Salve ragazzi,
Why do so many of my favorite stories about Italy involve altercations with people? 😳 😄 Someday, I’ll tell you about the time in the restaurant when I got into a HUGE screaming match with a man who was angry that we had a reservation and he didn’t. All I can say is – he started it. My Italian is so much better when I’m angry or a little tipsy.
But today, I’ll tell you about the woman who brazenly cut in front of me after I’d waited in a long line for almost an hour. I’m American, dammit. You don’t pull that kind of stuff on me.
“Mi scusi, Signora. C’è una fila,” I said, pointing to the back of the line. Faccia la coda. There’s a line. Get in it.
Her reaction was hilarious. She scrunched up her face and started wailing, “Ohhhhh, mi vergogno! Mi scuuuuuusi! Mi vergogno!”
Am I a jaded American? I just figured she was messing with me. I assumed she was not at all vergognosa (ashamed) but instead trying to “farmi vergognare” (shame me). Nice try, Signora. I felt NO VERGOGNA. I just kept pointing to the back of the line and shaking my head. “Faccia la coda come tutti.” Get in line like everybody else.
WORD FOR TODAY: VERGOGNA – SHAME
Vergognati! Shame on you!
Mi Vergogno! Shame on me! (I’m ashamed.)
I was thinking about that word today because of everyone saying it to and about Amanda Knox these days. I feel like Americans pretty much consider her innocent, but Italians still think she did it.
Don’t know about Amanda Knox? Read about it HERE.
The murdered girl, Meredith Kercher, was British, and I guess the people there aren’t ready to pronounce Amanda innocent on all counts either. The British daily newspaper, The Guardian, recently printed an article that stated:
Why is Foxy Knoxy STILL making money out of murder after 17 years? Amanda Knox makes a controversial drama about the killing of Meredith Kercher in Perugia – to the horror of many locals.
Foxy Knoxy. The media came up with that one after looking at her Facebook page and finding that“Foxy Knoxy” was a soccer nickname going back to third grade.
A Hulu drama series about Amanda Knox is currently being filmed in Perugia. Monica Lewinsky is one of the show’s producers, and I guess she knows a thing or two about a young woman living under a cloud.
Last week, Meredith’s family issued a statement: ‘Our family has been through so much, and it is difficult to understand how this serves any purpose,’ she said.
Meredith’s death, she said, had left ‘an indescribable void’’
Francesco Maresca, the lawyer who has represented the Kercher family, said,
“Knox is only interested in the profits she continues to make from an affair on which she should be silent. She continues to make money from it. This time she has no qualms about doing it in Perugia, one of the least appropriate places to return to 17 years since Meredith’s death.”
I sent a daughter to Italy for a six-month study abroad, and Meredith’s tragedy is every parent’s worst nightmare, but I don’t think Amanda is guilty. What do y’all think? I also think that if I’d spent 4 years in an Italian prison for a crime I didn’t commit, I’d be eager to clear my name.
You can watch the Netflix Documentary about the murder HERE.
Laura Bispuri directed the fourth and final season of L’Amica Geniale (My Brilliant Friend). Were you thinking, “Where do I know her from…?”
You know her from me! 😂
I met Laura years ago when she came to the Tribeca Film Festival with her film Vergine Giurata (Sworn Virgin). Could there be a movie that is more worth revisiting and more fitting for our times?
Sworn Virgin is about Hana, a young girl in Albania who takes an oath of virginity in order to enjoy the benefits of being a man (working, smoking, swearing…you know, guy stuff). A (thankfully) fading practice in Albania and other parts of the Balkans, people who are assigned female at birth are allowed to take a vow of chastity and live as men in patriarchal northern Albanian society.
Alba Rohrwacher plays Hana, who chooses to live as Mark, while her childhood friend, who chooses to flee her family rather than play that game, makes a life in Italy. Fourteen years later, Mark starts to feel restless in man-clothes and heads for Italy.
