What's your favorite Italian movie?

The question was "what's your favorite Italian movie?", not "what is the best Italian movie?".

You are right, ossobuco...favorite does not necessarily mean
"best." However, I can't imagine someone passing over first-
rate work to prefer something that is definitely inferior. Anyone who does that simply has poor taste and is not to be
relied upon to evaluate Italian movies, or probably anything
else. If you know what the "best" is and ignore it, what does that say about your concept of excellence?

Larry, don't you have guilty pleasures?

(Not that I consider "C'eravamo tanto amati" a guilty pleasure. I like it, period).

BTW, certainly Berlotucci and Bellocchio will end up higher than Scola in the scale of Italian cinema. But also in their cases, there are some movies I love and some movies I detest.

Bertolucci: Loved "Ultimo tango a Parigi", "The Last Emperor" (which some consider a bit too commercial) and both acts of "Novecento", liked a lot "The Sheltering Sky" and I'm not so fond of "Il Conformista", even if I realize it's good near perfection. He lost a chance of a great film in "The Dreamers"; "La Luna" is interesting. "Little Buddha" is a commercial bore, and "Stealing Beauty" has all the defects of European cinema (I walked out).

As for Bellocchio, the film of his I really like is "Sbatti il mostro in prima pagina", IMO, the best film ever about manipulative journalism. "I pugni in tasca" and "Nel nome del padre" are both interesting studies on rebellion. "Marcia trionfale" is a messy psychodrama IMHO.

My favorite Bertolucci is "1900" and I still love "The Last Emperor" even though it demands to be seen on the big screen. I have played the DVD on my 46" wide screen and it still letterboxes, losing some of the resolution (it was filmed in Super Panavision, I believe).

Film criticism (probably all criticism) is subjective and based on what connection one has with the film. Many films address human conditions that some of us don't at all relate to. Same old story, one man's meat is another man's poison. Guilty pleasures are just that -- one can realize that they aren't great films but still loves something about the film. Otherwise, you wouldn't have major critics disagreeing at all.

These forums are by-and-large informal communications and ad hominem attacks are the pastime of the frustrated.

I won't respond to this except to let it sit there and fester.

My previous post may have started the debate about Scola. I just wanted to say I enjoyed "We All Loved Each Other So Much" without knowing anything about the director. Often films are the end product of a collaboration among many individuals, not only the director.

I assume that ossobuco couldn't refute my point and so wants to let it sit there and "fester," whatever that means. Yes, I have guilty pleasures...but I don't confuse them with the best movies I know. As far as Bertolucci, I think he peaked early, with Before The Revolution, The Conformist, The Spider's Stratagem, and Last Tango, and since then it's been downhill all the way.
Parts of 1900 and Last Emperor are good, but the movies don't cohere, because he's thinking in terms of bravura sequences rather than what the whole thing adds up to.
BTW my guilty pleasures tend to be trashy American movies
rather than foreign ones. The only Italian movie I would call a guilty pleasure--or at least one by an Italian director--is BLOW UP, which I know is drivel but I still enjoy watching.

[/quote]

The "best" is very subjective. Some people love arty movies, and others are bored to death by them, and would prefer a love story. Which ones are better? It's up to the viewer to decide. There is no such thing as "best".

There may not be any objective way to determine what is "best", but I'll stand by my statement. Anyone who tells me that CASANOVA is Fellini's best movie, for example, is seriously misguided.

Someone on the forum stated "Casanova" was Fellini's best film? I do find it interesting that someone differentiates between "best" and "favorite." I'm assuming that the Sight and Sound poll reflects the film critics' best and favorite movies and they are virtually the same. The hair has been split.

I will agree with LR that best and favorite may be different items. What might work out intellectually as best may leave many people cold in the snow, but Larry quite happy, and vice versa.

I have no quibbles about vast and adament distinctions. I surely do wish that one for one point of view would not seemingly crucify a person of another view, er, me, or any other person who happens by here to answer the question, "What's Your Favorite Italian Movie?"

I think the person who asked the question has a rounder view than what is the very best, as do many of the respondents. We respondents, or question askers, ought not to be vilified. especially as our rather more visceral points of view are not invalid.

Lightwizard, nobody cited CASANOVA as Fellini's best--I was just using that as an example. I think this distinction between "best" and "favorite" is silly, as you suggest, but when it arises it is the result, I believe, of separating your taste from your intelligence. Guilty pleasures are usually the
movies that you are attracted to mindlessly, or despite what your intelligence is telling you. We all have them, but let's not confuse them with the movies our intelligence rates as
the best.

