Comments on: Italian Films to make you laugh, cry and think…

By: Calendar – 2022 – The Educated Traveller

Calendar – 2022 – The Educated Traveller — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 12:50:39 +0000

[…] things Italian. Why not start with a foray into Italian films to amuse, bemuse and confuse… Italian Films to make you laugh, cry and think… at the very least it’ll get you in the mood for a journey to Italy! We […]

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By: La Vita e Bella – Life is Beautiful (1997) – The Educated Traveller

La Vita e Bella – Life is Beautiful (1997) – The Educated Traveller — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 16:00:29 +0000

[…] November, 2018 I wrote an article about Italian films entitled Italian Films to make you laugh, cry and think… My dear friend John Eaton, responding to my article suggested that I should include ‘La Vita […]

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By: Italian Films to make you laugh, cry and think – Part Two – The Educated Traveller

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 13:31:23 +0000

[…] my first article on Italian Film: Italian Films to make you laugh, cry and think…(Part […]

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By: Procida and ‘Il Postino’ – The Educated Traveller

Procida and ‘Il Postino’ – The Educated Traveller — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 20:50:21 +0000

[…] Italian Films to make you laugh, cry and think… an article I wrote on Italian film including Il Postino of course! […]

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By: Janet Simmonds

Janet Simmonds — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 09:32:00 +0000

In reply to maristravels.

Thank you for your comments – yes Roma Citta Aperta is a wonderful film. I think I’ll have to dedicate a whole article to Fellini as well!!! I don’t know La Terra Trema – I’ll look out for that. J

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By: Janet Simmonds

Janet Simmonds — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 09:27:27 +0000

In reply to beverleydalton1.

Also Il Gattopardo is quite wonderful – 1963 – with Burt Lancaster – I’ll be writing about that soon!

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By: beverleydalton1

beverleydalton1 — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 09:19:32 +0000

Lovely post. Il Postino and Cinema Paradiso are on my top twenty movies list. Shall look out for the other two. Xx

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By: maristravels

maristravels — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 17:46:18 +0000

I agree with everything said about La Vita e Bella, it has everything, pathos, humour and stark despair but leaves you moved and hopeful. If you’re making another list I’d like to include La Strada, La Terre Trema, and Rome Citta Aperta, the last one being a truly brilliant film. I was brought up in the era of neo-Italian films with parents who never missed one if they could find it and later I used to catch up with the films at art cinemas when I moved to London. I still love meeting someone who has never seen Bicycle Thieves and I can sit them down and show them the video, giving me a chance to re-watch and cry once more.

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By: Janet Simmonds

Janet Simmonds — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 16:13:25 +0000

In reply to John Eaton.

John – your comments are so welcome! I agree with you whole-heartedly. La Vita e Bella is a brilliant film. Funnily enough I was talking to Lucy about ‘Les Parapluies de Cherbourg’ just the other day – also a wonderful film. If you haven’t seen Divorce Italian Style do please watch it – hilarious and quite brilliant. Thank you – as always for your lovely comments – J xxxxx

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By: John Eaton

John Eaton — Wed, 07 Nov 2018 15:45:01 +0000

Hi, Janet,

What a different, entertaining and interesting departure from your usual “travelogue” contributions!

As a Film buff, I was delighted to see you mention three of my favourite foreign films, and agree completely with your choices.

At the risk of stealing your thunder (as I’m sure it would be the next one on your list – but just to make sure!) I trust that your next list will include one of the funniest but saddest Italian Films ever – “La Vita e Bella” (“It’s a Beautiful Life”) made by, and starring, the brilliant Roberto Benigni. (He has been described as “a kind of manic cross between Woody Allen and Jim Carrey; he creates the kind of tragi-comic hero you can’t help but end up rooting for”).

As another Review put it: “This magnificent film gives us a glimpse of the Holocaust, but it is really about love, and the indomitability of humanity even in the midst of inhumanity”

It certainly deserved the three Oscars which it won, and the scenes of Arrezzo (and other locations in Tuscany) are beautiful.

However, a word of warning (if any of your readers haven’t already seen it, and are tempted to watch it on DVD) – the first half of the film is Italian Comedy at its best – delightful and hilarious. The second half could not provide a starker contrast – harrowing in the extreme; and the laughter which the first half produced, was equalled in amount and volume by the tears which the second half of this unforgettable film produces. I defy anyone to watch it without being moved to those two extremes of emotion!.

And thinking of poignant films, although French rather than Italian, the similarity of the films you mention with the delightful “Les Parapluies de Cherbourg” (starring the impossibly beautiful Catherine Deneuve) is so striking that I would forgive you for including “Les Parapluies” in your overview of poignant and memorable post-War Italian films!

Thank you again

John

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