Italian Excellence Attracts at the Cannes Film Festival 2023

By: Ekaterina Shevliakova | Nanni Moretti and Marco Bellocchio at Cannes Film Festival 2023| Image: Getty

Italian Directors Nanni Moretti and Marco Bellocchio Shine at Cannes Film Festival 2023

An important Italian presence was predictable at Cannes Film Festival 2023, but not in the main section of the prestigious French festival. For the first time, Italian film directors took center stage in competition, since 2001.

Two of the premiere Italian film directors Nanni Moretti and Marco Bellocchio presented their movies in the competition of the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

It was first time, since 2021, that such acclaimed directors presented at the same time films in the competition.

For Nanni Moretti, it is nineth time at Cannes - he had previously won at the festival in 1994 with the film “Dear diary”. Also, the last Palme d’Or that Italy won was for his film “The son’s Room”. This year, the director celebrated his 45 years at the festival with Il Sol Dell'avvenire, a stunning return since his initial film “Ece Bombo” premiered in 1978.

"Italy is a great country of cinema", commented director Thierry Frémaux.

In the new film, Moretti himself is the main character and the cast includes Margherita Buy, Silvio Orlando, Barbora Bobulova and Mathieu Amalric. Moretti plays a director who has to shoot a film set between the 1950’s and 1970’s in a circus and it covers the history of the communist party in Italy in a very amusing way never shown before on the big screen. Moretti plays himself in a very auto-ironic style (in a Woody Allen style) which makes the film a real social comedy - drama. Moretti isn’t afraid to appear in a funny and domestic way, which makes this film extremely satirical and funny to watch. Another top Italian director Marco Bellocchio, in competition with “Rapito”, has returned to the Festival after the success of “Exterior night” last year. The film is inspired by the story of Edgardo Mortara (played by Enea Sala as a child and Leonardo Maltese as a boy), the Jewish child who in 1858 was removed from his family of origin to be raised as a Catholic, under the custody of Pope Pius IX. The cast includes Paolo Pierobon, Fausto Russo Alesi, Barbara Ronchi, Fabrizio Gifuni. And Edgardo Mortara's. The film is a story that fascinated Steven Spielberg who wanted to make the movie, but it was Bellocchio who eventually put this idea on the screen. The real-life story and amazing Roman scenery makes this film interesting to watch. “Rapito” distributed by 01 Distribution, will then be in theaters on May 25th, 2023.

For more on the Cannes Film Festival, visit: https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/