Italian Connection - Bicycle Thief and The Italian Job

The following movies will be discussed during the February 2010 meetings :
Saturday, 27th February 2010 : The Bicycle Thief (aka Bicycle Thieves)
Sunday, 28th February 2010: The Italian Job


The Bicycle Thief:
The Bicycle Thief (originally known as The Bicycle Thieves) is considered one of the all time classics of World cinema.. An absorbing film, the  story of a father and son and their adventures in search of their
stolen bicycle, it has appeal for people of all ages. . The film has been rated among the top 10 films of all time by different Film Institutes and Academies and is mandatory viewing and study at all film Institutes. It is a must watch for everyone.  
Duration (93 minutes) with English subtitles.

 

The Italian Job:

The Italian Job is a fast paced  film starring Michael Caine in one of the best performances of his career.
Charlie has just left prison, and now wants to do a 'big job'. The job is to steal $4m of gold arriving in Italy from China. Charlie's job needs financing, so he goes to Mr Bridger (a Mafia-type boss) who is in prison (Charlie has to break in !). In Italy, a clever plan is used to distract the authorities, while the raiders make their get-away in three Minis. This leads to an excellent car chase sequence through Italian streets, buildings, rivers, sewers, highways and rooftops which lasts for several minutes. 
Duration (96 minutes) with  English subtitles.

BBC Documentary Competition

We reproduce the exact text of E mail received from Mr.Nico Wasserman regarding the BBC short film competition.
We are not involved in this competition and we are passing the information received by us.
Please contact the given mail address .
BBC Documentary Competition

Dear Sir/ Madam

I am a producer at the BBC and we came across your great blog and would like to tell you about a documentary competition that may be of interest to your readers.

We are asking our audiences world wide to submit short 2 minute documentaries about their lives. The project aims to find original stories with compelling personal narratives from each continent . We are very keen to hear from a diverse range of people and films can be in any language. Films can be shot using any kind of device. We have uploaded to our site some great entries from places such as Georgia, Venezuela and South Africa that were shot on mobile phones.

Our hope is to create a vivid and compelling picture of life in the world today. Up to 50 films will be broadcast by the BBC and we have some great judges selecting the films including Cara Mertes from the Sundance Film Festival and Oscar winning producer Greg Sanderson from BBC Storyville amongst others. In addition, there is HD Sony camera equipment on offer to the director of the best judged film.

We think this is a very exciting project for emerging film makers - the films will be seen by a worldwide audience of over 100 million!

The closing date for the competition is 5 March 2010 so just under 2 weeks left to enter. More information is on our website: www.bbcworldservice.com/myworld. We also have a Twitter page www.twitter.com/bbc_myworld

I hope this is of interest to you - be great to know what you think and whether you can help us circulate this on your blog. Also, it would be great to know if you have suggestions of other people we should contact who may be interested.

Best wishes

Nico Wasserman

Nico Wasserman
AP, MyWorld
T: 0207 557 0187
M: 07980 541 652
E: Nico.wasserman@bbc.co.uk
W: www.bbcworldservice.com/myworld
www.twitter.com/bbc_myworld