Cinema Italiano Podcast

Recap and reviews of the Italian films featured at the 51st Annual Seattle International Film Festival:

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This episode features the following music excerpts:

The post #51: The 51st Annual Seattle International Film Festival first appeared on Cinema Italiano

A conversation with director Gabriele Fabbro on his new film Trifole, following its international premiere at the 2025 Palm Springs International Film Festival. In our discussion, Fabbro describes writing the story inspired by real-life truffle hunters, planning the visual look with his cinematographer, developing the musical and sonic soundscape, and more.

This interview was conducted on January 12, 2025.

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The post #50: Interview with Gabriele Fabbro (Trifole) first appeared on Cinema Italiano Podcast.

A conversation with director Maura Delpero on her new film Vermiglio, Italy’s submission for Best International Feature Film and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2024 Venice Film Festival. In our discussion, Delpero describes the inspiration for the film, her visual references and cinematographic choices, and how the film depicts the paths available to women during the World War II era.

This interview was conducted on December 4, 2024.

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The post #49: Interview with Maura Delpero (Vermiglio) first appeared on Cinema Italiano Po...

A conversation with director Valeria Golino on her new television series The Art of Joy (L’arte della gioia), part of the selection at the 60th Chicago International Film Festival. In our discussion, Golino describes her experience with the source material and meeting its author Goliarda Sapienza, the storytelling choices for television vs film, and the symbolic meaning behind key moments in the story.

This interview was conducted on October 17, 2024.

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The post #48: Interview with Valeria Go...

Wrapping up summer 2024 with a beachside visit Under the Riccione Sun! In the directorial debut by the duo YouNuts!, a group of college-age friends fall in and out of love and back again at a beach club along the Adriatic Sea, all set to a memorable soundtrack by pop-rock group Thegiornalisti.

Plus: new programs coming to the Criterion Channel, celebrating actor Marcello Mastroianni’s centenary and the iconic giallo crime genre.

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Recapping the winners and nominees from the 69th annual David di Donatello awards, celebrating the best in Italian film from 2023.

Plus: the Cannes Film Festival, upcoming programs from Film at Lincoln Center, and a new restoration of a Vittorio de Sica classic.

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Set in central Italy, a young man navigates worlds both agrarian and metropolitan, past and future, just out of place in any setting. Director Alice Rohrwacher explores religious parallels, including the figures of Lazarus and St. Francis of Assisi, as well as the isolating experience of adolescence, bridging different stages of life layered with distinct worlds and contexts, in this imaginative, award-winning film.

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This episode features the following music excerpts:

Two Senegalese teenagers set out for a new life in Italy in this modern-day Odyssey, framing the immigrant experience as a classical yet contemporary epic. Director Matteo Garrone takes on a role as regista spettatore (“director spectator”), as a European director bringing the real-life journeys of African migrants to the screen. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, Io capitano is amplified through inspired choices in cinematography and editing, and anchored by a revelatory performance by lead Seydou Sarr.

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Quick recap on the Italian films featured at the 35th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival:

Plus, updates on Italian films to look out for and what’s upcoming at the Berlinale.

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This episode features the following music excerpts:

Recap and reviews of two Italian films featured at the 59th Chicago International Film Festival:

Plus quick synopses of:

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This episode features the following music excerpts:

The friendship between two boys, one from the city and one from the mountains, spans across decades from childhood to adulthood, as they experience love, loss, and self-discovery, set against the stunning backdrop of the Italian Alps. Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch’s award-winning The Eight Mountains (Le otto montagne) reunites Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi for an epic, emotional story of a lifelong connection.

Plus, updates on the latest film festivals and Italy’s submission for Best International Feature Film.

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Recap and reviews of the Italian films featured at the 49th Annual Seattle International Film Festival:

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This episode features the following music excerpts:

The past is ever-present in Ferzan Özpetek’s 2017 thriller Naples in Veils (Napoli velata). A medical examiner is caught in the middle of a murder mystery, as she grapples with her own trauma and secrets from the past come to the surface. This film’s Neapolitan setting explores the binary, or unity, between the ancient and contemporary within art, architecture, gender & identity.

Plus, some news updates on the David di Donatello award winners, and a review on Salvatore Mereu’s Bentu (2022).

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Just days after the Cannes 2023 line-up was announced, revisiting Nanni Moretti’s Palme d’Or-winning The Son’s Room (La stanza del figlio) from 2001! This moving drama set in Ancona explores what happens to a happy family when tragedy strikes, as they shift from a singular unit to separate individuals. This film explores vastly different expressions of grief, as well as what role, if any, psychoanalysis can play when facing loss, manifesting the gap between objectivity and emotion into physical spaces.

Plus, some news updates on the David di Donatello awards, the Cannes Film Festival lineup for 2023, and a r...

Celebrating Alice Rohrwacher’s first Oscar nomination with a special episode on Le pupille (The Pupils)! Set at Christmastime during World War II, an all-girls school run by nuns is shaken by the prospect of a beautiful cake – an extravagant, tempting indulgence before them in an era of rationing and sacrifice. In addition to a few distinct formal elements, unique from Rohrwacher’s other works, this film explores religion (a favorite theme of the director’s) and a humorous, poignant take on vision (including the formidable presence of Santa Lucia).

