MFA showcases Italian actresses

If the lazy, hazy days of August have you wishing you were at, oh, say, a villa in Tuscany, overlooking a rural vista and enjoying platefuls of fresh breads and cheeses and goblets of local wines, you can feed your imagination (if not your belly) at the Museum of Fine Arts, which for the next four weeks is presenting a series on leading ladies of Italian cinema.

Today at 2 p.m., Lucia Bosé stars in the 1953 film "The Lady Without Camelias" ("La signora senza camelie"), in which the then-22-year-old played a shopgirl who is discovered and turned into a movie star. The film journal Senses of Cinema called it "a groundbreaking film for its representation of the relationship between art, money, and stardom." The director? The famed Michelangelo Antonioni, who died late last month. The film also plays on Thursday at 4:15 p.m.

Other actresses highlighted this week are Anna Magnani, as a driven stage mother in "Bellissima," Thursday at 2 p.m.; Gina Lollobrigida, as a much-pursued village girl in the comedy "Bread, Love and Dreams," Friday at 8:15 p.m.; and Tina Pica, as a grandmother trying to marry off her grandson in "Oh! Sabella," Saturday at 1:45 p.m.

Sophia Loren, Claudia Cardinale, and Giulietta Masina are also featured in, respectively, "Two Women," "The Girl With a Suitcase," and "Juliet of the Spirits" during the coming weeks.

The program, which played the Brooklyn Academy of Music last month, was curated by Piera Detassis, longtime editor of the Italian film magazine Ciak and artistic director of the Premiere Section of this October's Rome Film Festival. It was produced with the help of Cinecittà Holding, the Italian Ministry of Culture, General Direction Cinema, and the Italian Consulate of Boston. The full schedule is at mfa.org/film, or call 617-267-9300.

THE ORIGINAL BUFFY: Out on Martha's Vineyard, Native American singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie, who got her musical start in Greenwich Village in the 1960s right around the time Bob Dylan burst on the scene, will be on hand for a Q&A following a screening of a 2006 documentary about her life on Tuesday at 8 p.m. The work is by Toronto filmmaker Joan Prowse, president and co-founder of the production company CineFocus Canada.

The Martha's Vineyard Film Society is sponsoring the evening. Information is at 508-696-9369 and mvfilmsociety.com.

MOVIES UNDER THE STARS: A free evening of short films by Patricia Rozema ("I've Heard the Mermaids Singing"), photographer and author Marnie Crawford Samuelson, Cambridge animator Karen Aqua, and Emerson College film student Nicole Prowell will be presented by Women in Film & Video/New England on Thursday at 8:30 p.m. at the Growing Center in Somerville. All are invited to bring a picnic dinner. Information is at wifvne.org and 781-788-6607.

GET OUT YOUR SHORTS: Local filmmakers are invited to submit their short works to the fourth edition of Boston Film Night, being held this year on Sept. 22 at the Good Time Emporium in Somerville. Last year's event brought out 500 people to the Regent Theatre in Arlington.

All are invited to submit non-union shorts of under 15 minutes; union shorts of under 30 minutes; trailers of under two minutes; music videos; Boston-made commercials; and demos. Information is online at bostonfilmnight.com.

This year organizer Kevin Anderton is adding a 90-minute networking event called "Demo Reels," where a collage of reels from local directors and actors will be played on a big screen during a mixer. "Everyone will be surrounded by local works," he says.

SCREENINGS OF NOTE: The new documentary "Summercamp!" is getting its area premiere at the Brattle Theatre this weekend through Monday. The Brattle says Bradley Beesley and Sarah Price's film is about "the highs and lows of adolescent rituals: singalongs, talent shows, homesickness, counselor mutiny and first love" and features a soundtrack by The Flaming Lips. It's coupled with "Meatballs" today (at 9:30 p.m.) and "Little Darlings" tomorrow (also at 9:30). See brattlefilm.org or call 617-876-6837 for show times, and visit summercampmovie.com for the trailer.

Also at the Brattle, the Barbara Stanwyck series continues on Tuesday with a double feature of Preston Sturges's "The Lady Eve" and Leigh Jason's "The Mad Miss Manton."

And the first episodes of the hit Israeli television show "In Treatment," a drama about folks in psychotherapy, are back at the MFA on Thursday at 6 p.m. (episodes 1 and 2) and 8 p.m. (episodes 3, 4, and 5). Elissa Ely, a psychiatrist at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, will introduce both shows, which are being co-presented by the Boston Jewish Film Festival.

Leslie Brokaw can be reached at lbrokaw@globe.com.