After its world premiere at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, The italian recipe was released in China on 3 June, reaching over 500,000 spectators in its first weekend of screening.
The first film by director Hou Zuxin will have its Roman premiere on 21 June at the Casa del Cinema, under the patronage of Assessorato ai Grandi Eventi, Sport, Turismo e Moda del Comune di Roma and with the support of Assessorato alla Cultura.
A tribute to the timeless American comedy Roman Holiday starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn, the film is a generational romantic comedy that sees our Capital city as the true protagonist of the cinematic tale. Therefore, the film features characteristic locations such as the Colosseum, Castel Sant'Angelo, the Trevi Fountain, but also the Conservatorio di Santa Cecilia, and iconic elements of our culture such as the passion for cooking, the Vespa and the Aperol Spritz.
The film, whose project was initially presented at the workshop of the Sino-European producers' association Bridging the Dragon, was created with the intention of bringing the Chinese film market closer to the European one. As producer Cristiano Bortone states in his article for Italian.Cri:
"A true artistic and productive collaboration that wants to be a sign of encouragement to the possibility of combining our professional skills to improve the quality and economic result of films."
In fact, ‘The italian recipe’ is an official Italy-China-Germany co-production, which saw, alongside Orisa Produzioni, the Dauphine Film Company of Roberta Manfredi and Alberto Simone (author of the original subject), the companies Kaixin Mahua (China), WD Pictures (China) and Lightburst Pictures (Germany). The film was also supported by and Rai Cinema, MiC, Regione Lazio, Lazio Innova