I started “I Love Italian Movies” because, well, I love Italian movies, and I got tired of people saying that Italy wasn’t making any good movies anymore (I’m talking to you, Quentin Tarantino). I wanted my fellow Americans to know about the Italian movies that I loved and let them know that many of them were available here. I’ve been trying to focus on the movies that are more accessible here in DVD-Player-Region-1-Land, the US and Canada.
And yet I still get emails from people who tell me that there are no Italian movies to be found in the US or asking me how to find them.
For the next 10 days I’m going to feature what I consider to be the 10 best Italian movies that you can find in the US. I’ll include trailers, Netflix links, Amazon links, links to reviews that I’ve written about them, and anything else that I think can help you get your hands on the DVD.
I’ll start with one that stars an actress very familiar to Americans, Non ti Muovere (Don’t Move), with Penelope Cruz. Non ti Muovere also stars one of my favorite Italian actors, Sergio Castellitto (he’s to the extreme right on my blog header), who is, not coincidently, married to Margaret Mazzantini, the author of the book that the movie was based on.
This is the movie that made me love Penelope Cruz. She plays Italia, the prostitute, and not a “Julia Roberts/Pretty Woman” prostitute, a poor, beaten down, disturbed young woman who is the victim of unfortunate circumstances and is used to being used. Penelope Cruz embraces this role like nothing I’ve every seen, obviously not afraid to play the opposite of a “pretty woman” with a raw and heartbreaking performance that you’ll never forget.
Check out what I’ve written about it HERE and HERE.
And enjoy the trailer.
I Love Italian Everything 