Italian fiction doesn't go on vacation...

Ciao a tutti,

if you really miss some good Italian fiction during the Spring-Summer, besides the LRC collections and the Askwith Media Center (Shapiro Library), you can easily go to:

http://www.raiclicktv.it/raiclickpc/secure/list_strillo.srv?id=151

and choose among COMMEDIA, DRAMMATICO, POLIZIESCO, STORICO, SOAP.

In the POLIZIESCO area, we particularly like "Il Commissario Montalbano":

http://www.raiclicktv.it/raiclickpc/secure/folder.srv?id=1833

Here the Italian actor Luca Zingaretti (photo) plays the role of a Commissario, a character created by the Italian writer Andrea Camilleri, whose stories are set in Sicily.

In the DRAMMATICO section you can watch "Giovanni Falcone", with the actor Massimo Dapporto (photo) playing the role of an anti-mafia magistrate, actually killed by Cosa Nostra in 1992.

In the STORICO section instead, watch "Le ragazze di San Frediano", adapted on the book of the same name by Vasco Pratolini, with beautiful actress Martina Stella (photo). You have already seen her in Gabriele Muccino's film "L'ultimo bacio"...don't you remember?

Buona visione!

Tragedy at Virginia Tech

Italian Film Series is in mourning for what has happened yesterday, Monday April 16, at Virginia Tech University.

Students, instructors, professors just like us died yesterday.

This is the beginning of our President's message we received via e-mail:

"To the Campus Community:

We are all saddened and horrified by today's shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech. I hope you will join me in offering your support and condolences to the Virginia Tech community..."

It was a beautiful day, yesterday: the Spring was finally coming, the sky was blue and the semester almost over made us think about vacations, fun, family, friendship... who could think about a nightmare like this? University is a beautiful place, it is a place of peace and learning, an experiment in community and sharing... Violence is not our means of expression, is not our language.

In bocca al lupo per gli esami!

Ciao a tutti,

Italian Film Series is over, for now. Maybe we'll have another series during the summer...we don't know yet...Thank you for coming to the screenings and for all your comments to the films! They were the primary reason for having this blog!

I hope your exams are going well and all of you can spend a restful and fun summer!

We'll continue to update this blog with news on Italian films, so please...keep in touch...

All these exams going on...make me think about a film that we have watched this semester: "Notte prima degli esami" (by Fausto Brizzi, 2006, see photo)

Does anybody have opinions about it or quotes from the film that would like to share with us? Please do it...and IN BOCCA AL LUPO!

We also want to thank Gugu, italianissimo's president, for his longtime effort to show Italian Films too, here at the MLB! Thanks for recently showing a film we love, "La bestia nel cuore" (by Cristina Comencini, 2005, see photo)

Italian filmmaker Comencini dies

Ciao a tutti,

on Friday, 6 April 2007, Italian film director Luigi Comencini died. Read this article from the BBC website:


"Filmmaker Luigi Comencini, who was one of Italy's greatest post-war directors, has died aged 90. In a statement, Rome's Mayor Walter Veltroni described him as: "A master, one of the great and unforgettable directors in the history of film."
The family said Comencini had died after a long illness, according to the Ansa news agency.
He was often referred to as "the children's director" for his popular children's works.
In 1972 he directed "Le avventure di Pinocchio", (The Adventures of Pinocchio) for television.
In addition to films such as "Pane, amore e fantasia", (Bread, Love and Dreams) starring Gina Lollobrigida and Vittorio De Sica, Comencini was one of the founders of the Cineteca Italiana - the first film archive in Italy. "We loved him, more than anything else, for his delicate and intense vision of the world of infancy," Mr Veltroni said.
Comencini is survived by his wife and four daughters. "(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6532977.stm)


Read also this article from La Repubblica:
http://www.repubblica.it/2007/04/sezioni/spettacoli_e_cultura/comencini/comencini-funerali/comencini-funerali.html


See his filmografia at:
http://www.italica.rai.it/esp/cinema/filmografias/comencini1.htm


Among his films we particularly loved "Tutti a casa" (1960).
See: http://www.italica.rai.it/cinema/film/acasa.htm
and the photo.