Italian film fest, dances based on Fellini films / Cristine Coyiuto concert

The embassy of Italy headed by Ambassador Luca Fornari, and the Phil-Italian Association headed by Nedy Tantoco will present the 9th Italian Film Festival which opens with the comedy “Three Men and a Leg” on Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m., Shangri-la Plaza, Shang Complex 4.

The schedule of each film showing which starts at 1:30 p.m. and ends at 9 p.m. follows:

Oct. 21: If I Were You (comedy), Hard Boiled Egg (comedy), The Girl by the Lake (thriller), Good Morning Heartache (comedy).

Oct. 22: We Can Do That (comedy), Ginger and Cinamon (comedy), Different from Whom (comedy), Unsane (thriller).

Oct. 23: Almost Blue (thriller), Ask Me If I’m Happy (comedy), The Stendahl Syndrome (thriller), Such Is Life (comedy).

Oct. 24: Night Before the Exams (comedy), Unsane, Ginger and Cinamon, Three Men and a Leg.

Oct. 25: Good Morning Heartache, The Stendahl Syndrome, If I Were You, Ask Me If I Am Happy.

Oct. 26: The Girl by the Lake (thriller), The Feast (comedy), Such Is Life, Almost Blue (thriller).

Admission to the films is free.

The festival continues at the UP Film Institute, Nov. 9-13; Lyceum U., Dec. 1-4; Xavier U., Ateneo de Cagayan, Cagayan de Oro, Feb. 7-11, 2011.

Dance as homage to Fellini

The Italian Dance Company Compagnia Artemis Danza will stage scenes based on the films of Federico Fellini, master of Italian cinema, at the CCP main theater on Oct. 27 at 8 p.m. The dance program is titled “Eccentrics, Homage to Fellini”.

It is a presentation of the Italian Embassy, and the CCP in cooperation with Rustan’s, the Phil-Italian Association and the Peninsula Manila.

Conceived and choreographed by Monica Casadel, the concert draws inspiration from La Dolce Vita’s famous Flying Christ and Trevi Fountain scenes, La Strada’s sundry circus characters, 8 1/2’s rambling dreams and fantasies, among many others.

Accompanying the dances will be famous melodies of composer Nino Rota while images, scenes and characters will be revoked and re-invented from six Fellini films: La Strada, Amarconi, La Dolce Vita, Intervista Casanova and 8 1/2.

The performance is “characterized by an atmosphere full of poetry and emotion, energy and vigor, in which dance and theater mingle to recreate the spectacular world of Fellini”.

Artistic director and choreographer Casadel began her association with Compagnia Artemis Danza in 1994 in France. In 1997, she moved to Italy and has since produced 25 choreographic works for major Italian theaters and festivals, and prestigious international festivals in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Albania, Colombia, Vietnam and Korea. The company has also performed in Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Turkey, India, Japan, Vietnam and Korea.

Cristine Coyiuto Concert

To mark the bicentennial of Schumann and Chopin, two of the most innovative and original Romantic composers, the eminent pianist’s pianist Cristine Coyiuto will give a concert at the renovated Francisco Santiago Hall of Banco de Oro on Nov. 19 at 8 p.m.

Coyiuto will play Schumann’s Kinderscenen (Scenes from Childhood), Chopin’s 24 Preludes, and two pieces by their contemporary Liszt: the Paganini Etude No. 2 and the Transcedental Etude No. 10. During the celebration, 19th and 20th century prints of music composers and an autographed copy of Chopin’s Preludes from the Coyiuto collection will be showcased.

Of her program, Coyiuto observes: “Schumann’s Kinderszenen is a set of 13 character pieces, written not for the young player but rather as an adult’s recollection of childhood memories. The monumental Preludes of Chopin is a cycle of 24 musical gems evoking myriad feelings and moods.”

Schumann wrote of these Preludes “as most remarkable; quite different from the grand style of his studies. These are sketches, the beginning studies, ruins, eagle’s feathers, all strongly intermingled. He is the boldest, the proudest, the poet — the soul of his time.”

Coyiuto, a graduate of Juilliard, has concertized in Canada, the US, England, France, Switzerland, the two Chinas, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines.