Here's a list of what I've seen thus far, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss them with anyone interested.

8 1/2
Accattone
And the Ship Sails On
L'Aventurra
The Bicycle Theives
Blow-Up (I have decided to include despite being English because it is Antonioni and it is one of my favorites)
Bread and Tulips
Casanova
The Children are Watching Us
Christ Stopped at Eboli
Ciao Professore
Cinema Paradiso
City of Women
The Clowns
The Decameron
Divorce Italian Style
La Dolce Vita
The Gardens of the Finzi-Continis
Ginger and Fred
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
The Hawks and the Sparrows
Intervista
Johnny Stecchino
Juliet of the Spirits
Malena
Miracle in Milan
Il Mostro
The Nights of Cabiria
Open City (Roma: Citta Aperta)
Open Doors
Orchestra Rehearsal
Il Postino
The Red Desert
Satyricon
Seven Beauties
La Stada
Swept Away
Two Women (La Ciociara)
Umberto D.
Variety Lights
La Vita e Bella
I Vitelloni
Voice of the Moon
We All Loved Each Other So Much
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

Also including the Spaghetti Westerns Unless someone wants to pick them up seperately since I haven;t seen that many:
Fistful of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Once Upon a Time in the West

We can gladly discuss Cine Citta in this context as well.


*I'm sure I'm forgetting many, and I will add them as I remember*

I will recommend from the list for anyone who is in the modd for a particular genre.

I plan to watch Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice) and am looking for a recommendation or two from other Italian Cinema fans. Perhaps Tree With the Wooden Clogs, but I want to try some other stuff out too.


Who's In? Remember, other countries will be hosted as well, so your options are open. The Festival Begins Friday 10.22.04, and continues on through the following Sunday. If you want to host your own thread, announce it in the film festival thread and then start up your country. You do not need to host. You can participate in one of the countries by posting your interest in it, and then...enjoy!


*Participants So Far*
dolcevita
torrino
Dr. Lecter
Archie Gates

wow, i've seen......none of those :?

I remember watching a movie called "Big Night" about some chefs...I liked it. I'm not positive it was Italian though.

It's been a while since I last saw Cinema Paradiso.

EDIT: It took me a while to find out that La vita e Bella stood for "Life is Beautiful".

I don't know how but I saw the movie Big in Italian? Wasn't it always an english film. For Italiano classe we saw Big in italiano. It was awesome.

I'll do Italian horror, dolce!

Soooo, is La Dolce Vita THE definitive Fellini film. Where do I start?

Actually. I rented La Dolce Vita from the library a LONG time ago. But, the subtitles were in white and the background wasn't dark enough to make it easy reading . I probably should have watched it past the first five minutes...

I'm hoping the DVD has a remastered print with easier to read subtitles. Damn, I feel like an old man.

What I've seen:
Cinema Paradiso
Il Postino
Swept Away (the original. not the Madonna one)
La Vita e Bella (I'm assuming this is Life is Beautiful)
Fistful of Dynamite
For a Few Dollars More
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Once Upon a Time in the West

My Top Choices
1. La Dolce Vita (if I can find that DVD...if not, I'll give the VHS another chance)
2. The Nights of Cabirna
3. Blow-Up
4. 8 1/2

I'm trusting you on these, dolce.

You'll love them all, but let me suggest switching up 8 1/2 for another film unless you have a lot of patience. Personally, I've watched Nights and Juliet of the Spirits back to back, but most people aren't like me. Three fellini's might not give you time to, um, properly appreciate each one...

There are others that are a bit more narrative based that are easier to sit through. Though judging by your Spanish films, you'll prbably be fine watching three fellini's. If you look to switch one up, let me know if you want something on the lighter side, slap stick, or heavy side (most are heavy on this list).

Just sent out my La Dolce Vita review to Karl. Woohoo. You guys need to give me STRONG crit on this in the forum dedicated to it, because it IS, afterall, my namesake.

There is an interesting discussion involving Cinecitta, where all the Spaghetti Westerns and many of other Italian Films were made up in the movies section:

http://www.worldofkj.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=354

For anyone watching Blow-Up...

The short story that Blow-Up was inspired by has as its premesis a viewer (its a first person narrative) in a park who sees a sex transaction. Initialy, the viewer is sure that the woman is being traded/bought. However, his mind rambles through the exchange changing the position of each of the members involved until he ultimately decides that it was actually a younger man being given to an older one. Its a stream of contiousness piece that explores the position of each member in the park in relation to the other, and while the reader knows what the viewer/narrator ultimately concluded, one is left to realize that its still up for grabs in "reality."

Antonioni took this literature and really fleshed out the idea of the entire scene being constructed in the mind of the viewer.

*spoilers*

While his movie places a photographer in the park, and later has the entire construction of a murder based off his photographs, I think the ultimate point of the story is that even the murder is up for grabs. Unlike the short story, which still confirmed the exchnage, I think even the actual murder was up for grabs here. Antonioni uses a running themes of mimes which is particularly interesting, to get this point across. As the photographer continues to "blow-up" or enlarge, his photos, he sees a gun in the trees, and a dead man on the ground. None of it can be proved however, and the photographs become so grainy once enlarged, that his neighbors wife says they remind her of his neighbors paintings. Paintings which, the painter himself admitted he only finds content in after he has started making them.

The final scene of the film has mimes playing tennis in the same park the photographer initially thought he had witnessed the assasination in. And the camera follows the invisible ball as it rolls towards the feet of the photographer. He smiles to himself, picks up the ball, and tooses it back to the mimes. Perhaps an acknowledgment of his own perception of the "murder"?

*end spoilers*

Anyways, if anyone has read the short or seen the movie, I would love to discuss this, because when I suggested it once in a class, the professor proceeded to rail and deride me infront of 50 people. Only 4 of which later whipsered under their breathe that they thought I might have a very valid point.

In light of the source material, I don;t think tis a stretch, and it is one of the strongest adaptations, regardless, to have hit the cinema stage.


Also...The photoshoot scene may feel familiar...since Austin Powers immitated it in the first movie of the series, International Man of Mystery. lol.

-Dolce

I'll join it even though it is going to be incredibly hard to get those movies. I think I have only seen like 3-4 movies of those you've mentioned, dolce. But I'll do my best.

If Don't Move were to finaaally get a release date...i'd see it in an instant!

offtopic: i saw a long-ass (5 hours) italian movie yesterday, 1900 by bernardo bertolucci. i think its a really good movie, but not great, it had too many campy scenes. i guess most of them were intentional, but some took me out of the film.

Joseba...I know, he's my one of my least favorite directors as far as men from that country. I'm always unsure of his purpose. I do want to see The Conformist though, and might watch it next week.

There are many better directors and I will gladly recommend some to you if you are interested in checking one out during the upcoming festivities.

-Dolce

There's a few of these movies I've been curious about, I'll watch at least one of them and maybe more depending on time and such.

I've always been curious about Malena, and might catch some of the older classics, we'll see.