I Love Italian Everything

in no particular order… 

1. Pane e Tulipani (Bread and Tulips) is my favorite movies of all time from any country and in any language and I have watched it over 100 times. It’s about Rosalba, the unappreciated housewife that runs away from home and finds out what her life was meant to be. Director: Silvio Soldini – Watch Instantly With Amazon.
2. Also from Soldini, Giorni E Nuvole (Days and Clouds), a much more serious story of a couple who goes on a downward spiral when the husband loses his job. Watch it Instantly With Netflix.

   

3. Non Ti Muovere (Don’t Move), directed by and starring Sergio Castellitto and based on his wife’s (Margaret Mazzantini) best-selling novel, has one of Penelope Cruz’s best performances. She plays the prostitute, Italia, in a role that only the bravest of actresses would take. Director: Sergio Castellitto – Get it from Netflix. 

   

4. Cesare Deve Morire (Caesar Must Die), directed by the Taviani brothers and starring actual inmates in a Roman maximum security prison won more awards than any other Italian film last year. Directors: Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. Watch it Instantly WIth Netflix.

   

5. Nuovomondo (The Golden Door) is a story that Italian-Americans may appreciate more than Italians.  A Sicilian family leaves behind everything they know to pursue the land of milk and honey in America in the early 1900s. Director: Emanuele Crialese – Watch it instantly with Netflix.
6. Il Divo is about the life and political career of Italy’s controversial Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Toni Servillo’s portrayal of Andreotti may be his best. Director: Paolo Sorrentino – Watch it Instantly on Amazon.
7. Gomorra (Gomorrah) is a play on the word Camorra, the name of the Neapolitan mafia, and the film is based on the book by Roberto Saviano, who has needed body guards ever since he wrote it. Directed by Matteo Garrone – Watch it instantly with Netflix.
8. Two more from Garrone, Reality, about a guy that gets obsessed with being on a Reality TV show Watch it instantly with Amazon, and his newest, Il Racconto Dei Racconti, Tale of Tales. Tale of Tales premiered just this past year at the Cannes Film Festival and won’t be available to us in the USA just yet.

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11. Ḕ Stato Il Figlio is probably the most underappreciated movie of 2012. Directed by Daniele Ciprì and starring Toni Servillo, it’s the story of a family who loses a daughter to a stray mafia bullet. The government compensation they receive complicates their lives in ways they never could have imagined. Director: Daniele Ciprì. Still waiting for US distribution for this one!

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    Caterina Va In Citta (Caterina In The Big City) – When her father decides that he’s too good for their small town and moves the family to Rome, Caterina gets thrown to the wolves (high school girls). Director: Paolo Virzì – Get it from Amazon.

13. From director Cristina Comencini, La Bestia Nel Cuore, Don’t Tell, was nominated for an Academy Award in 2006 and stars Giovanna Mezzogiorno as a young women who begins to remember her dark past. DIrector: Cristina Comencini – Get it from Netflix.
14. Comencini has a new one this year that Americans are going to love. Latin Lover is about the wives and daughters of a famous deceased movie star that get together for an unusual family reunion.

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16. Marco Bellocchio’s Vincere (Winning) is the story of the secret (or made up, depending on who you talk to) marriage between Ida Dalser (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) Benito Mussolini (Filippo Timi). Timi’s performance was called one of the best of 2010 that wouldn’t win an Oscar.  Watch It instantly on YouTube.

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    Pranzo Di Ferragosto (Mid-August Lunch) – Gianni Di Gregorio is Gianni, the mamma’s boy whose apartment gets turned into an old lady retirement home for Ferragosto. Director: Gianni Di Gregorio – Watch it instantly on Netflix.

18. Io Non Ho Paura (I’m Not Scared) is the story of a young boy in southern Italy that finds a child who has been kidnapped. Based on a true story, it deals with the “anni di piombo”, the years in Italy in which there were many kidnappings by extremist groups. Watch it Instantly on Netflix.
20. Habemus Papam (We Have A Pope) – Nanni Moretti directed, wrote, and starred in this story about the Pope’s identity crisis. Director: Nanni Moretti – Watch it instantly on Netflix.
21. This year, Nanni premiered his new semi-autobiographical Mia Madre at the Cannes Film Festival and we’ll have to wait for this one.

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23. And one more from Moretti, La Stanza Del Figlio (The Son’s Room) is cinéma d’auteur at it’s best, with Nanni Morietti having written, directed, and starred in this Palme d’Or winner about the death of a son.  Watch it instantly on Netflix.
24. Diaz: Non Pulire Questo Sangue (Don’t Clean Up This Blood) is about police brutality in the final days of the 2001 G8 Summit. Director: Daniele Vicari – Save this one for later release on Netflix.
25. La Finestra Di Fronte (Facing Windows) is Ferzan Ozpetek’s best film, about a holocaust survivor who teaches a young woman (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) how to live. Director: Ferzan Ozpetek – Get it from Netflix. Watch it instantly with Amazon.

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27. Also from Ozpetek, Mine Vaganti, Loose Cannons, about a gay guy who is just about to come out to his parents, but his brother beats him to it. It stars Riccardo Scamarcio and you can Watch It Instantly With Amazon.

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30. Io Sono L’Amore (I am Love) has Tilda Swinton as a Russian woman who has married a rich Italian. Swinton’s from London and in this film she speaks Italian with a Russian accent! Director: Luca Guadagnino – Watch it instantly with Netflix.
31. Luce Dei Miei Occhi (Light Of My Eyes) is about Antonio  (played my favorite Luigi Lo Cascio) and his rather unhealthy love for Maria, played by Sandra Ceccarelli. Director: Giuseppe Piccioni – Get it from Netflix.

