The press conference presenting the 42nd edition of the Torino Film Festival was held in the setting of Villa Miani in Rome. In the presence of the president of the National Cinema Museum, Enzo Ghigo, and its director Carlo Chatrian, the newly installed artistic director Giulio Base announced the festival’s program under the intense and magnetic gaze (printed on a poster placed behind him) of Marlon Brando from Last Tango in Paris, chosen as the poster for the new edition. And perhaps it isn’t a coincidence that precisely an interpretation of the Hollywood rebel star directed by a master of Italian cinema was chosen as the guiding image of the kermesse, given the new direction’s attention to America and Italy, as would be confirmed by the large number of guests and titles (both first and second works, which have always been the privileged object of the Turin event, as well as restorations) from the two countries.

Without, of course, losing sight of a cosmopolitan vocation and stepping outside the canonical confines of European and Anglo-Saxon cinema, it was one and only one idea that guided the work of Base and his team of selectors: that of the “memorability” of the films presented, accompanied by a general thinning out of them (120 titles as opposed to 200 of the last edition, included in six sections). Trying to make the glorious past of cinema converse with its present and the mass product with the niche one, Base inaugurates its first edition as director (which sees for the first time more female directors than male directors in the competitive sections) under the sign of accessibility, trying to attract an audience of potential viewers among the widest possible – and stars and red carpets, in this sense, are undoubtedly valuable allies.

In light of this, perhaps an adjective used by President Ghigo in reference to the nature of this edition, which is now about to begin was also not accidental: he said “scoppiettante” (“crackling”). All that remains, then, is to get comfortable, wait for the lights in the hall to go out and the projector to turn on: the festival show is about to begin.

Article by Alessandro Pomati

Translation by Aurora Monteleone