My friend Nigel Maskell, the very excellent blogger for and creator of Italian Film Review sent me a link to a BBC news story titled, “End of Italian cinema renaissance?” Oh, yeah – that caught my interest.
Watch it for yourselves, click here and then I’ll tell you what I think – go ahead, I’ll wait…
I don’t even know where to begin, but I think that the thing that bothers me the most is the term, “Golden Age”. Is it over, the Golden Age of Italian Cinema? Well…yes. Frankly,it is.
But who cares? Chi se ne frega.
Hollywood’s so called Golden Age has been over for 50 years and nobody’s called that the death of American movies. Hollywood has moved on to other things – and so has Italy. Why is it that people are so freaked out that Italy is not making movies like La Dolce Vita
anymore? What’s so hot about La Dolce Vita anyway? My idea of excellence is De Sica, but that’s another argument. My point – time moves on and we should stop living in the past.
anymore? What’s so hot about La Dolce Vita anyway? My idea of excellence is De Sica, but that’s another argument. My point – time moves on and we should stop living in the past.People like to say that nothing’s happened since Benigni got the Oscar for “Life is Beautifu
l” and I have to ask; what do you mean by “nothing”? 46 countries submitted films to the Academy for that one award – should Italy win every year? And even if it should, how often do they give the Oscar to the movie you think it should? I’ve been of the opinion that the Academy Awards are full of shit for years now, anyway. How much stock should we really put in an award that self absorbed Hollywood film people hand out to each other? Italy hasn’t won since Life is Beautiful – oh, boo hoo.
l” and I have to ask; what do you mean by “nothing”? 46 countries submitted films to the Academy for that one award – should Italy win every year? And even if it should, how often do they give the Oscar to the movie you think it should? I’ve been of the opinion that the Academy Awards are full of shit for years now, anyway. How much stock should we really put in an award that self absorbed Hollywood film people hand out to each other? Italy hasn’t won since Life is Beautiful – oh, boo hoo. In the news report Italian producer Roberto Cicutto talks about how movies have changed since the Golden Age – instead of making “La Dolce Vita”, Italy is making films that are personal and more difficult to watch, he says. This year Hollywood tried to shove “Sex and the City 2”, “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”, and “Grown Ups” down our throats I don’t really see why beautiful, personal movies are such a bad idea, even if they do require a little more concentration.
As the director of the Rome Film Festival said, there is a new unity – a new community of Italian filmmakers – and I love it. I got Marco Amenta’s “La Sicilana Ribelle” in the mail today and I’m going to go watch it now.
I Love Italian Everything 