A taste of Italy comes to the Midlands

midlandsmovies • March 11, 2022

A taste of Italy comes to the Midlands


A new European film festival arrives in the region this Autumn with the Marcello Italian Film Festival.


UPDATE 4th May 2022: The MIFF have also created a voucher code for those wishing to apply for their competition categories. Enter MARCELLO2230 to obtain a 30% discount on your first film submission for Marcello IFF.


The Marcello Italian Film Festival has also launched their film competition as part of the festival. It is now open for entries and encourages filmmakers from all walks of life to submit their creative projects.


Areas they will be focusing on include fiction, factual, documentary, experimental and even animation. Hoping to bring the Italian spirit of arts and culture to the Midlands they would like to involve as many film-goers as possible – both old and young.


The Marcello IFF is a multi-faceted event that will include film screenings, conferences, and different events that celebrate Italian culture abroad. And the festival aims at showcasing Italian talents abroad, as well as international films that engage with Italy and Italian culture from different viewpoints.


This year, Marcello IFF will also be hosting live screenings in key cities around England that aim to bring cultural activities and plenty of networking opportunities to aspiring filmmakers in the region.


Their competition categories are below with the three main categories (Short Film, Feature Film and Documentary) being split into Italian and International sections. They encourage filmmakers to apply with a film that isn’t necessarily in English or Italian.


MARCELLO SHORT AWARD

MARCELLO FEATURE AWARD

MARCELLO DOCUMENTARY AWARD

MARCELLO CONFETTI SHORT AWARD

MARCELLO 4TEENS AWARD (awarded by a selected Youth Jury)

MARCELLO MADE IN ITALY AWARD

MARCELLO SPECIAL HIGHLIGHT AWARD (awarded by our main sponsors)


Any selected films will receive the official laurel of the festival and winners will additionally receive a Marcello IFF statuette to commemorate the hard work put into the projects.


Their full list of T&Cs and further information is over on their FilmFreeway profile: https://filmfreeway.com/MARCELLO


Their festival takes place in Birmingham between the 30th September - 2nd October 2022 and will subsequently tour other UK locations.


Full details on their official website here:

http://marcellofilmfestival.co.uk

By midlandsmovies April 26, 2025
Up! (1976) Dir. Russ Meyer  Well, bi-Adolf Hitler BDSM is not something (a) I thought I’d ever see 5 minutes into a movie and (b) ever expected to write in my lifetime to be fair but this spicy start is pretty standard for the work of exploitation filmmaker Russ Meyer. Up! is a kind of r*pe-revenge softcore p*rn film (there’s gonna be a fair bit of self-censorship in this review so apologies in advance), the type Meyer is known for. I’d describe the plot in more detail but it’s mostly a convoluted and incoherent mess of double-crossing, murder, violence and lots and lots of humping. In short, a man called Adolph gets murdered and a woman investigates (kinda) the circumstances but as she does so, a group of locals blackmail, attack and screw each other with the murder mystery barely mentioned throughout. With so little narrative, it could be argued if it’s essentially p*rn? To be fair, not far off. It’s about extreme as you can go without simply making a s*x film. Is that a…no, it’s a belly button hole. Bookending the film (and also seen at various points throughout) is a Greek Chorus - simply a busty fully nude woman of course - who delivers dialogue like “Pummelling the scrotum with joyous supplication” and other such poeticisms. This artistic flourish is mostly pointless - the actress herself saying the words were tough to learn because it was utter nonsense. On a technical level, the editing is surprisingly well done and the 4k image is frankly fantastic. Someone somewhere must be putting together a post-modern take about the beautiful landscapes and cinematography of Meyer’s * ahem * output. But it definitely does have a kitsch artistry. It has certainly provided plenty of cinematic influence though. Elements of Tarantino grindhouse sensibilities are on show - Meyers likes bosoms as much as Quents likes feet - and there’s even a leather gimp early on. I can also see how its had an impact on Ti West X’s with a focus on sexuality and the body as well, more obviously, Anna Biller’s feminist-twist The Love Witch (2016). Suffice to say it’s not for the weak of heart. I think in this day and age you can’t go into this completely blind to its style, period and context though. It's an X-rated Carry On style that was bad taste then and it’s bad taste now. It revels in its sleaziness without a single hint of shame or apology. Simply saying 'deal with it'. The main negative though is the absence of plot - if the film can even be looked at like that - which is barely present. This is a shame as the whole thing could do with a bit more coherence rather than endless shagging. But it’s far from titillation, it’s mostly clowning - albeit a very adult version of it. More saucy than sexy. Trying to review this through modern sensibilities is almost impossible. It’s as offensive can be from the first scene through to the final credits - heck even this 4k menu is simply one of the film's many s*x scenes. But there are some progressive themes as it doesn’t shy from confronting sexual freedom, bisexuality, gay sex, BDSM and consensual exploration. There's moments of comedy thrown in and I enjoyed a frankly hilarious 5-minute monologue explaining the culprit’s intentions, which was a ludicrous way to deliver a slasher-style ending. I suppose the main thing about Up! (and Meyers’ work overall) is there’s a sort of love it or loathe it quality about the whole shebang. But it’s so unlike anything being made today - for good or bad - that it’s never anything other than unpredictably fascinating. More explicit than most Meyers films - in fact more than any film - it’s a lewd, rude and crude (s)exploration with a satirical edge and campy enjoyment bouncing from every frame. ★★★ 3 / 5 Michael Sales Severin Films releases Russ Meyers' UP! (1976) and MOTORPSYCHO (1965) on 28 April 2025 in newly restored and scanned 4k with hours of new and archival Special Features https://severinfilms.co.uk/
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