Foreign B.O.

Posted: Mon., Feb. 11, 2008, 8:28am PT

'Quiet Chaos' beats 'Asterix' in Italy

Nanni Moretti starrer opens top

'Quiet Chaos'

Nanni Moretti in 'Quiet Chaos'

Nanni Moretti starrer “Quiet Chaos,” which is Italy’s single Berlin competition entry, has opened at number one at the Italo box office, ahead of “Asterix at the Olympic Games,” marking this year’s best debut locally for a non-mainstream pic.

The bereavement drama, which sees popular helmer/thesp Moretti in a thesping-only turn as a TV exec who after his wife dies takes to a park bench — where a lot actually happens, scored E 1.5 ($2.2 million) off 384 screens at home via 01 Distribuzione, ahead of its Wednesday Berlin preem.

The latest “Asterix” instalment, the costliest Gallic pic ever made, has bowed in second place in Italy with E 1.2 million ($1.7 million) via Warner Bros.

Helmed by Antonello Grimaldi and produced by Domenico Procacci’s Fandango shingle with financing from RAI Cinema, “Quiet Chaos” has been boosted by a big marketing push, with Moretti plugging many Italo launches and working TV talk shows, plus rivers of raving local press ink.

Pic, in which Roman Polanski has a cameo as a corporate bigwig, has also benefited from a general admission rating, despite a steamy sex scene and some controversial cursing involving swear words which in Italy amount to blasphemy.

Though surprisingly the G rating by Italo censors for "Quiet Chaos" has not stirred much controversy, Fandango and 01 have put a notice on the posters “advising” exhibitors not to admit children under 12.

Contact Nick Vivarelli at nvivarelli@gmail.com

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