I am starting this new thread which will be featured at the top of the Italy forum as a place for us to write about movies set in Italy. I will use the information here to update our Italy Movie List the Liz wrote for us years ago.
Post the information for the movie and your review of it. Anything posted here may end up on a page on slowtrav.com.
This thread is just for the reviews. Start a new thread to discuss any of the reviews. Thanks!
The Scarlet and the Black, with Gregory Peck, Christopher Plummer, John Gielgud, 1983 (DVD from Netflix)
Filmed in 1983 but set in Nazi occupied Rome in the 40s during the end of World War II. Based on a true story. Gregory Peck plays Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, an Irish priest in the Vatican (with a very bad Irish accent) who works with local Italians to hide American and British POWs (and some Jews). John Gielgud is the Pope and is only in a few scenes. Christopher Plummer plays the German Nazi in charge of the Rome occupation.
The movie feels like a 1950s movie with simple plot line, bad acting and bad accents, but it was interesting enough because of the scenes of Rome. Many scenes of St. Peters and in the Vatican. Plummer's character lives in an apartment that I would guess is in the Capitoline Museums - it looks at the Victor Emmanuel Monument in one direction and into the Forum in the other. There is a good scene at the end in the Colosseum. Many good street scenes.
Oh Goody!!! I'm first with the CLASSIC Roman Holiday. Audrey Hepburn as the runaway princess, Gregory Peck as the american journalist, Eddie Arnold as the sidekick. Classic american 50's story telling, real chemistry between Hepburn and Peck, with a twist at the end.
A little known fact is that the writer was Dalton Trumbo who was on the blacklist at the time. His front was Ian Mclellan Hunter. Directed by the great William Wyler who also directed Ben Hur. Obviously a man in love with Rome in all its phases and it shows.
5 stars and two thumbs up. Don't rent it - buy it because if you rent it you will just end up buying it anyway - save yourself the rental fee and apply it toward the purchase price. If you are a cheapskate it shows up occasionally on Turner Classic Movies.
I love the subtitled Italian film "Bread and Tulips". I was lucky enough to stumble across it on Netflix. It is the funny and warm story of an Italian woman who is thoughtlessly left at a rest stop while on vacation with her family. She realizes that she is underappreciated and unhappy with her rude family- so she takes off for Venice, on her own. Romance and a great deal of wonderful Venice scenery follow. It's delightful. Linda
Posts: 645 | Location: Outlying area of Chicago | Registered: 15 September 2004
Another pretty dumb movie that has some of the best Italian scenery I have seen is a Suzanne Pleshette/Troy Donahue vehicle from 1962 called Rome Adventure.
The plot has the main characters on a tour around Italy stopping at many locations...the ones I remember include Bomarzo and Lago di Maggiore.
- A Room with a view with Helena Bonham Carter and Maggie Smith (Tuscany) A young girl transformed by Italy falls in love with another English tourist there.
- Only you (Venice, Rome, Positano, Tuscany) Faith is going to Italy following an unknown man called Damon Bradley and who is supposed to be her "destino". With Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey jr.
- Summer Time with Catherine Hepburn David Lean directed this 1955 movie, which starred Katherine Hepburn as a love-starved American on her first trip to Venice. The film is packed with beautiful scenery that hasn't changed in the intervening decades. The Pensione Accademia Villa Maravegie, where the hotel interiors were shot, is still popular with American tourists.
- Little White Lies 1989 (Rome) This is a comedy with a police woman who goes on vacation to Rome and meets with an american doctor there. She lies on her profession and so does him.
- Tea with Mussolini starring Cher (Tuscany) Luca is alone. The boy's father's secretary, Mary Wallace, decides to adopt him. She is part of an eccentric community of British refugees called the Scorpioni, who sip tea and take part in Italy's wonders. The team includes Arabella (Judi Dench), Georgie (Lily Tomlin), Mary (Joan Plowright) and is led by the snotty Hester (Maggie Smith), whose late husband was England's ambassador to Italy, working with the dictator Mussolini. The boy becomes indulged into the group making many life long friends.
- Seven Hills of Rome with Mario Lanza. This one is a musical comedy and has beautiful views of Rome. 1958
September Affair (1950) with Joseph Cotton and Joan Fontaine
Two people fall in love while on vacation in Italy and through a twist of fate are able to leave their lives behind and live together in Italy, for a time.
Worth seeing for the on location filming and if you enjoy "classic" films, but not stellar performances from either of these two actors.
Difficult to find, not on DVD yet, but you may find it on VHS or catch it on cable TV.
Recommendation: Yes, but don't expect too much.
-Krista
Posts: 1648 | Location: Santa Barbara, California | Registered: 21 May 2004
Caterina in the Big City (2003) on DVD, Italian with subtitles
This is a really charming film about a 15 year old who is forced to move to Rome with her family. She has to find her way and make new friends amidst quite a cast of characters.
Despite being a somewhat standard plotline for a film - coming of age in the big city - it manages to be refreshing and unique with touches of both humor and social commentary. Great cinematography and shots of Rome, too.
Recommendation: Yes, absolutely!
Posts: 1648 | Location: Santa Barbara, California | Registered: 21 May 2004
I will also add Agata and the Storm to the list. I saw it recently, got it on NetFlix, and absolutely loved it!
It is directed by Silvio Soldini, the director of Bread and Tulips. Licia Maglietta, the same lead actress from Bread and Tulips, also stars in this film and is nothing less than entirely luminous. You just can't your eyes off of her. She is sexy, provocative and yet innocent all at once. She makes her character utterly enchanting.
