When in Rome...

First Annual Roma Cinefest rolls out the red carpet for The Departed and other films.

By Pamela Coleman

A still from The Departed, featured at the festival and shot partly in Boston. [Click to enlarge]

Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, architects of the new crime drama The Departed, turned out for the First Annual Roma CinemaFest, held from October 13-21, delighting Italian movie fans and paparazzi alike.

Some of the world’s most renowned actors and directors were on hand to walk down the red carpet: Sean Connery, in Rome to receive a lifetime achievement award; Richard Gere from The Hoax; Nicole Kidman and director Steven Shainberg from FUR: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus; Viggo Mortensen from the Spanish epic Alatriste; and Mira Nair, director of Namesake. Harrison Ford, who presented the First Annual Pat McQueeney Award to talent agent Jim Berkus, and Robert DeNiro, representing the Tribeca Film Festival, the sister festival to Rome, were also on hand.

Film festivals are still perceived as a screening ground for "art films," often the darling of critics, and indeed, of the 169 films screened during the nine day festival, many of them were small budget, "thoughtful" movies. The Italian film L’aria salata, directed by Alessandro Angelini, about a young prison counselor who meets his dying father serving a life sentence, and the American documentary Black Gold, about the plight of Ethopian coffee farmers, were clearly within this category. However, no matter what the critics think or say, a film’s ultimate measure of success is based on its popularity with the movie going public. To that end, CinemaFest put the power in the hands of a jury comprised of 50 "friends, Romans, and countrymen," willing to lend their ears (and eyes) to the cause.

Not every film was entered in the competition, however. For example, The Hoax was specifically excluded. Such a decision is understandable. With a big budget film, and a veteran star like Gere involved, a studio like the revamped Miramax might not want to be perceived as "losing" a competition. Gere did remark, though, that he thought a public jury was appropriate given that film is a "mass media art." In fact, The Hoax, the story of how a frustrated author, Clifford Irving, cons the publishing world into thinking Howard Hughes has named him his official biographer, was well received.

In contrast, FUR, starring Ms. Kidman, and Robert Downey, Jr., is more unusual, in that the filmmakers, and not the main character, invent the precipitating events that lead up to the launch of real-life photographer Diane Arbus’ storied career, at age 35. For the remaining 15 years of her life, Arbus challenged the notions of beauty and ugliness in her photographs. Inspired by Patricia Bosworth’s book Diane Arbus: A Biography, director Shainberg and screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson continue the creative partnership they demonstrated in The Secretary. Because of the less mainstream subject matter of FUR, Ms. Kidman emphasized, "Film festivals are very, very good for small films like this."

When the Roman votes were finally tallied, the Russian film Izobrajaya Zhertvy / Playing the Victim directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, came away as the people’s favorite. Playing the Victim, a modern-day adaptation of Hamlet, is a dark comedy about a student who earns extra money by playing crime victims during police investigations.

But The Departed was the Italian premiere everyone wanted to see, and DiCaprio and Scorsese the interviews everyone wanted. Starring Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, and Vera Farmiglia, the film, from Bostonian William Monahan’s screenplay, and which has been called Scorsese’s last Hollywood big budget movie, played to a packed house, and received a rousing ovation -- and that was just from the press!

Scorsese said he was drawn to Monahan’s adaptation of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs for its Irish Catholicism and fatalistic humor, traits virtually synonymous with Boston. In fact, Roman moviegoers had the opportunity to visually experience the diversity of Boston since virtually all of the film’s exterior scenes were shot in Boston at sites such as Boston Common, Boston Harbor, Chinatown, South Boston, Braintree, Quincy, and Dorchester.

When Scorsese was asked to comment on the rumor that he has decided to abandon the big budget Hollywood film world because of the lack of creative freedom, he waffled: "If a great script with the freedom to make it (like the situation in The Departed) comes, I’d be tempted again to go with a major. It’s like a disease, like a drug. They wave the cash and you crawl."

DiCaprio was asked if he anticipated taking a turn at directing, since he has had the chance to work so closely with Scorsese for a number of years. DiCaprio responded that considering how much responsibility he has seen Scorsese take on, "I’d go out of my mind."

The Rome CinemaFest was developed in cultural partnership with the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. The partnership between the Rome and Tribeca film festivals was the brainchild of Italian Senator and CinemaFest President Goffredo Bettini, and Tribeca founders Robert DeNiro, Jane Rosenthal and Craig Hatkoff.

As a result of the trans-Atlantic partnership, Rome screened 10 films from the Tribeca Film Festival, including winner of Best Documentary Feature there, The War Tapes, directed by Deborah Scranton.

While an American film, The Departed, sizzled and dazzled the audience, and a Russian film caught fire with the jury, the hottest quote of the Festival undoubtedly came from Scotsman, and Hollywood icon Sean Connery. When asked why he thought he had played a king so many times in his illustrious career, Connery quipped "I’ve never been asked to play a queen!"

For more information on the festival, visit http://www.romacinemafest.org.

Pamela Coleman is a business management consultant and freelance writer. She is also finishing work on her first documentary.

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