Antonio Capuano and Dario Argento take center-stage on day two of Noir in Festival. Two films by Caligari Prize contenders premiere on Saturday: A Classic Horror Story and Calibro 9. Diario di spezie bows in the International Competition. Simona Vinci and Stefano Vicario present their new novels.
The program for December 11th, at Noir in Festival, gets underway with separate tributes to two preeminent Italian filmmakers and features an array of Italy’s film and literary personalities, guests of the fest on Saturday, poised to investigate the many facets of the noir universe and compare notes.
It starts off with the tribute to Antonio Capuano, founding father of Neapolitan cinema’s ‘new wave’, at Noir in Festival to receive the 2021 Luca Svizzeretto Prize, which is handed every year to a genuine “maverick” of Italian cinema (at 11:30 am, IULM – sala dei 146). Over the course of the talk held for the occasion, the director will discuss his films and his career, while three of his most representative titles will be available for viewing on MyMovies.
On Saturday afternoon, Dario Argento, Italy’s horrormeister par excellence, will be presenting the book Dario Argento: Two or Three Things We Know About Him, edited by Steve Della Casa and published by Mondadori Electa (at 4:30 pm, IULM – sala dei 146): this literary homage to the filmmaker’s career ‘bookends’ the retrospective of his films organized by Luce Cinecittà, in collaboration with Lincoln Center, in New York.
Italian cinema can also lay claim to the lion’s share of Saturday’s screening schedule, featuring two of the contenders for the Caligari Prize – A Classic Horror Story by Roberto De Feo (at 3 pm, IULM – sala dei 146) and Calibro 9 by Toni D’Angelo (at 6 pm, IULM – sala dei 146) – plus the only Italian title on Noir’s International Competition lineup, Diario di spezie (at 6:30 pm, Notorious Cinemas Gloria), which marks the directorial debut of author Massimo Donati, based on his own novel. The suspense film weds the worlds of art and cuisine and will be presented by the author and the film’s two stars, Fabrizio Ferracane and Lorenzo Richelmy.
The last film of the day is the premiere of NIMBY – Not in my backyard, a black comedy that takes on a number of hot topics today, from gender issues to political satire (at 6:30 pm, Notorious Cinemas Gloria). Coming to cinemas on December 14th, courtesy of I Wonder Pictures, the film will be presented by its director Teemu Nikki, 2021 Venice Film Festival winner.
Two special literary events will be held at the Teatro Filodrammatici on Saturday. At 5 pm, Simona Vinci will talk about her latest novel, L’altra casa (Einaudi) with Nicoletta Vallorani, while the event at 6:30 spotlights the literary debut of filmmaker Stefano Vicario, his novel Il re degli stracci (La Nave di Teseo), already optioned for a TV series. The author will be joined by Luca Crovi and Paola Jacobbi, with a special appearance by actor Alessio Boni, who will read from the novel.
