Habemus Papam, by Nanni Moretti, 2011

30 May 2025, 6 pm, Building 201, Room 265 The University of Auckland

 

 

Io e te (Me and You) (2012) is Bernardo Bertolucci’s first Italian movie since 1981, and the great director’s final film. Unlike many of his exotic and expensive enterprises Me and You works on a more intimate scale. To escape his overwrought parents, Lorenzo, a 14-year-old loner, tells them that he is going away on a ski trip with school friends. His plans however, are to spend the week hiding out in his apartment building’s abandoned cellar, in the company of his horror and fantasy books and avoiding the pressures of being a "normal" teenager. But an unexpected visit from his worldly older half-sister Olivia changes everything. Their emotional time together will inspire Lorenzo to come to terms with the challenge of casting aside his disguise of troubled youth and prepare him for the next stage of life, while Olivia will also embrace transformation.  Watch the trailer here: 

Friday 24 March, 6:00pm

Auckland University Humanities Building, Room 220

Parking: Owen G Glenn Building -12 Grafton Road, $6 flat rate

 

Italian Film Event, 24 February - Free entry

Settembre - Comedy 2022, directed by Giulia Louise Steigerwalt

The bitter-sweet comedy tells the story of people who, in the melancholic atmosphere of September, realise that they haven’t achieved their lifelong dreams and ambitions. Francesca has long been in crisis with her husband and confides in Debora, whose life is full of marital misunderstandings. Meanwhile, Sergio is struggling with a young girl eager for all kinds of adolescent experiences, while Francesca’s gynecologist has lost all hope in love.

Friday 24 February 6:00pm Auckland University Humanities Building, Room 220
Parking:Owen G Glenn Building -12 Grafton Road, $6 flat rate

This month's Italian movie is Riso amaro, 1949 drama by Giuseppe De Santis, with English subtitles. 

FREE ENTRY 

Friday 9 July, 6pm University of Auckland Humanities Building (Building 206) Room 315
 

Another beautiful evening at Cinema Italiano Festival with Il Gattopardo - The Leopard at The Capitol Cinema. Catch some great Italian movies in New Zealand: visit Cinema Italiano website for more info! 

 

 

Last night Cinema Italiano Festival launched its programme! Excellent movie selection, speeches, hosting and Italian flair! Go to Cinema Italiano Festival to find out more about screening times, and see you at the cinema! http://www.cinemaitalianonz.com/

 

Vintage Spanish movie poster

Italian movie tonight: Bellissima is a 1951 Italian neorealist drama film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Anna Magnani, Walter Chiari and Tecla Scarano. Free entry.

Today, Wednesday 21 April, 6pm

First social distancing movie premiere, and one to remember! Studio Italia Cinema Italiano opening at the Bridgeway Cinema in Auckland - cool and safe meeting up with masks to enjoy the hilarious comedy An Almost Ordinary Summer - Croce e Delizia - plus there were yummy goodie bags for everyone!!!

Grazie Cinema Italiano Festival for bringing a lit Italian flair to Auckland: the Italian Festival Season in Auckland is now officially open!

 

Director Marco Gianstefani, author and director of Karamea, will talk about the idea behind and the challenges of making this documentary which illustrates the inspiring journey of a bunch of modern-hippies trying to change the world from one of the most remote places on earth, Karamea, a small rural town on the top of New Zealand’s southern island.

In a place where, for unknown reasons, everybody who has ever come has never left, the documentary follows the pioneering stories of Paul Murray, Gerar Toye and their unusual crew establishing the Living in Peace Project, an attempt to chase an economical and environmental revolution far away from any glimpse of the civilised world.

Thursday 30 May, 4.30pm Dante School, Freemans Bay Community Centre 52 Hepburn Street

Click here to see the trailer, with Italian subtitles.


Screenings in Auckland:
Sat 01 June, 6.15 PM | Auckland | Q&A post-screening
Tue 04 June, 4.00 PM | Auckland | Q&A post-screening

18 Ius soli, il diritto di essere italiani - This 2010, multi-awarded, first Italian grass-roots documentary, written and directed by Fred Kuwornu, addresses the issue of the right of citizenship for the so-called second-generation immigrants, or for those born or raised in Italy by immigrant parents. The documentary sheds light on a reality unknown to many and which sometimes also reaches the paradoxical. In fact, it is the reality of hundreds of thousands of young people who were born and raised in Italy but who are forced to live with a residence permit and who are not guaranteed those rights that their Italian friends and peers enjoy. Not having citizenship in a state of law like Italy means to be denied many possibilities and to feel different from the people around you and with whom you grew up.

Author and director Fred Kuwornu was born in Bologna in 1971 from a Ghanaian father and a Bolognese mother. In 2008 he worked as a set assistant for Spike Lee in the film Miracle.

The following year Kuwornu produced and directed Inside Buffalo, the first documentary on the history of the Buffalo Soldiers, for which he received the appreciation of Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama (both appear in clips in the documentary), the Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and of the President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano.


Presented by Bernadette Luciano of Italian Department, University of Auckland. Friday 22 March, 6.30pm, Room 315, Building 206, Arts 1 Humanities In Italian with English subtitles. Free entry.

We have a special screening this week: acclaimed movie Romanzo Criminale, based on Giancarlo De Cataldo's novel, in anticipation of the talk by the author on 30 November. 
Both events are free.

WATCH THE FILM "ROMANZO CRIMINALE"
University of Auckland, Arts 1 Room 315, Nov. 18, 6 pm

President of the Dante Alighieri Society of Auckland John Kirwan was at the Auckland Academy Cinemas last night for the closing night of the Cinema Italiano Festival. THE CONFORMIST. Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci from a novel by Alberto Moravia is an undisputed Masterpiece of Italian Cinema.
With cinematography by the great Vittorio Storaro it has been called "One of the most beautiful films of all time."


Director of the new Cinema Italiano Festival Paolo Rotondo and President of the Dante Alighieri Society of Auckland John Kirwan enjoying the closing night film of Cinema Italiano Festival NZ ‪#‎dantealighieriauckland‬ ‪#‎cinemaitalianofestivalnz‬‪#‎theconformist‬ ‪#‎bernardobertolucci‬ ‪#‎paolorotondo‬ ‪#‎johnkirwan‬ ‪#‎italianfilm‬