Films Not Shaped Like a Boot

For a land mass measuring only 9,600 square miles, Sicily has more than pulled its weight in global cultural inventiveness, having given birth to Archimedes, Pirandello, and most important, the world’s perfect dessert: the cannoli. The island also has a strong lineage in America, taking credit for directors Martin Scorsese and Frank Capra; actors John Turturro, Ben Gazzara, and Al Pacino; musicians Frank Sinatra, Johnny Thunders, Frank Zappa, and Cyndi Lauper; and perhaps less importantly, “Paulie Walnuts” and the immortally do-ragged Dan Cortese. (MTV Sports, we hardly knew thee.)

Once again, for Miami at least, the island’s creative juice comes in concentrate form, as the third Sicilian Film Festivaltakes over the Miami Beach Cinematheque. Monday’s opening reception is followed by a screening of Roberto Faenza’s “The Viceroys”, a very Italiano story of power and corruption. Other films screening throughout the week include the historical biopic “The Baroness of Carini,” a creeper called “If You Close Your Eyes,” and George Litto’s “Dressed to Kill.”
Mon., April 13, 6 p.m., 2009