Winner of awards at the Cannes Film Festival, two BAFTA awards, a European Film Award, Golden Globes, David di Donatellos, Nastro D’Argento Awards, Venice Film Festival and countless other film festival awards, Guiseppe Tornatore is a universally loved director.
When I tell people that I love Italian movies they always mention Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso; even people who don’t think they like foreign films have seen and enjoyed that one.
There are plenty of opportunities to get to know him and his work; check out a Tornatore film today and wish him auguri!
Cinema Paradiso – This film follows Salvatore, a Sicilian boy who is mesmerized by the movies shown at the local theater.
La Sconosciuta (The Unknown Woman) Irina, a Ukrainian sex slave who has escaped to Italy in search of something and we are left guessing for a long time what that something is. She arrives in a northern Italian town with a big wad of cash, taking a terrible apartment, and intent on ingratiating herself in the lives of a rich Italian family that live across the street from her.
La Migliore Offerta (The Best Offer) (Stars Geoffrey Rush and is an English language film.) When Virgil Oldman is contacted by an heiress with some art that she’s interested in selling he’s at first annoyed that she’ll only talk to him on the phone, then intrigued, and finally infatuated with the mystery surrounding her. In Oldman’s eyes, she’s the perfect woman; beautiful, contained, and something to acquire. His relationship with her and two other new friends change his world and open it up in ways he never could have imagined.
Baarìa Baarìa is autobiographic story of three generations in the Sicilian village, Bagheria where Tornatore, was born and Baarìa is Sicilian slang for it. Like his earlier CInema Paradisoit’s very sentimental and beautifully filmed.
I Love Italian Everything 