ISTITUTO ITALIANO DI CULTURA MELBOURNE
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EXCLUSIVE OFFER FOR IIC MEMBERS
WIN A DOUBLE PASS!The first IIC Member to reply to iicmelbourne@esteri.it with MIFF in the subject line will win a double pass to see Il Sorpasso (The Easy Life) on at 11am on Sunday 10 August (at the Forum). 
ITALIAN FILMS AT MIFF 2014 - from the MIFF websiteClick the name of the Italian productions below to be directed to the film's page on the MIFF website, containing further details, times and booking information. Beginning in the 1950s with Big Deal on Madonna Street, the Commedia all'italiana (comedy, Italian style) genre was hugely popular in its day, both commercially and critically, and was known for its subversive social commentary delivered with ample laughs. This overview presents some of the style's best-known and most-loved films, all in glorious 35mm projection. 
This stylish and biting comedy comes from the middle part of director Vittorio de Sica's career. As in his masterpiece Bicycle Thieves, this much later film makes a point about what money, or the lack of it, can do to a person's dignity.
One of the acknowledged masters of commedia all'italiana, Dino Risi reached his artistic peak with The Easy Life. The comedic blueprint for the modern road-trip movie, Risi's film has still rarely been surpassed, a tour de force of personal insight and social commentary that captured the anxiety and aspiration of a booming Italy.
Mafioso - starring Alberto Sordi - 16 August
Italian comic great Alberto Sordi plays a southerner made good in Italy's modern north. When he takes his blonde bombshell wife and children back to his Sicilian village for a holiday, his joy at being surrounded by family and the scenery he so missed takes a turn for the sinister when the local don asks for a favour to be returned.
Twenty years after the death of Federico Fellini, fellow auteur Ettore Scola - a long-time friend and admirer - reflects on the times he spent with the great director, from their beginnings working at the same satirical magazine to their parallel careers as filmmakers in post-war Italy.
Human Capital - starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi - 13 August; 16 August Stephen Amidon's unflinching novel is given a stylish Italian makeover in Paolo Virzì's class-critiquing murder mystery. When a cyclist is killed one wintry night, two families are drawn together as the truth behind the accident is revealed. A hit in Italy, this adaptation successfully transposes Amidon's tale of greed and social mobility from upmarket Connecticut to the wealthy region of Varese, north of Milan.
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