Locarno Film Festival 2015

The Locarno Film Festival boasts one of the most beautiful cinema “halls” in the world. The festival promises cinema with a political persuasion, but also the glamour and stars that would be expected at a film festival. The festival is rich in tradition and culture. 

Every evening throughout the festival, up to 8000 people gather on the Piazza Grande, the big square in the heart of the city, to watch the films. It is a breath taking setting for the films, surrounded by townhouses, churches and historical palaces. Almost as if out of nowhere, light beams onto a giant screen, projecting the films.

This year, the opening film at the festival stars Meryl Streep, in the American family comedy, ‘Ricki and the Flash’. The film was directed by US Jonathon Demme, who has enjoyed worldwide success following ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, which now has a fan cult following. In this film, Streep plays an ageing rock lady, who has to confront her past. In the film, Streep’s character must visit her family, who she cut herself off from in pursuit of her music career. It depicts the problems that arise when she her world collides with a normal, bourgeois life.

As well as American films and famous actors, there will also be films from the rest of the world. One example is ‘Der Staat gegen Fritz Bauer’, a regeneration of the past. It is certainly one of the most anticipated films at the festival, at least from the German perspective. Burghard Klauβner plays the legendary German lawyer, Fritz Bauer, who engaged with the charges against the Nazi criminals in the 1950s and 60s.

In total, nineteen films are competing for the golden leopard, the top prize of the festival. More information about the program of events can be found here: http://www.pardolive.ch/pardo/festival-del-film-locarno/home.html .