by Eric Blume
We’re not far from crowning a new Palme d’Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival, and part of the fun and excitement for international film lovers is seeing which country takes the top prize. The last ten years has marked three winners from France (The Class, Blue is the Warmest Color, and Dheepan), and in fact France has won ten times since 1955 when the prize has been named the Palme d’Or (there was a ten year gap in 1964-74 where the top prize had a different name, for those into these technicalities).
Winning just under that number, with nine trophies, remains Italy. Once a mighty force on the international film scene, Italy seems to have fewer major filmmakers emerging. The last Italian film to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes was Nanni Moretti’s film The Son’s Room in 2001...
ITALIAN PALME WINNERS
La Dolce Vita (1960)
- La Dolce Vita (1960)
- The Leopard (1963)
- The Birds, the Bees, and the Italians (1966)
- Blowup (1968)
- The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1972)
- The Mattei Affair (1972)
- Padre Padrone (1977)
- The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
- The Son's Room (2001)
From 1960-1978, Italy won the big prize at Cannes on eight occasions, which is almost 50% of that stretch of time! The directors of those films are among the titans of cinema: Fellinni, Visconti, Germi, Antonioni, Olmi, the Taviani brothers. And the films include some of the world’s greats: La Dolce Vita, The Leopard, Blowup. (This trend is somewhat mirrored by the Oscar for Best Foreign Film as well. We did have a recent win from Paolo Sorrentino in 2013 for The Great Beauty, and there were wins in the 80s and 90s by Cinema Paradiso, Mediterraneo, and Life is Beautiful.)
At this point, Sorrentino is Italy’s most successful export in the cinema. After The Great Beauty he gave us Youth two years ago with Harvey Keitel, Michael Caine, and Jane Fonda, and that film contained bold, ravishing images that scream “this guy is a filmmaker”. Sorrentino has that big, open-hearted style that we often associate with Italian filmmakers, and in fact he has often been compared to Fellini in style, theme, and extravagance.
But who else is leading Team Italy? Gabriele Muccino made a near-perfect comedy named The Last Kiss back in 2001 and then came to Hollywood to make several mediocre movies. Moretti still makes films, and Matteo Garrone made a splash with Gomorrah a few years back. There isn’t a film from Italy in the main competition at Cannes this year; Sergio Castellitto’s film Fortunata (Lucky) is running in Un Certain Regard instead.
This is all to say that a lot of us international cinema lovers miss Italian films. Italy is one of the most naturally photogenic countries in the world. Their directors have in the past advanced the entire medium, and have pursued intellectual and emotional terrain with truth and ruthless passion. It’s time for a new Italian Renaissance! What are some of your favorite films from the great, great country of Italy?