North American premiere
MARCELLO MASTROIANNI, I REMEMBER...
TRIBUTE TO A LEGENDARY ACTOR
21st MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL
August 22 -September 2, 1997

Montreal, August 12, 1997 -- The Montreal World Film Festival is this year paying tribute to the great Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, who recently passed away. To honour his memory the Festival is presenting Anna Maria Tat�'s film MARCELLO MASTROIANNI, I REMEMBER... (Marcello Mastroianni: Mi Ricordo, Si Mi Ricordo).

During the filming last year in Portugal of Manoel de Oliveira's VOYAGE TO THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD (presented in the Hors Concours section), which starred Marcello Mastroianni for the last time, the actor opened up in front of another camera, that of Anna Maria Tat�, his companion of twenty-two years. In this memory-album the actor recalls the little things that make up everyday life. He reminisces about his childhood, his first hat, his first night of lovemaking, his father who was blind from diabetes, his deaf mother, his millions of cigarettes, his beginnings in theatre, his relationship with Visconti and friendship with Fellini - all inter cut with excerpts from films and behind-the-scenes footage. Memories recounted with intelligence, humour, wit and poetry by an actor whom the world loved and will always love.

Marcello Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, Italy, in 1923. The son of poor peasants, he worked after the war as a clerk for a film company. In 1947, he made his screen debut in an Italian version of Les Mis�rables and the following year joined Visconti's stage stock company. Gradually he built himself a reputation as a talented leading man, playing the typical swaggering Italian hero, often overtaken by events but unfailingly seductive. In the 1950s, he triumphed in films by Visconti (Le Notti Bianche; Lo Straniero), Fellini (La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2), Antonioni (La Notte), and Germi (Divorce Italian Style). He will remain to the end one of the world's leading screen personalities, a prototype of the modern-day European male.

Born in Barletta, Italy, in 1940, Anna Maria Tat� began her cinematic career as a publicity adviser, press agent and journalist. She then supervised a series of film scripts and wrote for French and Italian cinema magazines. She has also produced and directed numerous programs for Italian television. MARCELLO MASTROIANNI, I REMEMBER... was just finished recently and will have its North American premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival.