Miracle at St. Anna

Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna (Touchstone)

Spike Lee has made his mark delivering films that deal mostly with African Americans in contemporary urban settings. Beginning with She's Gotta Have It and Do the Right Thing and continuing through Clockers and Malcolm X, those thematic concerns have been a constant. So the fact that his latest project is a World War II drama set in Italy and involving a miracle may be surprising. But Miracle at St. Anna (opening September 26 throughout San Diego) does provide the socially conscious filmmaker with an opportunity to highlight the Buffalo Soldiers and the contribution African American soldiers made to the fighting in World War II.

The Man with No Name Trilogy

OMG! Look how young Clint is in the 1964 spaghetti western, A Fistful of Dollars (United Artists)

If you missed The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at last month's United Artists Film Festival, don't despair. You will have another chance to see not only that Sergio Leone spaghetti western classic, but his entire Man with No Name Trillogy courtesy of the San Diego Italian Film Festival. The free summer mini-series kicks off on Thursday June 5 at 7:00 pm at the Museum of Photographic Arts with the 1964 film A Fistful of Dollars, featuring Clint Eastwood as the now iconic Man with No Name. For a Few Dollars More follows on July 3, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly closes the mini-series on August 7.

Here in teh U.S. we refer to these films as "Spaghetti Westerns," but in Italy they are called "Westerns all'Italiana." All three films are the collaboration of filmmaker Sergio Leone, star Clint Eastwood, and composer Ennion Morricone. According to film lore, an obscure director named Sergio Leone was given $200,000 and a load of leftover film stock in the early 1960s and told to make a western. Leone turned to Akira Kurosawa's samurai epic Yojimbo, for inspiration and to American TV actor Clint Eastwood as his star. The rest, as they say, is history. The film introduced Eastwood as the laconic, cynical, anti-heroic gunslinger known only as the Man with No Name. Leone's trilogy of films came to define a genre and Morricone's epic, playful scores are equally memorable. These are films, with their stunning visual composition, are glorious on the big screen. Put these films down on your calendar now and don't miss them.

This mini-series is a warm up for the real event in October when the San Diego Italian Film Festival once again partners MoPA to screen 20 Italian movies for free. The films are shown through a collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura of Los Angeles. For more information email the festival at .

United Artists Film Festival Kicks Off With The Good, the Bad and The Ugly

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (United Artists)

This Friday May 23, Landmark's Ken Cinema begins a week-long festival celebrating 90 years of United Artists films. New prints of films such as The Great Escape, The Apartment and Dr. No will be screened. But the film that kicks off the festival and gets my immediate attention is Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (listen to my radio feature to get your fix of the now famous music.)

No music has come to define a genre more vividly than Ennio Morricone's theme for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Just a few notes of this witty, epic score is all you need to conjure up images of western landscapes, weather-beaten faces and showdowns on dusty street.

Cinema Paradiso

Cinema Paradiso screen for free on May 8 at MoPA (Miramax)

The San Diego Italian Film Festival only arrived on the scene last October but they have been busy bringing Italian cinema to San Diego -- and their screenings are all free! Can't beat that. This Thursday, May 8 at 7:00 pm at the Museum of Photographic Arts they will present the 1989 charmer, Cinema Paradiso. The film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1990, and some say it revived Italy's film industry. The film is part of what festival organizers are calling a "warm up" for the main event in October. For more information, email or go to www.sandiegoitalianfilmfestival.com.

When Cinema Paradiso was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, there was really was no way that Hollywood could have ignored Tornatore’s loving ode to the movies. For those who may have forgotten or those too young to remember, Cinema Paradiso tells the story of a young boy, Toto (Salvatore Cascio), whose infatuation with movies leads him to befriend Alfredo (Philippe Noiret), an aging projectionist at the local movie house. Toto watches in absolute awe as the magical flickering light beams out of a lion’s mouth that adorns the projection booth window at the Cinema Paradiso movie theater. He slips into the theater to watch as the local priest screens each film and franticly rings a little bell every time a film depicts something offensive or sexual. Even the most chaste kiss must be removed before the church can approve any public screening of the film. And it’s Alfredo’s job to remove the offensive frames.

