It’s 2012 and if you google “best Italian movies” chances are you’ll find someone suggesting Cinema Paradiso or Il Postino. And while both are fine films, a lot has happened since the ’90s.
If you’re in the United States your choices can be limited, but they exist.
Fast forward to the 21st century and you’ll find a lot to love; let’s take a look at some of the movies from the last five years that are easy to find.
La Doppia Ora – The Double Hour (2009) – Stars Ksenia Rappaport and Filippo TImi and was directed by Giuseppe Capotondi. It’s a psychological thriller about a foreign-born hotel maid that meets an ex-cop speed dating. It’s full of suspense and has a really blurry line between reality and nightmare that’s keeps the viewer guessing. Ksenia Rappaport and Filippo Timi won best actress and best actor at the Venice Film Festival for The Double Hour and it’s widely available in the US for rent or purchase.
Corpo Celeste – Heavenly Body (2011) – Catch this one before it’s gone; director Alice Rohrwacher won a Nastro d’Argento for best new director and she’s nominated for a Nastro d’Argento for Corpo Celeste. In it, Marta (newcomer Yle Vianello) has lived most of her life in a more secular location in Switzerland and when the family returns to their native Calabria, she’s thrown into a Jesus Land that she is unfamiliar with. So that she’ll make friends and prepare for her Catholic confirmation, Marta’s mother puts her in the parish confirmation class.
Il Divo (2008) – The film’s subject, 92 year Giulio Andreotti, the seven time Italian prime minister (Richard Nixonesque in more ways than one), walked out of the movie’s premier. I might be pissed off too, if a movie “revealed” what I had to say in a confessional. In the movie he says that he talks to priests and not God because -”I preti votano, Dio no” – “Priests vote but God doesn’t.” Director Paolo Sorrentino won the jury prize at Cannes and a boatload of other awards for this seriously cool movie.
Gommora (2008) – Gomorra, directed by Matteo Garrone, is an extremely complicated crime story about the day-to-day operations of the lesser known and yet more prolific crime organization in Italy,the Camorra and the hard life of the normal people living in its grip. Director Matteo Garrone on the grand prize of the jury at Cannes.
Pranzo di Ferragosto – Mid-August Lunch (2008) – Written by, directed by, and starring Gianni Di Gregorio, who also helped write the screenplay for the excellent Gomorrah, (so it wasn’t exactly a fluke – he’s a good writer) this movie could not have been more of a surprise. How do I even explain why I loved it? It’s about an unemployed, middle-aged Roman who lives with his 93-year-old mother and starts babysitting all the other old ladies in his neighborhood. The women are a little snotty to each other at first and then they really get to like each other and don’t want to go home. Di Gregorio won best driector from just about everybody.
Vincere – To Win (2009) – This is a powerful movie, well written, superbly acted, beautifully filmed, and directed by the rock star of Italian movie directors, Marco Bellocchio. I usually think of Giovanna Mezzogiorno, this movie’s lead actress, as an over-actor, but this time it serves her well. She reminds me of one of those old-time actresses like Anna Magnani in “Mamma Roma” – fierce and proud in a kind of scary way. Bellochio’s use of old newsreel and dreamy imagery keeps us floating between fact and fiction, and makes the story real, no matter what really happened. It was nominated and won more awards than I have room to mention in this blog and the New York Times called it one of the 10 best movies that wouldn’t win an Oscar.
La Siciliana Ribelle – The Sicilian Girl (2008) – Rita Mancuso wants revenge. An unlikely heroine, she was the loving daughter of an old school mafia boss who’d been murdered by rival mafia members. It’s based on the real life story of Rita Atria, whose courageous testimony has put dozens of mafiosi in jail and provoked violence that rocked (and continues to rock ) all of Italy. Marco Amenta won the Nastro d’Argento for best new director.
Caos Calmo – Quiet Chaos (2008) – Nanni Moretti gives a solid, believable performance as Pietro, whose wife dies and leaves him alone to raise their little girl. It’s hard to figure out how Pietro is feeling after the funeral; he seems pretty numb and restless and not sure what to do with himself. What he does is inspired – he stops going to the office and plants himself in a park outside his daughter’s school every day after he drops her off and tells her that he’ll be there all day and waiting for her when she’s done. During the day he stares at her window, attempting to telepathically will her to come to it and wave to him. He doesn’t stop working – her conducts business from his car. In fact there is a really funny scene in which the big boss, played in a cameo performance by Roman Polanski, comes to him in the park for a meeting.
Cosavogliodipiu – Come Undone (2010) – Director Silvio Soldini’s movie focuses on the problems of infidelity. Instead of trying to make us feel that the poor lovers are unfortunately with the wrong people and somehow deserve these stolen moments, Soldini gives us a self-destructive couple that is self destructing. Stars Alba Rohrwacher, Giuseppe Battiston, and Pierfrancesco Favino.
Io Sono L’Amore – I am Love (2009) – In Io Sono L’amore, Emma Recchi (played by Tilda Swinton ) is a Russian woman who marries an Italian man from Milano, Tancredi Recchi, and moves to Italy with him. He’s rich – SUPER RICH – and they have a nice life, gorgeous villa, and beautiful accomplished children.. At a birthday dinner for her husband’s father, Edoardo, the camera shows Emma’s first few expressions of fear, but fear of what? The announcement that her husband and her son Edo would together succeed Edoardo as head of the company is clearly not what she wanted to hear.
I Love Italian Everything 