The director of the Italian Film Festival has a surprising confession. Despite growing up as one of four children in a half-Italian family, Elysia Zeccola Hill was never taught her father’s native tongue. It wasn’t until she was in her 20s that Hill took it on herself to travel to Bologna and undertake a three month course.
“It’ll be my embarrassment forever, now I’m the director of this festival,” Hill admits. “I feel like I should be speaking perfect Italian.”
Of course, Hill is being modest. These days, she’s confident enough to conduct on air interviews in Italian while promoting the festival her father Antonio Zeccola started 12 years ago. She took over as director two years ago when dad stood down, but the festival remains a family affair.
Hill recently returned from Cannes, where she saw every Italian film on offer, and her father is currently checking out the Venice Film Festival. Like her three younger siblings, Hill has spent most of her life in or around Zeccola’s chain of Palace cinemas, her earliest memories scented with hot buttered popcorn.
“My mother says I was in the box office in my bassinet when she was selling tickets,” Hill says. “Growing up, I was always running around behind the scenes, stealing candy bars. I was 12 when I started working in one of the cinemas, and was paid $4.50 an hour, which was probably illegal.”
She laughs. “I should chase up some back pay!”
Hill’s father began importing foreign-language films in the 1960s, opening business in a Noble Park hall and attracting a regular crowd of migrants, many of whom were yet to learn English.
A decade later he was managing his own chain of cinemas across Melbourne, beginning with the Palace in Bourke Street – now a nightclub. His first love remained Italian film, leading to the festival’s launch 12 years ago. It’s a passion that Hill shares, which is just as well.
“From May to September, I’m basically working 10 to 12 hour days on it, but we’re always looking. Italy makes about 100 to 150 feature films a year, all of which I’ll try to see.”
The new has always been important to the Italian Film Festival. When Zeccola started out, it was common for festivals to be confined to using old films, dependent on a single English-subtitled print that had been probably doing the rounds for years before reaching our shores.
Determined to bring in new blood, Zeccola took the unusual step of securing the rights for each film he wanted to show, allowing him to get his own prints made and to quickly import new releases.
This year, there’s a new flavour to the selection. For the first time, the festival features a mini-season of horror classics, showcasing the work of cult director Dario Argento.
The blood-spattered trio of films are unlikely to appeal to those hoping to bask in a little Sicilian sunshine or Tuscan tranquility. While spaghetti westerns have earned their place in cinema’s hallowed halls, little attention has been given to the spaghetti slasher.
Still, Argento is an acknowledged master of the “giallo” genre – a uniquely Italian melange of thriller, eroticism and gratuitous bloodletting.
“I’m actually putting myself out of my comfort zone on this one, because it’s not my cup of tea,” Hill admits. “But I can’t always just select films that I want to see, so we’re testing the waters with this horror retrospective.”
The plan was for the Argento season to be a Melbourne exclusive, based at Palace Westgarth, but interest is such that Hill is already considering taking the films on tour to the other state capitals.
As far as she’s concerned, it’s the place of film festivals to challenge their audiences and offer up the unexpected. After all, festivals are places where cinephiles can find the sort of treats the mainstream continues to ignore, in an atmosphere no multiplex can hope to match.
“We always try to do something a bit different, with special events that celebrate Italian culture. This year we’re bringing out a chef from Italy, from the Basilicata region, and he’s going to preparing antipasto. Things like that create a sense of a genuine event you’re not going to get going to a cinema at any other time.”
But, spectacle aside, Hill is aware foreign-language festivals such as hers serve an important purpose in cities like Melbourne, given its large Italian population.
It’s an aspect that has particular resonance for her. Growing up, she says, she always felt very connected to Italy, even if only English was spoken at home. A lot of the progress she’s made getting her tongue around Italian, she says, is owed to the festival.
It wasn’t until she was backpacking around Europe as a young woman that she finally had the chance to study the language. A lot of the progress she’s made since, she says, is owed to the festival.
“You know what, I really think that helps a lot with the language. That I can now hold down a conversation in Italian, after that three-month course, is largely down to watching all these films.”
The Lavazza Italian Film Festival runs from September 14 to October 5.