BAIAblog

Hollywood finds Italian Gabriele Muccino

You may have noticed the number one movie for the week before Christmas: “The Pursuit of Happyness”. You also probably know Will Smith is the big star of this movie. What many have not noticed yet is that the director is the Italian Gabriele Muccino.

Muccino is definitely one of the more interesting directors from Italy in the past 10 years. He captured the interest of an international audience with “L’ultimo Bacio” (The Last Kiss) in 2001. In fact, Will Smith saw Muccino’s movie and had loved it. In a recent interview Muccino said: “He (Will Smith) got in touch with me and sent me The Pursuit script. I was in total disbelief and thought it was a waste of time. But then I met Will and realized he was a big fan of my work” (Italy Magazine).

I wish more Italian movies would get distribution outside of Italy. This case represents a perfect example. After the success of “The Pursuit of Happyness” I bet now the young Italian director has open doors to direct more major Hollywood productions and expose an international audience to the style and tradition of Italian movie making.

I welcome your comments on this matter.

Michele Ursino

Italian Movies: for some but not for everybody

What is the state of the Italian Movie Industry? From the amount of films crossing the ocean, I would say pretty bad. Still, Italians can do films. I can easily mention few filmmakers that deserve some credits: Sergio Rubini, Gabriele Muccino, Ferzan Ozpetek, Gabriele Salvatores, Nanni Moretti, Alessandro D’alatri, Silvio Soldini and I am sure there are many more.

So, why is it that few know or watch Italian movies?
Have you ever tried to buy an Italian DVD in Italy? Did you then try to bring it over to the US so that you could share it with some of your American friends?
Not an easy task, I can assure you.

First: they are very expensive.

Second: there is the annoying region protection. For some reason Italian distributors are very concerned that somebody may watch their movie outside Italy. You need a special DVD player to play these DVDs or you may watch them on your computer.

Third: most of these movies don’t have English subtitles. This must be to make sure that non-Italian-speaking-people don't find out how good our movies really are. How much is the cost of having English subtitles with respect of the cost of making and distributing a movie?

It seems to me the Italian Movie industry is very concerned that people around the world may find out the product is actually pretty good. What they produce is like a special cheese that loses its entire flavor as soon as you cross the border.

Italian Movies: for some but not for everybody!

Michele Ursino

Upcoming Events

After the frenetic activity of the last few days, we will slow down a bit for a couple of weeks. We were able to attract several people and to deliver very high quality events with top notch speakers in prestigious locations. BAIA is establishing itself as the reference point for the Italian and non-Italian business community and for everybody interested in exploring business opportunities with and from Italy including all businesses related to the Italian traditions and culture.
For all our members and friends attending those events, it has been an incredible occasion to meet other business people and to expand everybody's network. I’ve seen members and guests having a discussion about VC while tasting Valpolicella wine, or explaining the strategy behind a new startup and sipping delicious Italian coffee, or exchanging business cards with the speakers and enjoying Italian beer.

If you didn’t have a chance to join us for the last events, we are not going to let you down: we will have two more in the next few days. For the upcoming events BAIA will be involved as co-organizer or sponsor.

• The first event is tonight November 4th at the Marin Center Exhibit Hall in San Rafael for one night with the Italian Film Festival organized by Lido Catarutti. Today program features “Ma quando arrivano le ragazze?” directed by Pupi Avati.
• The next and very different event is the 7th annual conference organized by NOVA, the Italian MBA Association, in collaboration with URANIA, the Italian Association for Life Science. The conference will be November 11 & 12 at the Stanford Graduate School of Business under the title “Roads to Innovation: International Perspectives on the Generation of Ideas, Technologies, and new Businesses”.

One small request: if you have any feedback regarding the past activities or any suggestion for the future you can contact one of the BAIA board members or simply post a comment here, on this blog.

Franco Folini