ITALIAN

Rev. 10-10-08 EDUCATIONAL/TEXTBOOK VIDEOS Italianissimo/ an Italian Experience (1994), 60 min. Video 2, 3, 4, 5; units 5-20 --Instructional elementary Italian videos- not subtitled, mix of English and German. VHS format Parliamo/An introductory Italian Video (1997) --Conversational Italian-Italian only, no subtitles. VHS format OC OC Feature Movies ** All feature-length movies have English subtitles, unless otherwise noted. Agata and the Storm (Genoa, Italy, 2004), 118 min. OC, SAN -- As proprietor of a bookstore in Genoa, the warm and intelligent Agata dispenses literary wisdom to her adoring customers. When a younger man heeds her advice on books and falls madly in love with her, Agata revels in the passion of the affair, creating an emotional energy that pops light bulbs! Meanwhile, Agata's architect brother Gustavo has his life turned upside down by the revelation that he is adopted and the winds of change rage as Gustavo faces up to his past. The director of Bread and Tulips, Silvio Soldini, returns with this colorful romantic comedy bursting with warmth and sincerity. DVD format both campuses Not rated Benito/The Rise and fall of Mussolini (Italy, 1993) Two discs, 5 hours SAN, OC -- Originally airing on Italian television, this riveting biodrama stars Antonio Banderas as Benito Mussolini. After rapidly ascending the ranks of the Socialist Party, he created a Fascist state in 1920s Italy through his use of propaganda and diplomacy and led his people in a bloody war that would ultimately result in his downfall. DVD format both campuses Warning: Rated R 1 Rev. 10-10-08 Bread and Chocolate (1996), 109 min. --An Italian expatriate in Switzerland tries cheerfully to fit into Swiss society while being continuously relegated to the next in a series of ever more degrading jobs. This bittersweet, Chaplinesque comedy delivers laugh while making a valid statement about class and injustice. VHS format Not Rated OC Bread and Tulips (2000), 116 min. OC, (SAN Lib) --An unhappy housewife, accidentally left behind by a tour bus, heads to Venice and soon embarks upon a new life. Leaving her hot-headed husband and children behind, she meets a melancholy waiter who opens the door to his home and a door to a new beginning for her. DVD format PG-13 Caterina in the Big City (2005), 106 min. -- Paolo Verzi's critically acclaimed coming-of-age story follows 15-yearold Caterina as she acclimates to the bustle of big city life. Moving from a provincial seaside town to the Rome apartment of her ailing aunt, Caterina encounters a world that's as skewed and confusing as her own unpredictable emotions. DVD format Not rated OC Ciao, Professore! (1976), 91 min. OC, SAN --Due to a computer error, an upper-class teacher from conservative northern Italy finds himself teaching third-grade truants at a ramshackle school to the south. VHS SAN and DVD format OC Warning: Rated R Cinema Paradiso (Sicily, 1989), 125 min. OC, SAN -- A beautiful film about a little boy's love affair with the movies that won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and a Special Jury Prize at Cannes. Philippe Noiret plays a grizzled old projectionist who takes pride in his presentation of screen dreams for a town still recovering from World War II. When a child demonstrates fascination not only for movies but also for the process of showing them to an audience, a lifelong friendship is struck. ~Tom Keogh VHS format both campuses Not rated Note: This is the old version of the movie. 2 Rev. 10-10-08 don’t Tell (Italy, England, USA, 2006), 120 min. OC,SAN -- Sabina has a regular life. She is satisfied with her job and her love for Franco. Lately nightmares start disturbing her, and almost in the same time she discovers to be pregnant. Step by step she remembers her childhood spent within a severe middle-class family. But a big secret is hidden within her heart. DVD format both campuses Warning: Rated R, language, sexuality El Alamein (Morocco, Rome, Italy 2002), 117 min. OC, SAN -- This movie is about the men of Italy, and their life (and suffering) in the desert of North Africa. It is a sad statement on their condition, but ultimately it rings true. There is very little politicizing or revisionism as I feared might be introduced. While many of us know the story of vast number of Italian soldiers who were bagged in World War II by the allies, this movie does a fine job of showing that these soldiers were as valiant and honorable as any other nation, despite often being set up to fail. The final shot showing the memorial for those men is a poignant ending to the film. As was the intention of director Enzo Monteleone, these