Salve ragazzi,
I’d like to talk to you about becoming an I Love Italian Movie Insider. Now, this is just me, but I think it’s a great idea and you should do it. 😄
It’s just $5 a month ($55 for the year), and for that, you will get bonus content including movies rarely if ever screened in the USA. So far, I have been trying to select a variety of films to try to identify your preferences.
I offered one, last year, that was made by a close friend, Alberto Caviglia. His film, Pecore In Erba (Burning Love), a comedy/satire about anti-semitism, is a sentimental favorite.
This year we’ve screened a comedy/drama Il Più Grande Sogno (I Was A Dreamer), and an animated film called Gatta Cenerentola (Cinderella The Cat).
I hope you understand something important about these selections: This is not an easy process and I don’t have access to everything I would want. International film distribution is more complicated than you can imagine (and more than it should be). It is, very frankly, a pain in the ass. And why? I don’t get it. I have money, I want to pay for films, and they say “NO.” But I have money! I want to pay! You wouldn’t believe how many times the answer is “NO”!
But I always try to find something interesting - something I’d seen at a film festival, enjoyed and hoped you would too. At the very least, for a measly $5 a month, you’ll watch something that few in the USA have gotten the chance to see.
The newsletter is free and always will be, but if you become a paid subscriber, an INSIDER, if you will, you’ll be supporting me, America’s Cheerleader For Italian Cinema. I always appreciate your support!
Take a look at the little video that Pif (Pierfrancesco Diliberto) made for me about our December Film:
Star of TV and film, director, writer, and actor Piefrancesco Diliberto, known as Pif, seems to be answering a sort of calling with his first two films, La Mafia Uccide Solo D’Estate (The Mafia Only Kills In The Summer). His more recent In Guerra Per Amore (At War With Love). In them, he delivers lessons about Italy, Sicily, and the history of the Italian Mafia in a very entertaining way.
“I cry every time I watch the end of La Mafia Uccide Solo D’Estate (where Pif pays a bittersweet tribute to judges and politicians killed during the famous Maxi-trials in the ‘80s and ‘90s), and In Guerra Per Amore is moving as well. I asked Pif. “Is this your mission in life; crime-fighting? Are you a mafia crime fighter?”
“I’m not Batman”, he assured me, “but I hope to contribute in some way, in the sense that the more people know about this, the more we can address it. The more awareness, the more you can remember the people who died fighting against them, the more we will continue to defeat the Mafia.”
He told me, “For me when I was little, I lived a very normal life (in Palermo, Sicily). When I was in school we absolutely never spoke about it (the Mafia); it was as though if we never spoke about it, it wasn’t true. If you see it, it’s too horrifying.
Inquiring minds want to know, so I asked, “Did parents really tell their children not to worry because ‘the mafia only kills in the summer?’.
“My parents? No, but I met Paolo Borsellini’s daughter Fiammetta and she told me that her father used to try to ease her fears by saying it to her, as a joke. As for my family, we didn’t worry about it too much because it didn’t concern us.”
After writing his book, Gomorrah, Roberto Saviano had to go into witness protection and look over his shoulder for the rest of his life. Naturally, I assumed it would be the same for Pierfrancesco, having made two films that didn’t present the Mafia in a very positive light.
“You’re not afraid?” I asked him.
“No”, he shrugged. “The Sicilian Mafia is much less powerful than it used to be. And after making the film the fact is I’m still alive and able to walk the streets of Palermo.”
“Even when you see what’s happened to Saviano?”
“Saviano was dealing with the Mafia in Naples, the Camorra, and the Camorra is still very powerful.”
Don’t mess with them”, I laughed.
“Right”, he said. “And if you deal with the Calabrian Mafia, the ‘Ndrangheta, you’ll have real problems.”
My next question was one of those “Captain Obvious” ones but I felt like asking it anyway: What was more important for you; In Guerra Per Amore’s love story or the history lesson?
He rolled his eyes (I had that coming). “Obviously the love story was just an excuse to give the more important history lesson.” (I reminded him that the love story was very sweet, though.)
“I really wanted to tell this story about the mafia”, he told me, “because as far as I knew it had never been told before, not even in American films. Of course, there were many people who died to liberate Italy in WWII; that said, in those days the Mafia served as a useful thing for everybody and played a big role.” (Don’t know what that is? See the movie!)
“I don’t want to make movies like my predecessors”, he told me. I don’t want to make movies in Rome…”
“Ask him why”, laughed Cinecittà Luce rep Monique Catalino, who was sitting in just in case I needed a translator.
“Because every time a movie is made in Rome and every time there is a scene with a car, it’s filmed on the Lungotevere (the road that runs alongside the Tiber), and all the other scenes are in the historic center. The world is too beautiful to limit it to that.”
“I’d love to make a film in America, obviously, but my dream is to make a movie that, all over the world, in Italy too, but for instance in New York people could see it and say, “Oh, I get it.”
“Did parents really tell their children not to worry because ‘the mafia only kills in the summer?’.
“My parents? No, but I met Paolo Borsellini’s daughter Fiammetta and she told me that her father used to try to ease her fears by saying it to her, as a joke. As for my family, we didn’t worry about it too much because it didn’t concern us.”
A little History 101: Italian Americans were very helpful in the planning and executing of the invasion of Sicily. The Mafia was involved in assisting the U.S. war efforts, and Lucky Luciano's associates found numerous Sicilians to help the Naval Intelligence draw maps of the harbors of Sicily and dig up old snapshots of the coastline. Vito Genovese, another Mafia boss, offered his services to the U.S. Army and became an interpreter and advisor to the U.S. Army military government in Naples. He quickly became one of AMGOT’s most trusted employees. Through the Navy Intelligence’s Mafia contacts from Operation Underworld, the names of Sicilian underworld personalities and friendly Sicilian natives who could be trusted were obtained and actually used in the Sicilian campaign.
Today the world mourns the death of Lina Wertmüller. Born in Rome as Arcangela Felice Assunta Job Wertmüller von Elgg Espanol von Brauchich, she was the first female director to be nominated for an Oscar. The nominated film was Seven Beauties (Pasqualino Settebellezze), starring Giancarlo Giannini, Fernando Rey, and Shirley Stoler.
You can watch the film on YouTube for just $2.99. I have never seen it, but I’m watching it tonight in honor of Wertmüller.
“In 1930s Italy, Pasqualino (Giancarlo Giannini), a low-level Sicilian thug, kills a man who disgraced his sister. Pasqualino pleads insanity and manages to escape imprisonment by joining the military, but he decides to go AWOL when things get too heavy. Unfortunately, he soon finds himself stuck in a concentration camp. There, Pasqualino vows to do anything in order to survive -- even if that means seducing the female German camp commandant (Shirley Stoler) or ratting out his own pals.”
Please take a look at In Guerra Per Amore and tell me what you think! Sound interesting?
Un bacione,
Cheri
America’s Cheerleader For Italian Cinema
Very funny special-for-you cameo by Pif! Che tesoro!