Salvatores ‘director’ of 34th Torino Film Festival

Gabriele Salvatores, guest director of 34th Torino Film Festival

 TURIN - - Italian director and screenwriter Gabriele Salvatores, whose movie ‘Mediterraneo’ received an Oscar for best foreign language film, will be the Guest Director of the 34th Torino Film Festival, (TFF), which will run from 18-26 November 2016.

 Emanuela Martini, TFF’s director, said “I think Gabriele Salvatores is the ideal filmmaker to be Guest Director of TFF. As a director, he deals with a range of areas and interests, as well as taking risks and daring to address unusual topics and styles. At the same time, he doesn’t disregard the charm of popular culture, which always underpins his cinema. His choices for ‘Five Easy Pieces’ demonstrate the extent to which Salvatores is in tune with an idea of cinema which constantly revives and reinvents itself, in the full spirit of TFF’s tradition.”

 Salvatores comments on ‘Five Easy Pieces’:

 “Everything was ready. My room, the desk, even the brass plaque with my name on the door of my father’s law office. But back then, there were those movies going around… and that music in the soundtracks which captured you instantly! I have these five films to thank, these ‘Five Easy Pieces’ which thankfully prevented me from becoming a lawyer.”

 “Can a movie change your life? In my case, the answer is yes. So can novels and songs, but films are without a doubt more beautiful, more profound, and more interesting from an artistic point of view.These movies gave me the emotional and irrational drive to follow the path of theatre, and more specifically, of cinema. Emotion without thought might not be enough, but thought alone doesn’t suffice, either. This is why I want to share these movies with you, to make people believe that a film can indeed change your life.”

 Gabriele Salvatores, who was one of the founders of the ‘Teatro dell’Elfo’ in 1972, began his film career directing movies based on his own theatrical experience. In 1989, he directed ‘Marrakech Express,’ starring his friends Diego Abatantuono and Fabrizio Bentivoglio. This movie was followed by ‘On Tour’ (Turnè, 1990) and then ‘Mediterraneo,’ which brought him an Oscar in 1992. Since then, his career has juggled experimental films, sci­‐fi movies and other mainstream genres, as well as film adaptations of famous novels and documentaries, all of which have won him much recognition and various awards. In 1986, with Abatantuono and Maurizio Totti, he founded ‘Colorado Film’ and in 2004, with Sandrone Dazieri and Maurizio Totti, he founded the narrative book series ‘Colorado Noir.’ A multifaceted and eclectic filmmaker, he stands out in Italian filmmaking for his broad range of interests. His films include ‘I’m Not Scared’ (‘Io non ho paura,’ 2003), based on the novel by Niccolò Ammaniti, ‘Quo vadis baby?’ (2005), ‘As God Commands’ (‘Come Dio comanda,’ 2008), based on another book by Ammaniti, and finally ‘The Invisible Boy’ (Il ragazzo invisibile, 2014).

 www.torinofilmfest.org

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