men have been given a fitting treatment, and shall not be forgotten. ~ Brian King DVD format both campuses Not rated Everybody’s Fine (1989), 115 min. --A bittersweet story of a father's quest to reunite his five grown children. Marcello Mastroianni plays an elderly widower who decides to surprise his children by touring Italy and finding out how they live. But they have surprises in store, too, including a wrenching family secret. VHS format PG-13 OC Facing Windows (Rome, Ponte Sisto, 2003), 106 min OC, SAN -- A young working-class woman, Giovanna starts to care for a Jewish Holocaust survivor her husband brings home. Trapped in a decaying marriage, she begins to reflect on her life, and suddenly begins to take note of a man who lives across from her. DVD format both campuses Warning: Rated R, language, sexuality 3 Rev. 10-10-08 Fellini Satyricon (Rome, the Colosseum, 1978), 129 min. --Satyricon depicts the hedonistic, amoral, pre-Christian world of ancient Rome. Using the unfinished classical writings of Petronius as his guide, Frederico Fellini invents a dreamlike culture full of strange, distant characters and odd, grotesque events. The film is loosely based on the book Satyricon attributed to Petronius Arbiter, and dated to the time of the rule of Nero (37-68 AD). The book is considered to be one of the first, if not the first, novels to have been written, but has only survived in fragments. The film imitates this by being fragmentary itself, leaving gaps between events, and even stopping in mid-sentence. However, there is a definite plot. VHS format Warning: Rated R Flight of the Innocent (Italy, 1993) 106 min -- This Italian drama focuses on that country's ongoing wave of kidnappings. The early scenes focus on a large, outwardly normal Italian family who happen to make their living by abducting wealthy children and holding them for ransom. When the family is wiped out by a rival gang, only 10-year-old Vito survives. Any other child would go to the police at this point, but Vito has been raised never to trust the police -- or anyone else, for that matter. There is an abundance of dramatic irony in store for the audience when the fleeing Vito is sheltered by the affluent Rienzi family, whose own child has recently been kidnapped. It soon becomes clear that Vito is simply not cut from his family's criminal cloth, and the decisions he makes show a clear sense of ethics and a determination to set right the vicious actions of his family. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide DVD format Warning: Rated R violence, language Germany Year Zero (2001), 71 min. -- Twelve-year-old Edmund, a child who has known only upheaval and terror, wanders from day to day trying to help his family and find money or food on the streets. One day he meets his former schoolteacher, who now profits from Nazi propaganda, and sets in motion a shocking new chain of violence. DVD format Not Rated OC SAN OC 4 Rev. 10-10-08 Ginger & Fred (Rome, Lazio, Italy, 1986), 127 min SAN -- Amelia and Pippo wowed the world with their impersonation of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers thirty years ago, and now they are being asked to appear on television one more time. They have been booked on a variety show which features celebrity lookalikes, levitating friar, a cow with what looks like eighteen teats, dancing dwarves, and transvestites. Yep, it's a Fellini film. Contrasted with the three ring circus of Frederico's television satire is a gentle tale of aging, and what it means to have integrity in art and entertainment. The main sequence of Ginger and Fred is the distinguished pair waiting in the wings surrounded by freaks. DVD format Not rated Ginger and Cinnamon (Los Island, Greece, 2003), 82 min. -- While vacationing on the Greek "Isle of Love", a repressed 30 year old Stefania reluctantly plays chaperon to her precocious 14 year old niece, Meggy, who plans to lose her virginity before the summer is over. Unbeknownst to Stefania, Meggy's "chosen" man is Stefania's exboyfriend. Amidst a mélange of sun burn, broken diets, nervous girls, sleeping bags, 80's music, and a little ginger and cinnamon, the two women discover themselves and their sexuality. DVD format Not rated Golden Door (Sicily, Ellis Island, 2003), 118 min. -- Emanuele Crialese's poetic tale of emigration at the turn of the 20th century follows an illiterate Sicilian farmer and his family who, after seeing doctored photographs of money growing on trees, set their sights on America. Clinging to their meager belongings as tightly as they do their old world superstitions, they arrive at Ellis Island, shadowed by a