Paolo Villaggio has died

The enormously popular Italian comedy actor Paolo Villaggio has died at the age of 84. He was part of the large number of gifted comedians who played clueless, hapless characters but who were actually far from it in real life.

What made him so famous back in the day was his persona as the oppressed little guy, a clerk or other employee who was unlucky both on the job and at home. Here he is as Fantozzi, his most famous role. He has missed the bus (literally) and is terrified of the possibility of being late for work. Watch the whole thing, it's worth it. For other videos, go to YouTube and search under Fantozzi.

Bud Spencer has died

Italian actor Bud Spencer has died, age 86.

How did the Neapolitan Carlo Pedersoli get the name "Bud Spencer?" It's a long and entertaining story. He started out after the war as a precocious university student, who then turned his attentions to swimming competitively and did very well indeed. He was national champion and was the first Italian to swim 100 meters in under a minute. He also was in the Olympics. Here he is in all his youthful glory.

Time passed, he got married and had some bambini. He tried his hand as a songwriter. Then stumbled upon an acting career and as part of the spaghetti western trend took the name of "Bud Spencer," a combination of Budweiser and Spencer Tracy.  He lost his swimmer's physique but not his badassness, as can be seen here (with his sidekick Terence Hill aka Mario Girotti.)

Not content with his meager accomplishments, he went on to become a businessman, pilot, politician and author. His last book, Mangio ergo sum, came out two years ago and was inspired by the anguished nightmares caused by a diet. Various philosophers come to talk to the hungry giant, who tells them his own views on life, and finishes up with a recipe. Pasta e fagioli seems to occupy an important position in his worldview, as it should.

Get to know more about this great guy at his official website here (English version at bottom of home page.)

Ando', Viva la liberta'

Now here is one of the best Italian movies I've seen in a long time. Doesn't hurt that it features Toni Servillo in two roles, playing a major left-wing politician and his recently deinstitutionalized identical twin, who's still on meds.

The politician is sick and tired of Italian politics and leaves the country (this in itself proves his sanity.) But he has left secretly, with no explanation. His cronies are in a panic and decide to replace him with his twin brother. The crazy twin takes to his new role with gusto, and inspires the dwindling and disheartened Left. In the meantime the real politician is in Paris a' la recherche du temps perdu, just like Proust. As we know, this isn't going to work. What will happen? The suspense is part of the interest of the movie.

But just as important is the skillful handling of multiple themes such as mental illness, the crisis of the Left, regrets over the past and the choices made in life, and the future of Italy, and indeed of the West in general.

Big shout out to director Roberto Ando', who directed and wrote the book on which the movie is based. Also, look out for the touching speech given by the "crazy" twin, based on a poem by Bertolt Brecht. The poem is depressingly relevant, even after all these decades.

Italian movies on Netflix

I just got back on Netflix after a long lapse. Of course I immediately watched a bunch of Italian movies. Here's a rundown of the ones I've seen so far.

Terraferma- Crialese. Moving story based on the true, ongoing situation of boat people headed for the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. Most of it is in dialect. Rating: R for Recommended.

The Jewel- Molaioli. With Toni Servillo, one of Italy's most talented actors. Based on the bankruptcy of dairy giant Parmalat. Rating: R (but could have been better).

Dormant beauty-Bellocchio. An episode movie with the common theme of euthanasia, graced by the presence of French actress Isabelle Huppert. Bellocchio is one of the remaining grand old men of Italian cinema, but this movie isn't so grand. Rating: M for Meh.

Honey-Golino. Lovely actress Valeria Golino (in the photo) has moved into directing and has done herself proud. Another movie on euthanasia (what's up with that?). Rating: R.

Five star life- Tognazzi. Maria Sole Tognazzi, daughter of the late great Ugo, has directed this bit of fluff that is the epitome of First World Problems. With Margherita Buy, who apparently has a contract to appear in every Italian movie made- although I can't imagine why. Rating: P for Pffftt.

More mini-reviews of Italian movies coming soon.

