Famed Italian film director, screenwriter and critic Carlo Lizzani will introduce a special screening of his renowned motion picture CELLULOIDE (1996) at The American University of Rome on Thursday, April 14. The event is scheduled for 5:30 pm in the Auriana Auditorium.
Mr. Lizzani is a three-time recipient of the prestigious David di Donatello award, Italy’s Academy Award equivalent. His distinguished career spans over sixty years, from his beginnings in the heyday of Neorealism to the present. (Lizzani became a scriptwriter and assistant director after World War Two, and worked on such notable films of the late ’40s as Roberto Rossellini’s Germania Anno Zero (Germany Year Zero), and Alberto Lattuada’s Il Mulino Del Po (aka The Mill on the Po). AS a writer, he is best known for his screenplay of Giuseppe De Santis BITTER RICE (1949) which received an Academy Award nomination in 1950. His debut feature as a director was the admired World War Two drama Achtung! Banditi! Among his best known pictures are Cronache Di Poveri Amanti (Chronicle of Poor Lovers) and genre films such as Banditi A Milano (The Violent Four) and Crazy Joe. A recent entry in his rich filmography, CELLULOIDE is especially relevant as it looks back in time at the making of ROME OPEN CITY, the film that established Ne Realism as a new force in world cinema.
After the screening, Mr. Lizzani will talk about making movies in postwar- to present day Italy and will answer questions from the audience.
The presentation of CELLULOIDE will be followed by a special screening of the 10 minute documentary METROPOLITAN, on the closing of the Metropolitan movie theatre in downtown Rome, starring Carlo Lizzani. The film has been produced by LUISS University students as part of AUR Professor Tony Villani’s Fall 2010 LUISS University Documentary Film Writing and Production course.
As an introduction to the event, a special screening of Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City, will be held in the Auriana Auditorium at 12.30.
For more information please contact: Maurizia Garzia, tel 06 58330919 ext 209, E-mail: m.garzia@aur.edu
