The road to the home of Martha De Laurentiis is a lot like Europe’s Upper Corniche. While Embassy cars from the Italian Consulate and professional drivers in tinted town cars whizzed along — we were amused by the many others pulled over along the route to check their GPS and call their assistants. But everyone had the same goal – to get to the Cinema Italian Style kick off brunch and press conference by noon.

Cinema Italian Style (pronounced “Chin-e-ma” by the Italians) is a six-day festival in Los Angeles where a selection of Italian films are screened at the Egyptian and Aero Theaters (November 10-15). The annual celebration of Italian cinema is always dedicated to a particular outstanding Italian in film and this year they chose to honor the late film producer Dino De Laurentiis, who died exactly one year ago from the opening day of CIS 2011, at the age of 91. Click to Continue Reading