Aldo Fabrizi, foodie extraordinaire

Been meaning to do this post for some time. Here goes.

Aldo Fabrizi was an Italian actor best known for his role as the priest in Rossellini's Rome Open City. But the portly Roman was also a lifelong gourmet and gourmand, as you might have guessed from his imposing girth. And also the brother of Elena Fabrizi, another foodie in the family, who established several restaurants in Rome, including the famed Sora Lella (named after her), before starting an acting career after the age of forty.

When Aldo wasn't acting up a storm, he was eating and cooking up a storm. Not only that. He wrote recipe-poems in Roman dialect, including the most famous dishes of his city. But some he made up, impromptu, with what he had on hand (as Italians so often do). Here is a shrimp recipe, which he calls seawater pasta.

Pasta all'acquamarina

Tra tutte le ricette pe' sughetti,
questa de stamattina sora sposa,
cia' 'na composizione capricciosa
pe' fa' in un lampo un piatto de spaghetti.

Avete visto mai li vasetti
pieni de gamberetti tutti rosa?
benone: mo' ve spiego co' che cosa
se ponno utilizza' 'sti gamberetti.

Soffritto d'ajo e ojo e doppo: zacche!
Buttate giu' er vasetto el'acqua sua,
co' mezzo bicchierino de cognacche.

Nun ve scordate de la vitamina
cioe' er peperoncino; la C. sua...
sapete bene quello che combina.

A (literally) prosaic summary: get a jar or can (my addition) of cocktail shrimp. Mince garlic and onion and lightly fry in (olive) oil, add the shrimp in its water, and about a half cup of cognac. Finish off with some red pepper.

Aldo obviously did not have an appetite just for food. The final line alludes to the supposed aphrodisiac properties of red pepper. Naughty Aldo- gotta love him.

A

Two items for Rome lovers

Love Rome?

Here are two items that may be of interest to you.

First. A blog (mostly concerned with food) by Roman Eleonora Baldwin, who is also half-American and writes in English. It's called Aglio olio e peperoncino and naturally features quite a lot about Roman dishes, and Italian cuisine in general. Can you believe she's the granddaughter of the great director Vittorio De Sica? Cool. She also has an Italian-language blog called Forchettine.

Second: Woody Allen's new movie, To Rome with love, with Allen himself and Roberto Benigni. I haven't seen it and may not see it, not being a Woody Allen fan (besides Crimes and Misdemeanors), but the current issue of The New Yorker has a (positive) review you can find here.

Zen, BBC TV show

Zen is a short-lived TV show co-produced by the BBC and WGBH Boston, which aired early last year in Britain and recently in the US. It only ran for three episodes of about an hour and a half before being cancelled. It will be of interest to the readers of this illustrious blog because it is based on none other than honest-cop-in-Italy (what a fate) Aurelio Zen, creation of the late Michael Dibdin, who wrote eleven crime novels featuring the Venetian detective.

They had the inspired idea of casting delectable Rufus Sewell (in the photo) as the lead. Much has been made of the fact that (gasp) this British program based on the works of a British author has people speaking in British English, despite really being Italians in Italy. As if this were something bizarre and newfangled. Well, folks, Will Shakespeare set a number of plays in Italy four hundred years ago, with people speaking in British English. And the women were played by men. So there. But it was jarring that the incidental background dialogue was in Italian, e.g., a waiter saying prego, people talking in the street in Italian. And some of the actors have Italian accents (because they're Italian), like beautiful former Bond girl Caterina Murino. But for me it worked.

Besides the mesmerizing presence of Rufus, highly reminiscent of Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, the series has a lot going for it. If you liked the Dibdin books or the similar novels of Donna Leon, you'll probably like these. The plots may seem over the top, but as someone who lived in Italy twenty years, I can say it's very hard to overestimate the convoluted and corrupt nature of that fair country. "Fair" in the sense of "beautiful," not "just." Production values are also good, with filming on site in Rome.


