Cinema, amore mio!
25 September 2008 at 6:57 pm 3 comments
Ciao Bloggisti,
Today I was scanning CNN.com to get the scoop on McCain bailing on the campaign when lo and behold, I spotted a story that I just had to click on: Top Ten Italian Films
I’ve been an Italophile ever since I was a ragazzina and one of the things that stoked my passion was Italian cinema. And no, it wasn’t those erotic comedies with Lino Banfi or Edwige Fenech that many a lonely teenage boy watched Saturday nights on Italcine (those of you from Toronto will know what I’m talking about). No, I’m talking about the good stuff. I’m talking about Giulietta Masina’s heartbreaking turn as Gelsomina in La Strada or the little boy holding his disgraced father’s hand at the end of The Bicycle Thief (Ladri di Biciclette). I even took two courses on Italian Cinema in my last year at McGill. Completely self-indulgent but totally worth it! Watching those movies, which were a celebration of all that was wonderful and dreadful about il Bel Paese, made me love Italy even more and planted a little seed in my brain that ultimately led me to move here.
CNN’s Screening Room compiled a list of the top 10 Italian films with the help of Rome-based film critic Lee Marshall. He put together an interesting combination of old and new works. Here are his picks:
1. ‘La Strada’
(Federico Fellini, 1954)
“It’s about a loose couple of traveling circus performers who go around Italy juggling in the street. It’s also one of the greatest tragic love stories ever filmed.”
2.’The Conformist’
(Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
“A technically, aesthetically and visually rich film, it announced the arrival of Bertolucci as a major director.”
3. ‘Ossessione’
(Luchino Visconti, 1943)
“A drifter gets a job in a remote service station and starts to fall in love with the owner’s wife; the pair plot to kill him. It is considered one of the first films of the Neo-Realism movement”
4. ‘L’Avventura’
(Michelangelo Antonioni, 1960)
“A woman disappears on a Mediterranean island and is never found, which becomes a metaphor for what Antonioni thought was missing in middle-class Italian society. ”
5. ‘A Fistful of Dollars’
(Sergio Leone, 1964)
“The film that announced the Spaghetti Western to the world. It also turned Clint Eastwood’s rugged face and narrowed eyes into an icon. ”
6. ‘The Battle of Algiers’
(Gillo Pontecorvo,1966)
“One of the first films made anywhere in the world about war; there weren’t any goodies or baddies, just roving cameras following the chaotic day-to-day bomb attacks.”
7. ‘Dear Diary’
(Nanni Moretti, 1993)
“Moretti is a film maverick who first emerged in the mid-1970s, whose films are always in some way autobiographical. He’s probably, the closest thing Italy has to Woody Allen, except his films have a more political slant. ”
8. ‘Cabiria’
(Giovanni Pastrone,1914)
“The Italian ‘The Birth of a Nation’ or ‘Metropolis’ — a great silent film that defined Italian silent cinema.”
9. “The Consequences of Love’
(Paolo Sorrentino, 2004)
“One of the best Italian films of the last 10 years. It’s an interesting take on the mafia film and an alternative love story.”
10. ‘Pane, amore e fantasia’
(Luigi Comencini, 1953)
“When we think of Italy, even in a slightly cliched way — spaghetti, sun and the whole cult of love, the feisty women and the men playing lotharios — this film just embodies that vibrant life force and energy. It’s a very funny romantic comedy.”
What do you think of the films in this list? Have you seen any new Italian films that you’ve loved/hated? What are your Top 10 Italian films?
Entry filed under: Entertainment, Film, Italy.
3 Comments Add your own
Leave a comment
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed
1. Beatriz | 25 September 2008 at 11:43 pm
I guess I better start crossing tittles on this list as of yesterday, because I have not watched any of them! No Shame! I will have to star my list with the ones I have seen: Bicycle Thief, Life is Beautiful, Cinema Paradiso, La Dolce Vita…
Don’t be ashamed Beatriz! I haven’t seen a lot of those films either. And it’s also the perfect excuse to broaden your Italian cinematic knowledge 😉
2. nyc/caribbean ragazza | 26 September 2008 at 8:18 am
Number 2 and number 9 are the two I haven’t seen. This is a great list.
Recent films I’ve liked.. Gomorrah, La Finestra di Fronte and Best of Youth (I know in Italy it was on TV but in the States, they released it as a movie.)
Among my favorite Italian films are: The Bicycle Thief, Umberto D, L’Avventura, Divorce Italian Style, La Dolce Vita, 81/2, Roma Open City, Big Deal on Madonna Street/I Soliti Ignoti, I Vitteloni, Cinema Paradiso, Rocco and his Brothers.
I love I Soliti Ignoti! Have you seen Clooney’s remake? Umberto D, Dolce Vita and Cinema Paradiso are some of my faves, too.
3. Emma | 2 October 2008 at 1:27 pm
I’ve seen / studied a few of those…. My personal favourite in the list is Ladri di Bicicletta. My absolute all-time favourite ever, though is Cinema Paradiso. It makes me cry everytime! My OH is from a small village in Sicily and he was strangely moved by it too!!!
Hey Emma! Thanks for coming by! I love CP, too. Esp. the scene when he finally goes back home and sees that his mother kept his bedroom exactly the way it was when he left. I still cry every time I see it!