Opening Night At the 2009 Italian Film Festival!

As part of my need to get out there in the world to experience more of what the world has to offer I decided that I would go to this year's 2009 Italian Film Festival held over four nights at the Rialto Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. Last night was the screening of the Opening Night film THE VICEROYS, which is a historical drama about the unification of Italy into the country it is today.

It was a good choice for opening night film as it spoke to the audience in a huge way in terms of what the Italian Film Festival is trying to accomplish, which (I gather) is to allow audiences the opportunity to explore and experience Italian culture through film and since the film THE VICEROYS is placed into a historical context in which is shows how, essentially, Italy became Italy through the rise and fall of a single "noble" family it was a great idea to open the 3rd Anniversary event with this film rather then any of the other three films.

I enjoyed the film immensely as I've always enjoyed Italian cinema since first discovering Dario Argento as a teenager. In fact, one of my all time favorite films is the Italian epic THE BEST OF YOUTH (another historical epic at approximately six hours).

The theatre was packed (with very few seats empty) which made for a more interesting film festival experience then I had with the Atlanta Film Festival several years ago (where the theatre was almost completely empty). I believe that the event is successful, thus far, because they only have four films to focus one rather then the multitude of films at other festivals. Another good thing is that all of the films are screening at the same location for all four nights at The Rialto rather then being spread out all over the city in a multitude of theaters (ala the Atlanta Film Festival).

This is an event I plan on attending later in the week on Friday for the Closing Night film THE SOUL KEEPER but I suggest anyone who is interested to go to the website www.cinemaitaly.com for more info about the event.