A mystery-in-the-mystery is why it was cancelled, despite good ratings. Some say high production costs, some say other things, but a conspiracy-theory-in-the conspiracy-theory makes me think that the Brits may have wished not to step further on the toes of their fellow Europeans to the south with this highly unflattering portrayal of il bel paese.


Catch it on streaming through PBS.org or get the DVD's through Netflix (in the US).

Virzi', The First beautiful thing- review

Hallelujah, a contemporary Italian director has made a really good movie. They said it couldn't be done! But ole Paolo Virzi' has gone and done it. Not a masterpiece, mind you, but definitely a quality film that will be of broad appeal.

So you think that, although Italy as a society and as a state is a mess, the Italian family is a bulwark, a sunny oasis of love and stability? You should know better than that. Here is the story of a chaotic family over a period of about four decades, starting in 1971 (it may not be a coincidence that this year was the year divorce was finally legalized in Italy, a hotly contested watershed in its history).

The movie moves back and forth between the past and present, with the fine cinematography making it easier to negotiate the rapid back and forth (warm sepia-like tones for the distant past, cooler colors with a lot of blue for the present). Bruno is a disenchanted high school teacher with a drug problem and commitment issues. He is forcefully brought by his sister from Milan to see their dying mother in the hospice in Livorno, his hometown. This evokes an upheaval of memories and forces him to come to terms with his family history, including letting go of the ever-popular blaming-your-parents-indefinitely-for-your-fuckups. In a moment of humor, he and his sister as adults meet a previously unknown half-brother whom they would like to introduce to his real (their) mom. Bruno says: "She ruined my life, she ruined my sister's life, if you meet her, she could ruin yours, too."

My Italian mother remarked long ago that those who say they've been messed up by their parents should remember that these parents could say the same about their own parents, too, in an infinite regress. In fact, in a surprise twist at the end, Bruno's sister veers off unexpectedly into "deviance" herself, setting her children and husband up for some serious pain. Does Bruno ever come out of his funk? Well, watch closely at the end (you might miss this) when the addict takes a long look at his mother's morphine drip and takes a pass.

(in the photo, Stefania Sandrelli, who plays the mother as an old woman, in her splendid youth)

Coffee, cappuccino and life

I sometimes think that non-Italians are more into cappuccino than Italians are, and a little documentary I saw the other day on Netflix would tend to confirm this. It's called The Perfect cappuccino and was made by Italian-American Amy Ferraris. Who (listen to this) actually got a grant to go to Italy and study cappuccino. It's an interesting, quirky effort, although the voice-over by Ferraris was a bit annoying, what with her rising inflection in declarative sentences and pronunciation of "cappuccino" with a "cap" instead of a "cahp" sound.

But the worthwhile bit about this film is that she goes into, let's say, the social and even philosophical aspects of the matter, starting off with an unflattering comparison of Starbucks with the Italian coffee experience. I agree that when I first heard that the inspiration for the gigantic Seattle company was Italian bars, I was startled. It made me think of Charles Dickens's remark that New York reminded him of (old) York because it was so dissimilar. She correctly maintains that the difference between the Italian coffee scene and chains like Starbucks (or Dunkin Donuts) is a reflection of the corresponding lifestyles and values. With the American values putting profit first.

But, alas, this leads us to notice the major changes in Italian lifestyle as seen though the coffee-consumption ritual. The bar (cafe') is increasingly being taken over by non-Italians, sometimes (bizarrely) by Chinese. Vending machine sales in Italy lead all other European countries. And that includes vending machines selling a wide assortment of coffee beverages, as seen in the video (where you might notice a scary macchiato with ginseng and an even scarier cappuccino with ginseng). And as she notes in the documentary, coffee manufacturer Segafredo has gotten into the chain thing, and is expanding all over. Although from what I've seen, they're a hell of a lot more interesting than Starbucks.

Coffee from vending machines has actually been around for decades in Italy (sans ginseng). And it can never replace humans. Or can it? In the video below (from the 70's or early 80's), comic Paolo Villaggio plays his hapless employee Fantozzi, and finds that even the coffee machine treats management better than labor.

