Francesca Archibugi: In the Middle of Life
November 1–23, 2003
Five films by the Italian director Francesca
Archibugi present a fresh and incisive perspective on such classic
themes as familial
and generational relationships and the sins of fathers visited
on
their children. Archibugi’s canny eye for the telling detail
and the minutiae of daily life imbues her work with symbolism
and cinematic flair. Several of her films deal with Italian manifestations
of patriarchal society: in With Closed Eyes (1994), the historical
setting at the turn of the previous century and its specific
problems
for women living outside the protected confines of the family;
in The Great Pumpkin (1992), the personal and societal difficulties
of changing a hopelessly outdated mode of psychiatric treatment.
All her other works deal with contemporary problems of the family
in a changing society. Her sensitive direction of actors elicits
some especially strong performances from children and adolescents
as well as from her female protagonists. She has succeeded in
creating a distinctive body of work that has brought bright original
Italian
filmmaking back to the international screen.
Organized by Mary Lea Bandy, Chief Curator, and Jytte Jensen, Curator,
Department of Film and Media. Presented in collaboration with N.I.C.E.,
an organization dedicated to the promotion of Italian cinema worldwide,
and the Italian Cultural Institute, New York.
. 1998. Italy. Written
and directed by Francesca Archibugi. With Sergio Rubini, Valeria
Golino, Niccolo Senni. Shooting the Moon’s innovative and playful
use of point of view (a young boy’s cartoonish imagination)
and footage from a fictive documentary contrast with the film’s
underlying theme of selfish and destructive behavior among grown-ups.
A contemporary take on the family with a devastating and realistic
twist. In Italian, English subtitles. 90 min.
. 2000. Italy. Written and
directed by Francesca Archibugi. With Marco Baliani, Valerio Mastrandrea,
Ornella Muti.
This beautifully balanced film opens with a devastating earthquake
and then registers the effects on the community in the immediate
aftermath. A multigenerational cast of characters from differing
classes slowly attains nuanced focus, as the film’s lost souls
struggle to find the solidarity that can bring them through hard
times. In Italian, English subtitles. 106 min.
. 1990. Italy. Written
and directed by Francesca Archibugi. With Marcello Mastroianni,
Sandrine Bonnaire, Lara Pranzoni. A bittersweet trip back to Rome,
circa 1977, this delightful film spices generational conflict with
a healthy dose of contemporary politics. Mastroianni’s pitch-perfect
portrait of an aging aristocratic professor with a lifelong commitment
to communism is played against Bonnaire’s performance as his
willfully uneducated, nonconformist daughter-in-law. Torn between
the two formidable foes is her child. In Italian, English subtitles.
97 min.
. 1992.
Italy. Written and directed by Francesca Archibugi. With Sergio
Castellitto, Anna Galiena,
Alessia Fugardi. An ambitious story about the 1970s modernization
of Italy’s psychiatric wards, refracted through the complex
relationship between a young doctor and a petulant young girl who
bonds with him in her own healing. With probing performances by a
mix of professionals and amateurs, this tender film never loses touch
with the reality that inspired it. In Italian, English subtitles.
90 min.
.
1994. Italy. Written and directed by Francesca Archibugi. With
Stefania Sandrelli, Marco Messeri,
Debora Caprioglio. Set in and around Siena in the early twentieth
century, this sweeping tale of doomed love between the son of a padrone and a farmhand’s beautiful daughter is based on an autobiographical
novel by Federico Tozzi. The struggle of sex and class comprises
the main tension in this earthy historical tale. In Italian, English
subtitles. 110 min.
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