Opening session: The Forbidden City
Intolerance III : The Final Solution
Phil Mulloy
- 2004
- Germany, Great-Britain
- Animation / Science-fiction
- 24mn
- Color
Exceptionally, for this 31st edition, the opening night short won’t be a new release. We haven’t really gotten over the disappearance in July of the animation genius who was Phil Mulloy. We worshiped him : we really had to thank him, by paying tribute with Intolerance III, one of his more emblematic films, that makes fun of Griffith with devastating humor and political fury. His dystopia is a reference to a dark past to better speak of the present, by attacking xenophobia and repressive moods everywhere with visuals recalling Tomi Ungerer’s most caustic caricatures. Between dickheads and cuntfaces, make your choice! Penis McNuggets for everyone!
Credits
- Voiceover by : Johnson Corey, Joel Cutrara, Patricia Rodriguez...
- Screenplay : Phil Mulloy
- Photography : Phil Mulloy
- Editing : Phil Mulloy, Ralf Bohde
- Music by : Peter Brewis
- Production : Thomas Meyer-Hermann
The Forbidden City
(La città proibita)
Gabriele Mainetti
- 2025
- Italia
- Action
- 2h18mn
- Original version with French subtitles
- Color
French premiere
In Rome a young Chinese woman frantically searches for her sister. She meets the son of a debt-ridden restaurant owner, who is also worried and waiting for his missing father. These two souls, set apart by language and temperament, will learn to know each other and unite to fight the criminal underworld.
After the magnificent Jeeg Robot (Nouveau Genre Grand Prize at the 2016 Étrange Festival) and Freaks Out, Gabriele Mainetti confirms that he is, along with Stefano Sollima, among the only directors capable of resurrecting popular cinema in Italy. With Hong Kong cinema as an anchor point, he plays with archetypes and subverts them, without ever denying Italian cinema’s romantic amplitude, whether picaresque or intimate. Marinetti adds a social humanist point of view to this exemplary entertainment, as moving as its love story.
Credits
- With : Yaxi Liu, Enrico Borello, Sabrina Ferilli, Marco Giallini, Luca Zingaretti...
- Screenplay : Stefano Bises, Davide Serino
- Photography : Paolo Carnera
- Editing : Francesco Di Stefano
- Music by : Fabio Amurri
- Production : Mario Gianani, Lorenzo Gangarossa, Sonia Rovai
