Support Italian indie films!!

From August 27-30 there will be the national premiere of the Italian indie movie “La Patente” (The License) by a young Roman director, Alessandro Palazzi, at Nuovo Cinema Aquila.

On Wednesday, August 29th, there will be two special screenings (20:30 and 22:30) with ENGLISH subtitles. 

NUOVO CINEMA AQUILA


via l’Aquila #68    

Rome 

PLOT:

“The License” is a modern-day ensemble comedy revolving around the lives of two Roman slackers.

Rolando, thirty-something and perpetually unsatisfied, works at his future father-in-law’s driving school, and Sergio is a waiter at the corner café as well as a small-time drug dealer.

Thanks to the unexpected death of the elderly owner, they end up taking control of the driving school during the pivotal week before the final driving test.

Characters of all ages and from all walks of life, future drivers and their unlikely instructors, come together to create a reality that borders on grotesque, yet feels incredibly familiar. It touches on important issues like integration in present-day Italy, and gender roles, while never losing its comic tone. 

Directions:

- From downtown/Termini Station

Bus 81 (from St. Peter, Largo Argentina, Piazza Venezia)

Bus 810 (From Piazza Venezia)

Tram 5 and 14, Bus 105 (from Termini Station)

- To downtown/Termini Central Station

before midnight all the above

after midnight: Night Bus N.12 (to Termini Station, Piazza Barberini, Piazza Venezia)

I ♥ Casa del Cinema

This year the Casa del Cinema has outdone itself. They have an amazing selection of outdoor, free screenings! There are a few different retrospectives:

100 years of universal and paramount

Shakespeare in movies

Hello, male 

Homage to Antonioni

When she becomes a he

Come dance

Happy birthday to...

Rome in August gets better and better. GO see some films outdoors!!

MovieReading

I've been meaning to write about this for a while... not sure how many of you have heard about this but I find it BRILLIANT! An incredibly useful tool for moviegoers worldwide.


Would you like to go to the cinema to see whatever movie is being screened, and read the subtitles, because you have hearing difficulties, or you speak another language?
With MovieReading today it is finally possible! You can choose the movie you want, and the subtitles in the language you desire.
All you need is a smartphone or a tablet, and of course a ticket… and MovieReading does the rest!
Install MovieReading’s application on your smartphone, and the cinemas open their doors to you.
Gone are the old subtitled movies, screened at impossible times, and on a few screens in your town.
As of today all movies are accessible from the first day of screening, or at most a week after the first screening.


Check it out:
http://www.moviereading.com/en/

good flicks

Surprisingly enough, there are some good Italian flicks in the theaters right now. Check them out!

Hai paura del buio

Il primo incarico

Tatanka

Il gioiellino

Happy thoughts

If you're feeling overwhelmed, disgusted, and frustrated by Italian politics and the never-ending mud slinging which, if you ask me, is out of control (see above*), here's a happy thought for you, or for you Romans at least: Cinema Reale (Piazza Sidney Sonnino #7, Trastevere) is now showing films in V.O. So far they've shown "Animal Kingdom" and now "Everybody's fine" is playing. Yay!

*note: I am not defending Berlusconi in any way, shape, or form. I just think it's ridiculous and inappropriate for a political party to actually spend money on a poster of this sort. Gimme a fucking break, don't stoop to their level.

summertime...

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I love summers in Rome. Summertime is high season for my line of work so I have to stick around till the bitter end. Yes, it may be unbearably hot & humid BUT the perk is that the Romans abandon the city in hordes. They run off to the sea, the mountains, to Sharm El-Sheikh and leave Rome ALL TO ME! I've already begun to see the first signs of this exodus and I'm giddy with excitement to take over the city.
In the meantime, there are some fantastic outdoor events. One in particular is FREE and in one of Rome's loveliest parks, Villa Borghese. I saw Amreeka (really great film) last night at Casa del Cinema and highly suggest you all go to at least one of their events this summer. If anything, just to enjoy the breeze, the fresh air, and a cold drink.

Fall flicks

After a long, busy summer of translating films, I have a few Italian movie suggestions for the upcoming season:

First and foremost is "Baarìa", an amazing cinematic experience.

