The Siskel Film Center’s showing two films this week about John Turturro’s passion for the arts of his ancestral land, including “Passione,” his tribute to the music and musicians of Naples, which I haven’t seen. But 2009’s “Rehearsal For A Sicilian Tragedy” (Prove per una tragedia siciliana) is a sweet, simple travelogue of the actor-writer-director making a personal journey under the eye of director Roman Paska. The secret star is puppeteer Mimmo Cuticchio, presented as the last in the line of a vaunted Sicilian art. “Rehearsal” fills the eye and stirs the heart. 77m. DigiBeta. (Ray Pride)
“Rehearsal For A Sicilian Tragedy” plays at Siskel Saturday and Tuesday; “Passione” opens Friday.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published soon. Previews of the project are on Twitter and on Instagram as Ghost Signs Chicago. More photography on Instagram.
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