Pandemonium at Roma Fiction Fest for stars of Grey’s Anatomy!

Grey’s Anatomy stars Eric Dane (accompanied by his wife Rebecca Gayheart) and Justin Chambers were swamped by crowds of fans at Roma Fiction Fest yesterday evening when they made a special appearance at a showing of the first episode of season 5 of the hit medical drama.

Sadly, the organisers of the Roma Fiction Fest seriously underestimated the appeal of the show and we were informed by a member of staff that they had sent out a staggering 2,000 invitations for the showing, as well as giving away free tickets at the ticket office during the day and having promised fast track entry for any accredited badge holders (like myself) - for an auditorium that seats only 500 people. Needless to say, tempers were short and pandemonium broke out when badge holders were then REFUSED entry to the event until all ticket holders had taken their seats. As our US cousins would say - “Do the math!” - what were they thinking?!

In spite of the organizational shambles which left us high and dry, we decided to cut our losses and managed to make it downstairs in time to witness Eric Dane and Justin Chamber’s arrival at Cinema Adriano and the superstar welcome they were given, and also catch an enjoyable BBC sci-fi drama in competition - Survivors - starring Max Beesley whose unexpected introduction to the showing was a complete surprise as there was no mention of it in the festival programme.

Roma Fiction Fest launches with Buzz Aldrin!

When Buzz Aldrin walked out on stage last night to the strains of Elton John’s Rocket Man - a corny but effective touch - he was given a hero’s welcome by the packed audience at the Auditorium Conciliazione. The Apollo 11 astronaut, who on 20 July, 1969 followed Neil Armstrong down the steps to become the second man to have walked on the moon and enter into history, was interviewed on stage as part of the opening evening of Roma Fiction Fest. He was the very special guest before the world premiere of British-made TV movie Moonshot directed by Richard Dale and starring James Marsters as Buzz and Daniele Lapaine (also present) as Neil Armstrong, a highly enjoyable drama exploring the background story of events leading up to the moon landing launch forty years ago. The film was applauded with enthusiasm as the credits rolled and there were spontaneous cheers when Armstrong uttered …one giant leap for mankind!

The Roma Fiction Fest - now in its third year - is an annual international festival dedicated to television drama and judging from the attendance at last night’s event, seems to be growing in popularity each year.

Final week of Fra Angelico at the Capitoline Museums!

If you haven’t seen The Blessed Angelico: The Dawn of the Renaissance in Palazzo dei Caffarelli - part of the Musei Capitolini on Piazza del Campidoglio - there’s still time until 5 July to catch this wonderful show! Some years ago something rather curious happened to me whilst at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni during an exhibition entitled The Face of Christ which included Christ Crowned with Thorns by Fra Angelico from the Museo Civico in Livorno; in front of that particular work by the Renaissance Friar I experienced the closest thing to Stendhal syndrome I’ve ever felt in my life! I’m not, incidentally, in any way religious, but the works of this artist which are exclusively religious in subject matter, affect me like few others. The Livorno piece isn’t on show here - there’s a copy by a collaborator instead - but there are 49 other extraordinary works by this most sublime of painters including not only small panels, large altarpieces and canvases, but also examples of his work as an illuminator with several manuscripts on display.

In an exhibition in which one could easily spend hours staring at each and every work choosing a few favourites is tricky but certainly the Barcelona panel Virgin and Child, with Five Angels, ca. 1426-27 better known as the Madonna of Humility and the dazzling Paradise ca. 1434-35 from the Uffizi, with its exquisite gold decorative background are breathtaking, as is the large Annunciation from San Giovanni Valdarno (see illustration above). The Blessed and the Damned, painted on two small side panels of what was once a triptych (from a collection in Houston, USA) and a tiny fragment of a panel depicting Saint John the Baptist from Leipzig (possibly originally part of the altarpiece from St. Mark's) also kept me transfixed.

The exhibition closes what has been an extended celebration of the 550th anniversary of the painter’s death in Rome in 1455. The Dominican Friar was beatified by Pope John Paul II on October 3, 1982 and in 1984 was made patron of Catholic artists.

After the exhibition it somehow felt appropriate to take a wander across Rome to Fra Angelico’s tomb in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.

Pane, Amore e… Fotografia! Gina Lollobrigida, Photographer at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni

Whilst Gina Lollobrigida is best known the world over as an actress and indeed is one of Italy’s most famous stars of the silver screen having made a string of Hollywood movies starring opposite some of the biggest leading men of the 1950s and 1960s (such as Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra and Yul Brynner to name but a few), she has also been a prolific photographer for the last fifty years.

At almost eighty-two, Gina Lollobrigida is still as glamorous as only a true diva from the Golden Age of Hollywood can be, and her appearance at the inauguration of a major retrospective of 250 of her photographs last night at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni was attended by the inevitable court of Italian TV media darlings. It was rather wonderful, therefore, to see Ms Lollobrigida’s willingness to answer questions about the photographs and the photographers which have influenced her - Robert Capa, Franco Fontana and fellow actor Yul Brynner, were just some of the names she mentioned - before being swept away in a cloud of VIPs.

This exhibition will take you on a dense photographic journey across the globe - Russia, India, Japan, Africa, and of course Italy - all seen through the keen eyes of a true photojournalist. She never flinches from showing the devastating effects of poverty - even, as she explained, if she suffered enormously when taking some images such as those of lepers in India - whilst at the same time cutting through the public image and exposing the humanity of some of the most famous figures of the last few decades. I particularly liked the portraits of Fidel Castro, a stunning portrait of Liv Ullman and a beautiful study of Neapolitan dramatist and actor Eduardo De Filippo.

Gina Lollobrigida, Photographer
curated by Philippe Daverio
26 June - 13 September 2009

Deredia - La Genesi e il Simbolo at the Roman Forum

Visitors to the Roman Forum this summer are in for an extra surprise - for the first time ever Il Foro Romano is hosting a contemporary art exhibition. The eight monumental sculptures in white Carrara marble by the Italian-based Costa Rican artist Jiménez Deredia are found along the Via Sacra between the Arch of Titus and the Senate and work so extraordinarily well in this context one hopes that this might become a regular exhibition space for site specific work by modern artists.

The charismatic sculptor was in Rome yesterday for the inauguration of both this exhibition and a parallel major show at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni dedicated to Deredia's ongoing sculptural project of creating nine groups of sculpture in nine countries on the American continent, stretching from Canada all the way to Tierra del Fuego, taking in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru and Chile on route - La Ruta de la Paz.

Other works by the artist are dotted about the city - Piazza Barberini, Piazza San Lorenzo in Lucina, the area just in front of the Colosseum and at the Auditorium Parco delle Musica – I'll be tracking them down over the next few weeks and will post photographs here.