The 8½ best Italian films

(according to May then)

Yes, you immediately have a nice intertextual reference because 8½ (say: otto e mezza) is a film by Fellini. But that was a little joke, because I actually want a bit of Ladri di Biciclette, La Dolce Vita, and the collected works of Fellini. Not because they are not brilliant, but because you probably know them. And now you ask: who are you to tell me what to watch, then I say: no idea, but I studied Film and TV science and took a film course in Italy and once, in a time when there were no children and there was time, I devoured Italian cinema. So do with it what you want, but these are films that moved me.

1. La Finestra di Fronte

A woman who married too early and dreams of a career as a pastry chef instead of working in livestock farming falls in love with a man who lives in the same apartment complex as she does in Rome. You have to see it. It's small and real and beautifully shot.

2. La Stanza del Figlio

With so many heartbreaking moments. It’s about a happy family whose son unexpectedly dies in a traffic accident. His death tears the family apart because everyone expresses their grief in a different way. Until they receive a letter from a holiday friend that the son apparently had. Because they don’t dare to tell the girl that he is no longer there, they invite her. Her visit changes their grief and brings the family a little closer together again. It’s so raw but so beautiful.

3. La Meglio Gioventù

I have written about this before. This is a family drama set against the backdrop of Italy in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. I still don’t know who I love more, Matteo, Nicola, Mirella, or Giorgia. You do need to take some time for it because it lasts six hours, or watch it in two parts. We have seen it six times and each time we cry harder.

4. L’Ultimo Bacio

Just a delightful, contemporary Italian film about youth. Our favorite line is ‘Per che cazzo tu mi prendi?’, loosely translated: what kind of jerk do you think I am?, but then spoken by a wonderfully temperamental girl. Crying and laughing and lots of handsome people and parties.

5. Non ti Muovere

I have never seen a film with Penélope Cruz that wasn’t good, but this one kept me captivated for days. Penélope plays the role of Italia, the mistress of Dr. Timoteo. She and his wife were pregnant at the same time and ultimately Italia had an abortion. Dr. Timoteo reflects on his life as his daughter Angela lies in a coma. At the end of the film, his daughter wakes up.

6. La Grande Bellezza

You probably already know this one, but it is of such rare beauty and brilliance that it must be included in this list.

7. Death in Venice

Also a film that you need to take some time for because it doesn’t get slower than this. But it also doesn’t get more beautiful and poetic. My favorite film on a Sunday afternoon when the fireplace is crackling and you’ve finished the weekend newspapers. It’s the adaptation by Luchino Visconti of the book by Thomas Mann in which the main character becomes enchanted by the beauty of a Polish youth. But so beautiful, so chic, so understated.

8. Caro Diario

This is how we fell in love with the Garbatella neighborhood. This film is masterful just for the ride on the Vespa through an empty Rome (filmed during Ferragosto on August 15, when the city is almost deserted), where you hear ‘I’m your man’ by Leonard Cohen. Crazy, brilliant. Nanni Moretti at his very best. By the way, Moretti has a little cinema in Rome where non-dubbed arthouse films are shown. Because almost everything in Italy is dubbed, some films are not shown in the big cinemas because it’s too expensive to have everything re-dubbed. Moretti finds it important that Romans can experience smaller films and documentaries, which are then subtitled, which I find much nicer, because otherwise you keep hearing the same voices in all your films.

8½. Pane e Tulipani

A mother goes on a trip with her family, but when someone realizes that she didn’t get on the bus during the bathroom break, she decides to really go her own way and travels alone to Venice, where her adventure begins.