Anderson Council

Cinema
When people think of Italian cinema it's often Fellini, Visconti, De Sica, Pasolini etc. I don't really have much time for those guys. I reckon there's a lot of "Emperors new clothes" syndrome going on there (especially with Pasolini - Salò is one of the most unpleasant films I've ever seen!). I prefer the second wave of internationally recognised filmmakers - Giuseppe Tornatore, Roberto Benigni, Gabrielle Salvatores - although I often prefer their lesser known films. (Notably Benigni's hysterically funny "Il Piccolo Diavolo"). Some good friends of mine had a lot of success, nationally, with their film "La Capa Gira", set in Bari, which I loved. But if I have to recommend one Italian film it would be "Tutto L'Amore Che C'è" by Sergio Rubini. A really delightful little gem of a film that says so much about Italy, Italians, the north/south divide, the seventies etc.
Music
I often think the Italian understanding of contemporary music (particularly rock) can be compared to the British understanding of food - it's just not part of their cultural heritage in the same way. They don't have it "in their veins". That doesn't mean, however, that they aren't capable of getting it right sometimes. Two Italian albums that I think are absolute masterpieces are "Creuza De Ma" by Fabrizio Di Andre and "Taureg" by Agricantus. The first is Sardinian influenced music with Genovese words (that sound more Brazilian than Italian). The second is a Sicilian band with a Swiss singer singing in a variety of languages. Both stunning!
Books
I enjoy reading contemporary fiction mostly, and I have yet to find any Italian contemporary fiction I love! This is partly because my friends mostly don't read, and the few that do tend to read foreign literature. I've found lots of books about Italy, and lots set in Italy (I recently read The Savage Garden by Mark Mills, set in Tuscany, which I loved). But I'd love to read some great contemporary Italian fiction writers.

Does anybody have any strong recommendations in any of these three categories?

TestaRossa

I'm going to spell this wrong and I've only read him in translation, but I liked Niccolo Ammanati. I read him in the UK a few years before moving here, but he has had quite a few novels, mainly thriller/mystery type of thing.

I read a lot of novels set in the Roman era, not everyones thing but I love them. All by Brits though. I remember reading Savage Garden a few years ago - is it the one that goes back and forth in time and has some supernatural elements to it?? If not, there is one with a similar name!

Music, I like Eros and Elisa. That's it really! I tried to watch Nine which I know was about Fellini, I think, but I didn't like it at all....Otherwise not a fan of Italian cinema, even the new stuff.

Anderson Council

Eros? Nooo! I can take Vasco. Jovanotti at a pinch. But Eros? No way! Yucksville! Italy's Ricky Martin, but even worse! I can't believe your OH allows that! I'll check out the writer you recommend though. I.ve never heard of him, and I love thriller-type books. You make The Savage Garden sound like Doctor Who, but I think yes, it's the same one.

TestaRossa

Lol! It's a while since I read it and that's pretty much all I remember of it! My OH has no say, he likes Jennifer Lopez for goodness sake!!

ballerina

Films: for me, it HAS to be Bud Spencer and Terence Hill films! the fight scenes! And we were watching Lino Banfi (?) clips on youtube last night... and something that reminded me of Carry On films, although I never really watched them in England... La Dotoressa/Soldieressa or something like that.

Music.. oh god, the closest I can get to liking Italian music is opera, which I like a lot. Their contemporary music is like Brit contemporary from the early 80s! I could almost like Negroamaro if the singer didn't sound like he was crying... I liked the spoof version.. lu pollu cusutu n'culuuuu! lol I am actually dreading having to include some Italian 'hits' on my wedding playlist and if the Italians don't dance I shall be switching it off! Having said that, the Italian music fromt he 60s is not bad... Mina etc.. I kind of like that sort of stuff. 'Volare! wooah oh!'

Books, I read a couple of Niccolò Ammaniti before I moved to Italy and enjoyed them.. one of them was made into a film, which I bought Io Non Ho Paura.. when I was tour guiding in Rome I read tons of Roman history stuff, but lots of those were by Brits too. Who is the man who wrote all the fables? I remember reading a book if Italian fairytales, tons of them... all pretty much the same but nice stories.

Anderson Council

Eros Ramazzotti! Bud Spencer! Lino Banfi! OMG! I didn't think anybody actually LIKED these people! You'll be telling me you enjoy watching "Amici" on telly next!!!

TestaRossa

(I don't watch Italian tv....!)

Thanks for the correct spelling and the book name ballerina!!

Maybe someone more high brow will join in shortly!

Not having an Italian OH I don't read in Italian, probably should but don't! I do get magazines and the paper occasionally though. I like Ville giardine, ville casali, I get Elle on a subscription and I read all the newspapers but I like La Nazione!

Anderson Council

Nah, what this thread needs is not so much some "highbrow" input as a healthy dose of testosterone! I don't watch Italian telly either, by the way. It's dire. For years I didn't watch telly at all. Then recently I got Sky, which is great. But it really annoys me that I have to pay the RAI licence fee. What a con!

ballerina

I DESPISE Amici!!!! I just don't get it! I was forced to watch bits of it with my sils (and Italia's Got Talent.... the semi-finals had about a million contestants!!). I try to not watch Italian tv at all. I don;t need to, I have my beloved Slingbox to stream UK tv direct to my mac or phone.

Bud Spencer and Terence Hill are awesome, you have absolutely no taste Anderson Council Perhaps if I grew up with these guys, I wouldn't like them. It's the novelty, you know? Like I said, I never ever watched Carry On films, and wouldn't be interested in them, but it was amusing to see something similar in Italian.

I have seen a few of Roberto Benigni films, but for me, he is too much like Jim Carrey - that is to say, once you have seen one funny man act, you have seen them all.

Oh, for reading, I forgot to say, DYLAN DOG!!!! takes me forever to read it though. Can you tell it's my OH introducing me to this stuff??

ballerina

Can you get more testosterone than Bud Spencer and Terence Hill? I doubt it..

Anderson Council

Ha, I guess that's true. "Highbrow" must be what's lacking then! Come on girls, get a little sophisticated here!!! I watched Italia's Got Talent the other day (at a friends house - honest!). Gerry Scotti seems to present every single programme on telly. As well as starring in all the adverts. No wonder he's so smug!

TestaRossa

Can I throw a very British book in then, English even?? Wolf Hall won the Man Booker and just for once it is a well written, interesting, reasonably historically accurate book!! Not a load of prentetious tripe like the books that normally win! I think it was a bestseller before it won too!! Never heard of!

Anderson Council

I'll certainly check that out - I generally like the Man Booker winners (but then I'm a pretentious kinda guy - hence the "no Bud Spencer for me, thank you" attitude). I really loved "Life Of Pi", which I think won it a few years back. Bari has a Feltrinelli with a fairly good-ish English section - I'll have to see if they have it. Otherwise it'll be pressie time yet again thanks to those lovely chaps at Amazon.

TestaRossa

Actually I read life of pi and liked it! But this is a much better book tbh! Don't forget The Book Depository.

indiebird

I did enjoy the Life of Pi... not very highbrow though is it??!! or did I miss something.....

I LOVE the book depository... they are my friends. Free postage! What's not to like??!!