893 Italian films

Hello Robert,
Cinema Paradiso set in 50's Scilly and la Bella Vita set in world war two, both great films, you will enjoy them I am sure.

Dawn.

No need for me to reply to this thread as my top two films in Italian are those recommended by Dawn (above).

Do not be tempted by "Padre Padrone". Very disturbing.

Maria Lucia

Cinema Paradiso is a must watch film, one i never tire of watching. Try 'Malena' also, a very funny but very moving film about a young boys obsession with a beautiful older woman during the war years.

La Strada, a 1954 film in Italian (with subtitles) by Federico Fellini. Gelsomina (Fellini's real life wife, Giulietta Masini) is sold by her very poor mother to a travelling showman called Zampano (excellently played by Anthony Quinn) who incorporates her as part of his act as they travel all over Italy. Zampano illtreats her, especially when drunk but it transpires this is due to his love for her.

Many scenes in Il Postino were filmed on the Island of Procida, just off Naples, where my uncle lives. Massimo Troisi who played the postman died of a heart attck within months of completing filming aged just 41.

I just recently purchased Il Postino on DVD, a movie I had seen in 1995, and could never get out of my mind. I have since seen it twice, once in Italian, and then in French, all of which is possible with this DVD. One can also turn off the sub-titles, plus the director of the film explains the making of this fantastic cinematic achievement. The actor Massimo Troisi actually died before the film was finished and released. He, apparently needed a new heart, but wanted to finish this film first before undergoing surgery. What a loss!!!

I am now about to purchase Malena, which I saw 5 years ago, another great movie. I think that watching as many Italian films as possible, without concentrating on the sub-titles will aid in the aquisition of language skills by osmosis, so to speak. DVD's are aspecially suitable, when one can turn off sub-titles at will.

There is another great Italian film, "Life is Beautiful"; what a story!

Have to agree with Francis & Dawn - Life is Beautiful (La Vita e bella) is a fantastic film and the main actor 'Roberto Benigni' is one of my favourites. Some of his other films - Il Mostro, (Have to say Il Mostro is my all time favourite) Johnny Stecchino and Il Piccolo Diavolo are just so funny. He got a well deserved Oscar for La Vita e bella. (just make sure you have a box of hankies nearby!!) Just a curious note - his wife in real life 'Nicoletta Braschi' stars in all his films too.
Another oldie but great film - Il Girasole with Sofia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.
Karen

some personal suggestions on italian films:
CLASSICS
La dolce Vita - Fellini's masterpiece
Il sorpasso - with Vittorio Gasmann a metaphor of strenght and weackness of italian economic boom of the '60s
I soliti ignoti - comedy at best, with several imitations by many american movies - last Woody Allen
Il Gattopardo - with Alain Delon, Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale: the rise and fall of a sicilian noble family after the italian unity
Sergio Leone's wstern: he changed the westerns
Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America: with Robert De Niro, it's in english, but you have to see the director's cut, not the version distributed in America
Any film with Totò. He's been the greatest comedian in italian cinema. I'm afraid there are no possibilities of english version of his movies, but for those of you that understand (well) italian, you must see him.

Some of my favourites are:

[I][B]Nirvana,[/B][/I] - Low budget SF which pre-dated The Matrix and did some things much better than the big budge film. Christopher Lambert as a prorammer whose game characters develop awareness and ask to be turned off. Dir. Gabriel Salvatores.
[url]http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10003489-nirvana/[/url]

[I][B]Miracolo Italiano[/B][/I] - A portmanteau film with seven stories of life, love and human stupidity in a variety of Italian accents, from Tuscany to Sicilia. Dir. Enrico Oldoini. The critics hated it.

[i][b]Ti Voglio Bene Eugenio[/b][/i] - Eugenio has Down's syndrome, the film shows his rich life and also shows how many people depend on him. Dir. Francisco José Fernandez.

[i][b]Respiro[/b][/i] - A young woman is out of step with life in an Italian fishing village. Her older relatives want to send her to Milan for psychiatric treatment. Dir. Emanuele Crialese.
Trailer here: [url]http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/respiro/trailers.php[/url]

[i][b]Mediterraneo[/b][/i] - Set during World War II, eight Italian soldiers are sent to guard a small Greek island. After their ship is sunk and their radio breaks down, it seems as if they no longer exist. Dir. Gabriel Salvatores.

