Italian films fall flat at Venice festival

By Silvia Aloisi

VENICE (Reuters) - When American film maker Quentin Tarantino called today's Italian cinema "depressing," many in the industry hoped the Venice film festival would prove him wrong.

But as the festival -- once a showcase for great Italian cinema -- nears its end, none of the three homegrown films in the main competition of 23 movies is regarded as a serious contender for the top prize, which will be awarded on Saturday.

All three are by young, emerging directors, a bold choice by festival director Marco Mueller, which critics say has not been rewarded by quality.

"Italian cinema does not come out of this festival very well," said Paola Jacobbi, in Venice for the Italian edition of Vanity Fair magazine.

"The truth is, we came here to throw a few punches around but we ended up being punched ourselves," she told Reuters.

Tarantino has had the Italian cinema industry up in arms since June, when he expressed his unflattering view about current Italian film making.

"New Italian cinema is just depressing," Tarantino said in an interview with an Italian magazine.

"Recent films I've seen are all the same. They talk about boys growing up, or girls growing up, or couples having a crisis, or vacations of the mentally impaired," he said.

The comments sparked furious rebukes in Italy -- Sophia Loren, for one, said Tarantino did not know anything about Italian or American cinema -- but also a wave of soul-searching in an industry desperate to find its new Federico Fellini.

Two of the films in competition on the Lido, Andrea Porporati's "Il Dolce e L'Amaro" (literally "Sweet and Sour") and Vincenzo Marra's "L'Ora di Punta" ("Rush Hour") deal with topical issues, tackling the mafia and corruption respectively.

But critics said both lacked originality and a hard-hitting style. The third, "Nessuna Qualita' agli Eroi" ("Fallen Heroes") also failed to engage with its tale of male angst.

"NO SOUL"

"These are stories that should be new but have already been brilliantly told by our best film makers of the past," said Natalia Aspesi, film critic for daily La Repubblica.

"Our films today look like TV dramas rather than cinema, they have no soul," she said.

Her view is echoed by many in Italy, despite the three Oscars, including best foreign film, scooped by Roberto Benigni's "Life is Beautiful" in 1999, and the top prize won by Nanni Moretti's "The Son's Room" in Cannes two years later.