In the US we love going to the movies at Christmas time and a lot of blockbusters are released. I found a very complete list of the upcoming 2011 Christmas movies at movieinsider.com, there’s everything from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, a cool new one with Gary Oldman and Colin Firth to Alvin and the Chipmunks – Chipwrecked.
In Italy, Christmas is the season for big boobs and Cinepanettone – movies that come out in the Christmas season and are not what you would call “high-brow” comedies (lots of vulgar sex jokes and everybody’s sleeping with everybody except for his or her own wife or husband). I have a love/hate relationship with them since they are, as we say in America, “so bad they are good”. I’m not sure if Christian De Sica (son of Vittorio De Sica) necessarily has to be in a movie to make it official Cinepanettone, but he is in a lot of them.
Last year it was Natale in Sud Africa (Christmas in South Africa) – I’ve yet to see it – and the year before that, Natale a Beverly Hills. It was recently announced that this year the shenanigans will take place closer to home and it will be “Vacanza (vacation) a Cortina”. It doesn’t come to the theaters until December 16 and that seems crazy to me, coming so late, but we here in America start celebrating Christmas at Halloween, so what do I know?
I’ll tell you what I know – that there are a whole bunch of Americans that would get a big kick out of Cinepanettone – if you’ve seen them, write and tell us about your favorite.
I Love Italian Everything 