April 16, 2010 "Face2Face" Installation/Performance by Rukiye Sahin
  April 21 - May 2, 2010 Fatih Akin's "Soul Kitchen" at Tribeca Film Festival
  June - July 2010 Summer Residency Program at SVA
  June 2 -September 1, 2010 Istanbul Cool! Exhibition
  September  2010

"Young Photographers Award" winner announcement

           


 

Moon and Stars Project is a proud co-sponsor of Filmmaker in Focus program at MoMA, featuring Turkish-Italian filmmaker Ferzan Özpetek: one of the most successful and award-winning contemporary voices in the European cinema today. The ten-day retrospective, is a rare opportunity for New York audiences to see the cornerstones of his impressive body of work.

Born in 1959, Istanbul, Özpetek creates films that display a unique thematic focus while remaining ambitious in scope and richly rewarding in their technical achievement. Effortlessly elegant, his aesthetic rarely calls attention to itself; his films masterfully illuminate various strains of society and strands of storytelling, and his actors shine in beautifully written, multifaceted parts that embrace an unforced multiculturalism. Özpetek's films are often rooted in the tradition of the sophisticated melodramas of the 1950s, pivoting around seemingly ordinary and content people whose lives become unmoored—often by a sudden death—leading to the discovery of previously unacknowledged passions and possibilities.

The filmmaker's signature tracking camera stunningly unites disparate time periods (as in Facing Windows and Harem) and distant locales (Italy and Turkey), and creates a visual connection between Özpetek's central characters and the extended families they discover, whether in close friendships (Saturn in Opposition), in communal living (His Secret Life), or in caring for those in need (Sacred Heart, Facing Windows). His is a humanistic cinema in which the kindness of strangers is the most readily available because—as the Sister Sledge song puts it—"We are family."

Filmmaker in Focus: Ferzan Özpetek
is organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film at MoMA, Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero, Cinecittŕ Holding, Rome.

December 4–14, 2008
Museum of Modern Art
Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters
11 West 53 Street,
between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
New York, NY 10019-5497


Screenings and Schedule

 Le fate ignoranti (His Secret Life). 2001. Italy. Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Screenplay by Ferzan Özpetek, Gianni Romoli. With Margherita Buy, Stefano Accorsi, Serra Yilmaz. When Antonia's husband is suddenly killed in a car accident, she discovers that he led a second life. Obsessed with her husband's secrets, she finds his other lover and their circle of friends, and becomes intrigued with their rooftop "commune." The messy, quarrelsome, compassionate, colorful, and fun characters from her husband's parallel life challenge her well-ordered existence and fixed worldview.
In Italian; English subtitles. 105 min.

Thursday, December 4, 2008, 7:00 p.m. (Introduced by Özpetek)
Friday, December 12, 2008, 9:00 p.m.

Un giorno perfetto (A Perfect Day). 2008. Italy. Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. With Isabella Ferrari, Valerio Mastandrea, Stefania Sandrelli. Özpetek's latest film is based—uncharacteristically for the director—on a popular novel. In this multifaceted narrative encompassing domestic violence, political corruption, youthful rebellion, and class differences in a modern city, a day of events and encounters leads to an irrevocably pitch-dark end (the film's title is highly ironic). The ferocious—mostly wordless—climactic scenes are filmed in extreme close-up, brilliantly capturing the actors' exceptional performances.
In Italian; English subtitles. 101 min.

Friday, December 5, 2008, 6:00 p.m. (U.S. premiere. Introduced by Özpetek and Laura Delli Colli, author of Ferzan Özpetek)
Saturday, December 13, 2008, 4:00 p.m. (U.S. premiere)

La finestra di fronte (Facing Windows). 2003. Italy. Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Screenplay by Ferzan Özpetek, Gianni Romoli. With Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Massimo Girotti, Raoul Bova. This beautifully constructed tale links a pair of Roman love stories: one set in the 1940s, the other among the newly constructed buildings on the outskirts of modern-day Rome. Giovanna and her husband take in an old man suffering from temporary amnesia who is obsessed with memories from the autumn of 1943. The man's story of forbidden love parallels Giovanna's unhappiness in her marriage and her obsession with the handsome stranger that she spies on from across the street.
In Italian; English subtitles. 106 min.

Friday, December 5, 2008, 8:15 p.m. (Introduced by Özpetek)
Sunday, December 14, 2008, 1:00 p.m.

Il bagno turco/Hamam (Steam: The Turkish Bath). 1997. Italy/Turkey/Spain. Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Screenplay by Ferzan Özpetek. With Alessandro Gassman, Francesca d'Aloja, Carlo Cecchi. When Francesco's aunt dies in Istanbul, he leaves his wife in charge of their small design company in Rome and travels to Turkey to sell his inheritance—a traditional hamam (Turkish bath). Smitten with the hamam and the family that runs it, Francesco soon decides to remain in Turkey. When his wife arrives to deliver important news, she discovers a different Francesco. Handled with delicate care and great insight into the slow burn of buried passions, Özpetek's first feature is a compassionate visual exploration of cultural and sexual barriers.
In Italian, Turkish; English subtitles. 94 min.

Saturday, December 6, 2008, 3:00 p.m.
Sunday, December 14, 2008, 3:00 p.m.

Cuore Sacro (Sacred Heart). 2005. Italy. Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Screenplay by Ferzan Özpetek, Gianni Romoli. With Barbora Bobulova, Andrea Di Stefano, Lisa Gastonim. Irene, a successful property developer with few personal connections, is thrown into turmoil when she begins restorations on her inheritance, the former residence of the mother she barely knew. As visits to her mother's old room and encounters with a persistent street kid start to get under her skin, her well-ordered world begins to show cracks. Bobulova's excellent performance as the steel-hearted heiress who gives fate a chance brings a complex psychological portrait to vivid life.
In Italian; English subtitles. 116 min.

Saturday, December 6, 2008, 5:00 p.m.
Friday, December 12, 2008, 4:30 p.m.

Harem suaré (Harem). 1999. Italy/France/Turkey. Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Screenplay by Ferzan Özpetek, Gianni Romoli. With Marie Gillain, Alex Descas, Valeria Golino. Safiye, the favorite concubine of the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, falls in love with a black eunuch and is left behind to fight for the rights of the harem when the deposed sultan escapes to Europe. The complex narrative structure of this sumptuous story within a story mirrors traditional Oriental oral storytelling, and the opulent sets and costumes are shot with exceptional style and beauty.
In Turkish, Italian; English subtitles. 105 min.

Sunday, December 7, 2008, 3:00 p.m.
Thursday, December 11, 2008, 6:00 p.m.

Saturno Contro (Saturn in Opposition). 2007. Italy. Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Screenplay by Ferzan Özpetek, Gianni Romoli. With Pierfrancesco Favino, Margherita Buy, Stefano Accorsi. Characteristic of Özpetek's sophisticated approach to modern society and the complex ties that bind, Saturn in Opposition portrays a large, diverse circle of intimate friends centering around a gay couple, Davide and Lorenzo. When a tragedy brings them all together, the friends struggle to find solidarity beyond their selfish, everyday preoccupations. The warmth and depth of their multiple emotional bonds is confidently orchestrated and expressively choreographed by Özpetek and his ace ensemble cast.
In Italian; English subtitles. 113 min.

Sunday, December 7, 2008, 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 8:30 p.m.


To purchase tickets visit;
http://www.moma.org/