TORONTO – Dating back to the Paleolithic period, and established as the Roman town of “Matheola” in 251 BC, Matera is the third oldest city in the world behind Aleppo and Jericho. The ancient city, known for its cave dwellings – whose residents were relocated by the government in the 1950s – has since become one of Hollywood’s most exotic shooting locations. By now, the Lucani have seen everyone from Tinseltown’s Ben Hur, Wonder Woman and James Bond create classic cinema in a town that Pier Paolo Pasolini once depicted as Jerusalem, in The Gospel According to St Matthew (1964).
TORONTO – Vent’anni fa, La Passione di Cristo di Mel Gibson incassò 83 milioni di dollari nel suo weekend di apertura, il secondo film vietato ai minori con il più alto incasso di sempre, dopo Matrix Reloaded. L’allora presidente della IFC Entertainment Jonathan Sehring disse questo del film di Mel Gibson: “È il più indipendente possibile, non è stato sviluppato da uno studio, non è stato finanziato da uno studio, non è stato distribuito da uno studio. Non conosco nessuno (Gibson) che abbia mai messo così tanti soldi in gioco per un film”…
TORONTO – Twenty years ago, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ earned $83 million in its opening weekend, the second highest rated-R movie return ever, behind the Matrix Reloaded. The then IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring had this to say about Mel Gibson’s film: “It is about as independent as one can get, certainly wasn’t developed by a studio, wasn’t financed by a studio, wasn’t released by a studio. I don’t know of any individual (Gibson) who has ever put so much of his own money on the line for any movie”.
TORONTO – Nel 1972, l’icona musicale Adriano Celentano pubblicò una traccia incomprensibile intitolata “Prisencolinensinainciusol”…
TORONTO – In 1972, musical icon Adriano Celentano released a gibberish track titled “Prisencolinensinainciusol”. English language songs ruled the charts in Italy during the 70s, and musicians like the Jackson 5, Abba and the Beegees charmed Italians as much as their native audiences. As somewhat of a social experiment, Celentano set out to prove that Italians would sheepishly listen to anything that sounded English – and he did so by releasing a song whose lyrics mimicked American English. He was right. The fake English song went to number 1 on French, German and Italian charts.