"Good Morning, Aman" with Valerio Mastandrea was refreshingly good.

"Dieci Inverni" was wonderful. Very basic love story but a million times better than the average young Italian film.

"Mirna", a documentary that was simple and beautiful and simply beautiful.

Call to arms

I don't go to many manifestazioni but today's protest against the government's budget cuts for the entertainment sector is very important for people who work in the industry (and not only us).
Come one, come ALL!

Monday July 20th, starting at 5:00 PM at Piazza Montecitorio
Lunedì 20 Luglio, dalle ore 17.00, a Piazza Montecitorio

Per contrastare l'imbarazzante provvedimento del governo di tagliare il FUS e per porre l'attenzione sui problemi dei lavoratori dello spettacolo, insieme ai rappresentanti della maggior parte delle associazioni di settore, è stato deciso di indire una manifestazione per Lunedi 20 Luglio alle ore 17.00 davanti a Piazza Montecitorio.
Vi preghiamo, non solo di aderire alla manifestazione, ma di inoltrare e sollecitare
la presenza di quante più persone potete coinvolgere tra amici e colleghi.

L'isola del cinema

Ohhhhhh, how I love this time of year in Rome despite the hot, humid temperatures. It's Isola del Cinema time!!!

Movie madness

Wow, where to start... We went to see Spike Lee's Miracle at St. Anna tonight and it was horrrrrrible. I was so excited about the storyline that I chose not to read any reviews on it because I didn't want to be influenced. But it was a disappointingly bad flick, I have no words to describe it, just really pitifully bad.

AND to top it all off, we had a horrrrrrible movie theater experience at the Metropolitan: the movie started and it seemed slightly out of focus to me but I assumed my contact lenses were dry or dirty so I shrugged it off... as the film went on, the focus got worse and worse until everyone in the theater was whistling and shouting out "fuoco", "proiezione" in hopes that the person in the projection booth would wake up. Well, we found out the hard way that there is NO person in the projection booth anymore, instead they have tiny monitors near the ticket booth that they use to check up on the various screens. First off, it's really hard to tell if a film's out of focus on such a tiny monitor and second off, it's even harder if you're not looking at the monitor! Soooo, after missing out on 25 minutes of film because it was incredibly out of focus and because everyone was shouting at the screen, I get up and walk down to the ticket booth (thus missing even more of the film). I tell the workers the film is out of focus and while I'm complaining, another guy from our theater comes down and starts yelling too.

So that should've fixed it, right? It did, for about 5 minutes, then it slipped out of focus again, not extremely out of focus, but enough that it was noticeable to everyone. In fact some people start shouting out "fuoco" again but it was useless because they can't hear us from downstairs and there isn't a soul in the projection booth. We stay till the end (as does everyone else) and watch not only an out of focus film, but a bad out of focus film that lasted forever!

Movie ends, we go down to the ticket booth and I politely say "We'd like a refund, the movie was out of focus the whole time".... The ticket seller starts giving me lip saying that the movie was not out of focus the whole time. I politely insist that it was and remind him that I even had to come downstairs to tell them to fix it. Then he goes on to say the subtitles were out of focus, not the film. Give me a fucking break buddy, I can tell the difference between an out of focus film and out of focus subtitles. The most annoying thing was his attitude, he was being so rude, condescending, and uncooperative. He kept denying the movie was out of focus, hence implying I was lying. I'm a believer in the saying: You catch more bees with honey than with vinegar BUT I have a limited supply of honey so I started turning sour at this point. The dickwad kept insisting and shaking his head and treating me as if I were full of shit. Some of the other people gathered around by now and were confirming the fact that the film was indeed out of focus the entire time. Funny sidenote: not a single man from the audience said a word, the only people involved in this confrontation were women... interesting.