[i][b]Io Non Ho Paura[/b][/i] - Young boy discovers a hole in the ground, obscured by wheat, where a boy his age is imprisoned. Dir. Gabriel Salvatores.

[I][B]Johnny Stecchino[/B][/I] - OK if you can stand RB. Only in small doses for me but this is one of his better ones. Dir. Roberto Benigni

[I][B]Il Piccolo diavolo[/B][/I] - Regarded by many as Benigni's best film,. I certainly think it is. Also stars Walter Matthau as a very grumpy priest. Dir. Roberto Benigni

All the "biggies" already mentioned - but has anyone seen "Ladri di Biciclette" (Bicycle Thieves)?

Directed by Vittorio De Sica, 1948 - working class Italian living on the breadline finally lands a job as a bill poster - but his joy is short-lived when his bicycle, which he needs for the job, is stolen. With his little boy he pounds the streets of Rome in a desperate search for the bike. Social criticism, moral dilemmas - and best of all totally unknown actors who give really great performances.

Mike Johnson

Nanni Moretti that is. I love his Caro Diario - an amusing film in which he drives around Rome on his vespa and later on travels to various islands searching for solitude to write a script. Even better is his very moving La Stanza Del Figlio in which a family tries to deal with the death of their son. Both highly recommended.

thanks everyone for your suggestions
I am going to be busy!
Where is the best place to get these films?I suppose you can buy some of them on DVD but is there a specialist shop for this or a foreign film library?

No one has mentioned "Amarcord" by Fellini yet. It's wonderful.

Couple of places spring to mind:
[url]http://www.italianbookshop.co.uk/[/url] if you want to purchase films (not the cheapest place around, I know)
[url]http://www.screenselect.co.uk[/url] if you want to rent films (they have a pretty good selection of foreign films)

I would try Amazon. I usually look into the used items, which often sell new DVD's and VHS's at half price. For example, I purchased Il Postino and Malena this way for less than $14.00 each, shipping included.

Hi

Obviously I've seen Il Postino and La Vita è Bella, plus the 2 Moretti films mentioned. Caro Diario is made up of 3 separate 'stories'; the first is set in Rome, the second in the Aeolian islands and the third in Palermo - my Lord, what a place for traffic!

No-one has mentioned Maurizio Nichetti, who I believe is an utter genius. I've seen only 2 of his films and was bowled over by the concept in both. The first is Ladri di Sapponette, which is an homage to di Sica's Ladri di Biciclette, the second is Volere Volare. If you can get hold of them, watch them, since they are so different to many other films you see. I mean you have to see them since I cannot describe them well enough to do them justice. The little man is simply brilliant.

There is also a rather chilling film, La Scorta (The Escort), which is about the grip the Mafia has (had?) on the judicial system in Sicily and the obvious repercussions - corruption, assassination and so on - all of which was rendered very believable. Good film, well acted, but ultimately depressing in the way that the judge brought in to try and sort things out after the assassination of his predecessor is eventually forced to leave, having met with nothing but brick walls put up by the officials who should actually have been on his side.

Johnny Stecchino (Toothpick Johnny) is brilliantly funny - Benigni is a true clown.

There are so many really good Italian films, mainly because they have a different approach to making them. There is little of the fast-cutting scenography you get with Hollywood films that leave you in a bit of a daze!

Can someone tell me what other films Michael Radford has made. His lasting monument to Italian film is Il Postino. But there has to be others, although I've not seen his name since that film.

Perhaps you can find him using Google. I enjoyed his explanation of how he filmed Il Postino, he must be quite a character.

Just watched his The Merchant of Venice the other night. It's a nice movie. Not great like Il Postino but still worth watching.

[QUOTE=Robert]Where is the best place to get these films?[/QUOTE]
We gt them from Auchan, Cityper or IperCoop when we are in Italy. It's the cheapest way of getting Italian language films. If you pick through them you will find many come with English subtitles, but I find the best thing for my Italian is to watch the film with the Italian soundtrack and Italian subtitles for the deaf. This way I get to hear how words are pronounced in various accents and also the explanations added to the deaf soundtrack (sound of gun firing, music plays in background, etc.) are also helpful.
There is also an Italian DVD website that will ship to the UK, [url]http://www.dvd.it/[/url] but I find them to be less than good at giving the fill tchnical info about the DVDs on sale.

