I feel so alone.
Here are some movies that, well, it’s not that NOBODY liked and in some cases the critics and people who actually saw them liked them. But for the most part hardly anyone even got the chance, and the films made no money.
Un Giorno In Piu was based on novel by Fabio Volo and starred Volo and Isabella Ragonese. Italians clearly hated this rom-com, calling it “insulting” and “silly”. On reviewer compared it to the Holocaust in a way that I am still baffled by. Many people thought it was “Too Hollywood”.
And maybe that’s why I loved it, though I still don’t get what’s wrong with a movie with a like-able couple falling in love in a clever way. A man sees a woman on the tram every day and takes a big leap, an “extra day” to see where things could go with her. It’s romantic and adorable.
Un Boss In Salotto is a comedy with a very silly premise but very authentic emotions. It stars Paola Cortellesi and came out not too long before her comedy with Carlo Verdone, Sotto Una Buona Stella. The Verdone movie did very well, was even suggested for an academy award nomination, and Un Boss In Salotto was torn apart by critics.
Why? Beats me. It was Un Boss In Salotto that made me laugh, made me feel a little warm and fuzzy. Also starring Rocco Papaleo as the Cortellesi’s black sheep brother, their relationship was authentic.
Io E Te from Bernardo Bertolucci was not exactly “unliked”, but it was criticized in ways that surprised me. The story of the odd boy who just wanted to be left alone touched me somehow, and when he told his mother that he was going on a school ski trip and instead hid out in his basement for a week I identified in ways that may say more about me than the movie.
When the heroin addicted half-sister shows up and interrupts his plans of solitude, he connects with her in a way he hasn’t with anyone else.
The failure of Paola Randi’s Into Paradiso was a huge mystery to me. Critics loved it, but it went nowhere and made no money. Starring Gianfelice Imparato, it’s the very clever story of a science teacher in Naples who loses his job and goes to the mafia to help him get it back. When things go predictably wrong, he finds himself hiding out in a apartment building with Immigrants from Sri Lanka.
Piccola Patria was actually praised very highly but was only shown on a couple of dozen of screens for 2 weeks in Italy and it earned practically nothing.
The dark story of disenfranchised youth in northern Italy was not exactly a “feel good” movie, but the acting was amazing and authentic and director Alessandro Rossetto crafted a movie that should have done better.
My favorite actor Luigi Lo Cascio was shocked when I told him that La Vita Che Vorrei was one of my favorite movies; he told me that it hadn’t done well in Italy and that Italians didn’t like it.
I’ve watched it a dozen times and find the “love story” of the two narcissists really fascinating and oddly romantic. Does the aspiring actress, played by Sandra Ceccarelli, really love the ego-centric actor, played by Lo Cascio, or is she just a whore? Is he capable of loving anyone at all?
This “movie within a movie” from director Giuseppe Piccioni is one of he most interesting looks at a relationship that I’ve ever seen and I could watch the movie again right now.
La Prima Neve is another that was praised by critics but just never got off the ground and should have. When I saw it at the 2013 Venice Film Festival I was so excited and believed that it would be a huge success, but it never really was. Andrea Segre’s story of the sad young boy who makes a connection with the refugee is touching and incredibly well acted.
I Love Italian Everything 