Cinema

PARLIAMO ITALIANO CON I FILM

Are you looking for a good way to gain exposure to Italian popular culture? Come see these latest film screenings under the auspices of the Department of Romance Languages!

Event is free.

Past programs

Class Description and Objectives

Prior to class, the instructor will provide you with background information on the movies and a vocabulary list. You will watch each movie on your own, before class. Movies will be in Italian with English subtitles and will be available online through a link to be sent prior to the class meeting. If a movie is also available elsewhere, e.g. on Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, etc., we will let you know as well. 

During class, we will practice conversation through student-generated interpretive questions or as guided by the instructor, and we will review selected scenes and dialogue. We will also practice grammatical structures and idiomatic expressions found in the movie. See how many famous Italian movie quotes you can pick up!

1) La Mafia Uccide Solo D’estate (The Mafia Kills Only in the Summer) 2013

This is the story of a little boy coming of age in Palermo during the 1980s and ‘90s. He is slowly realizing what the Mafia is and how it has impacted the lives of his family and his neighbors. The story is told from the point-of-view of the child and follows the true events of those years including actual news footage from the period. NOT your typical Mafia movie!

2) Viva la liberta` (Long Live Liberty) 2013

When the leader of the Italian opposition party plunges into a deep depression and disappears, his aid and confidant thinks it may be a good idea to hide his disappearance and to ask his estranged twin brother to impersonate him. This causes some problems...  

3)  Io sono li` (Shun Li and the Poet) 2011

Shun Li is a Chinese immigrant who needs to repay her debt to the people who brought her to Italy in order to send for her child still in China. She is transferred to an “osteria”  (wine bar) in a small town near Venice, where most people are fishermen. She befriends an older fisherman who is also a poet. However, neither the Chinese nor the Italian community approves of this relationship...

4) Pranzo di Ferragosto (Mid-August Lunch) 2008

A middle-aged, unemployed man, Gianni, takes care of his elderly mother and is drowning in debt. The building administrator proposes to cancel some of his debt if he takes care of his elderly mother while he goes on vacation in August. He ends up bringing his elderly aunt as well. Then, the family doctor brings his mother. Gianni finds himself taking care of four elderly women which causes a series of funny adventures...