While the Italian box office suffered from the start of thebeach-going season, veteran Italian director Fabio Carpi's new film, Le Intermittenze Del Cuore, opened atnumber 11, scoring the third-highest screen average of any film at the weekend.

Starring Argentinian actor Hector Alterio, the film, whichis set in Italy, France and Switzerland, focuses on a film director who relivescertain moments of his life while writing a movie about the life of MarcelProust.

The picture opened on 6 screens and earned $19,597,registering $3,186 per screen for local distributor Independenta Film.

Elsewhere, The Coen brothers' latest film, The Ladykillers, opened at number threebut with an unspectacular $783,886 for Bim Distributzione from 202 screens.

01 Distribution's MichelVaillant flopped, grossing just $134,520 for a paltry screen average of$934.

Another flop was 20th Century Fox's comedy Welcome To Mooseport which opened on 20screens but earned $10,656 for an average of just $533 per screen.