Already, so many of the late-century world cinema promises have been broken: The Chinese Fifth Generation has devolved into efficient, softhearted irrelevancy; Kitano has lost his backbeat; Kieslowski's dead; Almodóvar's edge has been dulled by age; the increasingly idiosyncratic Kaurismaki and Sokurov have been all but ignored by distributors; the Hong Kong zeitgeist has faded into cliché. So more's the glory of Gianni Amelio, still Italy's premier tale-telling moviemaker and international powerhouse—however the more visible and more Miramaxable sell-jobs of Roberto Benigni and Nanni Moretti may loom. It's been... More >>>