Lucca Film Festival welcomed actor Malcolm McDowell and director Gianni Amelio yesterday, Wednesday, September 24.
Lucca Film Festival is being held in the Tuscan city until September 28, 2025, with free admission subject to availability, under the artistic direction of Nicola Borrelli and with the contribution of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca. The English actor, who in 1971 played the iconic character of Alex in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, received the Lifetime Achievement Award on stage at the Cinema Astra and presented the version reconstructed by Thomas Negovan from the screenplay by Gore Vidal, of the film Caligula: The Ultimate Cut, accompanied by international artist Hershey Felder, in collaboration with FirenzeOnStage.
The film, which will be presented in its original version with Italian subtitles, tells the story of the young Caligula (Malcolm McDowell) ascending to the throne after the assassination of Tiberius (Peter O’Toole), dragging the Roman Empire into a spiral of violence, lust, and madness. Released in 1980, Caligula remained famous for its troubled production and the scandal it caused at the time: artistic differences and delays produced a hybrid film that was as decadent as it was controversial.
More than forty years later, Thomas Negovan presents a new version, The Ultimate Cut: a completely reconstructed work, without using a single frame from the original film, which restores power to the actors (including a splendid Helen Mirren in the role of the Emperor’s wife) and offers a new perspective on the Emperor’s madness.
Another guest at the festival was director and screenwriter Gianni Amelio, who was honored at the Cinema Centrale with a screening of Il signore delle mosche (Lord of the Flies). The director, already a Golden Lion winner for Così Ridevano (The Way They Laughed), received the Lifetime Achievement Award on stage at the festival and was honored by the festival with the screening of two other films, La tenerezza (Tenderness) (with Renato Carpentieri and Giovanna Mezzogiorno) and Il primo uomo (The First Man). Winner of the most important Italian awards, including three David di Donatello awards, six Nastri d’Argento awards, and five Globi d’Oro awards, Amelio is the only Italian director to have won the EFA award for best European film of the year three times.
Malcolm McDowell, who before becoming the star of the cult film A Clockwork Orange had already appeared in films such as If… directed by Lindsay Anderson (1968) and The Sadist, directed by Joseph Losey in 1970, has also worked with directors of the caliber of Blake Edwards, Robert Altman, Hugh Hudson, Rob Zombie, Michel Hazanavicius, and Jay Roach during his long career, also starring in Italian films such as Mortacci, directed by Sergio Citti (1989), Maggio musicale, directed by Ugo Gregoretti in 1989, and Cuori estranei, directed by Edoardo Ponti in 2002. Nominated for a Golden Globe in 1972 as Best Actor in a Drama for A Clockwork Orange, in 2005 he won a Nastro d’Argento Europeo for the film Evilenko, directed by David Grieco. On March 16, 2012, he was also awarded a star at 6714 Hollywood Boulevard on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the Motion Pictures category.
A Lifetime Achievement Award accompanies the award for a rising star: hence, the Lucca Film Festival announces the presentation—on the evening of Saturday, September 27, at the Cinema Astra—of the New Protagonists Award to Lucca-born actor Alberto Paradossi. Born in 1989, Paradossi trained at the acting school of the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, beginning his acting career in theater, performing in plays by authors such as Theresa Rebeck and Neil LaBute. After also landing roles in cinema, playing supporting roles in films such as Il nostro ultimo and La ragazza nella nebbia, in 2020 he took part in Gianni Amelio’s film Hammamet, in which he played the son of President Craxi. In the same year, he also starred in the television film Permette? Alberto Sordi, where he played Federico Fellini. Since 2022, he has been in the cast of the TV series Studio Battaglia and, between 2022 and 2023, he is in the TV miniseries The Net – Gioco di squadra, directed by Volfango De Biasi and Lorenzo Sportiello. In 2024, he stars in the film Zamora, Neri Marcorè’s directorial debut, based on the novel of the same name by Roberto Perrone.
Over the years, the Lucca Film Festival has hosted big names in international cinema, paying tribute to the greats of international cinema from Oliver Stone to David Lynch, from Susan Sarandon to Isabelle Huppert, from Rutger Hauer to George Romero, from Paolo Sorrentino to Willem Dafoe, from Chiara Mastroianni and Paul Schrader to Matthew Modine and Ruben Östlund, as well as Ethan Hawke and Gaspar Noè, becoming a cultural landmark in Tuscany. The event is made possible thanks to the contribution of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca. With the participation of the Municipality of Lucca and Vivi Lucca Eventi and with the co-participation of Lands of Giacomo Puccini and the North-West Tuscany Chamber of Commerce. Banca Generali Private Wealth Management (Paolo Tacchi) and Banca Pictet are the main sponsors of the event and exhibitions. The initiative is part of the National Cinema and Images for Schools Plan promoted by MiC and MIM. The festival also enjoys the support of the Ministry of Culture – Directorate-General for Cinema and Audiovisual, the Tuscany Region, Fondazione Sistema Toscana, Manifatture Digitali Cinema, Sofidel, Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca, Fondazione Giacomo Puccini, and Puccini Museum – Casa Natale, Audi Center Terigi, Lions Club Lucca Le Mura, Tenuta del Buonamico, Martinelli Luce, Naturanda, Futuro3D, in collaboration with SIAE – Italian Society of Authors and Publishers, and is co-produced by Tecno Servizi, Ristorante Giglio, Palazzo Pfanner, Over The Real, Teatro del Giglio di Lucca, Scuola IMT Alti Studi Lucca, Accademia di Belle Arti di Carrara, Liceo Artistico Musicale e Coreutico Augusto Passaglia, Liceo Classico N. Machiavelli, ISIS Pertini, Associazione 50&PIÙ, ACLI Lucca. We would also like to thank ANSA, Rai Toscana, Rai Radio 3, Movieplayer.it, Film4Life, Festival Scope, A.C.S.I. Associazione Centri Sportivi Italiani, Federazione Italiana Teatro Amatori (FITA), Trenitalia, Fic, Uicc, Cinit, Ucca, Arci, Fedic, Corte Tripoli, Circolo del Cinema di Lucca, Cineforum Ezechiele 25:17, Cinema Centrale, Astra e Moderno, Cinema Arsenale, University of Pisa, University of Florence, Fondazione Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, Pisa al Cinema, Cinema Arsenale, Cineteca Bologna, Cineteca Nazionale, Istituto Musicale Luigi Boccherini, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Italia, Associazione Donne all’Ultimo Grido, SPAM! Rete per le arti contemporanee, Lucca Comics & Games, Photolux Festival, Lucca Classica Music Festival.
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