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world cinema
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contemporar
Vincere Visionaries: Jonas Mekas and the (Mostly) american avant-Garde Cinema
ITALY / FRANCE
With Vincere, esteemed director Marco Bellocchio delves into the secret
USA
The guardian of America’s experimental cinema, as Jonas Mekas is
Director: Marco Bellocchio life of ruthless Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, beginning with his early Director: Chuck Workman sometimes called, is at the center of this documentary about the under-
Executive Producer: Olivia Sleiter years as a theater actor, journalist, and socialist on the rise to power. Producer: Chuck Workman ground film movement. In the 1950s, Mekas began bringing together
Producer: Mario Gianani
At a chance meeting in Trento in 1907, Mussolini (Filippo Timi) meets
Editor: Chuck Workman
filmmakers who were working in noncommercial forms, largely in isola-
Screenwriters: Marco Bellocchio,
Australian aristocrat Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno of Love in the
2009 / color, b&w / 93 min.
tion. Over the course of many years, he became colleagues with and/
Daniela Ceselli Time of Cholera, SDFF 30) – who falls hard for him and his rhetoric. She or mentored such luminaries as Martin Scorsese, Andy Warhol, Peter
MS: A to Z
Cinematographer: Daniele Ciprì
sells her apartment, furniture, beauty salon, and jewelry to help him Bogdanovich, Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren, David Lynch, and William
MS: A to Z
il
Editor: Francesca Calvelli
fund Il Popolo d’Italia, the newspaper that would soon become the Burroughs, recognizing in their work his own mission: to make people
il
Cast: Giovanna Mezzogiorno,
propaganda tool of the newly formed Fascist party.
ChuCK WorKMan see in new ways.
E F
Filippo Timi, Corrado Invernizzi,
For over 30 years, Philadelphia-born
E F
h
Fausto Russo Alesi Though they become passionate lovers, the abusive Mussolini does not
Chuck Workman has been involved in
h
T
This homage to Mekas and to the Anthology Film Archives he founded,
T
film and theater as an award-winning
2009 / color / 128 min. share Ida’s fantasies of lasting romance. Not long after Ida gives birth which has preserved countless underground films over the decades,
director, writer, editor, and producer.
to his son, Benito Albino, Mussolini rejects them both. When he marries
Workman has produced seven Emmy-
eschews nostalgia, offering instead a wealth of heretofore unseen
another woman and places them under house arrest at his sister’s, the
nominated sequences for the Academy
material. Along with interviews by numerous colleagues of Mekas
MarCo BELLoCChio obsessed Ida begins to go mad without him, ultimately landing in an
Awards; created trailers for Star Wars who share their history in and thoughts on the movement and film
Born in Bobbio, Italy, in 1939, Marco
insane asylum – and their son, who likes to mimic his father’s outlandish
(1977), Close Encounters of the Third
in general, Visionaries offers excerpts from more than 100 works that
Bellochio initially studied philosophy
speeches, fares little better.
Kind (1977), and American Graffiti
challenge narrative convention. A few titles will be easily recognized by
but left to go to film school, where
(1973); and directed several renowned
he made his first feature, Fists in the
short films. He is a former president
enthusiasts (Scorpio Rising; Putney Swope), but the great part of the
Pocket (1965). From then on, Bellocchio
Bellocchio masterfully mixes the torrid images of Ida and Benito’s carnal
of the International Documentary
footage will be new to most viewers. Writer/director Chuck Workman (A
has been renowned for his cinematic
desire with archival news footage showing Mussolini in the black and Association, a former commissioner House on a Hill, SDFF 23) – best known for his Academy Award–winning
critiques of Italian politics and its white of history. Stylistically, Vincere resembles an opera, complete with
of the Santa Monica Arts Commission,
short Precious Images and his HBO documentary on the history of
tendencies toward conformism. Over the
Mussolini’s grandstanding gestures, Ida’s tragic decline, flashes lightning
and a former faculty member for the
mainstream cinema, The First One Hundred Years – takes a long pan
years, Bellochio has been nominated for
USC School of Cinema.
and thunder in the background, and orchestral music by Carlo Crivelli, across the kooky, the strangely poetic, the sexually adventurous, and the
and won awards at festivals worldwide,
including the Berlin International Film
which provides a booming crescendo to Il Duce’s ascension.
Selected Filmography
completely abstract expanse. The result is a rich, stimulating experience
Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, the A Kiss at Kerouac’s Grave (2004)
for the senses, with clip after clip forgoing predictability in favor of
Chicago Film Festival, and the Venice A House on a Hill (2003) immediacy. Visionaries reveals the depth of thought and breadth of
Film Festival. The Source (1999)
approach that characterize the movement; as Mekas himself says, just
Stoogemania (1986)
when you think you’ve understood what experimental filmmaking is,
Selected Filmography
Cuba Crossing (1980)
someone takes it in an entirely new direction.
Good Morning, Night (2003)
The Money (1976)
My Mother’s Smile (2002)
Broken Dreams (1995)
The Conviction (1991)
Devil in the Flesh (1986)
Henry IV (1984)
In the Name of the Father (1971)
China Is Near (1967)
Fists in the Pocket (1965)
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