Taormina expansion gives festgoers a chance to get a little closer together

June 24, 2009 Giuseppe Tornatore's foreign Oscar winner about a Sicilian film director's reminiscences about his childhood spent at a village theater, the Cinema Paradiso, would seem the perfect analogy for Taormina's new initiative to bring cinema to far-flung corners of the island. Catherine Deneuve, Jessica Lange, Dominique Sanda, Fanny Ardant, Amy Mullins and fashion designer Emanuele Ungaro enjoyed the seclusion of the elegant Timeo Hotel, holding court by day on the very terrace where guests gathered for nightly cocktails and the breathtaking view of Mount Etna, smoldering beyond the Mediterranean. Other films came from as far afield as Australia with Megan Doneman's "Yes Madam Sir," about India's first female policewoman, which tied in nicely with a panel titled "Strong Women."

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