CULTURAL FILM SERIES
This year鈥檚 film series will feature pictures from the Italian Neorealism film movement and movies related to that movement.
Films are screened in the Cinema of the Connelly Center on 棉花糖直播鈥檚 campus on Sundays at 3:30 and 7 p.m. and Monday evenings at 7 p.m.
The speakers, who introduce the film and lead a discussion after the screening, are only present for the Monday evening screenings. As always, all screenings are free and open to the public.
For more information, email Dr. John O鈥橪eary or call (610) 519-4454.
FALL 2024
Italy, 1945 | 105 minutes
DIRECTED BY Roberto Rossellini
This story about a Resistance leader on the run from the Nazis in 1944 Rome was described by Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times as, 鈥渁 world cinema landmark.鈥�
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKER: Millicent Marcus
Italy, 2005 | 53 minutes
DIRECTED BY Laura Muscardin
Director of the documentary Children of Open City, Laura Muscardin, will join us to discuss her documentary examining the making of Open City.
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKER: Laura Muscardin
USA, 1944 | 173 minutes
DIRECTED BY John Cromwell, Edward Cline, & Tay Garnett
Following a mother raising two daughters when her husband leaves to fight in WWII, Wesley Lovell of Cinema Sight says of WWII movies, there are 鈥渘one more fascinating or heart-wrenching as those of the lives of the people left behind at home.鈥�
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKER: Rick Worland
Italy, 1946 | 120 minutes
DIRECTED BY Roberto Rossellini
Featuring six vignettes of interactions between American forces and locals in Italy during WWII, 鈥渢his remarkable film communicates how the war in Italy actually took place on a very personal level,鈥� says John Nesbit of Old School Reviews.
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKERS: Flavia Laviosa & Qi Wang Schlupp
45 minutes
DIRECTED BY John Huston; and Helen Levitt, Janice Loeb & James Agee
This double screening will feature two documentaries capturing vastly different places in the mid-1940鈥檚: the Battle of San Pietro and the streets of Spanish Harlem.
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKERS: Deirdre Boyle & Chet Pancake
Italy, 1948 | 88 minutes
DIRECTED BY Roberto Rossellini
This film, following the struggles of a young boy in post-WWII Berlin, 鈥渕akes you feel the weight of every smashed facade and fallen stone,鈥� says David Denby of the New Yorker.
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKERS: Timothy Shary & Francesco Pitassio
2005 | 16 minutes
DIRECTED BY Guy Maddin
The short documentary My Dad is 100 Years Old features Isabella Rossellini discussing the life of her father, legendary Italian neo-realist film director Roberto Rossellini.
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKER: Alessandra Seggi
SPRING 2025
Italy, 1943 | 140 minutes
DIRECTED BY Luchino Visconti
Described as, 鈥渁 landmark film in both Neo-Realist and giallo traditions,鈥� (Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Senses of Cinema) this story follows the love affair between a drifter and an inn-owner as they plan to murder her husband.
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKERS: Saverio Giovacchini & Luca Cottini
USA, 1946 | 113 minutes
DIRECTED BY Tay Garnett
This, 鈥渕asterclass in noir,鈥� (Jennie Kermode, Eye for Film) tells the story of a married woman and a drifter who fall in love and plot to murder her husband.
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKERS: Rick Worland & Susan Mackey-Kallis
Italy, 1948 | 160 minutes
DIRECTED BY Luchino Visconti
This film, following fisherman living in rural Sicily as they fight to break out of poverty, is, 鈥渙ne of the greatest films to emerge from the Italian neorealist movement鈥� (TV Guide).
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKERS: Nelson Moe & Luca Barattoni
Italy, 1951 | 108 minutes
DIRECTED BY Luchino Visconti
Bellissima, 鈥渢he first honest self-portrait of the cinema,鈥� (TV Guide) tells the story of a woman desperately trying to get her daughter into the movies.
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKER: Mattia Cinquegrani
Italy, 1943 | 84 minutes
DIRECTED BY Vittorio De Sica
This family drama, centered around a four-year-old boy, depicts, 鈥渢he painful and necessary maturation of a child and of Italian cinema,鈥� says Fernando Croce of CinePassion.
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKER: Simonetta Milli Konewko
Italy, 1948 | 99 minutes
DIRECTED BY Vittorio De Sica
This 鈥渂rilliant, tactlessly real work of art,鈥� (Peter Bradshaw, Guardian) tells the story of a father and son setting out to find the father鈥檚 stolen bicycle.
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKERS: Karl Schoonover, Michael Altimore & John Carvalho
105 minutes
DIRECTED BY Vittorio De Sica; and Francois La Rosa
This double feature will show the film Umberto D, a story about an elderly man and his dog struggling to survive in Rome, followed by 40 Weeks in Cinecitt脿, a documentary about Italian neorealist film director Federico Fellini.
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKERS: Anastasia Valecce, Tania Romero & Francois Larosa
Italy, 1949 | 108 minutes
DIRECTED BY Giuseppe De Santis
This story about two criminals on the run, 鈥渇uses the class-based politics 鈥� and the on-location authenticity 鈥� of neorealism with a smoldering romantic melodrama,鈥� says Richard Brody of the New Yorker.
MONDAY NIGHT SPEAKERS: Laura E. Ruberto & Charles Leavitt
All films are screened at the Connelly Center Cinema. Parking available in the St. Augustine (M2) lot behind the Connelly Center.
CULTURAL FILM SERIES COMMITTEE
JOHN O鈥橪EARY, Director
JARRYD KAINZ, Assistant Director
J.J. BROWN, Treasurer
TONY ALFANO, Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services
ADVISORS
DAN JEFFERSON
SUSAN MARCOSSON
JOHN PAUL SPIRO
ELANA ROSE STARR
The 2024-25 Cultural Film Series was created, organized and facilitated by Alessandra Seggi.
INFORMATION
CALL (610) 519-4454
贰惭础滨尝听JOHN.OLEARY@VILLANOVA.EDU