Quick post to advise all NYC Italian film lovers that N.I.C.E. is having a four day festival at the Tribeca Cinema. I love this actor Toni Servillo. He’s very fashionable now as well and you can see him in a variety of wonderful performances including Gomorra. The film is based on a book by the same name by Roberto Saviano, the 28 year old journalist who essentially went undercover and worked for the Camorra or Neapolitan organized crime for a sustained period of time. It is a shocking read although I bought it in English for my father after having read it in Italian and it just doesn’t deliver in the same way. Saviano is now living sotto scorta or in witness protection because of threats against his life. Their are many petitions in his honor being circuled on the internet. Mama Africa aka Miriam Makeba died suddenly this weekend after giving a concert in Saviano’s honor. I loved her singing and was blessed to see her in Paris with Paul Simon on his Graceland album in 1987…

Back to the movies, tonight I saw two: Mare Nero by Federico Bondi which isn’t even out in Italy yet. His first film, it is very sottile or subtle in its portrayal of an unlikely friendship between an ailing elder Florentine woman and her Romania helper. The second movie, la Ragazza del Lago with Servillo was more of a noir or giallo about an event in a small town in Friuli. Both gave me the needed Italian jolt that I was looking for earlier today and I highly recommend them. No alcohol was served on the premises but I have plenty of I Due Gatti around if someone wants to stop by and grab some before heading to the cinema.