    

32. Salvo is highly charged, emotionally and sensorially, and yet quiet in a way very unlike other gangster movies. With minimalist dialogue, the camera may follow what mobster Salvo sees but we hear what blind Rita hears and the combination of the two immerses us in the story in a very unique way. Directors Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia  — WATCH IT ON AMAZON INSTANT

    

33. La Meglio Gioventu (The Best of Youth) is a BIG Italian epic that follows the lives of two brothers, from the 1960s to the 2000s. It was originally a TV miniseries and is 180 minutes but worth every second. Director: Marco Tulio Giordana – Watch it instantly on Netflix.
34. La Sconosciuta (The Unknown Woman) is Irena, a Ukrainian woman who escapes her life as a sex slave and goes to work as a nanny for an Italian couple. This thriller is an unusually unsentimental film from director Giuseppe Tornatore. Get it from Netflix.

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    La Doppia Ora (The Double Hour) is a thriller that made me jump out of my seat in the movie theater. It stars Filipo Timi as a lonely widower who meets a mysterious hotel maid while speed dating. Director: Giuseppe Capotondi – Watch it instantly with Netflix.

Terraferma is a powerful story about the flood of illegal immigrants on the tiny Italian island of Lampadusa. Director: Emanuele Crialese – Save for future release on Netflix.

1. Il Capitale Umano (Human Capital) Stephen Amidon’s novel about upper crust Connecticut becomes Paolo Virzì’s story of upper crust northern Italy in this stunningly complex drama about money, families going haywire because of it, and a guy on a bike who, one dark snowy night, loses his life and brings theirs into glaringly sharp focus. Director: Paolo Virzì CHECK FOR MOVIE SCREENINGS
2. Buongiorno Notte (Good Morning, Night) is the story of the 1978 kidnapping of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades. DIrector: Marco Bellocchio – Get it from Netflix.

   

3. Daniele Luchetti’s La Nostra Vita (Our Life) has an amazing performance by Elio Germano as a grieving father trying to pick up the pieces of his life and take care of his children after his wife dies. Director: Daniele Luchetti – Save for future release on Netflix.  
4. Also from Luchetti, Anni Felici, (Those Happy Years) his autobiographical memory of his childhood and his very kooky parents.

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6. La Migliore Offerta (The Best Offer) is from Giuseppe Tornatore and stars Geoffrey Rush plays Virgil Oldman, a rich, famous, talented, and unscrupulous art auctioneer and collector whose elitism combined with OCD tendencies make for a solitary but apparently satisfying existence. His joy in life is his secret stash of portraits, women’s portraits from every era and genre. It’s an English language film, and you can GET IT FROM NETFLIX.
7. La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) For Gep Gambardella, (Toni Servillo), a journalist who wrote an important book years ago and has spent the time since resting on the laurels, everything in life seems like an exaggeration; a vapid, narcissistic, waste of time. If Paolo Sorrentino’s won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film for this one.

   

   This year Sorrentino debuted La Giovinezza (Youth) at Cannes, and we will let you know when this English language film makes it to the USA.

8. Last year’s Venice Film Festival produced an amazing crop of films:
9. Francesco Munzi’s Anime Nere (Black Souls), that’s won all kinds of awards and will be available here soon.

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11. In Hungry Hearts, an English language film, Alba Rohrwacher and Adam Driver won Best Actress and Best Actor. It’s about the scariest crunchy mom ever.

Ivano De Matteo’s film adaptation of Herman Koch’s bestselling book, is called I Nostri Ragazzi and due here later this year.

Senza Nessuna Pietà is about an unhappy mobster (Pierfrancesco Favino) and his decision to help a young girl caught in his family’s web.

Alice Rohrwacher’s second film, Le Meraviglie (The Wonders), stars her sister Alba and is about a eccentric family of Beekeepers. It premiered at Cannes two years ago and we’re still waiting! It was called one of the best films not to have US distribution.

Il Giovane Favoloso (Leopardi) has been winning all kinds of awards, including Best Actor ones for star Elio Germano. It’s a period piece about one of Italy’s most important poets.

 

This year’s comedy Noi e la Giulia stars Edoardo Leo and the Giulia is a car.

Torneranno i Prati (Greenery Will Bloom Again) is a heart wrenching war story about soldiers in a bunker at the end of WWI.

 

Laura Bispuri made a big splash and won all kinds of awards with her directorial debut starring Alba Rohrwacher, Vergine Giurata, Sworn Virgin, about northern Albanians and the option they give women who don’t want to live with the constraints and limitations given to women in their culture.

 

Roberto Andò’s Viva La Libertà (Long Live Liberty) stars Toni Servillo in a duel role as twins in this political comedy. Watch it Instantly on Netflix.

Cloro, Chlorine, is about a young girl whose life falls apart when her mother dies and her father can’t pull himself together.

Pierfrancesco Diliberto (Pif) ‘s comedy about turning a blind eye to the Mafia, La Mafia Uccide Solo D’Estate (The Mafia Only Kills In The Summer) is bittersweet, funny, and all-around adorable.

 

I think we have to recognize that Checco Zalone, like him or hate him, is the king of comedy in Italy right now, and he’s making more money than anyone has in the history of Italian cinema. Face it, his Che Bella Giornata is funny.

 

Andrea Segre’s Io Sono Li (Shun Li and the Poet) is the sad, sweet story of a Chinese immigrant who makes friends with an old fisherman. You can watch this one instantly on Netflix.

Baarìa is Giuseppe Tornatore’s film that honors his home town in Sicily. Stream it on Vudu.