(January 5, 2016) The Italian Film Festival of Vancouver kicks off on January 8 and closes on January 14. This annual event offers the best in contemporary Italian cinema and the great classics of Italian cinematography. The film “Latin Lover” by Francesca Comencini (starring Francesco Scianna, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Marisa Paredes and Virna Lisi) will open the Festival. With “Latin Lover” Cristina Comencini returned to the big screen, offerin the public an exciting ensemble comedy that marks the last film appearance by Virna Lisi alongside an international cast. The film centers around Xavier Crispo (Scianna), a great actor of Italian cinema. Once his four daughters – all born from different wives – become aware of his death, they gather in the big house he built in the Apulian town where the actor was born. The Italian daughter brings along her boyfriend. The French daughter arrives with the youngest of three children all born from different fathers. The Spanish daughter is married with an unrepentant cheater. And the Swedish daughter is the one her father barely ever saw. Two widows also show up: Crispo’s first Italian wife, who took him back and took care of him in his old age, and the Spanish actress who married him in the great days of his spaghetti western. None of the daughters truly knew their father, and each loved and idolized him in different ways – depending on the period of his career they knew him in. In the middle of the tributes, when everyone is still waiting for the fifth child, an American recognized with DNA evidence, Pedro del Rio arrives on the scene. The stunt actor seems to know the late actor better than anyone else. Between press conferences, screenings, and night revelations the women rival and confront each other in a crescendo of emotions and tragicomic situations. In Vancouver, during the festival, there will also be a photography exhibition of the making of the film “The Thousand and One Nights” by Pier Paolo Pasolini. (Red)