Anyway- I ask for the manager. Whoa, if the ticket seller was a dickwad, the manger was King Dickwad. A total asshole who had the audacity to say "If the film was out of focus then why didn't you leave sooner? Why'd you stay and watch the whole thing?" Well asshole, seeing that I work for a living and I don't have free time aplenty, if I make plans to see a movie with people and make an effort to haul my ass to Via del Corso #7, then I'm going to stay. Especially because it shouldn't have been an issue to fix the focus in the first place! I already had to get up once and miss part of the movie to complain, which is in itself a reason to give me a refund. This went back and forth for about 15 minutes and I was blown away by how flippant and asshole-ish this manager was. I suspect (and hope for Metropolitan's sake) that this guy was not the real manager because he did everything a manager should NOT do. You have a group of 10 people complaining about the focus on a film- and instead of apologizing or mending the problem, you insist the film was in focus and tell us we should've left the theater? Dumb dumb dumb. My theory: the manager was not on duty and these dickwads didn't want to give us a refund or proper voucher because then they would get in trouble for not having paid attention to the focus of our screen.

I asked for a refund or a voucher, at first the manager refused and said he would only allow us to come back and see the same movie again... (now why on earth would I come back to see a movie I just watched???) then he gave in and signed our tickets, which apparently is our voucher. I'm curious to see what happens when we present said "vouchers", I have a feeling it's a crock of shit... I'm pretty pissed off, not so much about the film, but about the outrageous behavior from their staff and "manager". They should've been apologizing to all of us for the inconvenience but instead they were furiously arguing with us, telling us we were wrong. For the record, I do plan on continuing this battle because it's unacceptable for them to treat customers like that.

Oh yeah, note to non-Italian speakers: although this movie is publicized as "original version", there is a lot of Italian dialogue that is not subtitled at all and a lot of German dialogue that is subtitled in Italian... so if you can't read/understand Italian, do not go see it because you'll miss half of the film.

Smitten

I just saw a movie that made me fall in love with Rome again. Although I've seen Rome on screen many times, this film actually gave me goosebumps and reminded me of why and how this city and my neighborhood first stole my heart way back in '94.

Pranzo di Ferragosto is a true and tried masterpiece. Low budget, simple story, but powerful and impressive. Hard core Trasteverini will no doubt recognize some of the neighborhood characters featured in this movie.

This is a MUST MUST see...

Da Venezia a Roma

Listen up, cinema fans! Da Venezia a Roma has begun: a selection of flicks from the Venice Film Festival will be shown at various movie theaters in Rome so I suggest you check out the schedule and get shaking because most flicks will only be shown for one day. All films will be shown in original language with Italian subtitles.

Today we went to see The Wrestler. Beau-ti-ful.
Modern Italian directors should watch and learn...

Lost in translation... for real

Let's talk about Italian translations of American film titles. Now mind you, we translators have very little say in this, by the time a film reaches us for translation, the title has usually already been decided by the production/distribution.
I realize that some titles are difficult or impossible to translate, so why not leave the original title instead of inventing something random? Some titles are overly-translated and basically give away the plot of the film, some titles simplify the movie, and some titles are just downright stupid! Here are some of my "favorites" in no particular order:

1) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Se mi lasci ti cancello (If you leave me I'll erase you)

2) The Outsiders
I Ragazzi della 56a strada (The kids from 56th Street)

3) Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Non mi scaricare (Don't dump me)

4) Vertigo
La donna che visse due volte (The woman who lived twice)

5) Lost In Translation
L'amore tradotto (Love translated)

6) Adaptation
Il ladro di orchidee (The orchid thief)

7) Road to Perdition
Era mio padre (He was my father)

8) Reservoir Dogs
Le Iene (The hyenas)

9) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Non aprite quella porta (Don't open that door)

10) Intolerable Cruelty
Prima ti sposo poi ti rovino (First I'll marry you, then I'll ruin you)

11) Runaway Bride
Se scappi ti sposo (If you run away, I'll marry you)

12) The Break-Up
Ti odio, ti lascio, ti... (I hate you, I'll leave you, I'll...)

