema section.

The film follows the titular character, a wealthy, self-absorbed, combative woman in her twenties who is feeling lost after studying abroad, and sets out to rekindle a childhood friendship with a woman who has become a sullen shut-in.

An eccentric 20-something tries to make friends in Amanda, a first feature for Italian writer-director Carolina Cavalli. Premiering in Venice’s Horizons Extra section, it’s a comical, stylized character portrait with a strong central turn from Benedetta Porcaroli.

Her titular character is stubborn, abrupt to the point of rudeness but also witty and weirdly fascinating — qualities that only her family and their housekeeper get to see. Having moved from Paris to Italy, Amanda knows no one of her own age, and suffers from social awkwardness in her bid to connect with them.

There’s a tragicomic flavor to the scenes where she goes to techno raves in huge warehouses, hanging out by the toilets, pretending to wait for a friend, and fixating on a guy who may or may not be a drug dealer. Another tactic involves going onto online video forums, where she discovers men aren’t there for exactly the same reasons.

Venice film festival: A wealthy young woman, friendless and lost after studying abroad, sets about recovering an old friendship she thinks she once had

Actor-turned-director Carolina Cavalli makes her feature debut with this elegant, angular contrivance: an absurdist existential comedy about an entitled twentysomething called Amanda who has reached a quarterlife crisis.

Amanda has finished an unsatisfying period in Paris studying and returned to her wealthy family home in Italy, the scene of a near-drowning childhood accident in the swimming pool and the base for her extended dysfunctional clan. Like someone awakening from a dream, Amanda realises she has no boyfriend, no job and no friends. So when her mother (Monica Nappo) tells her that she once played as a little kid with a local girl called Rebecca, the daughter of her mother’s friend (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), Amanda sets out with fanatical determination to re-befriend this now adult woman (Galatéa...

The Hand of God Review — The Hand of God (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Paolo Sorrentino and starring Filippo Scotti, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Marlon Joubert, Luisa Ranieri, Renato Carpentieri, Massimiliano Gallo, Betty Pedrazzi, Lino Musella, Monica Nappo, Biagio Manna and Carmen Pommella. Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s new film, The Hand of [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: The Hand Of God (2021): Interesting Coming of Age Drama is Bold, Provocative and, At Times, a Bit Odd...

Woody Allen’s next film, heretofore known as ‘Nero Fiddled’, was officially re-titled yesterday and given a new name that should see it resonate better in its international territories, and so from here on out we’ll know it as ‘To Rome With Love’.

We now have the first eleven images to share with you, some images of the film itself and others including Allen on set, as well as the full cast line-up (which is excellent) and the full soundtrack details (which are just a little bit impeccable).

The romantic-comedy is made up of four vignettes, two of which revolving around American characters and two around Italian characters, with the main cast including the likes of Allen himself, Alec Baldwin, Penélope Cruz, Ellen Page, Jesse Eisenberg, Roberto Benigni, Judy Davis, Greta Gerwig, and Alison Pill.

The newly re-titled To Rome With Love will open in Italy on 20th April...

With a new geographically-specific title and a summer release just announced, Woody Allen's latest Euro-flavored venture, "To Rome With Love," is just around the corner. Looking to replicate the success of "Midnight In Paris," a career-best box office hit that won Allen his first writing Oscar since 1987 for "Hannah And Her Sisters," details of his latest film are being kept under wraps. Luckily, we now have a better look at what's to come as a host of photos from the project have been unveiled.

While there's no sign of young stars Greta Gerwig or Ellen Page amongst the pics, there's certainly no lack of star-power with our first glimpses at Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Alison Pill, Judy Davis and even Allen in his first acting role since 2006's "Scoop." The images also feature Allen's army of lesser-known Italian stars including Monica Nappo, Flavio Parenti, Alessandra Mastronardi,...

Earlier today we learned that Woody Allen’s latest film, Nero Fiddled, had been retitled To Rome With Love. Now the first images from the Rome-set pic have gone online. The film is comprised of four separate vignettes and tells the story of a number of people in Italy—some American, some Italian, some residents, some visitors—and the romances and adventures and predicaments they get into. I loved the hell out of Midnight in Paris and Allen taking a vignette approach to Rome is promising, so I’m really looking forward to the pic. Not to mention the stellar cast that includes Allen himself, Alec Baldwin, Roberto Benigni, Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Jesse Eisenberg, Alison Pill, Greta Gerwig and Ellen Page. After the jump you’ll find the first images from the film along with a full cast and soundtrack listing. To Rome With Love opens on June 22nd.