Rome Film Festival kicks off

Loren honored with IMAIE Acting Award Prize

By NICK VIVARELLI

Sophia Loren was lauded by the Rome Film Festival Thursday.

Bellucci

ROME -- The Rome Film Festival kicked off Thursday with a mega-dose of Italo star power as Sophia Loren and Andrea Bocelli opened the proceedings, while Monica Bellucci broke in the Auditorium red carpet, where an army of Hollywood talent, including Cate Blanchett, Francis Ford Coppola, Tom Cruise and Sean Penn, will be strutting in coming days.

Loren, Rome's big honoree this year, was handed the fest's IMAIE Acting Award Prize during the opening ceremony held in the city's Sistina Theater. There she received a standing ovation from a mix of movie people and politicos, including Cannes prexy Gilles Jacob, Medusa prexy Carlo Rossella, Rome's film-buff Mayor Walter Veltroni and Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli.

"I hope I deserve this," said a modest-sounding Loren, decked out in shiny black ballgown, before leaving the stage to Bocelli, who belted out classical arias by Rossini, Verdi and Puccini, used in film scores of "A Clockwork Orange," "Analyze This," and Federico Fellini's "And the Ship Sails On."

Bellucci stars in Gallic gangster pic "Le Deuxieme Souffle (Second Wind), Alain Corneau's quasi-operatic remake of the 1966 Jean-Pierre Melville original. Pic does not have an Italo distributor.

In line with Rome's populist bent, the stylized crimer, which is in competish, kicked off the metropolitan fest's second edition on a more European note than did Nicole Kidman starrer "Fur" last year.

It was preceded by "Anna Magnani, Lupa Romana," an eight-minute tribute to the late native Roman star consisting of a montage of clips assembled by Jacob. It's a late addition to the Cannes collective film "Chacun son cinema." Jacob's presence is a clear indication that the ambitious Rome fest is building bridges.

There is certainly no scarcity of high-wattage Yanks flocking to the Eternal City this year. Coppola will world preem his "Youth Without Youth" on Saturday, while Robert Redford and Tom Cruise are expected Tuesday with "Lions for Lambs," doing press in Rome after the pic world preemed Monday night in London. Penn is coming with "Into the Wild."

Rome's gala section kicks off today with "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," which begins its international launch in Rome with Blanchett on the red carpet.

Nevertheless, Giorgio Gosetti, who heads the Rome competition, said that this year, the priority is "films before stars."

The fest's more meaty competish includes the world preems of U.S. helmer Henry Bean's "Noise," in which Tim Robbins' character goes bonkers over urban noise in New York City, and Kirsten Sheridan's musical tale "Rush," starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Robin Williams.

Rome's Business Street mart also kicked off Thursday with a posh dinner for 600 at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni, not far from Via Veneto, where the mini-mart is being held.

About 140 films, some seen in Venice and San Sebastian, are unspooling in the mart for which 320 international buyers and sellers are signed up, including reps from the Weinstein Co., New Line and Miramax, along with mostly European companies, including France's Celluloid Dreams, Spain's Alta Films, Germany's Constantin Films and Italy's Adriana Chiesa Enterprises.

Fest wraps Oct. 27.