The Turin Film Festival, the preeminent Italian event for young directors and independent cinema where Matteo Garrone and Paolo Sorrentino premiered their works, celebrates its 40th anniversary this year with film critic Steve Della Casa – who previously served as the festival’s artistic director from 1999-2002 – back at the helm.
Della Casa, a national radio personality and documentary filmmaker, chose to open on November 25 and December. 3 is a festival with musical and visual extravaganza centered on a custom-made montage centered around the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and their love of cinema that led them to work with the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, Jonas Mekas, Wim Wenders and Martin Scorsese. The festival’s eclectic opener is a 70-minute hodgepodge of film clips, interviews and rare archival material that celebrates the vibrant relationships between pop, rock and film.
Talk to Della Casa diverse about his vision of Turin and his efforts to return the festival to its popular cultural roots.
Steve, talk to me about the editorial. I think it represents something.
I hate opening and closing ceremonies and I hate choosing the opening movie because if you pick a main movie, you’re upsetting movie lovers and vice versa. So, I decided to go with The Beatles and The Stones. They’re both major bands, but they both intersect with cinema in notable ways, from Godard and Wenders and Scorsese to James Bond.
I wanted to give a clear signal that we are a pop culture festival. This does not mean weakening it, but it does mean having fun even with traits that have a lot of appeal. I’m just trying to get away from the ghetto of cinematographers.
Another new aspect is the competitive Torino section dedicated to horror films.
It is a complete novelty for Turin. If you look at our international competition we have drawn largely from other festivals. But instead, all of our horror films premiered in Turin thanks to our close relationship with the Blood Window section of the Ventana Sur film market. Although we are not a first-rate festival, I want us to become prominent in this genre, just like Sitges and the wonderful Brussels International Film Festival. I want us to be part of that circle.
Which horror premieres in Turin do you consider to be standouts?
One of them is Presencias by Mexican director Luis Maduque, which is a sophisticated psychological thriller rather than a bloody movie with bad effects. Another movie is the Italian supernatural thriller “Pantafa” starring Kasia Smotnyak (“Domina”). [as a single mom named Marta whose daughter Nina becomes haunted at night] Which is located in a mountain village in southern Italy. All the films in this section are rather young, but they are all very high quality works. Instead of big action movies, I like horror movies tied to a story. I like George A. Romero and John Carpenter, who were both my guests during my previous term as President of Turin.
Speaking of this year’s guests, you have Malcolm McDowell, who is a great catch.
Yes, it’s coming to celebrate the 50th anniversary of “A Clockwork Orange” and to win an award. But more importantly, Malcolm is a perfect example of someone who has done auteur cinema and also more popular genres like TV series. He had to bend over four days to come to Turin. But I also have Paolo Sorrentino, Tony Cervelo and Mario Martone. And they all do master classes. We ask talents who come to Turin to come not only for the red carpet, but to participate and interact with the audience. That’s what this festival is about.
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