7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Straits Times
Film picks: John Lui recommended the Italian Film Festival, The Wedding Banquet and Walking With Dinosaurs
23rd Italian Film Festival
The 2025 slate of films marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and Singapore, and covers the genres of fiction, documentary and animation.
The Italian Film Festival is organised by the Embassy of Italy in Singapore in collaboration with The Projector and the Singapore Film Society.
The historical drama Vermiglio (2024, NC16, 119 minutes, screens on June 15, 4.30pm) is set in 1944. With the war drawing to a close, a stranger appears in the mountain village of the film's title, located high in the Italian Alps.
He is Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), a deserter from the south of the coun try. He and Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), the eldest daughter of a local teacher, fall in love. Their relationship will transform the lives of those around them as more of Pietro's past comes to light.
Film-maker Maura Delpero drew on her family's history to shape the story by returning to her family home to interview aunts and other villagers. The film won the Grand Jury Prize of the Silver Lion at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, and was selected as Italy's entry to the Best International Feature Film section of the 2025 Academy Awards.
Where: The Projector at Cineleisure Orchard, 8 Grange Road
MRT: Somerset
When: June 7 to 22, various times
Admission: $16.50 standard, with concessions for students, seniors, Singapore Film Society members and others
Info:
The Wedding Banquet (R21)
103 minutes, limited screenings at The Projector at Cineleisure from May 30
(From left) Kelly Marie Tran, Lily Gladstone, Han Gi-chan and Bowen Yang in The Wedding Banquet.
PHOTO: UNIVERSAL PICTURES
This remake of Lee Ang's 1993 film of the same name kicks off The Projector's Pink Screen season of films with an LGBTQ+ theme.
The story follows Angela (Kelly Marie Tran), who lives with her partner Lee (Lily Gladstone) in Seattle. They are trying for a baby through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF), but are running short of funds. Angela's best friend Chris (Bowen Yang) is worried that his partner Min (Han Gi-chan), a student from South Korea and the scion of a wealthy family, will be forced to leave once his visa expires.
Angela's mother May (Joan Chen) is an ally, but Min's grandmother Ja-young (Youn Yuh-jung) is unlikely to support her grandson's relationship.
A plan is born: Min and Angela will marry for the sake of his residency in the US. In return, Min will pay for Lee's IVF treatments. Chaos and comedy follow when Ja-young announces a visit.
A review in The New Yorker magazine asks: 'In an era of wider LGBTQ+ acceptance, how do you fashion a romantic comedy predicated on the deceptions of the closet? Korean-American director and co-writer Andrew Ahn answers that question with the knowledge that acceptance brings pointed complications of its own. It's the warmth of Gladstone's presence that endows this remake with a whisper of something new.'
The May 30 premiere is a fund-raiser for Proud Spaces, a community centre dedicated to building belonging for queer folks and allies in Singapore. Among the post-show events are fake weddings and a festival opening party at the No Spoilers lounge from 10.30pm to 12.30am.
Walking With Dinosaurs
A close-up of a Tyrannosaurus rex as it emerges from the forest in the BBC series Walking With Dinosaurs.
PHOTO: BBC
When the original series was released in 1999, its realistic computer-generated creatures caused a sensation. Narrated by actor and film-maker Kenneth Branagh, it spawned a new genre of documentary that used digital images to recreate animals from Earth's past.
The six-part reboot from BBC Studios updates the science with more recent findings about the way the creatures lived, hunted, fought and died using state-of-the-art visual effects, with narration provided by Olivier and Tony award-winning actor Bertie Carvel.
The series is available to stream on BBC Player. It will also be on the BBC Earth channel ( StarHub TV Channel 407 and Singtel TV Channel 203 ), Sundays at 8pm, from June 1.
On July 5, from 5pm, families are invited to take along their picnic mats to the BBC Earth Screening Festival at Gardens by the Bay, with this series as the featured title. Entry is free at the event, held at the Supertree Grove.
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