Outtakes
Private lost in translation
By Angela Baldassarre
Originally Published: 2005-10-23
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected Italy's entry for best foreign film because the movie about Palestinian-Israeli relations was not in Italian, as Academy rules require. Private, by director Saverio Costanzo, tells the story of a Palestinian family and Israeli soldiers forced to live together in the family's home. It was selected as Italy's candidate with four-fifths of the Italian film academy's votes. English, Hebrew and Arabic are spoken in the film, but no Italian.
"It has to be in the language of the native country," said Academy spokesman John Pavlick in a statement last week. "Everything would be eligible if you didn't have rules that narrowed the eligibility down to a reasonable number. As it is, there are 50 or 60 films that compete each year."
The movie, based on a true story, was filmed in the Palestinian territories and southern Italy. Rumours have it that Giovanni Veronesi's Manuale D'Amore, a light romantic comedy, will be the most likely replacement as entry.
The Oscars will be handed out March 5.
***
Actor-director Roberto Benigni made an impromptu striptease during a live interview on an Italian TV news show. Benigni, who won the best foreign film Oscar in 1998 for Life is Beautiful, removed his shirt and draped it over a news presenter's shoulders. He then joked that Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi had resigned. Benigni also offered viewers of the RAI channel's news show a refund for his new film The Tiger and the Snow, set in war-torn Iraq, if they did not like it. During the appearance, Benigni argued in favour of poetry and against war, which he said "makes no sense and is vulgar". Outspoken Berlusconi critic Benigni, who led a rally in Rome last Friday to protest at the Italian government's decision to cut state arts funding, jumped behind the newscaster and announced: "Berlusconi has resigned." Benigni is renowned for his slapstick pranks. At the Oscars ceremony in 1999, he climbed on the back of his seat and applauded the audience after he was told he had won the foreign film prize. He also went on to win the best actor award.
Page 1/...Page 2
|
</ td>
