Premieres Specials: The Tavianis and Antonioni
April 13, 16, & 20, 2005

Following on the success of MoMA’s inaugural film and media exhibition, Premieres, the Department of Film and Media will continue to present the first New York public screenings of moving-image works of significant interest.

Organized by the Department of Film and Media.

Luisa Sanfelice. 2004. Italy/France. Directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. Screenplay by the Tavianis, based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas.With Laetitia Casta, Adriano Giannini, Cecilia Roth. The Taviani brothers’ most recent film, produced for RAI Television, is a handsome, measured historical epic that recounts the true story of a woman who, contentedly married to an older nobleman in The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, suddenly finds herself in love with a young Republican whose activities between 1798 and 1800 become increasingly revolutionary. In Italian, English subtitles. 200 min.
Wednesday, April 13, 6:30; Saturday, April 16, 2:00. T1

Michelangelo Antonioni: Michelangelo's Gaze
April 20

Michelangelo’s Gaze is a new film by Michelangelo Antonioni that celebrates the restored sculptural masterwork of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Moses, and the Tomb of Pope Julius II in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli, in Rome. A powerful, personal interpretation by the Renaissance artist, the tomb, with its centerpiece of a brooding Moses, was created in 1513–16 in commemoration of his equally powerful patron, the pope who commissioned the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It has been highlighted in the Progetto Mosè, or Moses project, produced by Warner Independent Pictures in association with Lottomatica and the Istituto Luce, which has donated a copy of this film and a selection of documentaries to MoMA. Accompanying the short film is a recent MoMA acquisition, Antonioni’s 1952 feature The Lady without Camellias, which was preserved by RAI Cinema, Rome.

Organized by Mary Lea Bandy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator, and Anne Morra, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and Media, with Antonio Monda, Professor of Cinema, New York University.

Lo Sguardo di Michelangelo (Michelangelo's Gaze). 2004. Italy. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Cinematography by Maurizio dell'Orco. Antonioni considers the Tomb of Pope Julius II, admiring the shimmering marble surfaces of the earlier Michelangelo’s pulsing, rather terrifying forms, the rich fabrics and muscular limbs, and the gestures and expressions of Moses. The film is a walk through light and shadow that creates a sense of the sculpture’s great force. 18 min.

La Signora senza camelie (The Lady without Camellias). 1953. Italy. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Screenplay by Antonioni, Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Francesco Maselli, P. M. Pasinetti. With Lucia Bosé, Gino Cervi, Andrea Checchi. The rags-to-riches story of a shopgirl who becomes a movie star. Antonioni offers a pessimistic glimpse of postwar Rome and its film industry. In Italian, English subtitles. 105 min.
Wednesday, April 20, 8:30. T2

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