The most exciting of 2015: Suburra
If you haven’t yet seen the most awesome new movie collaboration between Netflix and Rai, why the heck not? If I were in charge, I would have selected Suburra as the submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film.
A crime story based on real events in Rome and Ostia, the acting is top-rate, the pace is exciting, and though there’s a lot going on it’s all connected before you get a chance to get lost or confused, and it leaves a lot of room for the TV series.
Also in the works a 10-episode mini-series, Netflix’s first Italian original series, based on the movie and due out in 2016.
The most awesome thing of all? You can WATCH SUBURRA ON NETFLIX right now.
Suburra stars:
Pierfrancesco Favino as Filippo Malgradi, Elio Germano as Sebastiano, Claudio Amendola as “Samurai”, Alessandro Borghi as Aureliano “Numero 8”
and…Greta Scarano as Viola
Greta Scarano, the second most exciting thing in Italian Cinema 2015.
Ascoltatemi bene, my prediction for 2016: This girl is going to be a BIG STAR. She’s gorgeous, and her talent is Emma Stone good. She’s Jennifer Lawerence good. She’s Reece Witherspoon good. Actually, she’s better than all three of them.
One more cool thing about Suburra to add to the list:
Alessandro Borghi, who plays Numero Otto (Number 8), and also stars in the film that will represent Italy for the Oscar, Non Essere Cattivo. Alessandro is just what Italy needs right now; a great actor with big screen appeal and one who is VERY GOOD LOOKING.
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you’ve notice the attention that Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth (La Giovinezza) has been getting here in the US, prior to its December 4 opening in New York City (more cities and dates to come throughout the month). It’s amazing and worth every bit of the buzz.
Mick, a director, played by Harvey Keitel, and Fred, a composer played by Michael Caine, on holiday together understand that their time on earth is limited, but they are handling their old age in different ways; Fred seems indifferent and lethargic, facing each day with a weary resignation. Mick, however, is working on his masterpiece, his “testament”, with a group of young screenwriters and with the enthusiasm of a younger man.
Watch out for this young director; Laura Bispuri is intense, creative, and on her way up after her amazing Vergine Giurata (Sworn Virgin) about Hana, whose life is dictated by the tradition of her northern Albanian homeland. There, women can’t hold a man’s job, smoke, drink, or carry firearms, UNLESS, they give up their femininity. For a variety of different reasons (and I am guessing homosexuality is one of them) women can renounce their gender, and live as men, but they must swear to remain virgins.
Laura tells me that Vergine Giurata will be in American theaters in early 2016.
Exciting for me (although I’m still trying to decide if Italy feels the same way), the comedies, specifically Alberto Caviglia’s Pecore In Erba. Director Caviglio pulls out all the stops in this hilarious film about a boy who loves to hate and devotes his life to promoting antisemitism. You heard me; it’s a comedy.
Caviglia takes every stereotype, every prejudice, and every form of hatred toward Jews and spins them around like tops, creating a merry frenzy that is absolutely laugh out loud funny. I loved his refusal to consider anything politically incorrect; nothing under the sun was off -limits. Pecore In Erba is an excellent example of the Italian comedies that are reaching beyond Italian borders and have become a more universal belly-laugh.
I Love Italian Everything 