Plus, some news updates on the Berlinale Film Fes...

Quick recap on the Italian films featured at the 34th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival, including:

Plus, news items on what’s new and coming soon.

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This episode features the following music excerpts:

Pietro Marcello brings Jack London’s Oakland-set novel to Naples in his innovative adaptation of Martin Eden. This politically charged story of a young man striving to become worthy of his upper-class love is a cinematic experience both timeless and timely. Archival footage, contemporary music, and distinct moments in history swirl together to form an intellectually captivating, emotionally heartbreaking character study.

This episode features the following excerpts from the film’s soundtrack:

We’re celebrating Halloween month with Mario Bava’s technicolor giallo classic, Blood and Black Lace! The supermodels of a Roman fashion house are terrorized by a faceless killer in this endlessly stylish, thrilling midcentury mystery. More than just a great suspense film, Bava’s work explores the model as being commodified and dehumanized, in more ways than one, and also has echoes of the decaying Italian nobility, disconnected from the working class through status and the sprawling geography of Rome.

Plus, quick news items on what’s new and coming soon, and where to stream Italian horror f...

A married Russian-Italian mother finds a new passion for life when she meets a younger chef in Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love (Io sono l’amore). Set in Milan at the onset of the new millennium, this love story tackles questions of change, insider/outsider dynamics, and identity against the bourgeois backdrop of the textile industry.

Plus, some quick news updates on the Toronto and New York Film Festivals. 

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Thi...

Vittorio De Sica explores Italian romance past, present, and future in his award-winning Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Ieri, oggi, domani). Starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, this triptych of love stories set in Naples, Milan, and Rome elevates its themes of community, religious devotion, and more through cultural nuances, setting, and musical language. 

Plus, some quick news updates on the Venice Film Festival and a review of Simone Godano’s Marilyn’s Eyes (2021).

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We visit the world of Tuscan agriculture with Alice Rohrwacher’s The Wonders (Le meraviglie), an award-winning drama about a struggling family of bee farmers, who get a chance to represent their way of life on a TV competition show. This rich film explores the gap between the authentic and artificial, employs the shadow as a fascinating cinematographic symbol, and even has echoes of Fellini films. 

Plus, some quick news updates on the Nastro d’Argento awards and a review of Alessandro Guida & Matteo Pilati’s Mascarpone (2021).

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Ingrid Bergman experiences the land of God in Roberto Rossellini’s 1950 film Stromboli. A young woman, Karin, and her new husband move to his homeland of Stromboli, where she struggles to adapt to life in a small town on a volcanic island. This deeply layered work explores isolation and the relationship between man and nature; and even the volcano itself plays a variety of roles: as a mother and provider; a geological manifestation of hell, as the landscape of Karin’s own Divine Comedy; and an encounter with God, full of terror and wonder.

Plus: the David di D...

A 19th-century novel is re-contextualized to the postwar era in Luchino Visconti’s second feature La terra trema (1948). This story follows a Sicilian fishing family as they strive to rise up out of poverty, but face obstacles and hardships at every turn. The theme of destiny, and staying trapped in a lower economic standing, is reinforced through rhythmic, recurring sounds & images, and staged through powerful mise-en-scene of the geography & geology of the film’s Aci Trezza setting. This neorealist marvel is an important entry during a defining moment of Italian cinematic history.

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To celebrate the month of Valentine’s Day, taking a look at two love stories by Pietro Germi, both set in Sicily: Divorce Italian Style (1961) and Seduced and Abandoned (1964). These films, prime examples of commedia all’italiana, critique Italian law and society, examine public life and gender roles, all set against a backdrop of decaying aristocracy and the rise of the mafia. The dichotomy of simultaneously subverting institutions while putting on a face to follow the word of the law only heighten these outrageous, endlessly entertaining tales.

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Paolo Sorrentino’s latest film is the semi-autobiographical tale of Fabietto, a young man in Naples whose life is transformed when a terrible tragedy pushes him from an idyllic childhood to somber adulthood. This theme of transition permeates through many aspects of the film, including shifting power dynamics and agency, the cinematography and composition of images, and even modes of transportation. Its cultural context, set in the 1980s, also surfaces real-life figures like Diego Maradona and Antonio Capuano as peripheral, though no less impactful, agents in Fabietto’s story.

The Hand of God is an extraordinary film in S...

“It’s just a trick.” This episode, we dive into Paolo Sorrentino’s award-winning epic The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza), a window into contemporary Rome through the eyes of writer Jep Gambardella (Toni Servillo). This sprawling work examines not just Roman high society, but also broader themes of artistry, beauty, and experiences both individual and collective.

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This episode features the follow...

Two tales of young men, directionless and in limbo, are explored in this discussion on Federico Fellini’s I vitelloni and Lina Wertmüller’s I basilischi. These films, both early in each director’s career, are rooted by neorealist elements while still containing glimmers and hints of styles, themes, and explorations to come for each filmmaker. Both movies are linked thematically as well as narratively, with different takes on agency, drive, and potential.

