Pier Paolo Pasolini depicted Italian urban life in all its beauty and brutality. Does a new English language version of The Street Kids, by Elena Ferrante’s acclaimed translator, do his work justice?
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s love affair with the city of Rome began in 1950, when he was in his late 20s. He had come there from Casarsa, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, after a scandal involving three boys in the small town of Ramuscello. His adored, and adoring, mother Susanna was, as always, with him. He lived for a year or so with a family named Castaldi at Piazza Costaguti while Susanna worked as a live-in maid for another family called Pediconi a few doors away.
During those first paradisiacal months he befriended Alberto Moravia, Giorgio Bassani (who published one of his poems, an impassioned farewell to Friuli, in Friulian dialect, in the literary journal Botteghe Oscure, which...
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s love affair with the city of Rome began in 1950, when he was in his late 20s. He had come there from Casarsa, in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region, after a scandal involving three boys in the small town of Ramuscello. His adored, and adoring, mother Susanna was, as always, with him. He lived for a year or so with a family named Castaldi at Piazza Costaguti while Susanna worked as a live-in maid for another family called Pediconi a few doors away.
During those first paradisiacal months he befriended Alberto Moravia, Giorgio Bassani (who published one of his poems, an impassioned farewell to Friuli, in Friulian dialect, in the literary journal Botteghe Oscure, which...
- 11/12/2016
- by Paul Bailey
- The Guardian - Film News
By Anjelica Oswald
Managing Editor
Set in 1960s Poland, Pawel Pawlikowski’s black-and-white drama Ida focuses on faith and identity after family secrets are revealed. Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a young orphan brought up in a convent preparing to take her vows to become a nun. When told she must visit her aunt, her only living relative, Anna discovers she’s Jewish, her name is actually Ida and her parents were killed in WWII. Anna/Ida and her aunt embark on a journey to learn more about the family’s history and discover the truth about what happened.
The film landed on the Oscar shortlist for best foreign-language film and was nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category.
A number of foreign films focused on WWII have done well at the Oscars throughout the years. Ones based on real events include The Counterfeiters (2007), about the Nazis’ attempt to...
Managing Editor
Set in 1960s Poland, Pawel Pawlikowski’s black-and-white drama Ida focuses on faith and identity after family secrets are revealed. Anna (Agata Trzebuchowska) is a young orphan brought up in a convent preparing to take her vows to become a nun. When told she must visit her aunt, her only living relative, Anna discovers she’s Jewish, her name is actually Ida and her parents were killed in WWII. Anna/Ida and her aunt embark on a journey to learn more about the family’s history and discover the truth about what happened.
The film landed on the Oscar shortlist for best foreign-language film and was nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category.
A number of foreign films focused on WWII have done well at the Oscars throughout the years. Ones based on real events include The Counterfeiters (2007), about the Nazis’ attempt to...
- 1/2/2015
- by Anjelica Oswald
- Scott Feinberg
I vinti
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Written by Michelangelo Antonioni, Giorgio Bassani, Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Diego Fabbri, Roger Nimier, Turi Vasile
Italy/France, 1953
In 1953, Michelangelo Antonioni directed the episodic I vinti (The Vanquished), quite possibly the least “Antonioni-esque” feature he ever made (the roster of credited writers above is some indication of the impersonal nature of the film). Comprised of three vignettes about troubled youth in France, Italy, and England, the film at times comes across almost as a moralizing after school special, whereby it attempts to draw attention to the desperate and destructive state of young people during this period. But while the film’s obvious didacticism is its least laudable characteristic, I vinti is nevertheless a fascinating examination of this “burnt out generation.”
These young people were just children during World War II. They’ve grown up in a time of upheaval and violence, and now as...
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Written by Michelangelo Antonioni, Giorgio Bassani, Suso Cecchi D’Amico, Diego Fabbri, Roger Nimier, Turi Vasile
Italy/France, 1953
In 1953, Michelangelo Antonioni directed the episodic I vinti (The Vanquished), quite possibly the least “Antonioni-esque” feature he ever made (the roster of credited writers above is some indication of the impersonal nature of the film). Comprised of three vignettes about troubled youth in France, Italy, and England, the film at times comes across almost as a moralizing after school special, whereby it attempts to draw attention to the desperate and destructive state of young people during this period. But while the film’s obvious didacticism is its least laudable characteristic, I vinti is nevertheless a fascinating examination of this “burnt out generation.”
These young people were just children during World War II. They’ve grown up in a time of upheaval and violence, and now as...
