Locarno Film Fest to honor Italian thesp Giancarlo Giannini

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Locarno Film Festival will honor versatile Italian thesp Giancarlo Giannini with a career award and several screenings of his films, including his big-screen debut “Don’t Bother the Mosquito,” the start of a long collaboration with Lina Wertmuller, Variety said.

Wertmuller directed Giannini in nine films, the most memorable of which is perhaps “Seven Beauties,” for which Giannini was Oscar-nominated in 1977.

“Don’t Bother the Mosquito,” a 1967 musical in which Giannini co-stars with singer Rita Pavone, is screening at Locarno as part of the Swiss fest’s retro dedicated to Italy’s storied Titanus studios, which churned out many works of Italian cinema’s golden era.

Other directors Giannini has worked with include Luchino Visconti, Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Alberto Lattuada, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Martin Scorsese, and Ridley Scott.

As part of the tribute the fest, which is located in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, will also screen Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Lili Marleen,” in which Giannini starred alongside Hanna Schygulla.

Giannini will receive Locarno’s Excellence Award Moet & Chandon on the Piazza Grande on August 12. He will hold an onstage conversation the following day. French actress Juliette Binoche is also being honored by the fest with the same career award this year.

Past honorees include Susan Sarandon, John Malkovich, Michel Piccoli, Toni Servillo, and Isabelle Huppert.

The 67th edition of the fest dedicated to indie and innovative cinema in its different forms will run August 6-16.