Best Italian Films Through The Years!

Salve ragazzi,

Please excuse the delay, but I finally succumbed to the dreaded COVID 19, and my life turned temporarily upside down. I’d been vaccinated and boosted (of course - I’m not a moron), but I still got sick enough to sufficiently mess up my life.

I’d been looking for a place for you all to watch a rebroadcast of the May 3 David Di Donatello Award Show, and I have finally found it. It’s so fun! It was the perfect quarantine cheer me up.

There are no subtitles, but I guarantee that if you love Italian cinema, you will still enjoy watching. And if you don’t want to watch the whole thing, at least skip to the end to see Paolo Sorrentino EVER SO HUMBLY accept his best picture award with, like, a 30 seconds speech. He asked Toni Servillo to say a few words, and Servillo looked almost shy, waving him off. I love them. Why can’t Hollywood people be more like Italians?

These awards are so PLEASANTLY different than the Oscars. I JUST CAN’T STAND the long, pretentious acceptance speeches that they all give at the Hollywood Academy Awards, all the blah blah blah, as Jep Gambardella said in La Grande Bellezza. ATTENTION HOLLYWOOD: Watch the following video and take notes! Paolo Sorrentino is talking to YOU.

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What a difference twenty years have made in Italian cinema!

Take a look at the 2000-01 David di Donatello Awards. For one thing, they could only come up with three movies worthy of a best film nomination, and one of them was BS, pardon my French.

While La Stanza Del Figlio (The Son's Room), and I Cento Passi (One Hundred Steps) are excellent (and would still be worthy today), Gabriele Muccino’s L’Ultimo Bacio (The Last Kiss) is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

For some reason, Americans loved it, but to be fair, it was released in a time when hardly any Italian movies made it to the USA. In the old days, when people find out I love Italian movies they’d always get a big smile and say, “L’Ultimo Bacio! Did you like that one?” And I’d say, “Yes”, because I don’t want to seem like a curmudgeon.

L’Ulltimo Bacio

The truth was that I blamed L’Ultimo Bacio for all the problems of the Italian film industry. If this is what was getting the good reviews – if this is what is being distributed outside of Italy – then it’s no wonder everyone thought that Italy couldn’t make a good movie anymore..

One of the few negative reviews I read had one of those “wish I’d said that” lines – Josh Larsen from the Chicago Sun Times said, “Girlfriends are bad, wives are worse and babies are the kiss of death in this bitter Italian comedy.” Yikes! The whole thing made me tired just watching it!

None of the characters were sympathetic except for poor Giulia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). My advice to Giulia: Your mother is giving you horrible advice. She’s your mother and I know she loves you and all, but a woman who has a love life like hers is in no position to be giving relationship tips. Let me help. Your boyfriend (played by Stefano Accorsi) is an immature loser with immature loser friends who couldn’t handle your pregnancy so he went out and hooked up with a teenager. Your mother doesn’t know what she’s talking about - CANCEL HIM!

If you want to see for yourself, I think you are going to have to rent it from Netflix, because that’s the only place I can find it now.

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Do The David ‘Miglior Film’, Best Picture Challenge!

Want to see for yourselves how the Italian film industry has changed over the years? Watch the winning films in order. Some are not and/or have never been available in the USA, but click on the titles in red and they will take you to where I have found them.

In Bocca Al Lupo! Let me know if you do it!

Pane e Tulipani

2000 Pane E Tulipani (Bread and Tulips)

2001 La Stanza Del Figlio (The Son’s Room)

2002 Il Mestiere Delle Armi (The Profession Of Arms) - NOT FOUND

2003 La Finestra Di Fronte (Facing Windows)

2004 La Meglio Gioventù (The Best of Youth)

La Meglio Gioventù

2005 Le Conseguenze Delle Amore (Consequences of Love) - NOT FOUND

2006 Il Caimano (The Caiman) - NOT FOUND

2007 La Sconosciuta (The Unknown Woman)

2008 La Ragazza Del Lago (The Girl By The Lake)

2009 Gomorra (Gomorrah)

2010 L’Uomo Che Verrà (The Man Who Will Come)

L’Uomo Che Verrà

2011 Noi Credevamo (We Believed) - NOT FOUND

2012 Cesare Deve Morire (Caesar Must Die)

2013 La Migliore Offerta (The Best Offer)

2014 Il Capitale Umano (Human Capital)

Il Capitale Umano

2015 Anime Nere (Black Souls) - NOT FOUND

2016 Perfetti Sconosciuti (Perfect Strangers) - NOT FOUND

2017 La Pazza Gioia (Like Crazy)

2018 Ammore e Malavita (Love and Bullets)

2019 Dogman

2020 Il Traditore (The Traitor)

2021 Volevo Nascondermi (Hidden Away) - NOT FOUND

2022 È Stata La Mano Di Dio (Hand of God)

Un (Covid) bacione 💋,

Cheri

America’s Cheerleader For Italian Cinema