loislane17 wrote: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.
LoisLane is so sharp I can hardly bear to argue. Well, there was one point I could pick on in the last set of paragraphs, but basically she knows much more than I do.
I don't really give a **** about what folks through the ages have said about various movies, especially if the folks are recent - well, that's not true, I would like to see the varying views. But first I'd rather react myself. Then see what people had to say. Then to deal with it all.