No compatibility problems BTW, Italy and the UK are both region 2 DVD.

What about '3 coins in a fountain' it is really good fun, ok its not a real Italiano film but the views of Rome are good enough to take you there.

I Claudius, the series is still a classic.

I shallnt mention Sparacus since all the films I'm mentioning are so lo-brow I'm ashamed.

I'll go now... :p

I don't think Spartacus is low brow at all. If I remember correctly the script was written by Dalton Trumbo, (his first after being made unemployable as a result of the House UnAmerican Activies Committee) and not only was the history fairly accurate (I believe) and the dialogue literate but the sub-text was all about slaves uniting their interests in order to overcome their oppressors. The 60's being an idealistic decade it was a theme that was quite timely.

Now, if you want low brow I'd suggest Gladiator. In every way the inferior film of the two (IMNSHO).

I'm all for the low-brow, me! To be honest, too many Brits only know Italian films through the 'classics' of yesteryear because that's all we get to see and that's all that gets peddled as worthy to watch (which they certainly are but there is so much more out there). It's great to see people discussing the likes of Moretti and Nichetti alongside the truly great Italian films. Can also reccomend L'Uomo Delle Stelle (The Starmaker) as a great little film. Also, anything by Tornatore in general.

How about the Bud Spencer & Terence Hill films? Anyone know them ? They are great fun and all very low brow! The Trinity Cycle are about the best, very silly, very funny.

Anyone interested in Italian horror? Italy's made a real contribution in this area and it's a shame it doesn't get the kind of exposure it used to.

I'd agree that the best place to buy them is on Amazon in the market place section where it's often possible to pick up DVD's of Il Postino etc for 3 or 4 quid. Best place to check out other films you might want to see by a a particular director is the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) at [url]www.imdb.com[/url].

Once a yaer, during spring, there is an Italian Movie UK festival. it is worth going!

[url]http://www.italianfilmfestival.org.uk/[/url]

keep an eaye on it for next year!

also check [url]http://www.raiclicktv.it/raiclick/pc/website/0,4388,,00.html[/url]
there are a lot of movies, dramas, etc that you can watch on line!

Paola

also check [url]http://www.raiclicktv.it/raiclick/pc/website/0,4388,,00.html[/url]
there are a lot of movies, dramas, etc that you can watch on line!

Paola[/QUOTE]

I've just had a look at this site and there's an hour-long doco about Ascoli, Castellucio and the Monti Sibilli. I had to watch it online, not sure if its downloadable as well.....

Brilliant link Paola, I watched a documentary about my current home town in England, the city of WInchester.

I really can't recognise the place from the documentary! We really don't have people in medieval costume wandering the streets as they do in this program. And King Arthur is a bit of a local joke, King Aelfred is a little more real.

They pull clever camera tricks mixing scenes of the courthouse and school in such a way that you can't see the modern city. Most amusing.

Anyway, have to go because I have to get into a pair of tights so that I feel more at home.

Oh yes, sorry forgot to add the title of the documentary was LA CORNOVAGLIA, which means Winchester has just been moved about 140 miles to the west.

I don't think they are downloadable... or at least I wouldn't know how to!!!

but if someone finds out, let me know.

Lotaresco, if you are into documentaries, look at the old ones.... there is one about rome with fellini and pasolini in it.. quite interesting...

Paola

Thanks again Paola, yes they are downloadable, but you need a bit of techno-savvy to be able to do it. Buried in every page is a reference to the actual film in this sort of format:

mms://media.fastweb.it/WM9/raiclick/FMVRAI04000001002416.wmv

(This BTW is episode one of "La Freccia Nera" - brilliant black and white, men in tights and lots of thigh-slapping action.)

With the appropriate software one can download the stream of video into a file that can be replayed later using Windows media player. Or if one wishes cut and paste the URL above into Windows media player's "Open URL" dialog box and watch the movie on line without having the RAI web page wrapped around it.

It's also possible to write the video to a DVD for viewing in comfort away from the computer.

