back	October 30, 2008 RSS

From the CineMINI to Morricone

The Auditorium is not home to the entire festival. The enormous cinema event is a festival that involves the entire city, with many events organized over these ten days in October. The events are all related to cinema - some more, some less. And accordingly, the Festival internazionale del Film di Roma also inspires many to discover, or re-discover, a multitude of more or less famous corners of Rome. The Piazza Trilussa doesn't really need any film screenings. In the heart of Trasteveres, one of the most distinctive suburbs of the city, and just a few steps from the Tiber and the Ponte Sisto, the name of the piazza is a reminder of the verse of one of the greatest and most famous poets of the Roman dialect. On sultry summer evenings, the poet Trilussa would saunter through the streets of the quarter, sipping his 'Grattachecca', a Roman cocktail made from crushed ice and fruit juice. Today droves of young people populate the taverns, enlivening their evening with an aperitif and chatting with friends.
If you look closely, it will occur to you that the piazza is different to other Roman piazzas. An odd, small stand, which no-one has seen here before, is an addition to the familiar surroundings. A bright neon sign draws the attention, and provokes looks ranging from distrust to curiosity. The more adventurous among them come closer to the unknown object. The brightly lit and mysterious stand almost reminds one of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which a group of people flocks to an unidentified, mysterious monolith. While we're talking about the real, genuine festival: We have to quickly weave through the masses of cars to escape the pounding rain, and to get to the Parco della Musica on time. Because today on the red carpet, we are honoring one of the greats of cinema, and of modern music: Ennio Morricone, who won an Oscar for lifetime achievement, composed the music which accompanies and enriches many of our favorite films (Once Upon a Time in America, Mission). The maestro is here at the festival today as the composer of the soundtrack to Giacomo Battiato's film Resolution 819. But tonight, another great of the music scene will be celebrated: Fabrizio de André, one of the greatest Italian songsters, who died ten years ago. The festival has dedicated no less than two films to him: Effedia - Sulla mia cattiva strada ("Effedia - Mine is the Wrong Way"), a documentary by Teresa Marchesi, and Amore che vieni, amore che vai ("Why do You Come, my Love, and Why do you go?"), Daniele Constantini's film adaptation of a de Andrés novel. But we'll talk more about that tomorrow. We'll talk about films and music, things that make us laugh and things that make us happy. Because all in all, to paraphrase Trilussa, happiness really is such a small thing.