I teach Italian for Tourists and loan some of the movies that I have for US DVD players to my students. Many times I am warning them not to watch certain movies when the kids are around (Non ti Muovere or La Bestia Nel Cuore, for example), and some of the movies just aren’t right for my students who are men – unless they are men that like chick flicks.
So assuming that most men only go to chick flicks when they are dragged to them by their wives and girlfriends, the following movies are for you, chicks. I mean girls. I mean ladies. For us, whatever it is that we liked to be called.
One of my male students just almost took home Ginger and Cinnamon (Dillo con parole mie) and I told him, “That one’s about a woman and her 13-year-old niece on vacation and the woman’s mending a broken heart and the 13-year-old is trying to have her first sexual experience. Are you sure you want that one?” He put it down like it was on fire.
No, it’s not for the guys, but I really like it. It’s fluff, for sure, but the actors are good-looking and very likable, and the scenario is not too far-fetched. My favorite line from the movie tells you all you need to know:
Vedi ci sono due categorie di donne: quelle che si fidanzano, ma si scelgono gli uomini sbagliati… e quella sarei io, e quelle che non si fidanzano perché si scelgono gli uomini impossibili… e quella saresti tu…
There are two categories of women, those that have boyfriends and choose the wrong men, and that would be me – and those that don’t have boyfriends because they choose men that they can’t get…that would be you
I could be wrong but I’m guessing that it was a mostly female crowd in the theater for Luce dei miei occhi, Light of my Eyes. It’s one of those movies about the “R” world – relationships– and it stars my absolute favorite, Luigi Lo Cascio. It’s a love story, but a very sad one, about a man who would do and does everything for a woman who doesn’t care about him. She says to him:
Ma se sei tu che mi stai sempre intorno… non impazzisco di gioia quando ti vedo, non mi batte il cuore, non mi sento perduta quando te ne vai… è così… non è colpa mia.
Maria in “Luce Dei Miei Occhi”
But if you’re always around…I don’t go crazy with joy when I see you, my heart doesn’t beat faster, I don’t feel lost when you go away. That’s how it is…it’s not my fault.
And does a man’s heart beat a little faster when Giovanna Mezzogiorno races down the stairs to try to catch the man she’s been lusting after in La finestre di fronte, Facing Windows? I know that mine did and that my husband was, at this point in the movie, checking his fantasy football scores. As Giovanna sits at her window, her back toward her husband and facing her hot neighbor’s apartment, I’m guessing this is not every guy’s dream come true.
I Love Italian Everything 