The movie is based on a book by Elvira Dones.
Bispuri was hand-picked to direct the final season for My Brilliant Friend by the show’s creator, Saverio Costanzo. Alba Rohrwacher is Costanza’s longtime partner, so I’m guessing this had something to do with Costanzo’s decision. It’s been said that Elena Ferrante has been happy with Laura’s work. If you haven’t yet, why not watch the first Rohrwacher/Bispuri collaboration, Vergine Giurata? You have lots of options.
Tubi (Free)
We had a Twitter chat with Laura, and here are some of the questions she answered for our readers.
“Was it difficult telling of a society of gender inequality without personal judgment?” and “What drew you to this story?”
Laura: Yes it was very difficult. I was very attracted to Albanian culture and I loved this country so much. Of course the mountains in Albania has a very strong culture without freedom for women. In any case, I didn’t want to show the Albanian world like a dark world and Italy like a positive one or a dream, so I tried to tell about something that is difficult for women’s freedom in both places. In this way it makes the argument more universal.
“How does your film differ from Elvira Dones book?”
Laura: I read the Elvira Dones’s book and I thought that this was the perfect story for my first feature film. I loved the character of Hana/Mark, I was very close to her/him. Then, I thought that this story was about a world that nobody knows, about Albanian law of Kanun, about Albanian mountain society. It was a very specific place but inside the story there were a lot of questions about femininity and freedom and femininity and identity. And this theme is very important for me.
“Are there countries that will not show your film because of the subject matter?”
Laura: No, there aren’t countries with this problem but I have two particular moments in two festivals. In Egypt where I went for the screening and I felt in this country a very difficult situation for the women. We were awarded three prizes at the end of the festival (best movie, best script and best actress) but for me the contrast was very strong. Another time, in Morocco the editor went and she told me that during the screening some women decided to leave during the scene of sex moment between Mark and Bernard in the bathroom of swimming pool. These women were wearing burkas. Also at this festival the movie received an important prize but the contrast was very strong. I am happy for this contrast.
“Do sworn virgins ever change their mind? What happens to them? Did you meet any actual sworn virgins?”
I know the story of two sworn virgins who changed their mind, and they left Albania and went to another country. But usually, they want to stay on this path. Yes, of course, I met a lot of sworn virgins of different ages. In the movie, there is one real sworn virgin, the character “Pal.” When I met them, I didn’t want the camera with me. I wanted to be with us in a real way, without a camera.
Want to know more about sworn virgins?
I have a favorite Italian cookbook.
I have all the ones on everybody’s “List of Best Italian Cookbooks,” but my favorite is one that is rarely on anyone’s list but mine.
I don’t have the book jacket anymore. I lost that years ago. The book has been lovingly stained from my careless cooking and is falling apart from overuse.
The recipe for basil pesto (Pesto My Way, page 531) is so good that Italian friends have begged me for my “secret recipe.” 😂 I’ll go to my grave with that “secret.”
The author, Jack Bishop, is the editorial director of America’s Test Kitchen. He joined the staff of Cook’s Magazine in 1988 and helped launch Cook’s Illustrated in 1993.
I haven’t always been a big fan of Italian pop, but I want to tell you about somebody I’m kind of into these days, Elodie.
She’s an actress as well as a singer, and I took this picture of her with Tommaso Ragno at the Venice Film Festival in 2022 without having a clue who she was. She’d starred in the film Ti Mangio Il Cuore (literally, “I’ll eat your heart,” but the English title, “Burning Hearts”), and I’d gone to the screening to see my friend, who also starred Lidia Vitale.
So far, it’s impossible to find it in the USA, but I’ll keep my eyes out for it anyway. In the meantime, check out the mononymous Elodie’s music. I love this song from the movie.
And this one, too.
Arrivederci, alla prossima volta!
Un bacione 💋,
Cheri
America’s Favorite Italian Wannabe
I Love Italian Everything 