mysterious English woman, and are treated like animals: poked, prodded, and interrogated by an assembly line of white-coated doctors intent on weeding out "undesirables." The film is a portrait gallery of faces, its long stretches of silence broken only by sounds in nature: the braying of donkeys, the moaning of the ship as it lurches forward. With dialogue kept to a minimum, cinematographer Agnés Godard confirms her status as one of the most extraordinary visual artists working today. ~ The Village Voice DVD format PG-13 OC OC 5 Rev. 10-10-08 I’m not Scared (2002), 101 min. -- Something sinister is lurking under the surface of 10-year-old Michele’s idyllic summer in 1978. While the days in his remote southern Italian village are filled with the familiar routines of childhood, a chance discovery leads to a shocking revelation. DVD format Warning: Rated R, disturbing images and language OC Il Postino [The Postman] (1995), 108 min. OC (loan), SAN --In this romantic comedy, Mario is a bumbling mailman who is in love with the most beautiful woman in town… and who is too shy to tell her how she feels. VHS format both campuses PG Johnny Stecchino (1992), 100 min. OC, SAN --Roberto Benigni (Italy’s number one box office sensation) stars in this hilarious tale of mistaken identity that proves there’s nothing organized about organized crime. VHS format both campuses Not Rated Lamerica (1994), 116 min. --A neorealist tale of moral conflict and atonement. Poverty stricken Albania falls subject to the invasion of two exploitive capitalists looking to prosper within the changing economy. VHS format Not Rated OC Life is Beautiful (Arezzo, Tuscany, Italy, 1997), 116 min. OC, SAN -- At the Toronto Film Festival, Benigni told me that the movie has stirred up venomous opposition from the right wing in Italy. At Cannes, it offended some left-wing critics with its use of humor in connection with the Holocaust. What may be most offensive to both wings is its sidestepping of politics in favor of simple human ingenuity. The film finds the right notes to negotiate its delicate subject matter. And Benigni isn't really making comedy out of the Holocaust, anyway. He is showing how Guido uses the only gift at his command to protect his son. If he had a gun, he would shoot at the Fascists. If he had an army, he would destroy them. He is a clown, and comedy is his weapon. ~Roger Ebert VHS format both campuses PG-13 6 Rev. 10-10-08 Light of my Eyes (Rome, Lazio, Italy, 2001), 113min. SAN, OC -- A fine character driven drama and an unconventional love story about two lonely people, Light of My Eyes, is considered part of the resurgence of quality Italian films. Antonio is a chauffeur driving the streets of Rome who has a friendly and composed appearance making everyone around him feel at ease. Maria is a somewhat stern 30-something single mother who although still attractive has begun to show her age and has developed stress lines in her brow. Together they make an unlikely couple; but not at first. The film, directed by Giuseppe Piccioni, uses an interesting narration. Rather than the standard voice-over that tells us what the main character is thinking we hear Antonio reading various passages from one of his science fiction books, which (very obviously) line up with his own life. ~ Matt Langdon DVD format both campuses Not rated Malena (1999), 92 min. OC 2 (& OC Lib.), SAN --The story of a boy’s journey into manhood amid the chaos and intolerance of World War II. Only he will learn the true story of the mysterious and elusive Malena, the most beautiful woman in town. VHS format SAN; OC has both DVD and VHS WARNING: Rated “R” for sexuality/nudity, language and some violence. Mediterraneo (1991), 90 min --After a group of misfit Italian sailors invade a remote enemy Greek island they soon become stranded, and then ultimately forgotten, by the Italian navy. The sailors quickly learn they’ve invaded paradise, a magical island where anything can happen. VHS format Not rated Padre Padrone (Sardinia, 1997), 113 min. -- Made almost entirely on location in the backwoods of Sardinia (except for a few scenes in Pisa), this little low-budget film for TV - wisely sponsored by RAI-2 - is a probe of unusual dimension into the deformation of young Sardinians compelled by local economics and the mystics of genealogy to sacrifice childhood and adolescence as sheep herders in the high country. The film is based freely on the autobiographical expose by Gavino Ledda.