Here in America Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving ( some would argue it’s even earlier) and so even though the Christmas movies in Italy, the Cinepanettoni, won’t come out for a few weeks I’m ready for them now.
I’ll probably watch my favorite American Christmas movie “Elf” in Italian, and then I’ll move on to my new favorite, La Banda Dei Babbi Natale ( the Santa Claus Gang), with the hilarious comic trio Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo. The story of three buddies that get mistaken for a crime ring on Christmas eve, it’s very funny, and I hear that the Washington DC Italian Meetup Group is planning an outing to see it. I am very impressed by this group and if you are in the DC area you should check them out ( go to http://www.meetup.com/italiano/ to learn more ). They have formed Cineforum Italiano, a film series that shows an Italian film each month throughout the year at the Letelier Theater in Georgetown.
How are you getting La Banda Dei Babbi Natale, guys? It was just released last year in Italy and there aren’t any English subtitles on the DVD.
Vittorio De Sica’s ( The Bicycle Thief) son Cristian and George Clooney’s ex-girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis are both in a lot of the Cinepanettone films, for whatever reason, and the ones that, while entertaining, are pretty bad. Bad acting, bad dialogue, bad plots – they have it all, and they are, as we say, “so bad they’re good.” An example, the 2006 Natale a New York, Christmas in New York, with both De Sica and Canalis, a sexy and convoluted farce about Italians on Christmas vacation in New York, everybody cheating on each other and on the verge of getting caught. Not very Christmasy, but Cinepanettone can be pretty sexy.
Enjoy some Cinepanettone to wrap presents with, and if you are in the DC area you should definitely join the Italian meet up club.
I Love Italian Everything 