Make yourselves comfortable, it's cinema cinema cinema. On Radio Freestation, the radio of Italians around the world, every Saturday at 12:00 with Tonino Pinto and his exclusive interviews, he tells us the life and anecdotes of the most famous Italian and international actors, and he is also present as a special correspondent at the most famous film festivals like Cannes, Venice, Rome, Giffoni Festival and Monte Carlo Film Festival of Comedy. Cinema, cinema, cinema. If you want to say you have truly watched a film, you must let the film also watch you. Many critics at the Cannes Film Festival, as it nears the end, indicate Valeria Golino as the likely winner of the Palmares for her performance in the beautiful film by Mario Martone. Outside, she was welcomed by a sea of applause for her role as the writer and protester Goliarda Sapienza. In short, we'll see. Meanwhile, the festival has arrived to showcase for the first time a director. At her debut is Scarlett Johansson, already in competition at Cannes as an actress in Wes Anderson's film The Phoenician Scheme. This film that she made in the Un Certain Regard section is her first film titled Eleanor the Great. Eleanor the Great is inspired by a work by the American screenwriter Tory Cameron, and the film relates to the figure of the grandmother Eleanor who left Florida to rediscover memories and a will to live between New York and Iceland. Another American diva at Cannes these days, who debuted at the festival with Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver alongside Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster. And Jodie Foster, who made that film Taxi Driver explode in her career rich with two Oscars, for The Accused in 1989 and The Silence of the Lambs in 1992. Palme d'Or then at Cannes in 2021. At the festival she brings a psychological thriller alongside Daniel Auteuil titled Private Life of Rebecca Slovtovski. In the role of a psychiatrist accused of murder, the actress said: 'I believe in a cinema where the stories of life are lived and not dreamed.'
Meanwhile, Italian cinema debuts once again in the Un Certain Regard section with The Plain City, the second film as director by Francesco Sossai. The film follows the roads of Veneto, especially those of two fifty-year-old friends, in a sort of road movie, a remember movie of their life between taverns and glasses of wine. And everything, however, with a final secret to reveal. The other Italian film in competition in the always Un Certain Regard section is Heads or Tails, certainly original, not a western, directed by Alessio Righi De Righi and Matteo Zoppis with Alessandro Borghi, a film set in Rome in 1900 during the performance of Buffalo Bill's tour in Italy. Cannes 78 closes with a balance of films by great authors, not always up to their name, but film festivals also change. This year, the big American majors are absent. The lion's share is played by Hollywood independent cinema, with the exception of the promotional marketing of the latest Mission Impossible by Tom Cruise. Among the films candidates for an award, naturally besides that of Panahi which we have, as we said yesterday, there is also Nouvelle Vague, a French film that traces the life and work of a great French cinema, Godard's. But it's already time to look forward, and at our microphone there is truly a very exceptional guest. And here we are with the director of the Venice Film Festival, as every year, to close this Cannes festival. Alberto Barbera, who instead is already thinking about his 82nd Festival, which is an important festival.
Think about who is on the jury. Well, the president is Alexander Payne, who is a great director, won two Oscars, three, three. Ah, look, you correct me rightly, huh. And 24 times nominated for Oscars, a lot of nominations. He is an extraordinary person for those who know him; it is a great pleasure because he is very kind, he is cordial with everyone, he is nice, he is extremely helpful, very intelligent, and he is a great cinephile, he knows cinema all over the world, right? And so what better president could we have found to do this work? Not easy, no, to manage a jury; this year there are only seven, not nine, as usual. Um, but, anyway, they come from different countries, they have different languages, different cultures and different backgrounds, but I am sure he will find a way to get them to agree. Cinema is going through a very particular moment, especially in Italy, in the sense that the controversies you know better than me, there are many, and some say it one way, others work another, especially the actors, in my opinion still haven't understood where and how, why this tax credit is stalled or not.
If you had to write three lines on the eve of your festival to Minister Giuli, whom you know very well, what would you say to him?
Well, I would tell her first of all that I am waiting for her in Venice, which this year promises to be a great edition, because I know there are many great films arriving. Um, and I would tell her, Minister, don't take it so hard, let's lower the tone, there are some critical issues that can be resolved, I think also quite quickly. Cinema is an extraordinary resource for everyone, for the nation. Let's learn from the Americans, who have made their cinema the most extraordinary vehicle of promotion, right, of their culture, their history, etcetera. And let's do the same thing. Italian cinema in the 1960s was the most important cinema in the world after American cinema, the most watched in the world, the one with the greatest success, the one that gave an extraordinary image of our country. Can we go back to doing the same thing even today?
And on this subject, Venice will certainly be happy with this little letter of yours. Well, I don't want to, I don't expect you to tell titles or, but anyway, there will be a lot of cinema here at Cannes, there hasn't been the cinema of the big majors, a lot of independent cinema from you.
Well, many middle-budget films are not there because they are all delayed. First COVID, then the strikes, then the fires delayed a lot of productions. There will be some big major films certainly and many big independent films that then maybe get distributed by the majors. So we should expect many great American presences together naturally with French, Italian, British, some Eastern cinema, some South American cinema. So as usual, a look at cinema from all over the world with some great authors and I hope some discoveries of new talents.
