Venice or Bust, Ferragosto, and A Great Film Festival in Cleveland, OH!
I guess Cleveland actually does rock!
Salve ragazzi,
If you had asked me which Italian movie I was disappointed never made it to the USA, I probably would have told you about a wonderful comedy called Benvenuti Al Sud.
My husband, Brian, is Italian American, and both of his grandfathers are from southern Italy, one from Calabria and the other from a little town near Naples called Bagnoli Irpino. We don’t know much about the Calabrese relatives, but we have visited the ones in Bagnoli, and I think Brian was relying on me to speak Italian when we got there. Thank God we found English-speaking cousins because I didn’t understand a word anybody was saying. I felt like an idiot ever having told anybody that I’d studied Italian in the first place.
Watching director Luca Miniero’s 2010 Benvenuti al Sud, I felt a little vindicated because when postal employee Alberto (Claudio Bisio) gets transferred to a small town near Naples, much like Bagnoli Irpino, he has a hard time with their dialect, too – and he’s Italian."
Benvenuti al Sud (Welcome To The South) is a comedy that was remade from the French comedy ” Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” (Welcome to the Sticks) – and in this case “the sticks” are in the north of France. But one country’s hang ups at a time – is there a country in the world that doesn’t have “the sticks”, where the stereotype says they people there aren’t very sophisticated?
Alberto and his family (his wife, Silvia (Angela Finocchiaro) lives in a small town not far from Milan and dreams of moving to the big city but when Alberto applies for a transfer he learns that handicapped people are being shown preference. Alberto fails in his wacky, not very believable attempt to make superiors believe he’s needs a wheelchair to get around and his punishment is 2 years in the south.
Jamm Jà! Everyone kept saying that in the movie and I’m guessing it’s dialect for “Andiamo” (Let’s go.) Next thing you know, Alberto is heading for his new job near Naples. Because of the perceived crime, poverty, and squalor, he leaves Silvia and his son at home and tells them he’ll be back to visit every couple of weeks, but what he finds in his new home is not what he expected, of course, and his perceptions are challenged and changed.
When Americans make movies like this, we usually get it all wrong. When Hollywood does it, the stereotypes are too broad, and the cloying sentimentality is embarrassing. Benvenuti al Sud is more subtle, very sweet, and surprisingly void of these tired movie stereotypes. I like how Miniero didn’t try to make the southern Italians all seem like adorable, too-good-to-be-true caricatures with hearts of gold, nor did he vilify the north. He made everybody real people without an excess of exaggeration.
You can imagine my delight when I saw that the Italian film festival in my city, Cleveland, Ohio, will be screening it on September 28!
If you can’t make it to Cleveland, I found the movie on Vimeo - no subtitles - but it;s free and you can practice your Italian.
Buon Ferragosto!
When it’s Christmastime, I can’t get enough of Cinepanettone; when it’s August, it’s gotta be one more viewing of…you know it, you love it…
Pranzo di Ferragosto!
Pranzo di Ferragosto (Mid-August Lunch) is one of the most perfect little movies ever made, and if you haven’t seen it, SHAME ON YOU! I’ll be watching it for the 200th time. Gianni Di Gregorio plays Gianni, a middle-aged bachelor who lives with and cares for his mother. When everybody learns he’ll be staying home with her for the Ferragosto, guess whose apartment gets turned into a senior living facility? It is ADORABLE.
It’s hard to find this year - but you can watch it for free with your library card and Kanopy.
FUN FACT:
I’m getting ready for Venice! It will be weird without the Hollywood actors there, but I support their struggle, and I’m more interested in the Italian ones anyway.
We’re doing it a little differently this year, flying into Zürich, spending some time there, then taking the beautiful train ride through the Alps to Innsbruck, then Bolzano. We’ll visit a friend in Verona and THEN, arrive in Venice.
I’ll probably post more than normal, sending you photos and letting you know what it’s like. Wish me luck getting fun new selfies!
Un bacione 💋,
Cheri
America’s Cheerleader For Italian Cinema
I love your letter. Thank you!
Welcome to the South looks like a must. Did you write about about this film previously? It sounds familiar.
Mid August Lunch is a delightful film, loved it. Worth re-watching, which I will plan to do.
I really enjoy all of Gianni Di Gregorio’s films. They are warm and fun.
BTW, I recently watched Willem Dafoe - a great actor, in both Tomasso and Pasolini. Both were dark, sad, tragic, and painful to watch. Pass!!