Polanski, Melville and the British Renaissance in Turin

2008-08-25 16:47:01

Next Turin Film Festival (November 21st-29th, 2008) will feature three retrospectives. Two will be centred on two acclaimed directors: Roman Polanski and Jean-Pierre Melville. The other will be dedicated to the so-called “British Renaissance”, an English cinema movement of the 1980s.

In my opinion, this one could be very interesting. It will be a trip through the “Renaissance”, comprised of 25/30 films including The Terence Davies Trilogy by Terence Davies, Angel by Neil Jordan, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle by Julien Temple, My Beautiful Laundrette by Stephen Frears, Local Hero by Bill Forsyth and The Ploughman’s Lunch by Richard Eyre. These movies, the Festival press release says, “reflect a Great Britain that was often contradictory, multi-ethnic and always angry. The films dealt with Scotland, Ireland, industrial areas of the North, the London suburbs, the bourgeoisie and anti establishment conflicts. They followed styles and genres typical of British cinema (documentaries and gothic, comedy and melodrama, free cinema and detective movies).”

The “British Renaissance” restored the British Film Industry’s reputation and I think these movies will be appreciated in Turin too.