13) Waitress
Ricette d'amore (Love recipes)

14) Total Recall
Atto di forza (Act of force)

15) Hide and Seek
Nascosto nel buio (Hidden in the dark)

16) The Cave
Il nascondiglio del diavolo (The devil's hiding place)

17) Jeremiah Johnson
Corvo rosso non avrai il mio scalpo (You won't get my scalp, Red Crow)

18) Dude, Where's my Car?
Fatti, strafatti, strafighe (Stoned, super-stoned, super-hot)

19) The Hudsucker Proxy
Mister Hula Hoop

20) Brokeback Mountain
I Segreti di Brokeback Mountain (The secrets of Brokeback Mountain)

21) Dirty Harry
Ispettore Callahan: il caso Scorpio è tuo (Inspector Callahan: the Scorpio case is yours)

22) Leatherheads
In amore niente regole (Love has no rules)

23) The Science of Sleep
L'arte del sogno (The art of sleep)

24) Coming to America
Il principe cerca moglie (The prince is looking for a wife)

25) The Hunger
Miriam si sveglia a mezzanotte (Miriam wakes up at midnight)

26) Things We Lost in the Fire
Noi due sconosciuti (We're two strangers)

27) Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Onora il padre e la madre (Honor your mother and father)

28) Click
Cambia la tua vita con un click (Change your life with a click)

29) Home Alone
Mamma ho perso l'aereo (Mom, I missed the flight)

30) The Legend of the Fall
Vento di passioni (The wind of passion)

31) Knocked Up
Molto incinta (Very pregnant)

32) Frankie & Johnny
Paura d’amare (Afraid to love)

33) Walk the Line
Quando l'amore brucia l'anima (When love burns the soul)

34) Rebel Without a Cause
Gioventù bruciata (Wasted youth)

35) Hurlyburly
Bugie, baci, bambole & bastardi (Lies, kisses, dolls & bastards)

36) Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Un biglietto in due (One ticket for two people)

37) The Holiday
L'amore non va in vacanza (Love doesn't go on vacation)

38) My own private Idaho
Belli e dannati (Beautiful and damned)

39) Reality Bites
Giovani, carini e disoccupati (Young, cute, and unemployed)

40) Eastern Promises
La promessa dell'assassino (The assassin's promise)

Feel free to add your own favorites.

The Dark (sweaty) Knight

When the summer heat is unbearable and you want to cool off, where do you usually go? To the movies... or so we thought. Last night we went to Warner Moderno (the place I'd previously raved about for their online ticketing system) to see The Dark Knight in English along with more than half of Rome's English-speaking community, apparently.

As soon as we walked into sala #4, we all noticed it wasn't nearly as cool as we wanted it to be or as it should be. It was still early so I strolled downstairs to inform one of the workers who said he'd "take care of it". The theater is packed and the movie starts... but the air conditioning does not. It was a sauna in there, the air was hot, sticky & stale. The AC occasionally let out a spurt of cold air but not strong or long enough to even remotely freshen up the theater.

Half way through, I literally started to feel sick and had to leave the room. A dozen people or so did the same before me. Covered in sweat, I marched downstairs and asked to speak to the manager. She was super nice and tried to bullshit me by saying "Oh, we had a problem with the AC just before opening and couldn't get it fixed". Nice try lady, but that won't cut it with me because as we were suffering in the theater, my friend mentioned to me that her friend had the same exact problem in sala 4 last week... AND I vaguely recalled having the same problem in sala 4 about three years ago! So manager girl was wise enough not to fuck with an annoyed, sweaty American and fessed up: the AC in sala 4 had been broken for about 5 years and despite her constant requests, Warner never bothered to fix it. Why? Because it wasn't worth the money for them to close down that sala for a day or two. Instead they stuff unwitting movie-goers into that sauna because they know only a handful of people (like me) will complain and ask for their money back. So in the end, Warner still makes a killing without having to spend a cent for repairs.

The manager obviously offered to reimburse me & my crew for the tickets, she apologized profusely and said unfortunately there's not much she can personally do to fix the situation. I was seriously tempted to make an announcement in sala 4 after the movie telling everyone to go ask for a reimbursement, that way Warner would realize that it's NOT okay to cram a theater with people when the AC is busted. Unfortunately, I was too worn out by the heat to muster up the energy. Instead we high-tailed it out of there and went out for drinks...

