Where: The Belcourt
When: Passione Oct. 17-20, The Swell Season Oct. 18-19
Not long ago, we spoke to the George Jones of Italy, country singer Carlo Martini, who hails from the Mediterranean city of Sanremo (even though he makes his home now in the States). Although he learned to love country music while spending summers with his New Jersey grandfather and his African American neighbor — who turned him on to the likes of Marty Robbins and Eddy Arnold — Martini says country isn’t so far removed from the “ballad-type romantic” songs of his Italian childhood, filled with emotion and heartbreak.
In his “musical adventure” Passione, John Turturro delivers a cinematic love letter to the singers and musicians of Naples, a rough-and-tumble yet poetically inclined city where (as the actor-director wrote recently in The Guardian) “if you sing a song on the streets, people will pick right up on it and sing along, whether you're a good singer or not.”
Speaking of ballad-type romantic songs of emotion and heartbreak, the movie’s joined this week in The Belcourt’s “Doctober” series by The Swell Season, which follows the saga of Oscar-winning Once songbirds Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová to a not-quite happily-ever-after ending.
UPDATE, 12:38 p.m. 10/17: From The Belcourt's website: "Due to a shipping mishap, screenings on Monday, Oct. 17 have been cancelled. PASSIONE is still expected to play this Tue-Thu." In its place, the theater offers additional screenings of the Ken Kesey/Merry Pranksters doc Magic Trip. Below, the Magic Trip trailer and Jack Silverman's Scene write-up.
