Italian Movie: Passione

The movie Passione, by John Turturro, seemed like a movie I would like. I know, I’m a sucker for all Italian movies, but this one seemed right on target: A musical documentary about the history of music in Naples. Cool.

Not withstanding a positive review on Salon, I could barely sit through the entire movie. Turturro was the audience’s guide through the historical and contemporary musical world in Naples. Unfortunately, his introductions were broad, and while positive, mostly devoid of facts.

The movie was primarily a series of staged and overdone music videos, not impromptu performances as the scenes would try to portray. Yes, yes. I know that Naples has a particular “spirit.” Still, the entire piece felt forced.

Alas. Not everything Italian or Italian-American is perfect. 

Italian Movie: The Double Hour

I’m a sucker for anything in Italian. When I was living in Italy, I was a sucker for anything in English. (I’m sure there’s a term for folks like me.) I will admit that my husband and I recently saw The Double Hour simply because it was in Italian.

The Double Hour's trailer shows speed dating, intense love with sad overtones, robbery, murder, suicide, illness, and more. I generally shy away from murder mysteries or thrillers, but since it was in Italian, of course I saw it (although we made it an afternoon showing, to mediate the fear factor.)

I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. As the New York Times review of the movie adeptly explains, there were some surprising twists and turns throughout the plot. I am still thinking about the early plot clues and the ending.

If you are learning Italian, watching movies is a great way to practice your skills. Most, if not all, Italian movies shown in the United States have subtitles in English. If you stream or rent Netflix movies, you can usually change the subtitles to Italian. Listening to the language while reading it (even if it isn’t 100% the same), helps you to improve your comprehension of the language.

What Italian movies have you enjoyed?