US PREMIERE
All in person screenings will operate at reduced capacity: 180 of 230 seats.
Landmark Center Driving & Parking Instructions
Streaming access is geo-restricted to viewers in Minnesota and a MN billing address is required to purchase a ticket. You will have 48 hours to complete once you begin watching.
LIVE ONLINE FILM DISCUSSION AND Q&A with director Mario Martone and actress Cristiana Dell'Anna on Saturday, March 5 at 12:00 PM CT.
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At the beginning of the twentieth century, in the Naples of the Belle Époque, theaters and cinemas are on the rise. The great comedian Eduardo Scarpetta (Toni Servillo) is the box-office king. Success made him a very rich man: from his humble origins, he established himself on the scene with his comedies and the mask and character of Felice Sciosciammocca, who managed to replace Pulcinella in the hearts of the Neapolitan audiences. The theater is his life, and his complex family core gravitates around the theater, with wives, companions, lovers, legitimate and illegitimate children including Titina, Eduardo and Peppino De Filippo. At the height of his success, Scarpetta allows himself what will prove to be a dangerous gamble. He decides to parody the play "The Daughter of Iorio," a tragedy by the greatest Italian poet of the time, Gabriele D’Annunzio. On opening night, all hell breaks loose: the play is interrupted by screams, whistles and insults from the poets and playwrights of the new generation who cry out scandal, and Scarpetta ends up being sued for plagiarism by D’Annunzio himself. And so the first historic copyright lawsuit in Italy begins. The years of the trial will be exhausting for him and his whole family, so much so that the delicate balance that held it together seems on the verge of dissolving. Everything in Scarpetta’s life seems to be going in pieces, but with a great actor’s performance he’ll manage to challenge a fate that wanted him a loser, and he’ll win his last game.
Qui rido io premiered at the 2021 Venice International Film Festival and IFF is honored to host its U.S. Premiere.
Click here for historical notes on this film. No spoilers
Director
Mario Martone is a director of theater, cinema and opera. He created the Falso Movimento theatrical company in the 1980’s and then founded with acclaimed actor Toni Servillo the Teatri Uniti company, through which he created his first independent films. Later, he became the director of Rome and Turin’s theaters. He has made two films set in the nineteenth century that attracted millions of viewers, staged operas in some of the world’s greatest theaters and continued to cross-breed artistic languages and experiment relentlessly. In 1999, he created the Teatro India in Rome. In 2018, the Museo Madre in Naples dedicated a large personal exhibition to him. During the pandemic he adapted the operas Barber of Seville and La Traviata for television. He recently came back in front of a live audience with the staging of Goliarda Sapienza’s Filo di Mezzogiorno.
Sponsors
This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.
Produttore di Elite
Produttore Esecutivo
Luigi Bernardi &
Produttore
Assitente di produzione
Albert and Susan Colianni Family
Astrid Garino and Massimo Costalonga
Regista
Catherine Allan
Nancy Azzam
Bill and Sandra Gengler
Jeff Lotz
Andrea and Vittorio Raimondi
Aiuto Regista
Vito Bongiorno
Brian Balleria and Joan Bechtold
Ann Burns
Denise and Giacomo D'Aurora
Elizabeth Fletcher
Stefano Perugini
Joe Pingatore
Nassim and Federico Rossi
Penelope Scialla
David Yarusso