Thanks for the tips, there's enough program output here to keep me going for months. The only thing I'm missing is the terrible soap opera "Carabinieri" which I often see at the local bar. I don't know which channel it is on though, so it be Mediaset rather than RAI.

It's rai...
i think there are a few other things you could miss.. I tried to watch a drama with Sabrina Ferrilli playing a reporter in Iraq... not watchable.
but then again in the Spettacolo section you can watch the Guzzanti Famili and Serena Dandini... brilliant!

I'll try to download them then, my fiance i in the process of learning italian...

Paola

I don't know if this helps, but to download the files you need to do the following:

1. Get a piece of software that converts a media stream to a file. See [url]http://get.to/SDP/[/url] for one that works.

2. Open the program page in your web browser, and stop the file from playing (press the stop button). Now choose View -> Page Source from the program menu and you will see all the HTML code for the page. Search inside this file for the line that has mms: at the begining. Copy this line from the first "m" of mms to the last "v" of wmv.

Open SDP multimedia (or your chosen software) and select "Open"then paste the text you copied into the URL box. And select Open.

3. Press the GO button and give your file a name (like FrecciaNera.wmv) and the file will be saved to your disk. Now you can view it in Windows Media Player.

If you want to save to DVD you will need a video conversion program that can convert WMV to DVD format. I can suggest some software for that, it costs between £15 and £30.

Thanks lotaresco - v useful although your address didn't work for me - had to google it and found [url]http://sdp.ppona.com[/url]

After that plain sailing and feeling like a real techie until I discovered it was going to take an hour to download and got bored. Clearly no real stamina!

thanks!
I am downloading something right now... I'll see how it goes...

Paola

[QUOTE=annec]After that plain sailing and feeling like a real techie until I discovered it was going to take an hour to download and got bored. Clearly no real stamina![/QUOTE]
Yes, sadly the process works at the same speed that it takes to play the film, if the film lasts an hour it takes an hour to download it. This is a restriction set by RAI so no way of working around it.

SDP seems to work just fine in the background though, so it doesn't hog your computer. It also has the "batch" mode so you can create a list of files that you want to download and leave it to run overnight.

As far as I can see, no one has mentioned "La meglio gioventù". It's a beautiful movie in two parts depicting Italian history the last 40 years.

Has anybody seen the film "Ciao, Professore"? I just ordered it from Amazon, and should receive it in a short while. Will let you know then what I think of it. It apparently won 10 Italian, Oscar like awards.

[QUOTE=FrancisM]Has anybody seen the film "Ciao, Professore"? I just ordered it from Amazon, and should receive it in a short while. Will let you know then what I think of it. It apparently won 10 Italian, Oscar like awards.[/QUOTE]

Is that Wertmüller? I hear it's quite funny and very southern, so hope you enjoy!

[QUOTE=Gesturi]Is that Wertmüller? I hear it's quite funny and very southern, so hope you enjoy![/QUOTE]

Yes, it is one of her movies. It will be my first movie of her making.

Has anyone watched Bread & Tulips. It was a good movie. Definitely one to watch.

I saw an entertaining flm by a trio called Aldo, something (giovanni?) and jacomo (?) when i was in florence. They were three gangsters. Then there was something else they did about a fake leg.
I realise of course how informative and helpful I'm being with my pinpoint accuracy here but I enjoyed them.
Dunno if anyone's mentioned anything else by Massimo Troisi yet apart from il postino but I had an absolute nightmare trying to decipher his southern accent.

Otherwise I really liked 'an american in Rome'.

[QUOTE=ciaotuttibelle]Has anyone watched Bread & Tulips. It was a good movie. Definitely one to watch.[/QUOTE]
Yes - I've just watched this thanks to a friend. A very enjoyable film.

[QUOTE=FrancisM]Has anybody seen the film "Ciao, Professore"? I just ordered it from Amazon, and should receive it in a short while. Will let you know then what I think of it. It apparently won 10 Italian, Oscar like awards.[/QUOTE]

Last night I watched "Ciao Professore", and while this film is not on the level of Il Postino, nor Cinema Paradiso, it is indeed very enjoyable. I was glad to have bought it, it is well worth the money spent. The bottom line is, I can assure you that you will have a great time seeing it.

Ciao Professore was a great movie. I hope you enjoy it. Check out Melena and also Bread & Tulips.

Salve
John