Mid-August Lunch

filmswelike scores with summer sleeper! 12th Week for Smash Comedy

03/08/10 17:04

Mid-August Lunch

"Good food, feisty ladies and unlikely friendships," are a recipe for success with Toronto audiences as they sate themselves on the cinematic feast that is "Mid-August Lunch".

Now heading into its 12th week, the little film that could continues to satisfy the cravings of Toronto audiences at the Mt. Pleasant Theatre.

Peter Seroc, who owns and operates the historic independent theatre south of Eglington, said that word-of-mouth accounted for the films phenomenal success "Audiences love the film, and they tell their friends about it ".

"These days its unusual for a film to sit stay in a movie theatre longer then one week " quipped filmmaker and distributor Ron Mann of Films We LIke.

"You have to admire the Mt. Pleasant Theatre for taking an old school approach to exhibition. Nowadays films are released simultaneously on TV and don't give a film a chance to find its audience."

"At the outset we didn't think "Mid-August Lunch" would be playing in August - but here we are - and at this rate we'll be playing through
September".

For more information, please contact :
V Kelly & Associates / 416 466 9799 / info@vkpr.ca

Trailer, press kit, images are posted here.

Tags: Mount Pleasant, Ron Mann

Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo di ferragosto) - Opens Toronto May 21

10/05/10 16:30

Mid-August Lunch (Pranzo di ferragosto), a film by GIANNI DI GREGORIO
Opens in Toronto (The Royal) on Friday, May 21, 2010

Inspired by director and lead actor Gianni di Gregorio’s real life, Mid-August Lunch centers around Gianni, a middle-aged man and the only son of his widowed mother, with whom he lives in an old house in central Rome.

Living under the tyranny of this impoverished aristocrat, his life drags on between housework and going to the bar.

The day before the August bank holiday the condominium manager asks him to take his own mother into his home for the two days he has off. In exchange, he will knock some money off the condominium debts Gianni has run up over the years.

Gianni is forced to accept.

The manager treacherously turns up with two women - not knowing where to take his aunt, he brings her along too.

Gianni is overwhelmed and crushed by the clash between these three dominant characters, but heroically does his best to make them happy. At a certain point he feels faint and calls a friend of his who is a doctor. The doctor not only reassures Gianni, but foists his own elderly mother on him, since he is on shift at the hospital.

Gianni goes through 24 hours of hell.

But when at last it’s time to say goodbye, the women have other ideas…

About GIANNI DI GREGORIO

Gianni Di Gregorio was born in Rome in Trastevere, where he still lives and works.

He fell in love with cinema when he was still a child, spending his mornings at school and his afternoons in the local cinemas, sometimes watching up to three films a day.

After studying classics at high school he went to university to study literature, but before graduating dropped out to go to the Accademia di Arti Sceniche in Rome, run by Alessandro Fersen, where he took a diploma in directing and acting.

In 1986 he wrote the screenplay for the film Sembra morto ma è solo svenuto by Felice Farina, with Sergio Castellitto and Marina Confalone, which won the Premio FRIPRESCI at the Settimana della Critica, at the 1987 Venice Film Festival.

In the same year he wrote the story and screenplay for the film Carefree Giovanni by Marco Colli, with Sergio Castellitto, Eleonora Giorgi, Aldo Fabrizi, Franco Fabrizi and Luca De Filippo. Presented at the Quinzaine des Realizateurs at Cannes 87, it was awarded the Gran Prix du juri at the festival of Annecy.

He met Matteo Garrone after seeing his first film, Terra di Mezzo. He started working with him, as assistant director, in 2000 with Roman Summer, and continued with The Embalmer and First Love. In 2007, with Braucci, Chiti, Gaudioso, Saviano and Garrone, he co-wrote the screenplay for the film Gomorrah, directed by Matteo Garrone.

Italian w/English subtitles/ 75 mins