Yale to Host Italian Film Festival

Yale University will hold its fourth annual Italian film festival, “Italian Cinema: New Directors, New Directions,” April 23–26, in the Whitney Humanities Center auditorium, 53 Wall St. All screenings are free and open to the public.

The films, in Italian with English subtitles, are a sampling of the latest creative work by young directors who have won national and international recognition.

“Italian Cinema: New Directors, New Directions” will begin on April 23 at 7:30 p.m. with the critically acclaimed “Gomorra,” by Matteo Garrone, a scorching and violent exposé of the Neapolitan crime syndicate known as the Camorra.

The feature for Friday, April 24, at 7:30 p.m. is Paolo Sorrentino’s “Il Divo,” a wickedly satiric portrait of one of Italy’s most powerful political figures in the postwar period.

Actor Marco Baliani will introduce two films in which he plays major roles: “La Ragazza Del Lago,” a mystery set in the northern Italian Dolomite region, on Saturday, April 25, at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., and “In Memoria Di Me,” the story of a young man’s struggle to overcome his anxieties and doubts about entering the clergy, on Sunday, April 26, at 1 p.m. Baliani will remain after each film to take questions from the audience.

The festival will conclude on Sunday with the 4 p.m. screening of “Il Vento Fa Il Suo Giro,” set in a small village in northwestern Italy whose inhabitants speak an obscure Romance language known as Occitan.

Film festival sponsors are the Italian Department, in conjunction with the Whitney Humanities Center and the Office of Public Affairs.

To reserve a seat at one of the Saturday evening screenings, interested individuals should email yaleitaliancinema@yahoo.com with their name and the screening time of their choice. For more information, call Ann DeLauro at 203-432-0595.