I. The Tree of Wooden Clogs [1978] This Palme d’Or winner shows “[l]ife on a farm in Italy at the end of the 19th century. Many poor country families live there, and the owner pays them by their productivity. One of the families has a very clever child, and they decide to send him to…
Tag: Italian Cinema
“Happy as Lazzaro” Review
Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro Felice) [2018] – ★★★★1/2 Alice Rohrwacher may only have three major feature films under her belt (Corpo Celeste (2011), The Wonders (2014) and Happy as Lazzaro (2018)), but this Fiesole-born director proves to be the one to be reckoned with. Happy as Lazzaro is an unusual, surreal and imaginative drama which…
The 1961 Blogathon: La Notte
Movie Movie Blog Blog hosts a blogathon that celebrates movies originating in 1961, and Michelangelo Antonioni’s La Notte is one of those films. Like Antonioni L’Eclisse, which followed a year after, La Notte concerns itself with the existential theme of personal alienation in the world which becomes busier and more progressive. In such a place,…
Rome: 10 “Must-See” Films Set in the City
Being a cultural and historical centre for centuries, Rome has always attracted leading cinematographers. In the 1950s and 1960s, Rome was considered the European “Hollywood”, embodied in the famous Cinecittà film studio that produced such epic films as Ben-Hur (1959) and Cleopatra (1963). To this day, this historic city remains the one to which filmmakers flock…
“Tale of Tales” Review
Tale of Tales [2015] – ★★★1/2 Directed by Matteo Garrone, best known for his raw crime drama Gomorrah (2008), Tale of Tales or Il Racconto dei Racconti is a fantasy horror film which comprises three main stories seemingly running in parallel. The first story starts with the Queen (Salma Hayek) and King (John C. Reilly) of…
Spotlight on Film 