Interviews

Interview: Carolina Cavalli – Amanda

Published on July 8, 2023

A refreshing new voice on the Italian cinema scene popped up in the Orizzonti section (Venice Film Festival’s parallel section to the comp) in 2022 and ever since has found more film festival circuit play and has crossed over into theatrical release playdates in multiple territories. With the zesty, dry-wit humoured and precisely stylized composition, the narcissistically delightful Amanda is an impressive debut feature by Carolina Cavalli who looks at the maladroit of the bourgeoisie, finds amuse bouche quirks in sibling rivalry and takes a deep dive into a Gen Z that is defendablely infuriating but its anti-hero protagonist a la Max Fischer (played with a ferociousness and exactitude by Benedetta Porcaroli) is bad-ass in her own mischievous and misconstrued ways. In our sit down in Toronto (selected in TIFF’s Contemporary World Cinema section) we discussed about the building of this bourgeoisie set world, the idea of a character’s uniform and the notion of lineage. Oscilloscope releases Amanda in New York City and Los Angeles this weekend.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).