Hacker Cinema
Amarcord
1973 · Film · 123 min
Directed by Federico Fellini
In an Italian seaside town, young Titta gets into trouble with his friends and watches various local eccentrics as they engage in often absurd behavior. Frequently clashing with his stern father and defended by his doting mother, Titta witnesses the actions of a wide range of characters, from his extended family to Fascist loyalists to sensual women, with certain moments shifting into fantastical scenarios.
2 positive1 mixedfrom 3 commenters
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4 comments on Hacker News
One great example is Amarcord by Federico Fellini. It describes one year in a small Italian town in the 1930s. There is no main character, only a "main family" and a few other related people of various ages with distinct backgrounds. There is no real plot, only a sequence of interesting (absurd, funny, sad) events that happen throughout the year, to varying subsets of those people. The movie is largely fictional, but seems quite realistic, precisely because it doesn't have any main plot to speak of.
There are also books and movies which don't even have plot, or where the plot isn't very important, where the journey is the destination. An example is the film Amarcord (1973).
Ahh, time for a rambling ode to cinema of the days past and the Italian Cinema course I audited at Purdue from the incomparable Ben Lawton: Although I have admired Antonioni's great shots (l'Avventura is picture perfect, that final shot! And this one: https://kinorotterdam.nl/content/uploads/2022/04/Lavventura-10.png) and the head games of Bergman (I find The Silence to be the least suffocating among his films although I also like Fanny and Alexander, too) I've always been a Fellini person, since the day I watched La Dolce Vita. He can be over the top (e.g. Amarcord and Roma) but to this day I cannot watch the last sequence of Otto e mezzo without tearing up. Lawton also introduced me to Lana Wertmüller, who does not seem to be as well known as she deserves. If you have the chance, watch her controversial Swept Away.
My wife and I both love cinema, so we tried to get our son interested in it, to little effect ... until he started watching Criterion on his own. He started to watch Kurosawa's movies because they were "samurai movies" but got hooked! We're now having discussions about his characterizations in The Hidden Castle and other movies.
If you can spare some time I very strongly suggest to subscribe to Criterion streaming, at least for a few months ($10/mo in the US) to discover the old gems.
nice :)
You know about "false friends" in Italian and Spanish: you can easily think to words means the same, while they do not, example:
* spanish: aceite, sounds like italian:aceto but in italian it's:olio while the italian for aceite is: vinagre
* another: largo largo lungo ancho
* ... https://plida.it/documenti/spagnolo.pdf
for this reason I think Spanish is tricking you a bit while you may think it is helping: it happens to me with Italian/Portuguese/Spanish
My advice is:
* the golden rule: find an Italian girlfriend/boyfriend :) :) best if they cannot speak English (pretty easy in Italy, must say) and spanish.
* forget about translating, practice a lot by spending as much time as possible talking with Italians: I know it is pretty hard now due to Covid, but just ask them to talk about politics... and you'll have hours of conversation
* arrive to the point you talk Italian in your dreams (much easier then you may think, esp. if you respect the above two rules :)
* forget about mobile phone/app, have a paper notebook and write new words/sentences: ask your friend to tell you new works every day. (well, I also record sentence, too, but then I do not listen much I must say)
* many says it does not work, but for me it does: movies! so movies in Italian: choose a masterpiece and watch it many many times: Fellini's Amarcord, La Dolce Vita, even 8 1/2 if you skip the intellectual/Movie-criticts talks... or even some very light ones like Fantozzi.
If, due to codiv, you cannot meet people, pay somebody for skype calls: many great people, esp. in the South, have no jobs but have huge culture and passion for teaching, so just pay per hour for their help and guidance; you may post a request in https://dantealighieri.net/forum (not used that much, but a lot of Italian teachers for foreigner are still reaching notifications from it).
Keep in mind that if you are in an average big town, in the centre north, you can join for free or about 30€ per semester (yes!) Italian school classrooms for foreigners: my experience is that teachers there a lovely: very passionate and curious, really very helful and committed.
http://www.venetoimmigrazione.it/it/imparare-italiano?p_p_id=gs_2019_5_portlet_WAR_gs_2019_5_portlet_INSTANCE_zjiZ7SJul6Zo&p_p_lifecycle=1&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_auth=eGW4Cbq2&gs_2019_5_portletcontext=immig&gs_2019_5_portletservice=cercaCorsiItaliano%3Fper_pagina%3D5&gs_2019_5_portlet_SET_PARAMETER_provincia=026
I am sure you are like me, not much interested in football, because if you are then that could help.
all the best: be nice with Italians, but be also strong on your ideas and have no fear to say what you think to let them wake up :) remember, as in many other countries, they are allowed to talk bad about their country, but foreigners cannot ahhaahah
ciao!