My Brother is an Only Child

Brothers Accio and Manrico in My Brother is an Only Child (THINKFilm)

The new Italian film My Brother is an Only Child (opening May 2 at Landmark's Hillcrest Cinemas) focuses on two siblings who choose opposite sides of the political spectrum in Italy during the 60s and 70s. The film swept Italy's Donatelli awards, their equivalent of Hollywood's Oscars. Italian screenwriters Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli see sibling rivalry as the perfect metaphor for exploring their country's often divisive politics. In 2003's The Best of Youth, two brothers reflect four decades of political turbulence beginning in 1963. In this year's My Brother is an Only Child, the writing duo partners with director Daniele Luchetti for another story set in the 60s and 70s, and focused on two very different brothers. (You can listen to my radio feature or read the extended review and interview.)

Light of My Eyes

Light of My Eyes screens free at MoPA (Film Movement)

Last October the San Diego Italian Film Festival made its debut and has been busy ever since bringing Italian film to San Diego. Based on the crowds at the festival, I'd say there's an audience that's ravenous for Italian cinema even if the titles are not the newest. For what they are calling a "warm-up" to their second festival in October, the San Diego Italian Film Festival has been running a short series of films at the Museum of Photographic Arts. For the second film in the series (sorry I missed highlighting the first) they are reaching back to 2001 for Giuseppe Piccioni's Luce dei Miei Occhi/Light of My Eyes (screening Thursday April 3 at 7pm at the MoPA). The film never received a theatrical release here in the U.S. and Piccioni is not a well known name here. His Not of This World (involving the owner of a dry cleaner, a nun and an abandoned baby) is the only film of his that appeared to have any kind of limited release here in the U.S. So this is a rare opportunity to sample this director's work.

Light of My Eyes centers on Antonio (Luigi Lo Cascio), a young chauffeur who prides himself on his professionalism, promptness, and courtesy. He also favors pulp science fiction novels that fuel his vivid imagination. Then a near-accident introduces him to Maria (Sandra Ceccarelli), a single mother struggling to keep her small business alive and to maintain custody her daughter. Maria and Antonio slowly come together as Antonio tries to take care of Maria and her daughter.

Next up for the San Diego Italian Film Festival will be the more familiar, award-winning film, Cinema Paradiso on Thursday May 8. For more information you can email the festival at .

San Diego Jewish Film Festival

The coming of age tale Sixty-Six is the opening night film of the SDJFF (Universal)

The San Diego Jewish Film Festival kicks off its 18th season on February 7 with a British charmer called Sixty Six. The eleven-day festival will play at five local venues and showcase more than three dozen films and assorted panel discussions. Listen to my radio preview of the festival or read on for more in-depth details.

The title of the opening night film, Sixty-Six, refers to the year 1966 when Bernie Reubens (Greg Sulkin) is in the midst of elaborate plans for his bar mitzvah. Proclaiming itself a "tru-ish story," the film offers a delightful portrait of a young boy trying to make an impression on his own family. But it's difficult to get attention when you’re competing with the World Cup, especially when England happens to be hosting the World Cup. To make matters worse, Bernie has to contend with the final match between Blighty and West Germany landing on the exact same day as his much-anticipated rite of passage.

Foreign Film Short List

The Counterfeiters (Austria), directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky

The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (Brazil), directed by Cao Hamburger

Days of Darkness (Canada), directed by Denys Arcand

Beaufort (Israel), directed by Joseph Cedar

The Unknown (Italy), directed by Giuseppe Tornatore

Mongol (Kazakhstan), directed by Sergei Bodrov

Katyn (Poland), directed by Andrzej Wajda

12 (Russia), directed by Nikita Mikhalkov

The Trap (Serbia), directed by Srdan Golubovic

The list is a mix of veterans and newcomers. Denys Arcand was nominated for an Oscar for writing The Barbarian Invasions, and the film won the Foreign Film Oscar in 2004. Giuseppe Tornatore nabbed a Directors Guild of America nomination for Cinema Paradiso, and the film went on to win the Foreign Film Award in 1988. And Poland's Andrzej Wajda picked up an honorary Oscar in 2000.