PANE E CIOCCOLATA 1974
(Bread and Chocolate)
Directed by Franco Brusati
115 minutes
In Italian with English subtitles
Another film that was huge internationally in the 1970s, but because of the onslaught of American movies for the last three decades, has been left behind and forgotten. There is a reason why everyone knows the films of Spielberg and Kubrick, but great European films from the same period are becoming unknown even here in Europe.
This dark comedy is about immigration, and follows the story of Italian migrant Nino Garofalo (Nino Manfredi) and Elena (Anna Karina) who are working in Switzerland. This film humorously exposes the differences between European cultures and also shows the plight of exiles, people who have left their homeland but at the same time are rejected by the country they are living in. People who are in an identity-crisis, but also have the possibility of being deported hanging over their heads at any moment. Our main character Nino has been struggling for years gathering money to send back to his family, but when he is caught pissing on a wall in public, he loses his restaurant job and therefore becomes illegal. This leads him into the streets trying to figure out how he's going to survive.
Pane e Cioccolata is a beautiful but bittersweet film which was a favorite back in the 70s... and its theme makes it even more relevant today than when it was made. It was recently chosen by the Venice film festival for preservation as one of the 100 most important Italian movies that changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978. It was also the winner of the Berlin Silver Bear in 1974, along with New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
DOORS OPEN AT 20.00 | MOVIE STARTS AT 20.30 | TICKETS 3,- | PLEASE MAKE SURE TO ARRIVE BEFORE 20.15 TO BE CERTAIN OF A SEAT