Intro to spaghetti westerns

Spaghetti westerns (Italian-made western movies) aren't limited to the Dollar Trilogy by Sergio Leone, as great as that is. Today's New York Times has a good article by someone who loves the genre, like director Quentin Tarantino.

Many of these movies are available through Netflix (some in streaming). A problem is that they may be available with horrendous and distracting dubbing. Look for the original with subtitles if you can. An added attraction for the ladies: great-looking stars like Franco Nero and Terence Hill (in the photo, real name Massimo Girotti).

Find out even more at the Spaghetti Western Database.

Scent of a woman (1974 and 1992)

The movie Scent of a woman (1992), starring Al Pacino in an Oscar-winning performance, is known to many. But not too many of them know that the original is an Italian film made in 1974, Profumo di donna, with the great Vittorio Gassman in the lead role. Over the weekend I watched both, the Italian film on Friday, and the American version on Saturday. Of course, all the while I was itching to compare and contrast, as they say in school, and render my final vote for the winner.

The story is based on a novel by Giovanni Arpino in which an embittered former Army officer who has been blinded travels briefly with a much younger man who is paid to accompany him. Let's just say that the blind and difficult officer makes the young man's life very interesting for a few days. In the Italian version, Gassman travels from Turin to Genoa to Rome and finally Naples. Pacino just goes from New Hampshire to New York City. The Pacino version, like many remakes, localizes the plot. In addition, the American version has a rather important subplot about the young man that is lacking in the original.

OK, OK. Which did I like better? Film snobs love to pretend that all foreign originals are better and that Hollywood remakes are superfluous. There is, I think, a strong tendency for an original to be superior, just as original records tend to be better than covers. But while in the end I did feel that Profumo di donna was the better work, ole Pacino gave Gassman a run for his money and made a very fine and moving film indeed.

The significance of the film is to explore the nature of being a man, specifically an adult male, when confronted by loss to manhood as occurs in major incapacity such as blindness. Both films find the protagonist overcoming his despair by becoming more of a human and less of a male. Their maleness is being overbearing, seeing women as objects, being callous and aggressive- taking forms such as seeking out prostitutes or (in the American film) leading a nubile young lady through a tango and a flaming Ferrari through the streets of New York, sight or no sight.

Their humanity comes in the end when Gassman yields to the real love of the enchanting Agostina Belli, and Pacino becomes a father figure to his bewildered young companion. The American films suffers from the fact that the very things that make it more entertaining (it's over two hours, but doesn't feel long) also make it a lesser work of art. The subplot involving the supposed ethical high ground of not being a snitch is ambiguous and uninspiring, and the final Hollywood happy ending with cheering crowds and a potential love interest who comes out of nowhere feels somewhat false and manipulative.

They're both rated highly on Imdb, 7.7 for the original and 7.8 for the remake (probably a preponderance of Americans voting for the remake). I recommend both.

La prova del cuoco cooking show

I have a theory that a country's cooking ability and its number of published cookbooks, cooking shows and overall food obsession are inversely related. In fact, back in the day, Italians had few of these, and the overall food knowledge and ability was superior. Cooking well was taken for granted. No more.

La prova del cuoco is the most popular Italian cooking show and has been around twelve years. Its name (the cook's test) is a play on words of la prova del fuoco (trial by fire), which is not unclever. In fact it is a cooking competition with dueling chefs, and is based on the BBC program Ready Steady Cook. Not a good sign when Italians start taking their culinary inspiration from Brits.

It is conducted by a relentlessly cheerful bottle blonde named Antonella Clerici (seen above). I've never seen a whole episode through, but lots and lots of people are fans. You can watch back episodes on their site, which is here. The site also features a search function of the show's recipes with a variety of search variables. Both show and site are in Italian only.

She loves Italian movies

She loves Italian movies, and I don't. That is, I don't like contemporary Italian movies. The "she" in question is the blogger over at "I love Italian movies," who started said blog to fight the perception (which I share) that today's Italian film industry is sucky. Both the Koreans and the Danes put out much better movies. Do you realize that Denmark is less than one-tenth the size of Italy? Why can't the Italians put out a movie about the Resistance, which they blather about ad nauseam, like Madsen's Flame and Citron?