~Variety DVD format Not Rated OC OC 7 Rev. 10-10-08 Pinocchio (Italy, 2002), 100 min. OC, SAN -- Benigni, was Oscar's darling, with awards lavished upon his concentration-camp film "Life Is Beautiful." He who climbed over the heads of Steven Spielberg and others in his mad rush to get to the stage to collect his Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, has said in interviews that making "Pinocchio" has been a lifelong dream. Speaking recently to Canada's Edmonton Journal, Benigni pointed out how his version would differ from the 1940 Walt Disney animated classic. For starters, Benigni planned to kill Jiminy Cricket. "Pinocchio kills him with a hammer," Benigni said, laughing. "Pinocchio can't stand him. He's always telling him to go to school and be nice. So Pinocchio can't take it anymore -- shut up! But he won't stop talking, so -- boom! -- he dies. It's very funny." People Magazine. DVD format both campuses Rated G Remember Me My Love (Rome, Italy, 2003), 125 min. --Movie about the lives and loves of a modern Italian family whose individual aspirations pull at the seams of their increasingly fragile bonds. “Remember Me, My Love takes place in Rome, but Muccino (director), does not want you to know that. You won't find any Coliseum, Spanish Steps, or Trevi Fountain in this film. Muccino shows us the Italy Italians live in, not the Italy tourists visit.”~ Carlo Cavagna DVD format Warning: Rated R language, sex Respiro (2002), 95 min. -- In this intimate tale about mental illness and its effects on an Italian family living in a small fishing village, Valeria Golino plays Grazia, a passionate, caring wife and mother whose severe anxiety attacks force her to run away rather than face institutionalization. DVD format PG-13 Rigoletto Story (Italy, 2005), 126 min. -- In the 1550's Mantua, the Duke, a celebrated ladies man, seduces Gilda, the beautiful daughter of his sharp-tongued jester, Rigoletto. Vowing revenge, her furious father hires Sparafucile, a notorious assassin, to avenge his family's honor, a decision that will end in tragedy for all. DVD format Not rated SAN OC OC 8 Rev. 10-10-08 The Best Man (1997), 101 min. --Francesca, a beautiful young bride, reluctantly agrees to an arranged marriage to a wealthy older man whom she detests. While reciting her vows, she instantly falls in love with the handsome stranger standing beside her husband. VHS format PG The Best of Youth (Italy, 2003), 366 min. -- As rich with character and incident as a 19th-century novel, the film chronicles the radical politics of the 1960's and 70's and glances at the political corruption of the years that follows, but its deep subject is the way the lives of ordinary citizens reflect and shape the life of a nation. DVD format Warning: Rated R, language, brief nudity The Children are Watching Us (Alassio, Savona, Rome, 1944), 84 min -- This film ran into censorship problems with the Fascist regime controlling the state cinema since its depiction of unfaithful mothers, suicidal fathers and unhappy children reflected badly on Italian society and went against the tenets of Fascist philosophy. De Sica's name was removed from the original credits by the fascist film board as punishment for failure to uphold the dictates of the Mussolini government; they were later re-instated. But the film's focus on lost innocence and the suffering of children was a theme that De Sica and Zavattini would return to again and again in such films as Shoeshine (1946) and The Bicycle Thief (1948). "Children are the first to suffer in life," De Sica once said, "Innocents always pay." ~ Jeff Stafford DVD format The Decameron (1970), 111 min --This movie contains ten stories based on the fourteenth century works of Giovanni Boccaccio. Capturing the bawdy, earthy spirit of the original, the film romps through its tales of sex and death - of lusty nuns and priests, cuckolded husbands, murdered lovers and grave-robbers, with five of the stories linked by an artist, 'Giotto's pupil', played by Pasolini himself. DVD format Warning: Rated R SAN OC OC OC 9 Rev. 10-10-08 The Keys to the House (2004), 107 min --Gianni has been reunited with Paolo, the 14-year-old son he abandoned at birth. The reunion, arranged by Paolo’s doctor, had been set up with the hope that it would benefit the troubled boy. In his attempt to foster a relationship, Gianni finds Paolo full of shocks and wonders, eventually realizing that the keys to one’s house are often the keys to one’s heart. DVD format both campuses Not rated The Last Kiss (Quebec, Wisconsin, 2006), 118 min. -- Michael and Jenna, having been a couple for three years, want to get married and start a family. These plans seem to be well on their way when Jenna announces that she's pregnant. But Michael is worried that his life and his youth will over