I just always wonder when some don't make up their own mind about what are the classic films if they follow what the critics and organizations list as the "best films," and I've posted those lists before as a consideration but not a filmdom's Bible. I've had someone say some particular film is a guilty pleasure when they have nothing at all to feel guilt about. As far as I'm concerned there should be no difference between taste and intelligence. Except, of course, when one choses a lover (then smartness seems to go out the window). Intelligent taste is not an oxymoron. However, we all vary in our background and may find a movie intelligently tasteful when others may not.

As a matter of fact, "Casanova" has to be a good candidate for Fellini's worst film and yet it's superior to a huge list of other films.

So, Fellini's Casaonva may be in a list of his worst films. And I can cherish "Casanova" as one of my favorites.

Nicely said, kicky. An interesting thread you've started. Favourite. Not best. They're rarely the same to my jaundiced eye.

Except that there are many "arty" films that are love stories. I don't seriously believe anyone is going to attest that Fellini's "Casanova" is their favorite Italian (or Fellini) film unless they are trying to make a point based on false pretenses. A film like any artwork cab stimulate emotions as well as intellect. Then there are films that are just contrived as entertainment and I'm not sure what they stimulate. Our childlike fun button is pushed?
Too often Hollywood especially tries to hit our childish fun button.

Lightwizard, I have to disagree a bit. I have no problem with films contrived as pure entertainment. They fill a need in the
audience. What does bother me is that nowadays, thanks to the emphasis on entertainment blockbusters, there seems to be no room for the kind of intelligent adult drama
that was so common 30 and even 20 years ago. The bedst thing I saw along those lines recently was WE DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, and it got practically no attention from either critics or audiences...a bad situation for the best American film of 2004. SIDEWAYS is getting a lot of hype at the moment but I found it silly and trivial compared to WE DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE.

About whether a film is the "best" one or not, there is the difference of opitions with a bit of backgrounds about filmography. And about whethere a filmi is a "favorite" one, there is the difference of tastes with sometimes particular circumstances in which one watched the film.

I'm not sure whether the independent film is still "filling the void" as I've never done a study but there are more film festivals including Sundance that showcase the product. There's some promising big studio products coming up which would be called "small films." "The Machinest" looks promising and the new film by the director of "Amelie," "A Very Long Engagement." I do think it's possible we've become jaded and lost interest in the independent and foreign film when there are some truly fine ones out there. It's hard to find them -- we have two art houses in OC, the best being the Edwards at South Coast Plaza. I should visit more often but as NetFlix eventually has all these films in their inventory, I usually end up with several months of catching up on all of these films. Ebert makes it a point to single and and review these films while many other national critics pass over them. The multiplexes are trying to survive with a much younger audience than in past years and the entertainment is unfortunately mostly geared for their tastes. I agree that there should be more adult films made by major studios and that they would still make money. They don't seem to learn from such overblown, box office disasters as "Alexander." Looks like this movie will give Oliver a wake-up call.

Ciao. Loislane17 weighing in on the films and best and favorite.

I always think of cinema in several categories: Films (great works of art); movies (good shows, scripts and/or characters but maybe not all those things together) and flicks--purely fun entertainment that may just scare me or make me smile. I love them all for what they give me, even if those reactions are different. Of course I react differently to "great art" than a fun film, but both may make me happy and want to see them again and I hold both comfortably as favorites.

So, for my favorites--well many were mentioned here; I too am "guilty" of enjoying We all Loved Each Other. Also: The Leopard (the new dvd is awesome), Finzi-Contini, Christ Stopped @ Eboli, Riso Amaro, Malena, Night of the Shooting Stars, Roma: Citta' Aperta, Bicycle Thief, Mediterraneo, Rocco & his Brothers, I Vitelloni, La Strada, Amarcord, La Dolce Vita, Nights of Cabiria (maybe my favorite of the Maestro); I just saw and adored the whacky And the Ship Sails On by Fellini.

And what about the brilliant caper flick poking fun of the French film Rififi: Big Deal on Madonna Street (I Soliti Ignoti). Hilarious. I think it was remade with an American cast as Welcome to Collinwood--just because I saw the last 10 minutes of it and it was the same!

For newer ones, I like Nanni Moretti, so I enjoyed Caro Diario, especially the last segment on the health system. I haven't seen La Stanza del Figlio, but I think it's supposed to be excellent.

Of the Benigni, La Vita e' Bella and Johnny Stecchino are my favorites. The former partly because I spent some time in Arezzo, where the early part of the film takes place.

If I were guilty, it would probably be that I adored the sweet and oddball romantic comedy of Pane e Tulipani, Bread and Tulips. And I've seem some amazing animated films that unfortunately I can't recall the name of...

Kickycan, Italingua, my favorite Italian language school here in SF had a class on Italian films in English taught by a Roman filmmaker. I'll bet you might be able to track down a similar thing in New York! Check the Italian cultural centers and maybe you can find something similar.

Good viewing.