But if you want to delve into the newer Italian movies, if you really must, this is the place to go. She has a sincere passion for this stuff, and even if you don't, you should be watching the occasional Italian movie if you want to improve your Italian and get an inkling into contemporary Italy without moving there. The blog also has info on availability.

Check it out.

(in the photo, Gianni De Gregorio in his Mid-August lunch, which was cute but no masterpiece)

Alessandro Marcello, Oboe concerto in D minor

Let me start off by saying that I am no expert in classical music, but when something strikes my fancy, I have a proper appreciation for it. The oboe concerto in D minor by Alessandro Marcello is such a case. Let us take a look, or rather a hear, at this sublime work by a musical dilettante from Venice.



Not being knowledgeable about classical music, I first discovered this in a film from 1970, called Anonimo veneziano. The excellent screenplay was in turn based on a novel by the interesting author Giuseppe Berto.

In the movie, American actor Tony Musante plays a dying musician in Venice who is momentarily reunited with his estranged wife, played by the lovely Brazilian actress Florinda Bolkan. The final scene has said musician recording the concerto in what seems to be a deconsecrated church. It is the last time they will ever see each other.



The name of the movie is Anonimo veneziano, due to the fact that works of art that are difficult to attribute are often given a generic name such as this. Of course the name also applies poignantly to the musician in the movie who has not lived up to to his potential. Which is a condition true of most of us.

Alessandro Marcello was indeed a gifted amateur and polymath, a Venetian aristocrat whose brother Benedetto was also a composer. His talent was confirmed by the transcription of the concerto for harpsichord by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Both the concerto and the film are highly recommended, but the film will be hard to come by.

Frammartino, Le quattro volte

I first noticed this was available a few weeks ago on Netflix streaming, but it did not immediately appeal to me. But yesterday it was named by both Boston Globe movie critics as one of the 10 best movies of the year, so I decided to watch. And in fact I watched it twice.

Director Frammartino is based in Milan but is originally from Calabria (the "toe" of Italy). And the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras also lived in Calabria, where he started a religious sect that believed in reincarnation, among other things. And this seems to have been the inspiration for the director (who also wrote the "script"- the movie has no dialogue, or soundtrack).

What happens in this unique film is that we start with an old goatherd who dies and comes back as a kid (in the photo), who then also dies under an evergreen tree; the tree is then chopped down and eventually the wood is turned into coal. The goatherd, the kid, the tree and the coal are the four times (le quattro volte). Further, the movie started with the superstitious old man mixing the sweepings from the church (presumably from burning coal from heating) into a drink for his ailing health, and the movie ends with the coal being sold for fuel in the goatherd's small town, with a final view of the smoke escaping the chimneys.

An extra is the location in Calabria, an area little-known by tourists. The stark and rather forbidding scenery emphasizes the timelessness of the story and the difficulty of the generations who survived such conditions. Religion, from Pythagoras's beliefs to Christianity, with a good amount of paganism thrown in, is central to the work. Of particular symbolic importance are wood and wood crosses or cross-like structures.

The movie has received well-deserved praise, from The New York Times to The Guardian, and elsewhere. While not a masterpiece in my opinion, it bodes very well for the future of director Frammartino, who is only on his second film. Highly recommended.

Scary Italians for Halloween

I know, lots of Italians are scary- but this time I mean those who are intentionally scary. Namely, the masters of Italian horror films. Italians have a thing for horror- for example, like the French, they are great admirers of Edgar Allan Poe.

Celebrate Halloween (which has been "observed" in Italy for about ten years now) by checking out these cult favorites. Here are the names of the most famous directors of Italian horror movies: Dario Argento, Riccardo Freda (who once visited my home in Padova with his large dog), Mario Bava, Lamberto Bava (his son), Lucio Fulci, and others. Find out more here.

