Ferreri 101 11/15/2009
 
Another intro on Ferreri I wrote as a pitch to curate a retrospective of his work here in the USA (more on that later...)

Marco Ferreri was one of the most singlar voices of European cinema. Part of the postwar generation that originated Neorrealism and evolved it into the XX century's most important film movements, Ferreri constantly worked with the most notable film artists of his time: actors Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli, production designer Dante Ferreti, creating brash and intriguing works that striked "at the exposed nerves of a society that was constantly changing." Namely, Postwar Europe and its struggle towards economic recovery and the political, social, sexual and cultural changes that came with it.  One of the most provocative and whimsical auteurs to work from inside the European film industry (one of his producer include Carlo Ponti, for instance,) Ferreri left a lasting body of work that pointed directly at the future of our western societies, by exploring the evolution of the relationship between man, woman and child in an increasingly fragmented and industrialized world.
-Milenko Skoknic
 
 

Cool introduction to the Ferrerian universe via Dillinger is Dead.

 
 

Check here for screenings near you.

 
 

check out the video section of this site.

 
 

via Hollywood Reporter.

 
 

New 35mm print! Thanks to Graham Swindoll for the info. LINK>

 
 

A Ferreri quote I found in the Torino Film Fest site:

“It’s dishonest to talk about films, since we’re already doing something useless which self-destroys itself. In silence. I made Dillinger Is Dead for several reasons: because I felt like doing it, because this film earned me some money; but in any case I’m doing something useless, so it's pointless to talk about it.”


 
FERRERI BOX SET 07/24/2008
 

This is absolutely fantastic news! Koch Lorber will release 8 of Ferreri's films on DVD, hopefully with a chock full of extras, those are so hard to come by. And I will finally get to see Seed of Man!

 
 

She passed away on April 30th, 2008. She left behind most (if not all) of his husband's work in the Torino Museum of Cinema, under the care of Alberto Barbera, the museum's director. I hope to visit those archives one day.
This is specially sad because I wanted to send the a copy of my film The Fault, very influenced by his husband's work. I was a month away from completing it when I heard the news.

 
 

From AP:

Spanish Scriptwriter Rafael Azcona Dies MADRID, Spain (AP) — Spanish novelist and scriptwriter Rafael Azcona, known for films such as the Oscar-winning comedy "Belle Epoque" and Luis Garcia Berlanga's "The Executioner," has died. He was 81.

Azcona, who had been suffering from lung cancer, died at his home on Sunday, the Spanish Writers and Editors Society said. He was cremated Tuesday in Madrid.

"He leaves the world of cinema and literature without one of its best storytellers," Spain's Culture Minister Cesar Antonio Molina said.

Born Oct. 24, 1926, in the northern city of Logrono, Azcona wrote for humor magazines such as "El Cordorniz" before making his name with the film script based on his black comedy novel "El Pisito" (The Little Apartment), directed by Italy's Marco Ferreri in 1959.

He went on to work with directors such as Luis Berlanga and Carlos Saura. He teamed up with director Fernando Trueba in "Belle Epoque," which won an Academy Award for best foreign film in 1992.

"He was one of the greatest writers in European cinema, not just Spanish cinema," Angeles Gonzalez-Sinde, president of Spain's Cinema Academy, told the newspaper El Pais. "No one has reached his imaginative capacity, intellectual rigor and brilliance."

He won six Spanish Goya film awards, including one for lifetime achievement in 1998.

He also was granted with the National Cinema Award in 1982 and Spain's Fine Arts Gold Medal in 1994.

He is survived by his wife, Susi.

Ferreri and Azcona in Naples, 1963