- 7/16/2014
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist and Vittorio De Sica’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis were both released in 1970, both based on novels (by Alberto Moravia and Giorgio Bassani, respectively) and both set during World War II. De Sica’s film covers the beginning of Fascist atrocities, while Bertolucci’s film covers the end. The two films are also complementary in terms of their central characters: while the eponymous conformist joins up as a Fascist hitman, the Finzi-Continis are potential victims of the regime. Perhaps it is for this reason that De Sica’s film so easily carries the director’s gentle and engaging mark, while much of Bertolucci’s feature is as cold and charmless as Fascist architecture.
Fans of De Sica will find in The Garden of the Finzi-Continis both beloved characteristics of the director’s famed neo-realist approach, and stimulating new additions such as warm colour photography,...
Fans of De Sica will find in The Garden of the Finzi-Continis both beloved characteristics of the director’s famed neo-realist approach, and stimulating new additions such as warm colour photography,...
- 3/6/2012
- by Alison Frank
- The Moving Arts Journal
Beverly Hills, CA. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will premiere a restored print of .The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. in celebration of the film.s 40th anniversary on Thursday, May 19, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The evening will feature an onstage discussion with the film.s producer, Arthur Cohn, following the screening.
The 1971 winner of the Foreign Language Film Academy Award®, .The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. chronicles the gradual disintegration of the Jewish community living in Ferrara, Italy, at the beginning of World War II. Oblivious to the threats surrounding them, the wealthy Finzi-Contini family ignores the Fascism closing in on their community by remaining within the walls of their luxurious garden. Ultimately, the walled garden is no shelter from Mussolini.s anti-Semitic decrees and the horrors of the Holocaust, and the Finzi-Continis. inaction and isolation contribute to their downfall.
The 1971 winner of the Foreign Language Film Academy Award®, .The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. chronicles the gradual disintegration of the Jewish community living in Ferrara, Italy, at the beginning of World War II. Oblivious to the threats surrounding them, the wealthy Finzi-Contini family ignores the Fascism closing in on their community by remaining within the walls of their luxurious garden. Ultimately, the walled garden is no shelter from Mussolini.s anti-Semitic decrees and the horrors of the Holocaust, and the Finzi-Continis. inaction and isolation contribute to their downfall.
- 5/6/2011
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Raro Video U.S. will release a restored version of Michelangelo Antonioni’s (Blow-up) 1953 I Vinti, one of the Italian master’s first feature films, on DVD on March 29.
Passion and murder collide in Michelangelo Antonioni's I Vinti.
I Vinti is a unique triptych film revolving around three murders, one taking place in Paris, another in Rome, and another in London. All of the perpetrators are affluent youths, each killing for dubious motives. In the France segment, a group of adolescents kill for money, even though they don’t need it; in the London segment, a poet uncovers a woman’s body and tries to profit from the discovery; and in the Italian segment, a student becomes caught up in a smuggling ring, with deadly results.
The film is told with Antonioni’s trademark splintered chronology, which weaves multiple story lines, in this case. The director remains one of...
Passion and murder collide in Michelangelo Antonioni's I Vinti.
I Vinti is a unique triptych film revolving around three murders, one taking place in Paris, another in Rome, and another in London. All of the perpetrators are affluent youths, each killing for dubious motives. In the France segment, a group of adolescents kill for money, even though they don’t need it; in the London segment, a poet uncovers a woman’s body and tries to profit from the discovery; and in the Italian segment, a student becomes caught up in a smuggling ring, with deadly results.
The film is told with Antonioni’s trademark splintered chronology, which weaves multiple story lines, in this case. The director remains one of...
- 3/24/2011
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Director: Luchino Visconti Writers: Luchino Visconti, Suso Cecchi d’Amico, Carlo Alianello, Tennessee Williams, Giorgio Bassani, Paul Bowles, Giorgio Prosperi Cinematographers: G.R. Aldo and Robert Krasker Starring: Alida Valli, Farley Granger, Heinz Moog, Rina Morelli Studio/Runtime: Criterion/123 mins. Arguably the first movie that could be called Italian Neo-realist was Luchino Visconti’s Ossesione, which he then followed up with two more features in the same tradition. But as the war that fostered the movement faded into the past Visconti radically shifted his style with Senso. Where neo-realism focused on the poor, here he brought his spotlight to aristrocrats. Where neo-realism...
- 3/1/2011
- Pastemagazine.com
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