Salve ragazzi,
GET THE POPCORN READY!
If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that I am a huge Suburraholic - I love everything Suburra, the original movie, the series, the characters, and the actors who portray them. You can imagine how excited I was to learn that a new spinoff series is coming on Tuesday (November 14).
I fell in love with the original Suburra movie because of Alessandro Borghi and Greta Scarano, and even if they aren’t in this new series, I’m equally into “Spadino” (Giacomo Ferrara) and Angelica (Carlotta Antonelli), who are predominantly featured in the new series, Suburræterna. It premiered at the Rome Film Festival and will be released on Netflix on Tuesday.
FUN FACT: Suburra was a crowded lower-class area and notorious red-light district of ancient Rome. It was a busy, noisy, dirty, and crime-ridden place where poor people lived.
On a map of the 7 hills of Rome, the Suburra district can be found between the Capitoline and the Esquiline Hills. It’s said that Julius Caesar was born in the Suburra, and that the word suburbs comes from the name of the impoverished neighborhood.
The original movie has a cast that is TO DIE FOR: Borghi and Scarano with Pierfrancesco Favino, Elio Germano, and Claudio Amedola as the evil crime boss, Samerai.
Favino is Filippo Malgradi, a politician involved in a bill to change the classification of certain administrative areas; his objective is to allow a real estate project in Ostia so that it could be turned into an Italian Las Vegas, and the mafia, the government, and Vatican Bank, all fight for a piece of the pie.
FUN FACT: This can be filed under “true crime” and based on an actual scandal known as Mafia Capitale. In 2014, a crime ring run by Massimo Carminati, a one-eyed, former fascist gangster (the character Samurai), had thoroughly infiltrated Roman business, government, and the church. Members of Mafia Capitale stole money destined for city services through racketeering, conspiracy, loan-sharking, extortion, fraud, money laundering, and bribery in public administration.
The Suburra: Blood On Rome is a TV series that was a prequel to events in the movie before Aureliano Adami (Alessandro Borghi) had become the powerful “Numero Otto”. He, “Spadino" (Giacomo Ferrara), and “Lele” (Eduardo Valdarnini) decide that they aren’t being taken seriously enough and want their share of the action. When they join forces, they prove they can be taken seriously in the struggle for dominance.
Additional characters played by Claudia Gerini and Filippo Nigro were added to the talented cast.
In the new series, Suburra Eterna, it’s 2011, and “the government is in danger of falling, the Vatican is in crisis and the squares of the city are literally set on fire. In the middle world, Cinaglia has tried to take up the legacy of Samurai and, together with Badali, continues to manage the criminal affairs of the city, with the help of Adelaide and Angelica, who remained at the head of the Anacletis, and of Nadia, who helps them manage the squares of Ostia. But there are those who no longer accept this system. New protagonists will take the field, upsetting the balance of Rome: thus begins a revolution which, from the Church to the Campidoglio and up to the beaches of Ostia, expands rapidly to erase everything that represents the past. Spadino will therefore be forced to return home.” (from IMDB)
The trailer is dubbed, but I hope we can watch it in Italian with subtitles, too!
Congratulations to Paola Cortellesi…
…whose directorial debut, C’è Ancora Domani (There’s Still Tomorrow), is Italy’s biggest movie of the year, with over a million tickets sold and box office earnings of over seven million euros.
The film stars Cortellesi with Valerio Mastandrea, Giorgio Colangeli and Vinicio Marchioni. It’s a dark comedy about the conditions for women in post-WWII Italy.
I’ll be on the lookout for US distribution.
MIGHT BE FUN
I haven’t watched this yet, but this one might be Christmas magic for Italian Americans:
Feast of the Seven Fishes is bout a large Italian family on Christmas Eve as they prepare for the traditional Feast of the Seven Fishes in the 1980s.
Un bacione 💋,
Cheri
America’s Cheerleader For Italian Cinema
Loved Suburra - so glad to hear about the new Netflix release. And Cheri, a big thanks for the Mafia Capitale youtube link - fascinating. So appreciate your sleuthing about all things related to Italian Cinema ... Edie
Feast of the Seven Fishes IS fun and well-worth watching.