L’OCCHIO DELLA GALLINA (Italy, 2024, 93′)

Saturday, October 5, at 9 pm, Cinema Massimo, Screen 3

Job Film Days presents, in its regional premiere, the latest film by Neapolitan director Antonietta De Lillo, L’occhio della gallina (Italy, 2024). Antonietta De Lillo, president of the Festival’s feature film jury, signs a cinematic self-portrait of the last two decades of her career, marked by the court dispute related to her most important film, The Rest of Nothing. The Eye of the Hen was presented at Venice 81, as part of the Venice Nights of the Venice Days.
Cinema Massimo will dedicate two more evenings to the director, the first on Friday, October 18 with screenings of The Rest of Nothing at 6:15 pm and The Eye of the Hen at 8:30 pm, and the second on Tuesday, October 29 (4 pm The Rest of Nothing, 6:15 pm The Eye of the Hen).

The director presents the film. Followed by Q&A with the director moderated by Grazia Paganelli (National Cinema Museum).

Method of access: the event can be accessed by purchasing tickets online or at the Cinema Massimo box office

Director: Antonietta De Lillo
Screenplay: Antonietta De Lillo, Laura Sabatino con la collaborazione di Alice Mariani
Photography:Cesare Accetta
Editing: Elisabetta Giannini
Music: Daniele Sepe
Cast: Antonietta De Lillo, Maria De Medeiros, Carolina De Lillo Magliulo, Elisabetta Giannini, Alice Mariani, Marcello Garofalo, Luca Musella, Adele Pandolfi
Production: marechiarofilm

L?occhio della gallina (The eye of the hen) is a story of violence and isolation that has no equal in Italian cinema. After twenty years of career and having made her greatest film, Il resto niente , appreciated by critics and considered by some as a masterpiece capable of consecrating her to the audience, a striking injustice barred the way for director Antonietta De Lillo, relegating her to the margins of the cinema-system and preventing her from making a new fiction film. Through the form of a self-portrait, the film freely retraces the life and career of the protagonist, on the threshold of 40 years since her first film. The paradox of this story is represented by the reversal that is inherent in the workings of the hen’s eye, which closes backwards, from bottom to top. Similarly, while cinema has denied her, she stubbornly, rows against the tide, reaffirming its cultural and artistic qualities, also telling of it as a healing tool and antidote against unfair isolation. The film was presented at the Venice Film Festival 2024 in the Venice Days section.

Antonietta De Lillo (Naples, Italy, 1960) directed her first movie in 1985 together with Giorgio Magliulo, Una casa in bilico, which was nominated to the David di Donatello and Nastri d’Argento awards. This movie was awarded with a Promotional Nastro d?Argento. From then she signed films such as Matilda, Racconti di Vittoria, I Vesuviani, Non è giusto and many documentaries presented and awarded at Italian and International Festivals.
In 2004, she made Il resto di niente, a special event at the Venice Film Festival that won numerous prizes and awards. In 2011, with marechiarofilm, she edited the first ensemble movie in Italy, Il pranzo di Natale. The second, Oggi insieme, domani anche, earned her a special Silver Ribbon for her innovative path in the cinema of reality. Again, with marechiarofilm, she made La pazza della porta accanto, Let’s Go, Il signor Rotpeter, presented at the Venice Film Festival and Nastro d’Argento special to Marina Confalone, and Fulci Talks. In 2022, he started on his third ensemble film: L’uomo e la bestia.

Filmography: Una casa in bilico (1985, co-directed with Giorgio Magliulo), Matilda (1990, co-directed with Giorgio Magliulo), Angelo Novi, fotografo di scena (s.f. , 1992), Promessi sposi (s.f. doc, 1993), La notte americana del dr. Fulci (s.f. doc, 1994), Ogni sedia ha il suo rumore (s.f. doc, 1995), I racconti di Vittoria (1995), Viento ‘e terra (1996, doc), Operai (1997, doc), Hispaniola (1997, s.f. doc), Saharawi, voci distanti dal mare (1997, doc, co-directed with Jacopo Quadri and Patrizio Esposito), Maruzzella (1997, episode I Vesuviani), ‘O cinema (s.f., 1999), ‘O solemio (1999, doc), Il faro (s.f. doc, 2000), Non è giusto (2001), Pianeta Tonino (2002, doc), Il resto di niente (2004), Articolo 20 (2008, episodio di All Human Rights for All), Il pranzo di Natale (2011, ensemble movie), La pazza della porta accanto – Conversazione con Alda Merini (2013, doc), Let’s Go (2014, doc), Oggi insieme, domani anche (2015, ensemble movie), Il signor Rotpeter (m.l.f., 2017), Fulci Talks (2021, doc), L’occhio della gallina (2024, doc).