Poetry and Rigor: The Films of Gianni Amelio
November 18–30, 2005

The Museum of Modern Art and Cinecittà Holding co-present twelve remarkable films by Gianni Amelio, the most prominent member of Italy’s “middle generation” and one of contemporary cinema’s most dynamic and engaging filmmakers. The exhibition demonstrates the director’s astounding cinematic vitality—whether working in documentary or narrative—and his deep roots in neorealism, re-envisioned as a highly personal cinema dedicated equally to aesthetic innovation and sociopolitical insights. An enriching apprenticeship as assistant director offered Amelio incomparable craftsmanship, and his distinct visual talent is characterized by a language defined by rigor as well as sensitivity. Distinguished by finely textured characterizations, his films often focus on young people who experience growing pains and long for love from adults, and wounded characters who discover how to live through, or in spite of, pain and suffering. All films in Italian with English subtitles. 

Co-presented by The Museum of Modern Art and Cinecittà Holding, the exhibition is organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film and Media, and Antonio Monda, Professor, Department of Film and Television, New York University.

The exhibition is made possible by the generous collaboration of MiBAC Direzione Generale Cinema and Cinecittà Holding (Alessandro Usai), and co-organized with Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero of Cinecittà Holding. With special support of Rai Cinema (Giancarlo Leone and Cecilia Valmarana [Italy] and Guido Corso [New York]), the Italian Cultural Institute, New York (Claudio Angelini and Amelia Carpenito), Lakeshore Entertainment, Ripley’s Film, Cecchi Gori Group, Istituto Luce, Rizzoli Audiovisivi, RTI, and Urania Pictures.

Il Ladro di bambini (Stolen Children). 1992. Italy. Directed by Gianni Amelio. With Enrico Lo Verso, Valentina Scalici, Giuseppe Ieracitano. A policeman and two abused siblings must find ways to relate to one another as they embark on a long journey from Milan to a foster home. With astounding nonprofessional actors as the children and authentic locations, Amelio uncompromisingly examines modern Italy and the corruption of human relations. 108 min.
Friday, November 18, 7:30 (introduced by Amelio). T1; Wednesday, November 30, 8:15. T2

Porte aperte (Open Doors). 1990. Italy. Directed by Gianni Amelio. With Gian Maria Volontè, Ennio Fantastichini, Renato Carpentieri. Volontè is engaging as a principled, old-guard judge struggling against a Fascist regime that is dismantling the country’s rule of law. An allegory of individual responsibility challenging dogma, honesty confronting corruption. 108 min.
Saturday, November 19, 2:00. T1; Sunday, November 27, 5:00. T2

Lamerica. 1994. Italy. Directed by Gianni Amelio. With Enrico Lo Verso, Michele Placido, Piro Milkani, Carmelo Di Mazzarelli. Post-communist Albania as seen through the evolving friendship of a young Italian racketeer and the old stooge he and his more cynical partner are fronting through their shell company. As the two hoodlums steal money intended for Albania’s reconstruction, they fail to anticipate the impoverished country’s impact on their conscience. 116 min.
Saturday, November 19, 4:15. T1; Wednesday, November 30, 6:00. T2

Colpire del Cuore (Blow to the Heart). 1982. Italy. Directed by Gianni Amelio. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Fausto Rossi, Laura Morante. A richly shaded family drama set against the backdrop of Red Brigade terrorism. The son of a university professor spies on his father, suspecting he’s having an affair with a student. The young man’s interpretations of the ever-elusive truth—about his father, his friends, and his political involvement—all seem a question of perception. 105 min.
Saturday, November 19, 7:00. T1; Friday, November 25, 5:30. T2

Bertolucci secondo il cinema (Bertolucci According to the Cinema). 1975. Italy. Directed by Gianni Amelio. A fascinating look at the making of Bernardo Bertolucci’s Novecento (1900), made before behind-the-scenes documentaries became commonplace. 70 min.
Sunday, November 20, 1:00. T1; Friday, November 25, 7:30. T2

Le chiavi di casa (The Keys to the House). 2004. Italy. Directed by Gianni Amelio. With Kim Rossi Stuart, Andrea Rossi, Charlotte Rampling. Gianni meets his young disabled son Paolo for the first time in fifteen years. After a tragic birth in which the boy’s mother died, Gianni abandoned Paolo with his brother and later remarried. A delicate and moving film about the budding relationship between a father and a son on a difficult journey. 105 min.
Sunday, November 20, 4:30. T1; Monday, November 28, 8:30. T2

Il piccolo Archimede (The Little Archimedes). 1978. Italy. Directed by Gianni Amelio. With Laura Betti, Aldo Salvi, John Steiner. Based on a story by Aldous Huxley, this film thoughtfully examines the painful loss of innocence. A seven-year-old boy’s musical and mathematical genius prompt a neighbor to bring him from the outskirts to the city of Florence. Approx. 84 min.
Sunday, November 20, 3:00. T1; Friday, November 25, 9:00. T2

Non è finita la pace, cioè la Guerra (Peace Is Not Over, So There Is War). 1997. Italy. Directed by Gianni Amelio. After making his feature film Lamerica, Amelio returned to the Balkans with a small crew and digital cameras to evoke a land scarred by a ferocious war, as captured through the heartbreaking testimonials of Balkan children. 32 min.
Poveri Noi (Poor Us). 1999. Italy. Directed by Gianni Amelio. Drawing upon RAI archival footage from the 1950s and 1960s, this work interweaves stories of Italian immigrants’ difficult assimilation into the affluent societies of Germany, Switzerland, and of the northern Italian cities of Rome, Turin, and Milan. 50 min.
Monday, November 21, 6:00. T1; Sunday, November 27, 3:00. T2

La fine del gioco (The End of the Game). 1970. Italy. Written and directed by Gianni Amelio. With Luigi Valentino, Ugo Gregoretti. A television reporter covering juvenile prisons interviews a twelve-year-old Calabrian boy named Leonardo, who’s spent years in a reformatory school in Southern Italy. Their relationship changes when they travel together to the boy’s native village to complete the project. 58 min.
Monday, November 21, 8:00. T1; Saturday, November 26, 3:30. T2

Ragazzi di via Panisperna (The Panisperna Street Boys). 1988. Italy. Directed by Gianni Amelio. With Ennio Fantastichini, Andrea Prodan, Laura Morante. In the early 1930s, at the Rome Institute of Physics in Via Panisperna, a group of young scientists working under Enrico Fermi conduct the world’s first nuclear experiment. Amelio captures the comradery and rivalry among the scientists as well as their psychological and moral conflicts. 122 min.
Wednesday, November 23, 6:00. T1; Saturday, November 26, 1:00. T2

Così ridevano (The Way They Laughed). 1998. Italy. Directed by Gianni Amelio. With Enrico Lo Cascio, Francesco Giuffrida, Fabrizio Gifuni. At the height of Southern immigration to Northern Italy in the late 1950s, Giovanni, a young Sicilian, arrives in Turin to meet his younger brother Pietro. Giovanni, who is illiterate, aspires to make his brother a professor, a position that would give them both respectability, but instead disillusion and tragedy await them. 124 min.
Wednesday, November 23, 8:30. T1; Saturday, November 26, 5:00. T2

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