You loved Cinema Paradiso, Il Postino, and La Vita è Bella? Let me usher you into 21st Century Italian Cinema with more films you’ll love.
You want it sentimental, romantic, and molto italiano; am I right?
Have you seen…
Baària
I’d put this one on the list of required reading for Italian Americans, but those of us who are just “wannabes” get swept off our feet by this sentimental, semi-autobiographical film from the director of Cinema Paradiso, Guiseppe Tornatore.
My husband, a man who is very often fast asleep after watching 15 minutes of a movies with subtitles, was immediately absorbed in Baarìa’s story of generations of a Sicilian family, and when it was over, he rewound and watched the ending again. The ending is the best part, no doubt about it. It does what an Italian movie does best, grabbing all of our emotions and doing with them as it pleases.
La Finestra di Fronte
Craving a little romance?
Giovanna, like a lot of women for any number of reasons she may have married the wrong guy. She’s smarter, more driven, and more responsible than her husband and is starting to resent having to carry the weight of the entire family. Watching the extremely hot, single neighbor, Lorenzo, played by Raoul Bova, has become her escape from reality.
The “running down the stairs” scene takes my breath away.
Practically Anything From Director Silvio Soldini,
particularly Pane E Tulipani (Bread and Tulips). Licia Maglietta plays Rosalba, an unappreciated housewife that gets left behind at an autogrill (rest stop) near Rome on a vacation with her family. Hitchhiking home she takes a turn driving for the sleepy guy who picks her up and on impulse she bolts, blowing by the exit for her town in Pescara and heading for Venezia. A great adventure begins for her, and as the tagline says, she imagines her life and then lives it.
La Meglio Gioventù (The Best of Youth)
This sweeping mini-series will take you through 5 decades of Italian history, following the lives of two brothers. NETFLIX
Nuovomondo (The Golden Door)
You’re first or second generation Italian; maybe you’ve visited but most of what you know about Italy is from your Nonna’s stories? Nuovomondo will make you feel all warm and fuzzy.
It’s the story of a family from Sicily who hears the tales of the land of milk and honey with streets paved in gold and decides to come to America. Most of the story takes place in Sicily, on the boat, and at Ellis Island, and leaves what becomes of them in America up to your imagination.
I Love Italian Everything 