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This ep...

Wrapping up summer 2021 with Luciano Emmer’s Domenica d’agosto (Sunday in August). This “pink neorealist” film is a lighter summer escape, while still exploring themes of class distinctions, regionalism, and more. We also dive into formal elements, such as language (specifically grammar), editing, and sound.

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This episode features the following music excerpts:

The post #24: Domenica d’agosto (Luciano Emmer, 1...

“Take me, gravity!” Disney-Pixar’s newest film takes us to Portorosso, a seaside village inspired by the Cinque Terre, in this moving story by director Enrico Casarosa. Two young sea monsters, Luca and Alberto, form a powerful connection and face the human world, with all its challenges and possibilities, in an unforgettable summer that will change their lives forever. Luca has rich overtones of a coming out story dealing with identity and acceptance, as well as numerous references to Italian culture, music, and more cinema italiano.

Plus: news updates about film festivals and what’s new and coming s...

Class, wealth, and power are at the forefront of Il capitale umano (Human Capital), the award-winning drama from director Paolo Virzì. Two families are linked together through a tragic accident, set against the backdrop of the Milanese investment market in the midst of the economic recession.

Plus: news updates about the awards season and what’s coming soon from Pietro Marcello.

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This episode features the following music excerpts from the film’s sound...

Ringing in the new year with a classic Italian comedy set on New Year’s Eve, Mario Monicelli’s The Passionate Thief (Risate di Gioia) stars Anna Magnani, Totò, and Ben Gazzarra on a night of misadventures, misunderstandings, and mishaps. This non-stop comedy is layered with deep gravitas, surfacing generational divides, power dynamics, and deception.

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This episode features the following music excerpts from the film’s soundtrack by Lelio Luttazzi:

Felice anno nuovo (Happy New Year)! In this episode, we count down the top 5 Italian films of 2020, as well as sharing the top 5 discoveries of older films we discovered this past year. We also share where films are available, or when they might be coming, in the United States.

This episode features the following music excerpts:

The post #20: The Best of 2020 first appeared on Cinema Italiano Podcast.

Cinema Italian Style has gone virtual for 2020, in partnership with the Seattle International Film Festival, who hosted this year’s program on its platform. These films, all released in 2019 and 2020, were curated to represent some of the best of contemporary Italian cinema. This year’s festival ran from Dec. 10-17, 2020, and featured the following films:

To celebrate the wide release of Pietro Marcello’s latest film Martin Eden, we explore his first four features: Crossing the Line (2007), The Mouth of the Wolf (2009), The Silence of Pelesjan (2011), and Lost and Beautiful (2015). These films all blend documentary with fiction, and the archival with the modern, pushing the boundaries of timelessness and possibility. By uniting the past with the present, whether translating classical cultural symbols into a modern world or seamlessly integrating old footage with the new, Marcello’s cinema makes the contemporary eternal.

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This episode discusses Nanni Moretti’s Caro diario (Dear Diary), an introspective autobiographical look at three phases of Moretti’s life. This story blends the comic with the tragic, all while highlighting a journey of independence, interdependence, and codependence. Moretti’s work also has some interesting ties to the Odyssey both as a narrative as well as through its formal execution.

Plus, some news updates on film festivals and where you can screen contemporary Italian film through virtual cinema.

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This episode explores Abel Ferrara’s Tommaso, a semi-autobiographical tale of an American filmmaker living in Rome with his wife and daughter. An incident forces him to question his role as husband and father, eventually sending him on a destructive journey of paranoia, fear, and hysteria, all while struggling to find community and connection in a foreign land.

Plus, some quick news updates on Il Cinema Ritrovato and the upcoming Essential Fellini box set from the Criterion Collection.

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This episode features an audio essay on Luchino Visconti’s final film L’Innocente (The Innocent), discussing the film’s themes of dishonesty, self-interest, and religion. I also explore the sharp dichotomy between interior and exterior spaces, and how it parallels the cultural and psychological restraints entrapping the lead characters.

Plus, some quick news updates on the David di Donatello awards, film festivals, new restorations, and more.

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This episode features an audio essay on Alice Rohrwacher’s debut fiction feature Corpo celeste (Heavenly Body), a modern-day take on Marta (Martha) from the Bible. We also explore the film’s  themes of the sacred and the profane, expectations vs. reality, and who “is” the church.

Plus, some quick news updates on the David di Donatello awards, film festivals, current events, and more.

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This episode features the following music excerpt:

The post #14: Corpo celeste (Alice Rohrwacher, 2011) first appeared on Cinema Italia

In celebration of Federico Fellini’s 100th birthday, first-time guests David Blakeslee and Josh Hornbeck join for a discussion on Fellini’s filmography, career, plus rumors and speculation on what could be coming from the Criterion Collection later this year (maybe a box set!).

You can follow David and Josh’s excellent shows here:

Links to other Fellini episodes & essays we’ve done:

I’m back from the 31st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival! I wanted to provide an overview of the seven Italian films I got to see, all of which were featured in the Focus on Italy program of this year’s festival:

These...