Mark your calendars!!!!!!!!!!

Moon and Stars Project co-sponsors, Ferzan Özpetek Film Exhibition at MoMA Moon and Stars Project is a proud co-sponsor of Filmmaker in Focus program at MoMA, featuring Turkish-Italian filmmaker Ferzan Özpetek: one of the most successful and award-winning contemporary voices in the European cinema today. The ten-day retrospective, is a rare opportunity for New York audiences to see the cornerstones of his impressive body of work. Born in 1959, Istanbul, Özpetek creates films that display a unique thematic focus while remaining ambitious in scope and richly rewarding in their technical achievement. Effortlessly elegant, his aesthetic rarely calls attention to itself; his films masterfully illuminate various strains of society and strands of storytelling, and his actors shine in beautifully written, multifaceted parts that embrace an unforced multiculturalism. Özpetek's films are often rooted in the tradition of the sophisticated melodramas of the 1950s, pivoting around seemingly ordinary and content people whose lives become unmoored—often by a sudden death—leading to the discovery of previously unacknowledged passions and possibilities. The filmmaker's signature tracking camera stunningly unites disparate time periods (as in Facing Windows and Harem) and distant locales (Italy and Turkey), and creates a visual connection between Özpetek's central characters and the extended families they discover, whether in close friendships (Saturn in Opposition), in communal living (His Secret Life), or in caring for those in need (Sacred Heart, Facing Windows). His is a humanistic cinema in which the kindness of strangers is the most readily available because—as the Sister Sledge song puts it—"We are family."

Filmmaker in Focus: Ferzan Özpetek
is organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film at MoMA, Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero, Cinecittà Holding, Rome.

December 4–14, 2008
Museum of Modern Art
Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters
11 West 53 Street,
between Fifth and Sixth Avenues
New York, NY 10019-5497

Screenings and Schedule

Le fate ignoranti (His Secret Life). 2001. Italy. In Italian; English subtitles. 105 min.
Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Screenplay by Ferzan Özpetek, Gianni Romoli. With Margherita Buy, Stefano Accorsi, Serra Yilmaz.
Thursday, December 4, 2008, 7:00 p.m. (Introduced by Özpetek)
Friday, December 12, 2008, 9:00 p.m.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Un giorno perfetto (A Perfect Day). 2008. Italy. In Italian; English subtitles. 101 min.
Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. With Isabella Ferrari, Valerio Mastandrea, Stefania Sandrelli.
Friday, December 5, 2008, 6:00 p.m. (U.S. premiere. Introduced by Özpetek and Laura Delli Colli, author of Ferzan Özpetek)
Saturday, December 13, 2008, 4:00 p.m. (U.S. premiere)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

La finestra di fronte (Facing Windows). 2003. Italy. In Italian;
English subtitles. 106 min.
Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Screenplay by Ferzan Özpetek, Gianni Romoli. With Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Massimo Girotti, Raoul Bova.
Friday, December 5, 2008, 8:15 p.m. (Introduced by Özpetek)
Sunday, December 14, 2008, 1:00 p.m.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Il bagno turco/Hamam (Steam: The Turkish Bath). 1997. Italy/Turkey/Spain.
In Italian, Turkish; English subtitles. 94 min.
Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Screenplay by Ferzan Özpetek. With Alessandro
Gassman, Francesca d'Aloja,
Carlo Cecchi.
Saturday, December 6, 2008, 3:00 p.m.
Sunday, December 14, 2008, 3:00 p.m.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cuore Sacro (Sacred Heart). 2005. Italy.
In Italian; English subtitles. 116 min.
Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Screenplay by Ferzan Özpetek, Gianni Romoli. With Barbora Bobulova, Andrea Di Stefano, Lisa Gastonim.
Saturday, December 6, 2008, 5:00 p.m.
Friday, December 12, 2008, 4:30 p.m.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harem suaré (Harem). 1999. Italy/France/Turkey. In Turkish, Italian;
English subtitles. 105 min.
Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Screenplay by Ferzan Özpetek, Gianni Romoli. With Marie Gillain, Alex Descas, Valeria Golino.
Sunday, December 7, 2008, 3:00 p.m.
Thursday, December 11, 2008, 6:00 p.m.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Saturno Contro (Saturn in Opposition). 2007. Italy.
In Italian; English subtitles. 113 min.
Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Screenplay by Ferzan Özpetek,
Gianni Romoli. With Pierfrancesco Favino, Margherita Buy,
Stefano Accorsi.
Sunday, December 7, 2008, 5:00 p.m.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 8:30 p.m.

For more information please visit;
http://www.moonandstars.org/ferzanozpetek or http://www.moma.org