Villae Film Festival kicks off, festival dedicated to cinema and art at Villa Adriana and Villa d'Este


Villae Film Festival, a festival dedicated to cinema and art now in its fourth edition, is back at Villa Adriana and Villa d'Este. This year's theme is beauty.

From July 4 to 10 and July 18 to 24, 2022, Villa Adriana and Villa d’Este will host the Fourth Edition of Villae Film Festival, a festival dedicated to cinema and art. The project is realized under the patronage and support of the Ministry of Culture and the Lazio Region and organized by the Villae, under the artistic direction of Andrea Bruciati, art historian and director of the Villa Adriana and Villa d’Este Institute, with the artistic advice of Stefania Bianchi and Filippo Soldi and the organization of the Cultural Association Seven. This year’s Villae Film Festival addresses the theme of beauty, proposing films that have investigated its many repercussions and facets with a language that looks precisely at art. Beauty as a reason for wonder, disturbance, beauty denied, shining beauty and hidden beauty. Beauty as obsession and beauty as an end in itself.

“With the fourth edition of the Villae Film Festival,” commented Andrea Bruciati, “thanks to an even richer and more articulated program, we embark on a new narrative with the great theme of beauty. New in this edition, the competition dedicated to video art works. In such a special and delicate moment, we felt it was appropriate to highlight how beauty, which represents the best of artistic and spiritual production, seems to be the only useful weapon to save our consciences and satiate our deepest desires. Because of its uniqueness, its connection with the extraordinary environments and the exceptional peculiarities of these places, from which it draws its peculiarities, both aesthetic and linguistic, the festival represents a total and immersive experience.”

The days of the Villa Adriana stage from July 4 to 10 open at 9 p.m. with the meeting preceding the screening of the day’s film, with guests directors, actors, producers always introduced by artistic director Andrea Bruciati and with a critical introduction by journalists and film critics. At 9:30 p.m., archival footage from the Istituto Luce dedicated to the two villas and the films in the program will be shown.

New for this fourth edition of Villae Film Festival is a competition dedicated to video art works with a quality jury chaired by Andrea Bruciati and a content proposal offering an alternative narrative. One work will be presented each evening before the film, taking into account the selection defined for the exhibition Vita Nova III (Villa Adriana, July 1-October 16, 2022): Yuri Ancarani, Baal (2007); Elisabetta Benassi, You’ll never walk alone (2000); Simone Berti, Luce (1993); Alax Cecchetti and Christian Frosi, Crossing the Millau Bridge (2005); Paolo Chiasera, Lo scoglio alto (2005); Michael Fliri, Come out and play with me (2003); Marzia Migliora, Efi (2003); Otonella Mocellin and Nicola Pellegrini, Hurt so good (1999); Adrian Paci, Centro di permanenza temporanea, (2007); Alessandra Spranzi, Il viaggio (2004); Nico Vascellari, Nico & The Vascellaris (2005); Italo Zuffi, Perimetro (2000). The work that the quality jury indicates as the winner will be awarded the METAMORPHOSIS prize.

At Villa Adriana, from July 4 to 10, films such as Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice, introduced on Monday, July 4 by journalist Federica Manzitti’s introduction, will be shown. The film tells of the disturbance that musician Gustav von Aschenbach feels before the beauty of the very young Tazio in a Venice invaded by cholera. On Tuesday, July 5, with a presentation by film journalist Daniela Catelli, the disturbing and heartbreaking beauty of creation and the mysterious planet about to crash into Earth, which is one of the themes of Lars von Triers’ film Melancholia, will be another stop on our quest, while the Venetian lagoon and the lives of the very young protagonists of artist Yuri Ancarani’s film Atlantis will be the focus of the evening on Wednesday, July 6, introduced by film critic Anna Maria Pasetti. A beauty for its own sake will be the one, on the other hand, recounted in Mauro Bolognini’s film Il bell’Antonio, which on Thursday, July 7, introduced by Ciak director Flavio Natalia, will return to the screen at Villa Adriana to continue a quest that interweaves films from recent years with films that have made cinema history. The fifth film to be screened on Friday, July 8, dates back to 2020, introduced by journalist and radio director Federico Raponi: Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin, which tells of a man who becomes a work of art himself and, therefore, will be displayed in exhibitions and museums. The naive beauty of Lazzaro felice by Alice Rorhwacher, on the other hand, will be the theme of the Saturday, July 9 screening, with an introduction by journalist and film critic Damiano Panattoni. The Villa Adriana section will close with the haunting beauty of Infinity: in fact, 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick will be screened, introduced by soundtrack composer Paolo Vivaldi.

From July 18 to July 24, the screenings will move to the Grand Avenue of Villa d’Este, where research on the theme of beauty will continue. Opening the week on Monday, July 18, with an introduction by film editor Mario Turco, is Marco Ferreri’s La donna scimmia, with its tale of a beauty denied. Pino. A film on Pino Pascali by Walter Fasano, in which beauty is what art always and in any case seeks, will be screened on Tuesday, July 19, introduced by the director himself with journalist Angela Prudenzi. The tour will continue on Wednesday, July 20, introduced by film critic Francesco Di Brigida, with Jane Champion’s Portrait of a Lady in which Nicole Kidmann succumbs to the charms of a man who seriously endangers the stability of her life. The beauty of architecture and its influence on our lives are some of the themes of the film The Arch by Alessandra Stefani, scheduled for Thursday, July 21, with an introduction by journalist and TV author Nicole Bianchi. The propositions of art and its research are featured in Julian Rosefeldt’s film Manifesto, which will be screened on Friday, July 22, introduced by writer, playwright and film and theater critic Giusi De Santis. On Saturday, July 23, Farewell My Queen by Benoît Jacquot, introduced by film editor Carlo Cerofolini, will tell the story of Sidonie and her view of a world that is coming to an end. The upheaval caused by the disturbing beauty of the mysterious host of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema will ideally close the circle of the itinerary on Sunday, July 24, introduced by film critic, lecturer and filmmaker Francesco Crispino.

Villae Film Festival is a project of the MiC - Ministry of Culture and Villae Tivoli - Villa Adriana and Villa D’Este Institute, an initiative realized with the contribution of the MiC General Directorate for Cinema and Lazio Region, under the patronage of the Municipality of Tivoli and the Roma Lazio Film Commission. Conceived and organized by Seven Cultural Association.

Free admission while places last.

For info: https://www.levillae.com/

Villae Film Festival kicks off, festival dedicated to cinema and art at Villa Adriana and Villa d'Este
Villae Film Festival kicks off, festival dedicated to cinema and art at Villa Adriana and Villa d'Este


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