Il cammino della speranza – The Path of Hope (Pietro Germi – 1950)

Right from the opening scene where you see the village women all veiled in black waiting patiently outside the mine for their husbands who refuse to come up to avoid the mine closing – you see direct similarities with another Nerorealism harbinger – Visconti’s 1948 La terra trema (The Earth Trembles). In the latter, the black… Continue reading Il cammino della speranza – The Path of Hope (Pietro Germi – 1950)

Terraferma (Emanuele Crialese – 2011)

These days I have roughly an hour commute time between 8AM-9AM, so I find myself spending the time listening to Italian live radio broadcast (thank you TuneIn Radio app). This is one of the blessings of broadband streaming; your views and surroundings are rooted in the US, but your real-time soundtrack is coming from elsewhere… Continue reading Terraferma (Emanuele Crialese – 2011)

Open Roads 2014: Via Castellana Bandiera – A Street in Palermo (Emma Dante – 2013)

It’s that time of the year, an absolute treat. I am obviously talking about the annual Italian Cinema festival, Open Roads, that takes place every June at Lincoln Film Center. It’s a rare opportunity to get access to some of the freshest voices in Italian cinema with veteran as well as new surprises. This year, unfortunately,… Continue reading Open Roads 2014: Via Castellana Bandiera – A Street in Palermo (Emma Dante – 2013)

Open Roads 2013: E’ stato il figlio – It was the Son (Daniele Cipri – 2012)

It’s June, so that means it’s time for Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2013 at New York’s Lincoln Film Society. It’s a fantastic annual festival that brings some of the freshest voices in Italian Cinema, thus breaking the chain for the typical crop of old classics that some Italian cinema fests tend to focus on.… Continue reading Open Roads 2013: E’ stato il figlio – It was the Son (Daniele Cipri – 2012)

In nome della legge – In the Name of the Law (Pietro Germi – 1949)

New magistrate arrives, and old one departs It usually happens when a new guy, typically from the north, but in this case from the Sicilian capital, arrives to the wild South in effort to instill some law and order and the local backlash it creates. We have already seen this formula in action in many… Continue reading In nome della legge – In the Name of the Law (Pietro Germi – 1949)