The new season of the Cinema Odeon, a fixture on the Florentine film scene, opens tonight, Thursday, August 28, at 8:10 p.m., with the new film “Mud” by Jeff Nichols (one of today’s most respected independent American directors, author of the excellent film “Take Shelter” but, unfortunately, little known in Italy) performed by the amazing Matthew McConaughey (Oscar winner for the film Dallas Buyers Club and star of one of the best TV series of the year, True Detective, which will soon be released on Italian screens), in a dramatic coming-of-age story , accentuated by romance and disappointment, not without a touch of thriller. But this will only be the beginning; in fact, in the first two months of the cinema’s operation, many films will be presented in the original version.
Among the most important films we highlight: from September 4, the fantastic and dark “Under the Skin” by Jonathan Glazer with the beautiful Scarlett Johansson in the role of an alien who discovers the human race; from September 11, it will be the turn of “The Fault in Our Stars,” a sentimental melodrama based on the novel of the same name by John Green that has excited America; from September 25 in cinemas we will be able to see a new film by Luc Besson, which opened the last film festival in Locarno, the action film “Lucy” with Scarlett Johansson in the role of a heroine thirsting for revenge; from October 9, the second series of the star-studded film “Sin City” based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller will be released; from October 13, “Mommy,” a film (centered on the joyful and intuitive relationship between mother and son) that captivated the last Cannes Film Festival, directed by Canadian auteur and wunderkind Xavier Dolan; from October 16 – a tribute to the Hitchcock universe “The Two Faces of January – I Due Volti Di Gennaio” with Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst; finally, on October 20, David Fincher’s new long-awaited thriller “Gone Girl” will be released with Ben Affleck as a husband accused of murdering his wife and who will have to be able to defend himself between suspicion and confidence.
There will be three national previews at the Odeon over the next two months. The most important of these is scheduled for Wednesday, October 15: The Salt of the Earth, the new film by Wim Wenders, which received a special prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the last Cannes Film Festival. The documentary explores the artistic universe and the life of the Brazilian photographer Sebastiao Salgado, telling it with a double perspective: the life of Juliano Ribeiro Salgado – the son of an artist – who decided to better understand the figure of his father, who is often away from home, and Wenders, always passionate about travel and photography and a great fan of Sebastiao Salgado.
On Tuesday, September 16th, it will be the turn of “Mary’s Land” by Spanish director Juan Manuel Cotelo, who will be in the audience to present the film, which has been a personal exploration of the relationship between cinema and faith for many years. On Monday 22 September there will be a national preview (in collaboration with Terranuova magazine) of the documentary Microbirth, by British filmmakers Tony Harman and Alex Wakeford, which explores, to surprising effect, the natural process of birth, reflecting on the problems caused by excessive medicalization of childbirth.
There are also many special events planned. On Friday 5 September, the Odeon will open to club music for the first time: thanks to a collaboration with Lattex+, Andy Stott, an internationally renowned artist whose work ranges from techno to garage, from house to footwork (in 2012 he released the Album Luxury Issues, which is already considered a landmark, which features the voice of Alison Skidmore and has generated much interest, as well as performances at numerous festivals and events, continuing to introduce her work to an ever-growing audience and those who are often captivated by it).
Coinciding with David Lynch’s arrival at the Lucca Film Festival for a retrospective dedicated to him, the Odeon on Monday 29 September presents the latest video creation of the great American director: the documentary Duran Duran Unstaged, which brings together the musical universe presented in the 1980s by the company Duran Duran, with a special approach to cinema, Lynch. The merger occurred on March 23, 2011, on the occasion of a concert held by the band – in its original lineup with Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John and Roger Taylor – at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. There the director followed the show, filmed and edited it live according to his tastes and stylistic canons. The result is a unique project aimed at fans of the English band and others.
Finally, thanks to the collaboration with the Palazzo Strozzi Foundation, the meeting will also return with the exhibition “Tuesdays at the Cinema with Palazzo Strozzi”. Five great classics will be presented (admission is free, from September 30 to October 28, every Tuesday at 20:30) in the original version with Italian subtitles. In conjunction with the exhibition “Picasso and Spanish Modernity” (at the Palazzo Strozzi from 20 September), this year’s selection interweaves the different artistic paths and paths that, in the twentieth century, marked Iberian (and European) culture through reflections on important themes such as war and politics struggle, and also thanks to the clear and original history of a society always balancing between tradition and modernity: from the irreverent satire of Luis Buñuel (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie) to the dedication of Ken Loach (Land and Liberty), from the passions of Pedro Almodóvar (Women in on the verge of a nervous breakdown”) to the worries of Fernando Arrabal (“The Tree of Guernica”) and Alejandro Amenábar (“Open Your Eyes”).
In addition to the exhibition, on Wednesday 8 October there will be an important special screening, created thanks to the collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna: “400 Blows”, the manifesto film of the New Wave, made in 1959 by François Truffaut and the boy confidante Jean-Pierre Léaud ( who recently received the Leopard for his services to the Locarno Film Festival and whose face appeared on the poster for the latest edition of the Venice Film Festival), who from now on will become the symbolic face of the new wave of French cinema. Truffaut’s masterpiece will be presented in a magnificent original restored version with Italian subtitles.