“La commedia all’italiana” on screen in the Israeli Cinematheques, thanks to ADAMAS (cultural association Rome-Tel Aviv), in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institutes in Tel Aviv and in Haifa, under the patronage of the Italian Embassy in Israel and with the support of Istituto Luce Cinecittà Filmitalia and Cineteca Nazionale di Roma.
Nine films by Alberto Sordi, one of the most important representatives of the Italian movie history and the most famous exponent of the so called “roman style”, will be screened at the Cinematheques of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, Herzliya, Holon and Sderot.
In Haifa, the program of the event includes the following screenings:
14.09, at 19:00: THE WIDOWER 1959 האלמן
15.09, at 21:00: COMPLEXES 1965 תסביכים
16.09, at 16:30: BRAVISSIMO בראוויסימו 1955
17.09, at 16:00: AN AMERICAN IN ROME 1954 אמריקאי ברומא
18.09, at 21:00: WILL OUR HEROES BE ABLE TO FIND THEIR FRIEND? 1968 ?האם יצליחו גיבורנו
20.09, at 21:00: WHY 1971 בכלא מחכה למשפט
25.09, at 21:15: LOVE IN THE RIVIERA 1958 אהבה בריוויירה
28.09, at 21:00: IL MARITO (The husband) 1958 נישואין
29.09, at 19:00: LE VACANZE INTELLIGENTI 1978 חופשה אינטליגנטית
All the movies are in Italian, with Hebrew and English subtitles.
PLEASE, FOLLOW THIS LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE PROGRAM OF THE EVENT.
- SPECIAL DISCOUNTED PRICE reserved to the friends of the Italian Cultural Institute in Haifa: 25 NIS (instead of 35 NIS). In order to book your tickets, please call us at 04-8536091 or write a message to iichaifa@esteri.it, at least two days before the desired screening.
Born in Rome to a schoolteacher and a musician, Alberto Sordi enrolled in Milan’s dramatic arts academy but was kicked out because of his thick Roman accent. In the meantime he studied to be an opera singer, a bass. It was his accent and voice that would later prove to be his trademark.
In a career that spanned seven decades, Sordi established himself as an icon of Italian cinema with his representative skills at both comedy and drama. His movie career began in the late 1930s with bit parts and secondary characters in wartime movies. After the war he began working as a dubber for the Italian versions of Laurel and Hardy shorts, voicing Oliver Hardy. Early roles included Fellini’s The White Sheik in 1952, Fellini’s I vitelloni (1953), a movie about young slackers, in which he plays a weak, effeminate immature loafer and a starring role in Lo scapolo (The Bachelor) playing a single man trying to find love. In 1959 he appeared in Monicelli’s The Great War, considered by many critics and film historians to be one of the best Italian comedies. The Hollywood Foreign Press recognized his abilities when he was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Il diavolo (1963). Sordi acted alongside Britain’s David Niven in the World War II comedy The Best of Enemies and in 1965 he was in another highly regarded comedy, I complessi (Complexes).
Sordi also succeeded in dramatic roles, most notably in 1977’s Un borghese piccolo piccolo (An Average Little Man) in which he portrays an elderly civil servant whose son is killed in an armed robbery, and sets out to exact revenge.
In 1984, he directed and co-scripted Tutti dentro (Off to jail, everybody), in which he played a judge who has warrants for corruption served on ministers and businessmen. Alberto Sordi was really masterful in two broad roles: one being the one of the underdog, militating against injustices and prevarications, the other that of the prevaricator himself. One has only to watch his performances as the returning emigrant unjustly convicted in Detenuto in attesa di giudizio or the miserly sub-proletarian of Lo scopone scientifico teased by the old millionaire Bette Davis into endless card games where he hopes to find release from his poverty to appreciate his skills in the first role, while the rampant, unscrupulous doctor he plays in Il medico della mutua is the perfect example of his aptness at rendering characters who were both truly despicable and completely believable. Sordi died shortly before his eighty-third birthday following a heart attack. (Wikipedia)
Event organized by the Italian Cultural Institutes in Tel Aviv and in Haifa, and by ADAMAS, in collabotation with the Cinematheques of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, Herzliya, Holon and Sderot, the Cineteca Nazionale di Roma and Cinecittà Luce. Under the patronage of the Italian Embassy in Israel.
Settember 14th-30th, 2016
Haifa Cinematheque
142 Hanassi Avenue, Haifa