THE INTERNATIONAL ROME FILM FESTIVAL

October 27 - November 4 2011

The background behind the financial crisis in Too Big to Fail by Curtis Hanson

The 2008 financial crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers are the main focus of Too Big to Fail, the film by Oscar® winner Curtis Hanson  to be  premiered in the Official Selection of the International Rome Film Festival (27 October - 4 November, Auditorium Parco della Musica). The TV-film produced by HBO, soon to be broadcast by Sky Cinema, boasts an exceptional cast which includes the likes of William Hurt, Paul Giamatti, Bill Pullman, Cynthia Nixon, James Woods and Topher Grace and is based on journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin's best-seller by the same title now on sale in Italy published by De Agostini.  In his political-financial thriller the New York Times reporter gives us an inside view of the dealings and scandals behind the financial crisis as he describes the dramatic weeks when the entire world economy seemed to depend on decisions made on Wall Street. The film reveals the intricate lives of the financial "giants" in the throws of the worst crack since 1929, and provides audiences with a disconcerting yet very poignant account of events to which very few people in the world had real access.  In the film William Hurt is Henry "Hank" Paulson, the Treasury Secretary and ex President and CEO of Goldman Sachs; Paul Giamatti is the President of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke; Billy Crudup is Timothy Geithner, the President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank; Bill Pullman plays the President and CEO of JP Morgan Chase Jamie Dimon while James Woods takes on the role of Dick Fuld, the Lehman Brothers' CEO.

The sixth edition of the Festival will bestow the Marc'Aurelio Acting Award upon Richard Gere. The Hollywood star, in the front line of so many humanitarian battles, has played the lead in a great number of hit films such as  American Gigolò, An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman as well as performing for great film directors including Robert Altman, Akira Kurosawa, Sydney Lumet, Francis Ford Coppola, Todd Haynes and Terrence Malick. It will be the restaured copy of  Malicks'  film Days of Heaven (1978) to be screened before Richard Gere's meeting with the public. The American actor will talk about his relationship with the director, retracing the early stages of his career.

Among the appointments included in Extra there will also be a chance to meet the great American director Michael Mann, author of films such as The Last of the Mohicans  and  Heat.  Mann will actually hold a Lesson on Cinema, as many other celebrated directors and actors invited to Extra have done in the past (the Cohen Brothers, Malick, Coppola, Landis, Al Pacino and Meryl Streep).  Sergio Rubini and Riccardo Scamarcio on the other hand will take the stage in the Duet formula, which in the past witnessed on stage conversations at the Auditorium between Bertolucci and Bellocchio, Servillo and Verdone, Muccino and Tornatore, Margherita Buy and Silvio Orlando.  Among the films to be screened in this same section, out of competition, there's the film by James Marsh Project Nim (distributed in Italy by Sacher and Feltrinelli).  This time the British film-maker, whose Oscar® winning Man on Wire was featured in the Festival's Extra section in 2008, tells the story of a chimpanzee adopted by a family of American scientists who ends up being used as a guinea pig for scientific experiments. The film, which caused quite a stir in the States, shows how even real events can be described with the same emotional involvement as a novel. Marsh, who many consider the most talented film and documentary maker of recent years, is also a juror of the Extra section which will award the Marc'Aurelio for best documentary.

Just as in previous editions,  "Twilight" fans will not be disappointed. The Alice nella città section will be organizing a major event that has to do with books and cinema for the theatrical release of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part I. The audience will get the chance to meet some of the film's main actors - including two members of the Cullen family, the vampires Rosalie and Jasper Hale (played by Nikki Reid and Jackson Rathbone). Moreover they will see clips from the film, to be released on the 16th of November, and will have the opportunity to attend readings of excerpts from Stephanie Meyer's book. Once more in the Alice nella città section there will also be a screening of Little Glory, Vincent Lanoo's fourth feature film. The movie tells the story of the nineteen year old Shawn, played by Cameron Bright, the young Canadian actor who played a major role in the past in the Twilight saga.