August 3, 2006

{ Locarno International Film Festival }

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An overly pretty location on a quiet Swiss lake, in a medium size Swiss town, in the middle of a hot and often deserted summer. You would never imagine that the fourth most important European film festival (after Cannes, Venice and Berlin) is happening there and then. Yet, it's true. Most people think of Switzerland as an overly quiet country, determined to go unnoticed. Politically this may be true, but artistically, well, this is totally another story. And the Festival Internazionale Del Cinema di Locarno (that's right, this is Italian, the third of the four languages spoken in the different Swiss states. This festival happens in the super pretty and touristic Italian speaking area of the country), happening in the town of Locarno from August 2nd to August 12th, is one of the many proofs. Just to give you an idea of how much this festival is worth, two years ago they presented the entire Cremaster cycle including the latest movie, shown for the first time in Europe. Last year the programme was a bomb: both David Lachapelle and Win Wenders presented their movies, respectedly Rize and Don'tCome Knocking, both featured as European premieres, on the same night. Not to mention a strictly selected collection of rare shorts by Orson Welles, includind some epysodes for BBC shot in the 50s and 60s and never shown since and a filmed goodbye letter to a fried Welles taped just a few days before his death and never shown to the public before. This year the programme includes a retrospective on Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki, a selection titled Digital Asia with recent video productions from Japan, China and Korea and a due presentation of what's hot in contemporary Swiss cinematography. One way the Swiss are still clinging to what seems a beloved understatement is the graphical presentation, alternating good years to pretty bad ones (it's the case this year), with posters and website not really visually appealing or message conveying. But the content, on that nothing to object: one of the most relevant festivals worldwide.

» Festival Internazionale del Cinema di Locarno

By Tacita in Singles