MANILA, Philippines — "We love life. We love drama. In our own way, we love la dolce vita.”

Briccio Santos, chairman of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, means  that all of the above puts our temperament very close to our Italian friends. Ask Nedy Tantoco, ambassador of the good life who’ll confirm how we love not only food, wine, laughter and song, the movies, but also all those lovely Italian fashion goods.

Sensing those similarities, the Italian embassy is bringing a red carpet event to Makati for the first time since Imelda Marcos gathered a glittering cast of Hollywood gods and goddesses for her Manila International Film Festival 30 years ago.

A carpet in red, all of 80 meters long and 4 meters wide, will be rolled out for Italian stars and directors to walk on and share with their PH counterparts come Nov. 9 at Greenbelt 3. Albert Martinez is in charge of this event. Also in store are workshops, exhibits, and poetry readings (in Italian) inside a moving jeepney.

Thirty years ago is a long time. To his credit, Italian Ambassador L. Forlani does not think such glitter and gloss is bad for the arts, the economy,  or civilization. The festival will screen seven new Italian movies as well as classics of the ’70s, plus three films by Brillante Mendoza. And... action!