Italian films to light up the movie screens of Bali

DENPASAR, Bali (JP): A rare Italian film week is certain to delight local film lovers.

Organized jointly by the Italian Embassy, the Italian Cultural Center in Jakarta and Taman Budaya Bali, the Italian film week will take place at Taman Budaya Bali from Thursday Dec. 30, 1999, to Jan. 4, 2000.

The film week, officially opened by Italian ambassador to Indonesia Carlo Marsili on Dec. 29, will also be highlighted by a graphic art exhibition, Graphitalia, presenting works by Pasquale Basile, Giovanni Cazzador and Gionanni Guardia.

An Italian night will also hold a contemporary music concert presenting a collaborative work by Italy's Gruppo Tanit and Balinese musician-composer I Kadek Suardana.

Nyoman Nikenaya, head of Taman Budaya, said that Balinese artists had planned to revitalize cultural activities here, including presenting art and culture from foreign countries.

Giusseppe (Pino) Confessa, vice consular in Bali, added that the Italian government wanted to build a tighter cooperation with Balinese artists and the community.

"By holding this event, we hope we can create a better relationship and understanding between the two parties," said Pino, who is married a Balinese woman.

He said there are more than 500 Italians residing in Denpasar and surrounding areas. Many of them are married to local women, said Pino in the Balinese language. He has also mastered some traditional Balinese dances.

The film week, part of Italian Nights at the End of the Century, will present six Italian films, including Cinema Paradiso, directed by G. Tornatore; Mediterraneo, by G. Salvatores; Strategia del Ragno, by Bernardo Bertolucci, L'Amore Moleste, by Mario Martone; and Ooi Ciorne, by Russian-born director Nikita Mikhalhov.

Cinema Paradiso is a story about the golden age of Italian cinema. Mediterraneo is about Italian soldiers during World War II who are sent to Greece. They are separated from their platoon and get lost in a remote Greek village, where they build a new and peaceful life for years, until they realize the war is over.

Strategia del Ragno (The Spider Stratagem), will be screened on the third day of the film week.

The film, produced in l970, is Bertolucci's fourth film.

It portrays the journey of a son who wants to investigate his father's death. Inspired by a short story by Jorge Luis Borge entitled Theme of the Traitor and the Hero, the film explores the son's moral conflict when he finds clues that his father was not as good as people said.

Bertolucci's other film Prima della Rivoluzione (Before the Revolution), produced in l964 when he was 22, will be screened on the fifth day of the film week.

Based on a novel entitled The Charterhouse of Parma, the film is a story of a man called Fabrizio. He always regards himself as a revolutionary man and a fighter. Unfortunately, he belongs to the past authoritarian regime. He can hardly release himself from the past. He finds it hard to make any political action and commitment to his country or, for that matter, to his girlfriend.

Parma-born Bertolucci has won several Academy Awards for his works like The Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris and Little Buddha. He has also produced quality films like the Stealing Beauty, and The Conformist.

L'Amore Moleste is a story of a girl who wants to reconstruct her childhood in order to probe her mother's mysterious death.

The Italian film week will be closed with the screening of Ooi Ciorne. The film was inspired by Anton Chekov's novels Lady with a Little Dog, My Wife, The Birthday Party and Subjugated Anna. The film conveys a story about a man who marries a weird Russian lady. (zen)