Gianfranco Rosi: Last News

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent MK2 Films, the Paris-based indie powerhouse behind “Anatomy of a Fall,” has tapped former Kinology executive Emmanuel Pisarra as head of acquisitions. Pisarra, who succeeds Olivier Barbier in this role, joins MK2 Films’ growing team, alongside Vanessa Saal, who was recently named executive consultant and U.K.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic If you think the American presidential election has been unpredictable, wait’ll you see how capricious things get at the Vatican when the cardinals assemble to choose a new pope in “Conclave.” Adapted from the Robert Harris novel by Edward Berger, who assumes a very different challenge after “All Quiet on the Western Front,” this thinking man’s thriller unfolds like a murder mystery behind the locked doors of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where the College of Cardinals are cloistered, except no one suspects foul play in the previous pontiff’s death. Still, intrigues abound as the papabili — those considered next in line for the job, played by such formidable actors as Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow — pull whatever levers they can to be elected.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent German director Volker Schlöndorff, who won the Cannes’ Palme d’Or and an Oscar for his 1979 drama “The Tin Drum,” is set to direct a film about how Antonio Vivaldi — the 18th-century Italian composer of “The Four Seasons” — formed what is touted as the world’s first all-female orchestra. Schlöndorff’s still-untitled depiction of this lesser-known aspect of Vivaldi’s career is based on a book by German writer Peter Schneider, which has been adapted for the big screen by Italian scribe Francesco Piccolo (“My Brilliant Friend”) along with the director.

Guy Lodge Film Critic Though it’s become a convenient catch-all term for journalists covering the subject, the phrase “European migrant crisis” can’t help but leave a sour taste in the mouth — implying as it does that Europe, the destination for so many hard-up voyagers from variously ailing or hostile countries, is the disadvantaged party in all this. That bias carries through to the bulk of well-intended films on the matter, which tend to pick up migrants’ stories, however sympathetically, on European turf.

Pope Francis, only a few days after leaving the hospital, is presiding over religious observances during the holiest week in the Roman Catholic faith. As part of Good Friday services today, he took part in a celebration of the Passion of the Lord at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Documentary festival IDFA will host the international premieres of Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi’s music film “Personality Crisis: One Night Only” and Barbara Kopple’s “Gumbo Coalition” as part of its Masters program, as well as the world premiere of Coco Schrijber’s “Look What You Made Me Do.” The selection includes the work of several renowned directors who have reinvented their cinematic language. Patricio Guzmán breaks from his poetic approach to adopt a more direct, political form of filmmaking with “My Imaginary Country,” centering on the October 2019 protests in Santiago. Gianfranco Rosi directs his first archive-based film “In viaggio,” which sees Pope Francis’ journeys as a map of the human condition. Jørgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed co-direct a film together for the first time with “Music for Black Pigeons,” a reflection on aging through jazz music, and Ruth Beckermann’s “Mutzenbacher” takes a look at a controversial erotic novel through an elaborate casting call.

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has teased 100 films that will be showcased in its 35th edition, running November 9–20

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Master documentary filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi, whose “Sacro Gra” won the Venice Golden Lion in 2013, is back on the Lido with “In Viaggio,” a doc about Pope Francis’ travels in which the director creates a counterpoint between archival footage and images that Rosi shot himself.  In the first nine years of his pontificate, Pope Francis made 37 trips visiting 53 countries, focusing on his key issues: poverty, migration, the environment, solidarity and war. Intrigued by the fact that two of Francis’ trips – the first to the refugees landing in the Sicilian island of Lampedusa; the second in 2021 to the Middle East – so closely mirrored the itineraries of the director’s “Fire at Sea” (2016) and “Notturno” (2020), Rosi decided to delve into hundreds of hours of footage of papal travels with the intention of providing through them a “map of the human condition,” he says.

A powerful meditation on recent history, In Viaggio premiered out of competition at the Venice Film Festival. Directed by previous Golden Lion winner Gianfranco Rosi, it follows the travels of Pope Francis, using mostly archival footage to paint not just a picture of the man, but of the modern world.

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Master documentary filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi, whose “Sacro Gra” won the Venice Golden Lion in 2013, is back on the Lido with “In Viaggio,” a doc about Pope Francis’ travels in which the director creates a counterpoint between archival footage and images that Rosi shot himself. Variety has been given access to an exclusive clip (above) from the film, which premieres in Venice on Sept. 5. In the first nine years of his pontificate, Pope Francis made 37 trips visiting 53 countries, focusing on his key issues: poverty, migration, the environment, solidarity and war. Intrigued by the fact that two of Francis’s trips – the first to the refugees landing in the Sicilian island of Lampedusa; the second in 2021 to the Middle East – so closely mirrored the itineraries of the director’s “Fuocoammare” (Fire At Sea, 2016) and “Notturno” (2020), Rosi follows the Pope’s Stations of the Cross. “He sees what he sees, hears what he says,” the press notes point out, and interweaves archival footage of Francis’ travels with images taken by Rosi himself and recent historical events.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentItalian director Roberta Torre, known for campy Mafia musical “Tano to Die For” and other anarchic pics, is making “Le Favolose,” about a group of transgender women who reunite after 20 years to commemorate a dead friend and do right by her after her identity has been violated.“Le Favolose,” which translates as “The Fabulous Ones,” is being produced by Donatella Palermo, who is at the Berlinale with auteur Paolo Taviani’s competition entry “Leonora Addio.”Palermo, who has a longstanding rapport with Torre, is the Italian producer behind two Berlin Golden Bear winners: the Taviani brothers’ “Caesar Must Die” and Gianfranco Rosi’s “Fire at Sea.” “When a person decides to face the [gender] transition from man to woman it can be a very painful process in several different ways: social, physical, etc.,” said Palermo, who notes that “when a trans dies, most of the time their body is returned to their families.” Torre’s new pic is based on a real-life story of Antonia, one of the “Fabulous Ones,” who is buried by her family dressed as a man under her original name, Giampaolo, amid the indifference of most.

Christopher Vourlias Dubai-based sales agent Cercamon is launching a dedicated documentary feature label and will unveil its first slate of titles at this year’s European Film Market, including Constantin Wulff’s Berlinale Forum selection “For the Many – The Vienna Chamber of Labor.”The company plans to handle 8 to 10 documentaries per year across all markets, with former Doc & Film International and Mediawan Rights exec Suzanne Nodale tapped to oversee all acquisitions and sales of the slate.A specialist in documentary sales, Nodale has worked on titles such as Gianfranco Rosi’s Oscar-nominated “Fire at Sea,” Gregory Monro’s International Emmy Award winner “Kubrick by Kubrick” and “Banksy Most Wanted,” a Tribeca Film Festival selection from directors Aurelia Rouvier and Seamus Haley. “I am thrilled to have Suzanne joining the team to expand the reach of Cercamon,” said the company’s CEO, Sebastien Chesneau.

Damon Wise Taking to the stage of the eerily quiet Tuschinski cinema in Amsterdam—just after the sad news of the death of Italian documentary filmmaker Valentina Pedicini, at the age of 42, had been made public—Gianfranco Rosi, Guest of Honor at documentary festival IDFA, put on a brave face as he settled down for his masterclass with the festival’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia.Rosi’s latest film “Notturno,” a mosaic of war stories from the Middle East, was lucky to premiere to a live and present audience at the Venice Film Festival in September, before Italy returned to lock down.