I Love Italian Everything

With two weeks until my favorite actor, Luigi Lo Cascio’s birthday (October 20), I’ve begun preparing his birthday card and I’d like your help.

I credit Lo Cascio for the “ah-ha!” moment in which I realized that the Italian film industry was alive and kicking back in 2004 in a movie theater in Firenze. I was there visiting my daughter, who was doing her semester abroad, and I decided that going to the movies would be a good way to help my Italian.

It was me and a handful of women my age and older in the movie theater that day; I’d been told that Italian movies were pretty bad so I figured that Giuseppe Piccioni’s ‘La Vita Che Vorrei’ starring Lo Cascio and Sandra Ceccarelli would be fun to mock, if nothing else.

To my surprise, I loved the movie. There, in that dark theater with my diet coke ( without ice…why won’t you let me have ice with my diet coke, Italy?) the other ladies and I had a special little moment together when we realized the fate of Stefano (Luigi) and Laura (Sandra); we gasped, looked at each other in surprise, then giggled, and I was smitten. Luigi Lo Cascio was an actor I wanted to know more about.

I’ve seen all of his movies now, except the newest ones that just haven’t been available to me yet. His directorial debut, La Città Ideale, premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year and made me happier than I can say; after almost a decade of watching Luigi Lo Cascio movies, his own mother couldn’t be more proud.

I’m making a birthday card, an “auguri di compleanno”, celebrating the career of the actor that I consider Italy’s best, Luigi Lo Cascio. You can add photos, reviews of his movies, movie memories, or just birthday wishes to his card by filling out the card below.

Shhh….it’s a surprise. Don’t tell Luigi.

Check the progress of the card here.