TIFF 09: Baaria

From the great Italian storyteller, Giuseppe Tornatore, who gave us such wondrous tales as The Legend of 1900, Malena, The Unknown Woman, and the Oscar-winning Cinema Paradiso, comes his latest epic, Baaria.

In the tradition of fellow statesman, the late Sergio Leone, Tornatore has written and directed and autobiographical story of three generations of a family in the Sicilian village of Bagheria. Like Leone, Tornatore has chosen Ennio Morricone to compose the grand soundtrack for this 150 minute epic. The comparisons to Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900 have already been raised, but to Tornatore this tale is closer to his heart than the Bertolucci’s film.

As the opening film at this year’s Venice Film Festival, it became the first Italian film in 20 years to do so. Certainly one of those films best enjoyed on the big screen.