Day four, and they’re still coming – movies that will be considered for the Italian Academy Awards, the David di Donatellos. Again, most will be considered only as a formality and have no chance in hell – but it’s fun to see the list of movies that produced last season. Don’t forget to check the last 3 days for more movies, and stay tuned for the final films tomorrow.
★MALAVOGLIA (The house by the medlar tree) – This one has already one a bunch of Nastro d’Argento awards. In it, a family deals with tragedy by setting the grandfather’s proverbs to pop music.
MATRIMONIO A PARIGI (Wedding in Paris) – They are really going to have to stop letting Massimo Boldi make movies.
★MISSIONE DI PACE(Peace mission) – A sort of anti-anti-war movie, a comedy, in which a military captain, on a peace mission, gets sabotaged by his peace-nik son. Filippo Timi is hilarious as the son’s pretend friend, Che Guevara. Also stars Silvio Orlando and Alba Rohrwacher.
★MOZZARELLA STORIES – Aida Turturro (John’s real sister and Tony Soprano’s TV sister) stars in this movie about the Chinese trying to take over the mozzarella business in Caserta.
NAPOLETANS – Sexy cinepanettone – no awards for this one.
NATIVE – Low budget thriller – director John Real won “best breakthrough director” in the Italian Golden Globes last year for this movie.
NAUTA – Looks like a “road movie”, only this time the road is the ocean and the travel and personal growth of the characters happens on a boat. Nobody seemed to like this one little bit.
NON ME LO DIRE (Don’t tell me) – A comedian goes on a road trip to rediscover his roots when his wife leaves him.
NOTIZIE DEGLI SCAVI (News from the excavation) I should probably give it a star because it will be nominated, but I hated this movie about a simple-minded man (Giuseppe Battiston, who I love) who works in a brothel. Battiston is great, but the over-acting by Ambra Angiolini is excruciating.
OLTRE IL MARE (beyond the sea) – Summer romances for young Italians.
PASSANNANTE – The story of the anarchist Giovanni Passannante.
★POSTI IN PIEDI IN PARADISO (Standing room only in heaven) – Carlo Verdone movie about three divorced guys, played by Verdone, Pierfrancesco Favino ( Come Undone), and Marco Giallini who, because of money problems, have to share an apartment.
QUANDO LA NOTTE (When the night) – Cristina Comencini’s movie about postpartum depression that got heckled and booed at the Venice Film Festival last year.
QUESTO MONDO E’ PER TE (This world is for you) Low budget love story that got some decent reviews.
★ROMANZO DI UNA STRAGE (Story of a massacre) – it’s the true story of a terrorist attack on December 12, 1969 when a bomb exploded at the headquarters of Banca Nazionale dell’Agricoltura in Milan at Piazza Fontana (200 yards from the Duomo) Italy, killing 17 people and wounding 88. From director Marco Tullio Giordana and starring Luigi Lo Cascio, Pierfrancesco Favino and Laura Chiatti, this is the one to watch.
I Love Italian Everything 