We’re still hunting down the Italian films you can stream (and nobody makes it easy). It’s a work in progress, so if you find one we haven’t, let us know.
Il Capitale Umano, Human Capital
Stephen Amidon’s novel about upper crust Connecticut becomesPaolo 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.
Dino (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) and wealthy narcissist Giovanni Bernaschi (Fabrizio Gifuni) are separated by class but united by their childrens’ friendship and Bruno’s half-baked scheme to make money. Giovanni doesn’t want his wife (Bruni Tedeschi) to worry her “pretty little head” about the financial pickle they find themselves in and Dino keeps his (Valeria Golino) completely in the dark, so she doesn’t even know that she should be worried. Also stars Luigi Lo Cascio.
Cesare Deve Morire, Caesar Must Die
Using real inmates at a real maximum security prison in Rome who are staging a production of Julius Caesar, directors Paolo and Vittorio Taviani won the Golden Bear and the Berlin Film Festival. These inmates, nearly all incarcerated for drug trafficking or organized crime activity, played all the parts in the production and used it as an opportunity to tell their own stories as well as Shakespeare’s.
“We said they could use any name they like and make up biographical details but none did, they all told their real stories,” said Paolo Taviani. “They realized this film would be seen in theaters, maybe by people, by friends, who had forgotten them. This was their way of crying out: We’re here! We’re alive!”
Il Compleanno – David’s Birthday
David’s Birthday is kind of like a Dolce&Gabbana ad with an overly handsome men in Speedos and with troubled looks on their faces.
It’s also gay themed and pretty sexy, with the handsomest of the bathing suit guys (Brazilian Armani model Thyago Alves) as David, 18-year-old underwear model son of Diego ( Alessandro Gassman) and Shary, home for a summer holiday with the (dysfunctional) parents. They’re at a beach house with some friends, Matteo and Francesca, a (not immediately apparently dysfunctional but give it a few minutes) couple with a little girl. The couples are having a great, relaxing time together and then David arrives, taking the breath away from everyone in the vicinity. Nobody can take his eyes off David – the girls all want to date him, the boys all want to be his friend, and uncle Matteo – he wants to have sex with him.
I’m not giving anything away; this is obvious in the completely-void-of-sublty looks that Matteo gives David from the moment they meet. It’s too much. If my husband was constantly gawking like that, mouth hanging open and drooling at anyone, man or woman, I’d have smacked him in the head and told him to knock it off on day one. And yet no one in the group seems to notice the impure attention he gives to his best friends’ son.
It ends badly. Surprised?
As movies about people having affairs go this one was less glamorous, the sex less hot, and the lovers less satisfied. At times I found myself wondering what it was about the whole thing that kept Anna (Alba Rohrwacher) and Domenico (Pierfrancesco Favino) interested in keeping the thing alive. They were hurting everyone around them, spending money that they didn’t have, lying, and giving us no indication of how they felt their lives would be better if they left their spouses and stayed together, and yet they couldn’t stop.
Gomorrah, 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. Every stereotype in my body tells me that this is not really organized crime but only impoverished, larcenous thugs who value life very little, so loosely banded together and without structure that no one is protected and everyone’s got a price on his head – literally. These stupid, brutal men might seem laughable if they hadn’t taken such a cold and complete hold on the area around Naples. But as we are reminded at the end of the film, the Camorra has killed more people than any other organized crime groups. They sell more drugs than any other, and have invested their gains in legitimate businesses all over the world, including the reconstruction of the twin towers.
Roberto Saviano was forced into hiding for writing the book that this movies was based on, and there’s really nothing funny about it. Gomorrah is grim movie that shows us a very grim reality. Do we want to see it or look away?
La Grande Bellezza, The Great Beauty
This academy award winning film from Paolo Sorrentino and starring Toni Servillo isn’t one to be so much dissected and debated as it is to be absorbed and then reflected. After having watched it for the first time it was almost as if I’d been shown something important from God, or a ghost, or someone showing me great mysteries in a crystal ball and they’ve said to me, “There. Now you spend some time just thinking about that one”.
How’s that for a hyperbolic reaction to a film that seems to want to condemn hyperbole?
After eviction from their apartment Gustav and Luca are at a crossroads; Gustav wants to leave Italy and move to Berlin, but Luca wants to stick it out in his native country. Before making this important decision, the guys give themselves six months to tour the country in an old Fiat 500, the symbol of economic miracle, and make a “pros and cons” list on the merits and disadvantages of living in Italy.
Gustav Hofer e Luca Ragazzi inspect the symbols of their country, things from an illustrious past that are contradicted by what they find on their tour. Luca reminds Gustav about all the good stuff, the pizza, the Vespa, the fashion, and Sophia Loren, Gustav counters with the bad stuff – the unemployment, the mafia, the corruption, and the immigration problems. Written and directed by Hofer and Ragazzi, the pair takes a look at the situation without anger or resentment, but with affectionate satire.
Pane e Tulipani, Bread and Tulips
I’ve watched Pane e Tulipani ( Bread and Tulips ) 100 times and I’m not exaggerating – the number may actually be higher. I’m thinking about calling director Silvio Soldini to ask him if I can do commentary on a director’s cut – I love this movie and I’ve given it a lot of thought. It’s practically perfect, and not because there are no mistakes, but because there is nothing in it that I’d change.
I love watching movies about young people falling in love – I do it all the time. But it means so much more to me in Pane e Tulipani because the couple is my age and because they aren’t Hollywood glamorous. Licia Maglietta (Rosalba) is gorgeous, don’t get me wrong, but she was 47 when she made the movie and she’s not trying to look anything different. Fernando (Bruno Ganz), the man she meets on her adventure is extremely ordinary looking and much older – she fell for his kindness, his romantic gestures, and the way he looked at her, not for his looks.
La Migliore Offerta, The Best Offer
Pranzo Di Ferragosto – Mid August Lunch
Written by, directed by, and starring Gianni Di Gregorio 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.
What? Doesn’t sound interesting? Well, I guess you had to be there.
So be there – watch this movie. I’m sorry, I can’t adequately explain how charming and real the ladies are – you have to see for youselves. I don’t know how to explain even to myself why I was hanging on every word of their rather mundane conversations. It isn’t trying to be anything, and any lesson we might learn from it is unintentional. There’s no, “and the moral of this story is that old people are a treasure” or anything like that.
It was like having a really good day at one of your old relatives’ house. They’re cooking and complaining and cackling like hens and you look over and think, “I really love you guys.” It’s like that.
I guess you had to be there.
I Love Italian Everything 