But I just wrote an email to Warner about the incident because I do believe it's actually illegal for them to place all those people in a non-ventilated, crowded room without AC. I'll keep you all posted, in the meantime avoid sala 4 at Warner Moderno!

Summer cinema

Although it's sad to see most of the movie theaters in Rome close for the summer, the outdoor movie venues usually make up for it by offering quite a range of films to see. I meant to post about this sooner but got distracted:
In Villa Borghese at the Casa del Cinema they are showing musicals in ENGLISH with Italian subtitles for FREE till the end of the month (hurry!). I'm not a big fan of musicals but there are some classics in the lineup that are worth seeing. Me & my crew went to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show and were rather surprised that 75% of the audience was made up of elderly folks. I guess they just read "free" and wanted to sit outside because they certainly did not enjoy the flick (looking around with horrified faces, getting up and leaving half way through)!
Piazza Vittorio's outdoor cinema venue is very impressive! They've set up 2 screens (with double features) and have a good selections of films and it's on until September 5th. One Italian flick I'd recommend in the July schedule is Tutta la Vita Davanti.
Then there's my all time favorite Isola del Cinema. I just love this venue so much, how can you beat the location- an island in the Tiber River! Great place to see a flick, stroll around, have a drink, or just people watch.

You win some, you lose some

After raving about my recent discovery (online ticketing at the Warner Village movie theater), I've been slapped in the face with Roman reality again.
Despite the horrible reviews (and the fact that I swore I'd never pay to see it), I gave in last night and decided to go see Be Kind Rewind with my peeps- worse comes to worse, I'd stare at Mos Def for the entire time.
We read it would be playing in English at Alcazar on Monday (note: Alcazar usually shows films in VO on Mondays). We called in the morning to double check and the answering machine confirmed Monday was English day for this flick.
We buy our tickets, popcorn, etc, settle in to our lovely, plush, red velvet seats and the movie starts.... IN ITALIAN. Being the spaz that I am, I jump up and storm out to the lobby. The ticket seller explained that it was supposed to be in English, but the English reels were "taken away" that afternoon. WTF does that mean? Put up a sign if the movie is NOT going to be in English, change your answering machine message so that people don't waste time organizing for nothing. Seeing my crazed state, he offered to refund us our money. And just like that, movie night flopped and we all left... but at least we left with our 7 euros in hand.

Entertainment galore

Saturday night in ENGLISH. Oh yeah!!!!!!

Must see movies

This is a continuation of my list of must-see Italian movies.

Il Divo
I'd recommend seeing anything and everything by Sorrentino, LOVE him.

Tutta la vita davanti
Virzi is another brilliant young Italian director.

Grande, grosso e Verdone
Verdone always delivers...

La ragazza del lago
Worth it.

and lastly Gomorra
I'm not 100% sold on this film, I read the book (most of it) and I'm not sure this was the best approach for the subject matter BUT it's definitely worth seeing. I would also highly suggest seeing some of Garrone's other films, he's got serious talent.

The decline of Italian cinema

The death of the legendary Italian director, Michelangelo Antonioni, got me thinking about the state of Italian cinema. I’ve been translating Italian films for the past 7 years so I’ve seen just about every film that was released during those years and I must say, I have come across very few good or memorable films. When I see the sort of crap that’s being spewed out in Italy nowadays on TV and on the big screen, I wonder if the forefathers of Italian cinema are turning in their graves. What I find mind-boggling is the fact that a country, a culture that produced some of the most amazing films in cinematic history is now producing some of the worst trash I’ve ever seen. Totally lacking in quality, originality, substance, etc. So very sad but true. But just to be fair, here are a few "recent" films that I enjoyed and would actually recommend.

My Name is Tanino
Le conseguenze dell'amore
L'amico di famiglia
N (Io e Napoleone)
La meglio gioventu'
Arrivederci amore, ciao
Non ti muovere
L'imbalsamatore
Primo amore
Mio cognato
Io non ho paura
Liberi

***Update: I've added a few more titles:
Non pensarci
La giusta distanza
Il dolce e l'amaro
Lascia perdere Johnny