Agata and the Storm is the tale of an Italian bookstore owner who is in the prime of her life, confident, happy and content. Along comes this handsome younger man who sweeps her off her feet and proceeds to shake things up for her in that way that only a much younger lover can do. Her brother also has his very own shaking up of things taking place, but in a very different way...
It is the tale of family, love, sex, friendship and freedom. A true delight!
I think one of the most intriguing and beautiful movies I have ever watched was Stealing Beauty. Liv Tyler was just as breathtaking as Tuscany. The plot is rich, complex and true to life, young love and the pain/joy of growing up.
The movie intertwines the lives of Lucy, a virgin teenager who is sent to Tuscany to spend the summer with a group of jaded, avante garde, writers, artists, sculptors, etc. ex-pats in the golden hills of Tuscany.
She is sent by her stepfather because her Mother, a famous published poetress has died and he feels that these people, who were her contemporaries and cronies from another time, can provide Lucy with the insight and comfort he can't give her.
Lucy has two goals, one, to find out who her real Father is and, two, to loose her virginity to an Italian boy who she met years ago and on whom she still has a tremendous crush. (In a little plot twist this boy's best friend has a crush on her.)
What is so compelling in this story is how Lucy relates to the people she's staying with. Jeremy Irons is dying of Aids, her hostess is an Earth Mother who was Lucy's Mother's best friend, her daughter is a jewelry designer who can't keep her clothes on and she's shacking up with a two timing movie producer. There is a grandfather with Alzhiemers and a May/December romance between a much older woman and a younger man.
And it is all filmed on location in some of the most gorgeous landscapes of Tuscany.
It's a marvelous movie, it invokes many memories of young love and the cinematography is dazzling.
The recent film Casanova had some wonderful footage of Venice. The film probably has little to do with history, but it's a fun "romp." Definitely not for kids.
For kids, try to find The Thief Lord, which was made into a movie and is fairly faithful to the much-loved book. It's another one set in Venice, and my kids loved it. Although the movie is fairly new, I'm not sure if it was ever widely-released; we found it on DVD while browsing in our local library.
Originally posted by SL Jones: I love the subtitled Italian film "Bread and Tulips". I was lucky enough to stumble across it on Netflix.
Linda
I LOVE this movie. Have seen it twice and I hardly ever watch movies twice. Don't watch a lot of movies in general so if I watch one twice it means a lot! This one is a bit disjointed at the beginning but the 2nd half of it is marvelous. Just LOVE the line: "sono venuto a reclamare la tua mamma"
Anyone who knows me knows my first recommendation would be Roman Holiday A few others I enjoyed that haven't been mentioned yet:
Ciao Professore A school teacher from the North is sent, through a clerical error, to a school near Naples and must confront the cultural differences and prejudices (his own and the locals'). The children in this movie are so cute and funny...they're the real stars. Witty and charming.
Non Ho Paura (I'm Not Scared) A suspense-thriller set in a teensy town in southern Italy where a young boy discovers that a child has been abducted for ransom. He befriends the boy as much as he can, smartly realizing there are limits or he'll be discovered, and not fully knowing who to trust in the situation. Very effectively suspenseful (but not gory at all). At one point we literally jumped out of our seats! Gorgeous shots of the wheatfields/landscape.
Cinema Paradiso A sweet, touching, and funny film about a boy who grew up loving the cinema and the influence the movie theater, called the Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, and the projectionist had on his childhood. He became a famous director and when he hears of the death of the man who had been a father figure to him, reminisces through his memories of that period. Very sweet movie.
Love and War Mentioned above, it's a Hallmark Hall of Fame movie based on Eric Newby's experiences as chronicled in his book, Love and War in the Appenines. Loved the book and enjoyed the movie. He and wife Wanda were present through the filming; they did a good job of condensing and but accurately portraying the experiences he had as a pow-escapee in Italy during WWII.
"Il vestito da sposa" by Fiorella Infascelli and with Maya Sansa who also played Mirella in "La meglio gioventù" (The best of youth). Despite the title, this is not (just) a love story, it's a very dark story about a woman who gets raped on the eve of her marraige and later falls in love with the designer of her wedding gown, not knowing that he was one of the rapists. Great story but alos great shots of central Italy (I have tried to find where the film was located, but I didn't succeed. anyway, hill town somewhere in cental Italy).
Lots of great films mentioned here and several are my favorites. I would like to add...
"The Merchant of Venice," 2004. Al Pacino (IMO, outstanding as Shylock), Jeremy Irons, and Joseph Fiennes.
"Merchant" is directed by Michael Radford, who also directed another good film set in Italia,"Il Postino." Which also co-stars "Cinema Paradiso's" Philippe Noiret.
Cindy ~ "Follow your Bliss." Find where it is, and don't be afraid to follow it. ~ Joseph Campbell
Posts: 767 | Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA | Registered: 16 November 2005
I really enjoyed watching The Talented Mr. Ripley (both times!) The Italian locations are absolutely gorgeous - I'm not sure where all of them are, but am sure I recognized at least Rome, Positano and Venice.
This sweet film is really the story of a Slow Travel trip to Italy in the 1920s. Two married British women-- seeking something different in their lives-- spot an ad about a villa to rent in Italy and decide to head off on an adventure. They need to recruit two other women to make the rental affordable, and end up with two strangers-- an older cantakerous woman and a young, vain woman. Somehow in the course of their stay, all four women are transformed. The movie has an almost magical feel. It definitely inspired me to want to spend more time in Europe.
The cast includes Miranda Richardson, Joan Plowright, and Alfred Molina. The Italian scenes were filmed in Liguria, though I'm not quite sure where.
Highly recommended. (Unfortunately it's not yet available on DVD.)
A few others I enjoyed that haven't been mentioned yet: