Retrospective: Robert Altman, the guests
The names have been announced of the guests who will be in Torino for the 29th Torino Film Festival’s retrospective dedicated to Robert Altman.

To date, besides his wife, Kathryn Altman, and his son, Stephen Altman (set designer and a collaborator of his father’s), the actors Keith Carradine and Michael Murphy, and Matthew Seig (who worked with Altman during the ‘80s) have confirmed their participation.
The National Cinema Museum presents the photographic exhibition Robert Altman. America America from 12 October 2011 to 29 January 2012, curated by Emanuela Martini, which with over 100 large format prints presents the recurring issues in his films: America and its legends, the disappointment and decadence of all aspects of American life and culture, imprinted over a 40-year career.

The exhibition has been organised to coincide with the complete retrospective which the Torino Film Festival is devoting to Altman this year, curated by Emanuela Martini with the assistance of Luca Andreotti and Jim Healy. The festival will present the feature films directed by Altman for cinema and television, over 40 of them, a selection of industrial documentaries made by Altman in the 1950s and television series made by the director during his 50-year career.

The exhibition and the retrospective will be complete with the publication of the book entitled Robert Altman, also by Emanuela Martini, published by the Torino Film Festival / Edizioni il Castoro.

Confidential Report 2011: Sion Sono
Confidential Report, the monograph section of the Torino Film Festival, introduced

Italian spectators in 2009 to the Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn (whose film Drive is competing at Cannes); in 2010, it presented examples of new horror. This year, it is dedicated to the cinema of Sion Sono, the eccentric and mesmerizing poet, novelist and filmmaker from Japan who will be participating in the Quinzaine des realizateurs with Guilty of Romance.

Born in Toyokawa, Aichi, in 1961, Sion Sono began publishing poetry when he was only 17 and he soon became one of the most appreciated representatives of modern

Japanese culture. He debuted in feature films in 1990 with Bicycle Sighs, a great success in Japan and at many international festivals. After writing and directing The Room, the story of a serial killer, in 1994 Sion Sono appeared in Otaku, Jean-Jacques Beneix’s documentary about post-modern Japan. Since then, Sion Sono alternates poetic performances and films, including one of his most famous movies, Suicide Circle, his 2001 thriller about the disturbingly high number of suicides in Japan.

Visionary, provocative and dynamic, Sion Sono mixes psychoanalysis and Grand Guignol, melodrama and pop culture, horror and politics, serial killers and dark ladies. Suicide Circle, Into a Dream, Norikpo’s Dinner Table, Strange Circus, Exte-Hair Extensions, Love Exposure, Lords of Chaos and Cold Fish are the most famous titles in his rich and complex filmography, which will be presented almost in its entirety in Torino.

Francis Ford Coppola’s “Twixt” for the closing night
On December 3rd, following the award cerimony, the screning of  Albert Nobbs (by Rodrigo Garcìa starring Glenn Close)will be followed by the International Premiere of Francis Ford Coppola new movie Twixt, with Val Kilmer, Bruce Dern e Elle Fanning.

by Ilaria Rebecchi

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