5 Italian movies to watch at least once in a lifetime
5 Italian movies – Do you ever stop to ponder how lucky we are to live in a country so full of beauty, history and good food such as Italy? Italy mesmerizes tourists from all over the world – it always have. What made Italy so gloriously famous? What could bring people from the most diverse countries together and make them all travel the craziest lengths in order to come here and visit our country, take a taste of our habits, witness our traditions?
Cinema and movies (or films) have their share of responsibility, the sixth art, as it is known, can really reach everyone everywhere. There are lots of universally famous Italian movies, but we’ll focus on those that were produced right after WW2, when Italy was rising from the ashes of war and described, through the knowing eyes of directors such as De Sica, Fellini and Steno (and many more), as the joyful country where the true dolce vita belongs and can be experienced. We selected for you 5 movies that are particularly representative and contributed to the fabrication of the myth of Bel Paese. Discover them clicking the below button >
1.BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET (1958) by Mario Monicelli
There couldn’t be a more Italian film in a thousand years. Everyday life in the backyards and alleyways of Rome can be witnessed as if the watcher were spying on all those pickpockets, paupers and beggars struggle against the new generation obsessed with the American dream, the new way of life where sexual liberation and comfort are venerated as gods. The story is a tragicomic one thanks to the contrast between how our main characters put up with this sort of schizophrenic frenzy, being morally thorn between tradition and innovation – just like Italy during the years after WW2. Continue reading clicking the below button >
2. LA DOLCE VITA (1960) di Federico Fellini
This memorable movie is probably more about places and suggestion than about the stories of its protagonists. We could say it’s almost an “evanescent” masterpiece, capable of taking the hand of the watchers and guide them into a bi-dimensional journey, between the purest illusion and the reality of the sets. We don’t need to remind you that this movie is set in Rome, the wonderful, eternal Rome, so fascinating and mundane, where the main character played by Marcello Mastroianni loses himself into a roller coaster of emotions and relationships.
Writer George Simenon served as head of the jury of Cannes Fim Festival – some 60 years ago now – and awarded Fellini’s masterpiece with the famous Palme d’or even though the movie did not receive positive receptions and the public heavily booed it. Against all negative criticism, Simenon stood his ground and defended Fellini describing his film as a pillar of cinematography, and epic masterpiece that marks the transition between the old traditions and the new; Fellini at his best. Continue reading clicking the below button >
3. THE EASY LIFE (1962) by Dino Risi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7-aIg8dWTo
You may also find this movie referred to with its Italian title Il Sorpasso. It’s the story about Italy’s new found richness and well fare, a country that was finally shaking off the ashes and dust of war’s devastation. Vittorio Gassman plays the part of a 40-something (but still immature) man who goes on a journey together with his friend, a college student (Jean-Luis Tritignant) , driving along Via Aurelia. They will find bucolic landscapes until a very shocking end. The Easy Life is generally considered one of the best examples of Italian comedy. Continue reading clicking the below button >
4. YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW (1963) by Vittorio De Sica
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7XUAW5ZCVM
Vittorio De Sica’s masterpiece won an Academy Award in 1965 as Best Foreign Movie and rightfully so. Divided into three episodes set in three different cities (Naples, Milan and Rome), this movie centers exclusively on women: how were they changing in Italy during the 60’s. It stars the divine Sophia Loren and Tina Pica. It is also one of the first movies to be shot in Techniscope because Giovanni Ventimiglia was working for Technicolor at the time. We can agree that the most famous scene from the movie is that of Loren’s strip tease – she took strip tease lessons and played the scene with unmatchable talent, delivering one iconic cinematographic moment destined to become legendary. Continue reading clicking the below button >
5. LA GRANDE BELLEZZA (2013) di Paolo Sorrentino
The Neapolitan director Sorrentino brought on the silver screen not-so random scenes of mundane life in Rome, describing its decadence and dissolution against the eternal, almost sacred background of the Italian capital. Toni Servillo is Jep Gambardella, a journalist who, wandering through the great beauty of Rome, asks himself time and time again what’s all about, is there something meaningful beyond our existence? The truth is, the watchers don’t get to immediately realize that they’re witnessing a grotesque show: humans devoid of soul, lazy, just mere masks incapable of facing the fact that life’s defeated them – but probably they didn’t even try to fight in the first place; Sorrentino’s characters are tormented and disillusioned, this is why – the director suggests – we need to seek a truthful existence, in line with our conscience and our feelings. Only looking inside ourselves will we find the true great beauty.
Discover also the best Italian directors clicking here
If you like Italy, you will like our Instagram page