for good. At a wedding of a friend, he meets a freespirited college co-ed, Kim, who opens his eyes and leads him on a dangerous path away from Jenna. Meanwhile, none of the relationships of the people surrounding Michael and Jenna are happy and stable. Michael's friend Izzy is unwilling to let go of his childhood sweetheart Arianna; Kenny is a handsome stud who fears commitment to his latest conquest Danielle; and Chris is a co-worker who is dominated by his neurotic and overbearing wife over raising their newborn son. Even Jenna's parents, Stephen and Anna, are experiencing problems in their long-suffering marriage. ~ Ed Flesch DVD format Warning: Rated R, language, sexuality OC, OC The Last Victory (Italy, 2004), 90 min. SAN, OC -- This 2003 documentary is a beautifully filmed, almost impressionistic account of the Palio in Siena. Held twice yearly, on July 2nd and August 16th, the Palio appears to outsiders to be a breathtakingly dangerous horserace carried out in the Tuscan city’s central square, the Piazza del Campo, in front of 100,000 screaming Italians. “The event dates back to medieval times and represents the theme of solidarity of the seventeen various neighborhoods (contrada) of Siena, each of which has a symbol and a coat of arms with accompanying flags and regalia.” ~Grady Harp DVD format both campuses Not rated The Son’s Room (2001), 100 min. --Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, Nanni Moretti's examination of the grieving process is tender and emotional but never cloying, as it charts the difficult emotional journey a family must make when it loses one of its own. VHS format Warning: Rated R, language, sexuality OC 10 Rev. 10-10-08 The Star Maker (1989), 107 min. OC, SAN --A con man travels from one small town to the next, claiming to be a talent scout for a top movie studio. And wherever Joe Morelli goes, people turn out in droves for a chance at becoming the world’s next big-screen sensation. VHS format both campuses Warning: Rated R The Tiger and the Snow (Italy, Rome, 2004), 117 min -- Love and injury in time of war. Attilio de Giovanni teaches poetry in Italy. He has a romantic soul, and women love him. But he is in love with Vittoria, and the love is unrequited. Every night he dreams of marrying her, in his boxer shorts and t-shirt, as Tom Waits sings. Vittoria travels to Iraq with her friend, Fuad, a poet; they are there with the second Gulf War breaks out. Vittoria is injured. Attilio must get to her side, and then, as war rages around him, he must find her the medical care she needs. In war, does love conquer all? ~jhailey@hotmail.com DVD format Not Rated The Tree of Wooden Clogs (2004), 117 min -- Dramatizing a year in the life of northern Italian peasants at the turn of the century, this movie pays loving tribute to both the neo-realist style of filmmaking and a rural way of life that no longer exists. Hoping to create a better life for themselves, a poor family decides to send their young son to school despite the crushing sacrifice involved. DVD format Not Rated OC OC The Way We Laughed (Italy, 2004), 28 min. OC, SAN --A working class illiterate, Giovanni, takes in his younger brother. Sicilians displaced in late 1950s Turin, Italy, they struggle to get by with Giovanni working odd jobs while he pressures Pietro to keep with his studies. An economic shift in Italy sends the two brothers along decidedly different paths. DVD format both campuses Not Rated 11 Rev. 10-10-08 Umberto D. (Cinecetta, Rome, Lazio, Italy, 1952), 89 min -- An exert from Miracle in Milan, Vittorio De Sica describes this movie as “the drama of man’s inability to communicate with his fellow man.” "Umberto D" is the story of an old man's struggle to keep from falling from poverty into shame. It may be the best of the Italian neorealist films--the one that is most simply itself, and does not reach for its effects or strain to make its message clear. Even its scenes involving Umberto's little dog are told without the sentimentality that pets often bring into stories. Umberto loves the dog and the dog loves him because that is the nature of the bond between dogs and men, and both try to live up to their side of the contract. Umberto is upright, neat, exact, and the cut of his clothes shows that he was once respectable. Now he is a retired civil servant on a fixed income that is not enough to support him, not even in his simple furnished room, not even if he skips meals. He and his dog are faced with eviction by a greedy landlady who would rather rent his room by the afternoon to shame-faced couples. ~ Roger Ebert DVD format Not Rated Note: In black and white. OC 12