Category: Italy

Cinema Paradiso

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Cinema Paradiso (buy from Amazon)

Type: Drama, Italy 1988

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore

My rating: 5
Key actors/actresses:
Antonella Attili .... Maria (Young)
Enzo Cannavale .... Spaccafico
Isa Danieli .... Anna

Posted by Dominic
Story:
A man receives news from his aging mother in a little town that someone he once knew has passed away. A beautiful story unfolds about the man's childhood friendship with an old man who was the projectionist at the local theater. Their bond was one that contained many highlights and tragedies, and shaped the way for a young boy to grow and move out of his rundown village to pursue a dream.

My review:
Cinema Paradiso is one of the best movies I have ever seen. It is a very touching movie. I was deeply moved. The whole movie is about the relationship between a kid and the old man who is a film projector controller. The kid's passion towards movie had been developing since he first met with the old man. At the beginning of the movie, this relationship was presented in a very natural, interesting, and humourous way. The kid grew up and the old man continued to be his best friend. The small town had gone through many changes and the kid eventually left for the big city and made his own fame and fortune. He returned to the small town, now an old man himself, to attend the funeral of his life-time best friend and witnessed the demolition of the cinema/church where his relationship with the old man started. The ending was a particularly moving scene, I shan't spoil it by telling you what happened there. Highly highly recommended, don't miss this movie.

Non ti muovere (Don't move)

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Don't Move (buy from Amazon)

Type: Drama, Italy 2004

Director: Sergio Castellitto

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:

Pen?lope Cruz .... Italia
Sergio Castellitto .... Timoteo
Claudia Gerini .... Elsa
Lina Bernardi .... Nora (Elsa's mother)

Posted by Dominic
Story:
Timoteo is a surgent, his daughter Elsa had a traffic accident and is fighting for her life in the hospital, while waiting and praying for his daughter next to the operating thearter, Timnoteo thinks of the time before Elsa was born, in particular, a woman whom he loved called Italia. Their relationship started with Timoteo raping Italia...

My review:
"Don't move" describes a mid-life surgent torned between his present and past, life and death situation, family and adultary affairs. Well scripted, directed and act by Sergio Castellitto who played "Timoteo".

Farinelli

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Farinelli (buy from Amazon)

Type: Drama, Italy 1994

Director:G?rard Corbiau

My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Stefano Dionisi .... Farinelli/Carlo Broschi
Enrico Lo Verso .... Riccardo Broschi
Elsa Zylberstein .... Alexandra

Story:
Farinelli, is the artistic name of Carlo Broschi, a young singer in Haendel times. He was castrated in his childhood in order to preserve his voice. During his life he becomes to be a very famous opera singer, managed by his mediocre brother (Riccardo).

My review:
I first got to know about this film during a Digital Signal Processing conference, during which a French research team presented their work of morphing two singers' voices into one voice. Why would they do that? They did it for this film. Farinelli, a castrated singer could sing a really wide range, in fact, it is so wide that no one on earth alive today can replicate that. So they had to rely on modern science to come up with a way to reproduce the voice in the movie.

Back to the movie, Farinelli is a fascinating character. The director also paid attention to a lot of details. The scenes are grand and the music is simply magnificent.

Old Leglessbird Movie guide

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