Prego!
It's not just a sorry excuse for pasta sauce!
Salve ragazzi,
Vi prego di scusarmi. This newsletter is a day late! I was *cough* not having a very good day yesterday, along with 49% of my fellow Americans. But let’s not dwell on that. Let’s talk about that little word that I just used, the one that Americans can be so curious about.
PREGO
In case you didn’t know. It means, literally, “I pray”. And you use it when you are praying to God.
Prima d’andare a letto, prego - Before I go to bed, I pray.
So why does it seem like everyone is talking about praying all the time and for all different kinds of reasons? Look at how I used it in the first sentence of this letter.
“Vi prego di scusarmi” means “please excuse me,” and more literally, “I pray you excuse me.” Think about how it was used in old-timey times. "I pray you" and "I pray thee" were polite ways of asking someone for something in Shakespearean English.
These days, it’s become one of those ambiguous words we use without thinking about its meaning too much. It can be a “you're welcome” as a reply to someone's “Grazie.”
A “please go first”, when you want to let someone go before you.
A “please sit down” when you welcome someone into a room.
Or a “please come in” when someone knocks on your door.
Was this helpful? Prego!
Bravo Riccardo!
Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness
This BIG crossover project for Riccardo Scamarcio will be in theaters on November 24.
I can’t wait to see Scamarcio, the star of so many of our favorite Italian movies, in this Johnny Depp-directed biopic about painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani.
I didn’t think I was familiar with Modigliani, but then I looked at his work…
…and I was like, “Oh yeah! Him!”
Variety talks about “Depp’s restraint in remaining behind the camera” and Scamarcio’s “charismatic turn in the title role, the film’s liveliest asset.” So, yay!
Read this article about Modigliani’s life, and you’ll see what makes him a great candidate for a biopic.
If you don’t know Scamarcio from his Italian filmography, you may know him from his other Hollywood films, like the John Wick movies.
And here’s one of my favorite Selfies!
More Fun Movie News
Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope had the best debut of an Italian drama in the post-pandemic. Written and directed by Sorrentino, it’s a fantasy-drama film that, according to Sorrentino, is about a woman named Parthenope "who bears the name of her city but is neither siren nor myth.”
Parthenope had its world premiere at ‘24 Cannes, where it competed for the Palme d'Or and got a nine-and-a-half-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening.
Set in Sorrentino’s hometown, Naples, it has received a “no stars” review from the Catholic Church.
Perhaps you’ve read about the film’s controversial parts? Variety reports:
“The film is by no means about the church, but toward the end, there is a single scene that would make any Catholic choke. It involves a cardinal, the seductive protagonist Parthenope and the liquefaction of the blood of San Gennaro — the purported recurring miracle that is a sacred cow to many Neapolitans.
Prominent Italian Catholics have denounced the sacrilegious sex scene as not only demeaning to the faith, but Naples itself, with the newspaper of the Italian bishops conference Avvenire calling the “sterile aesthetics” of the scene ‘in poor taste.’”
Even More Movie News: What I Watched Last Night
Finché c’è Prosecco c’è Esperanza - The Prosecco Murders
This “Giallo” murder mystery is based on a novel by Fulvio Ervas (who helped with the screenplay) and is about as “fun” as a story about murder can be. It’s got a light touch and is funny at times, and the backdrop, Veneto vineyards, is gorgeous.
In the Veneto Prosecco wine country, Count Desiderio Ancillotto, an aging proponent of organic farming, has recently died, and it looks like suicide, but is it? The new police inspector is called in to investigate it and the two murders that immediately follow.
Plus, it stars our darling “Costantino Caponangeli” (Bread and Tulips), Giuseppe Battiston, as the inspector.
This is director Antonio Padovan’s first feature film. He grew up in Conegliano, a town in Veneto, but now calls NYC home. There, he co-founded the Greenwich Village Film Festival.
It’s a cute film (as cute as a murder mystery can be), and I urge you to give it a whirl if you haven’t yet. You can get it from Amazon, but it is
Speaking of Bread and Tulips, my new idea for fame and fortune is to start a Pane e Tulipani Tour for Tourists in Venezia. This middle-aged rom-com—my favorite romantic comedy of all time—is a giddy, delightful romp around the city, and it would be fun to show people where Constantino and Alba met for the first time and where the houseboat was.
Who among you would pay for a tour like this? 🤔
A tour guide in Venice once told me about what it was like when they were filming the movie. He told me to listen for the actors' regional Italian accents. I’m not very good at picking them out. Can any of you who speak Italian better than I can hear them?
It would be like a movie set in Savannah, Georgia, and the actors didn’t try to hide or change their Boston, Chicago, or California accents. 😄
Well, that’s it for today. Basta per oggi! Liking this newsletter? Share it with a friend!
Un bacione 💋,
Cheri
America’s Favorite Italian Wannabe
We liked the Prosecco Murders. Your Bread & Tulips tour of Venice sounds fun. On our second trip to the city, my husband and did a self-guided section of the "Brunetti" tour -- retracing the familiar routes and short boat trips from the Donna Leone novels. We kind of worked them in to whatever we wanted to do that day. It was fun!
Ciao - i always enjoyed and appreciate the insights and info on Italian TV shows and films from your newsletter. What is watching films or tv shows for? Entertainment, and escape, right? For that reason it's disappointing that you felt obligated to drop in a political comment in your usually light-hearted and fun newsletter. The world this week is politics-fatigued, no? Oh, and by the way, the majority of voters ARE happy today, so do you wish to alienate them from your club now? Ci pensi, cara. I preferred the world when we kept conversations light and intelligent, and never knew who the other person voted for....