Many of these can be found on Netflix streaming, if you look carefully enough.

(in the photo, scary-looking Dario Argento)

Leone, Once upon a time in the West

This was a great disappointment. Considered by some to be one of the best movies of all time and the best Western, I consider it neither. Mind you, it has very high ratings on all sorts of sites, a cult following and it has influenced a number of filmmakers.

Looking for a clip to feature on this post, I became bored all over again when I started to watch the above, a part of the opening sequence. I loved Leone's Dollars trilogy, especially The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and I love Westerns, but I didn't like this at all.

Too long. Over two and a half hours. Too slow. Too confused. Did not care about characters. Plot not compelling. Excessive and gratuitous violence.

Strange that a movie with so much talent (and so much money from Paramount), with the direction of Sergio Leone, story by Leone, Bertolucci and Dario Argento, cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli, and major actors such as Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson and Claudia Cardinale, did nothing for me. I didn't even particularly like the score by Morricone. Anyone who has seen High Noon or Shane and then says this is the best Western ever makes no sense at all.

But check it out for yourself; it is now available on streaming through Netflix.

De Sica, Sciuscia'- review

Let me say right off that this doesn't measure up to other De Sica classics like The Bicycle Thief or Umberto D. But how many movies can measure up to those? Practically none.

Having gotten that out of the way, I watched this last night, courtesy of my Netflix subscription. It is the story of two young boys in Rome in early adolescence who are sciuscia', or shoeshine kids, in this case for the Allied forces who were still in Rome shortly after the war. They're great pals, the small one and the bigger one. Their dream, which they come very close to achieving, is to buy a horse with the profits from their subservient labor. But they also, through no fault of their own, get caught up in the thriving black market, and are taken to juvenile detention. What follows is a Dickensian tale of child abuse and a denouncement of adults' callousness and unfairness toward youth, and the vulnerable in general.

You will recognize in this De Sica's angry and disconsolate world view. I find that it is an antidote to what many Italians like to believe when they say si stava meglio quando si stava peggio, that is, we were better off when we were worse off. I personally see no redeeming social value in poverty, as the great Dickens realized. The world was just as rotten then, with all sorts of physical privations and hardships to boot.

A note: Franco Interlenghi, the bigger boy, who has an unusually pleasant face, went on to have an important career in movies, including with Fellini in I Vitelloni. The other young actor did not.

Nanni Moretti Habemus papam

Nanni Moretti's new movie, Habemus papam, came out recently in Italy and was shown today at the Cannes Film Festival. It received a positive response, unlike, say Antonioni's L'Avventura, which was booed and hissed at Cannes when it came out fifty years ago. So one may be just a bit skeptical of film festivals.

But here I strongly suspect they're right. I know the French like Nanni Moretti, and so do I. In fact he's my favorite living Italian director, not that he has a lot of competition. I haven't seen the movie, alas, but any movie directed by Moretti and starring Moretti and veteran French actor Michel Piccoli is one I'm going to see.

Habemus papam is Latin for "we have a Pope," and is the traditional announcement once the Conclave of cardinals has arrived at a decision on the next pope. In the movie, the newbie pontiff (Piccoli) gets cold feet and actually runs away. Enter Moretti as a psychologist to the rescue. Will he be able to save the papacy, and if so, how? Watch it and see.

(Holy cow- I just realized it's Friday the 13th. Sfiga in vista!)

Wuzzup?

Wuzzup, mah homies? Wuz is what's up, that's what.

If you know Italian well and are into books, film, and other such cultural stuff this will definitely be your go-to place. The site is very rich and complete, insofar as a site can be complete for such a topic. Just take a peek at the resources on the left side of the home page, for example, under Web Utile. The online dictionary list will be useful even for those of you who are not yet proficient in the language, and includes absolute necessities such as the Italian-Ukrainian dictionary and the Italian-Piemontese dictionary (Piemontese and Ukrainian peeps- do not e-mail me to express disapproval of my irony, won't do any good).

I would not just check it out, I would bookmark it.