Cannes rejects Italia's cinema: no Italian films on the Croisette

Not to be the usual provincial, but the absence of Italia cinema at the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, whose selection was announced this morning, is worrying. Uncertainty about tax credit and tax deductions that favour foreign majors have produced the feared result: Italia's cinema is at a standstill and what little there is does not break through or remains in the backyard, with a difficulty that afflicts the entire sector and its allied industries. The dismissals from the Commission in charge of examining films for TV and cinema resigned two days ago by the film critic of the "Corriere della Sera", Paolo Mereghetti, and by the editorial consultant and Story editor, Massimo Galimberti, for their refusal to grant funds to the documentary on Giulio Regeni are other indicators of a system in trouble. The same fate would have happened to Roberto Andò's documentary on Ferdinando Scianna. The Palermo-born director explains that the requirements had been met. Would this then be an exquisitely political decision that privileges those close to the government and the right? If so, it would be a suicidal move because we are not just talking about creativity and inspiration here, but about the real economy, that of the workers, actors, directors, productions, distributions, theatres.

If we are here hoping that among the unrevealed titles of the festival with the most important film market in Europe - there are a few more to come as a surprise - is Succederà stanotte by the 72-year-old Nanni Moretti, sinister but beloved of the Croisette - then, we are in a real bad way. Or, rather, we are hanging on the nimble fingers of Moretti's film editor. What is happening to us?

We are still the country of Neorealism and Italian-style comedy.

It will be blamed on the general crisis, which even the Americans are missing (who knows if they will make it to Venice), apart from Barbra Streisand, who swoops in for the Palme d'Or for Lifetime Achievement (also awarded to New Zealander Peter Jackson). In competition there is only indie Ira Sachs with The Man I Love with Rami Malek. John Travolta is making his debut with a film more or less about himself, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, but certainly not in competition, rather in the section with the flamboyant and hypocritical name, Cannes Pemiere Of the series: these are debuts, I warned you. Ron Howard and Stevene Soderbergh have been benched with special screenings that do not promise anything good.

But the rest of Europe is there. The hosts, the French, have lined up five rather young and racy levers. First of all, three women: there is Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet with A Woman's Life, Jeanne Herry with Another Day on restorative justice with Adèle Exarchopoulos and Lea Mysius with Histoires de la Nuit, in whose cast Monica Bellucci certainly stands out. Then, there is Notre Salut by Emmanuel Marre who had made his debut with the punk Low Cost Generation.P punk in substance not in form, because it brought out the knot of young people's new struggle to make ends meet. Finally, Arthur Harari, born in 1981 with The Unknown.