From the beginning to the 1990s
For most of the great post-war Italian filmmakers, Sicily has been a crucial point of reference and anchorage, a veritable subject of predilection. From major tourist sites to forgotten villages, there are countless places to set the stage for unforgettable scenes. A must-see: La Terre tremble (1948, filmed in Acitrezza with authentic Sicilian fishermen) and Le Guépard (1963) by Luchino Visconti. But also Rossellini's Stromboli, terre de Dieu ( 1950), starring Ingrid Bergman. The island was also the setting for some great Italian comedies, such as Pietro Germi's hit Divorce à l'italienne (1960), starring Marcello Mastroianni. 1960 also saw the release of L'Avventura, a Franco-Italian film by Michelangelo Antonioni, the first part of a trilogy(La Nuit in 1961, and L'Éclipse in 1962) that established Italy as a true cinematic modernist in the study of love relationships on screen. Of the Sicilian cinema of the 1970s, we especially remember the filming of the first part of Francis Ford Coppola's mythical Godfather trilogy in 1972. Part of the story - particularly in the first and last films - takes place on the island, around the village of Corleone. In the 1980s, Sicily saw the production of Kaos I (1984) and Kaos II (1999), Sicilian tales by brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, inspired by Luigi Pirandello's short stories. In the same vein, Francesco Rosi's Oublier Palerme (1990) is an adaptation of the novel by writer Edmonde-Charles Roux.
Nowadays
At the dawn of the 2000s, Sicilian filmmaker Emanuele Crialese directed Respiro, which takes us to the shores of Lampedusa, a small island in southern Sicily. Crialese received numerous awards, including the Grand Prix, the Prix du Public and the Prix de la jeune critique at the 2002 Cannes International Critics' Week. From the same director follow Nuovomondo (2006) and Terraferma (2012), tackling the dramas of illegal immigration to Lampedusa. In 2008, German director Wim Wenders released Rendezvous in Palermo, recounting a German man's journey to Sicily and his encounter with a young woman from Palermo. Giuseppe Tornatore returned in 2009 with Baaria, a film about a Sicilian family spanning three generations. Arguably the most famous of Sicilian directors, Tornatore's career took off in 1988 with Cinema Paradiso, featuring the inhabitants of Giancaldo, the film version of Tornatore's native Bagheria. The film received critical acclaim, winning the Grand Prix du Jury at Cannes and the Oscar and Golden Globes for Best Foreign Film. His most recent feature film, La Corrispondenza, starring Jeremy Irons and Olga Kurylenko, was released in 2016. Other films from the Sicilian 2010s include Palermo (2013, Emma Dante) and A Bigger Splash (2015, Luca Guadagnino), with its breathtaking views of Pantelleria. More recently, Sicilian Ghost Story (2017, Fabio Grassadino) opened Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2020, Aurelio Grimaldi's Il delitto Mattarella will be released: the true story of Piersanti Mattarella, president of Sicily, assassinated by the Cosa Nostra mafia in the middle of a Palermo street in 1980. The American HBO series The White Lotus, featuring luxury hotel staff and vacationing guests, filmed its2nd season in Sicily in 2022.
