Articles by: N.l.

  • Art & Culture

    Accattone Turns 50

    This year’s Venice Film Festival, the 68th, features the Lido’s most impressive line-up in years. As every end of summer,Venice is a useful indicator of which films, especially European ones, may go on to become awards contenders... but that's a different story. This story is about an important cinematic anniversary, the anniversary of a famous film that opened for the first time ever on August 31, in 1961 at the Venice Film Festival itself. It literally shocked the critics who strongly criticized it and discouraged its release.

    Fifty years ago, Pier Paolo Pasolini debuted at the directing chair with his first and most striking film: Accattone. Shot during the spring and the beginning of the summer of 1961, the film was not in competition, and had not been rated at the time of screening, so all scenes, especially the ones later considered obscene by the critics, shocked the viewers. Pasolini’s choice of topics was scandalous, as was his blurring of the lines between the sacred and the profane.

    With a young Bertolucci as his assistant director, the director introduced something new. His film brought together cinema and an Italian social class that up to that moment had been totally unexplored, the underclass. The portrayal of the summer of a borgataro (street thug) Vittorio Cataldi (known as Accattone), starring the new comer Franco Citti, was made of swims in the Tevere, street fights, drinking binges and the search of a prostitute. This portrayal was not consistent with the neo-realist substrate it was inspired from. The choice of using non professional actors expressed Pasolini's choice that nobody could inhabit his characters better than the people who really lived in those streets featured in his stories, who lived the same situations, who were considered the low of the lowest of society. Although Pasolini tried to distance himself from neo-realism, the film is considered to be a kind of second neo-realism, with one critic believing it “may be the grimmest movie' he'd ever seen.
     
    Accattone's story is representative of life in the city's outskirts, where people do not live but they fight to survive as days go by. When Accattone's protegee (aka prostitute), Maddalena, is arrested, he is basically jobless and so he tries to go back to his wife Ascenza, so she can support him, but she sends him away. He then meets a young ingenue, Stella, and falls in love. The meeting seems to have a positive effect on him, he tries to change and even look for a regular job. But he quits on his very first day because of a nightmare where he saw his own funeral in a devastated cemetery, and decides to prostitute Stella. She tries but unsuccessfully as she is too shy and inexperienced. Accattone must find something to support them both. He accepts to collaborate with a guy from the same hood, a thief named Balilla, in some robberies. As they are stealing a bunch of salamis, they are noticed by the Police and a chase ensues. Accattone tries to run away on a motorcycle but he gets hit by a truck and, as he lays dying, he declares an undeniable truth “Ah .. mo' sto bbene” (“Ah... now I feel good”)
     
    The film ends with a religious message, Balilla crossing himself, on the notes of the Saint Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach. “We are creating a sort of contamination between ugliness, violence, and musical sublimity,” Pasolini himself explained. In Accattone the musical comment is mainly made of music by Bach, but there also are some popular songs.
     
    The Venice Film Festival continues to be unfair to the film. No special screening or event has been organized. Bertolucci, who made his debut at the Festival as Pasolini's assistant director, will be there presenting something else... he will award Marco Bellocchio the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

  • Life & People

    Summer Fancy Food Show 2011. From July 10-12 in Washington, DC


    It is that time of the year again, the time to enjoy the top of Italian gastronomy at the 57th Summer Fancy Food Show. The show will take place from July 10-12 in Washington, DC, rather than at New York’s Jacob Javits Convention Center, now undergoing renovation, where it has been held since 1955. The new location is the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC.

    As it has been for the past 30 years, Italy will have the show’s largest pavilion, located on the Lower Level of the Convention Center, Halls A, B, & C, booths 1040-1767, under the “Italia” banners.

    Italy is among 80 countries at North America's largest specialty food and beverage marketplace, which will include 2,400 exhibitors and 24,000 attendees. The show attracts buyers from around the world looking for what’s next in great food to present to customers in the year to come. They’ll have plenty to choose from. In the Italian Pavilion, more than 200 exhibitors, including manufacturers of Italian gourmet products, producers, regions, export consortia, and chambers of commerce, will showcase the best of Italian gastronomy and wine. Some producers by number of stands: oil and vinegar (58), baked goods (44), vegetable preserves (41), pasta (34), wine and liquor (24) cheese (23).

    The Italian Trade Commission is bringing together a wide range of authentic Italian gustatory products, all distinguished by their unique “Made in Italy” designation. They include traditional favorites such as olive oil, prosciutto, pasta, vinegars, cheeses, coffee and wine, plus delicious and innovative chocolates and pastries, liqueurs, ready-to-eat meals, flavored salts, organic honey, jams, beer, juices, preserved vegetables, condiments, truffles, seafood, sauces, and dairy products.

    “Truly Italian foods and beverages appeal to Americans who want a healthy Mediterranean diet and to everyone concerned with high-quality, authenticity, and delectable taste,” said Aniello Musella, ICE Trade Commissioner and Executive Director for the USA.
    The Italian Trade Commission will host several special events to make the overall experience even more exciting:

    Sunday, July 10, 10:45 AM
    Official opening of the Italian pavilion, celebrated with a nice glass of Prosecco and followed by pavilion tours, and sampling of Italian food. Location: Information Center ICE Stand 1162-66 and 1063-67.

    Monday, July 11, 2:00 PM – Olive Oil Tasting and Workshop. Location: Washington Convention Center - Room # 203B. By invitation only.

    Monday, July 11, 5:30 PM – “Kosher for Everyone” food workshop and reception. This special presentation focuses on the importance of the kosher certification for Italian food products in the U.S market. Location: Embassy of Italy, 3000 Whitehaven Ave., NW. By invitation only.
    (Bus or minivan transportation is provided from the Convention Center).

    Tuesday, July 12, 8:00 AM – Breakfast Panel for the Media:“Fusion or…Confusion?”. Discussion on the evolution of Italian cuisine and the importance of authentic Italian ingredients for the new generation of American chefs and diners. Thought-provoking conversation led by award-winning food journalist Corby Kummer of The Atlantic with leading chefs on the Washington, DC scene – Mike Isabella of Graffiato and Luigi Diotaiuti of Al Tiramisu -- and author John Mariani (How Italian Food Conquered the World). Location: Darlington House, Library, 1610 20th Street, NW, Washington, DC (Dupont Circle, Connecticut Avenue and 20th Street NW). Transportation will be provided afterward to the Convention Center. By invitation only.

    There will also be cooking demos and other activities occurring throughout the show at specific booths.



     
    The food and wine sector of the Italian Trade Commission in New York provides industry information, produces trade publications, ad organizes tastings, food demonstrations, events, seminars, press trips and trade show pavilions across the United States. For more information please visit www.ItalianMade.com, the official site dedicated to the foods and wines of Italy, or contact The Italian Trade Commission by telephone 212.980.1500; by fax 212.758.1050; or via email: [email protected]


     
     


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