story by Allan Tong
photos by Sally Warburton
"Thank you for the orgasm," declared Italian funnyman, Checco Zalone.
He and his longtime collaborator, director Gennaro Nunziante (right), opened the Italian Contemporary Film Festival last night with Quo Vado?, a comedy smash in Italy.
For me, the film was better the second time around. (Read my original review here.) No, it wasn't because the large screen and sparkling sound system of the TIFF Bell Lightbox dwarfs my home theatre system where I first watched the film as a low-res screener, but rather it came down to hearing the Italian-Canadian audience laugh at themselves. They were reacting to Zalone littering, honking his horn in traffic, being a 38-year-old mama's boy and the glory of holding a "permanent position" as a do-nothing bureaucrat. Ah, now I get it.
Afterwards, the sold-out audience feasted on pork and pasta at Roy Thompson Hall at Toronto's most luxurious film festival party. Wine flowed as women in long dresses danced with men in sharp suits beneath a clear sky.
Quo Vado? screens tonight in Vaughan at the Colossus Cineplex, and the ICFF runs through June 19. For my festival reviews, click here.
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