MY ITALIAN CINEMA CLUB: THE ENGLISH FILMS

21 OF MY FAVOURITE FILMS SET IN ITALY.

I thought it appropriate to follow the list of my 21 favourite books and Italian films with my favourite Hollywood films set in Italy. Hollywood producers discovered the charms of Italy after the Second World War, when their desire to film on location was primarily fuelled by advantageous co-productions, tax breaks, ready-made elaborate and original back drops, bargain-priced sound stages, and a robust work force at Rome’s vast Cinecittà studios, the largest in Europe.

This period in Italian film history would come to be known as ‘Hollywood on the Tiber’ where lavish epics like Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, and Cleopatra rose side by side with Italian Neo-realism. Italy now rid of Fascism and entering an economic boom became a joyful, stylish symbol of Europe’s new freedom:

Enjoy………

1. The Two Popes directed by Fernando Meirelles.

An intimate story of one of the most dramatic transitions of power in the last 2,000 years. Frustrated with the direction of the church, Cardinal Bergoglio (Jonathan Pryce) requests permission to retire in 2012 from Pope Benedict (Anthony Hopkins). Instead, facing scandal and self-doubt, the introspective Pope Benedict summons his harshest critic and future successor to Rome to reveal a secret that would shake the foundations of the Catholic Church. Behind Vatican walls, a struggle commences between both tradition and progress, guilt and forgiveness, as these two very different men confront their pasts in order to find common ground and forge a future for a billion followers around the world. Inspired by true events.

2. Roman Holiday directed by William Wyler.

Joe Bradley is a reporter for the American News Service in Rome, a job he doesn’t much like as he would rather work for what he considers a real news agency back in the States. He is on the verge of getting fired when he, sleeping in and getting caught in a lie by his boss Hennessy, misses an interview with HRH Princess Ann, who is on a goodwill tour of Europe, Rome only her latest stop. However, he thinks he may have stumbled upon a huge scoop. Princess Ann has officially called off all her Rome engagements due to illness. In reality, he recognizes the photograph of her as being the young well but simply dressed drunk woman he rescued off the street last night (as he didn’t want to turn her into the police for being a vagrant), and who is still in his small studio apartment sleeping off her hangover. What Joe doesn’t know is that she is really sleeping off the effects of a sedative given to her by her doctor to calm her down after an anxiety attack, that anxiety because she hates her..

3. Journey to Italy directed by Roberto Rossellini

Sharing a passionless existence together, Alexander (George Sanders) and Katherine Joyce (Ingrid Bergman), a married English couple, travel to Naples after inheriting a villa. On the verge of divorce, with neither one’s disposition warming to the other, they decide to spend the rest of the trip separately. Katherine visits museums and historical sites, whereas Alexander goes to Capri to unwind with drinks. However, during the course of their vacation, the Joyces both undergo changes.

4. Tea with Mussolini directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

A semi-autobiographical film directed by Franco Zeffirelli set in 1930s fascist Italy, adolescent Luca (Charlie Lucas) just lost his mother. His father, a callous businessman, sends him to be taken care of by British expatriate Mary Wallace (Joan Plowright). Mary and her cultured friends — including artist Arabella (Judi Dench), young widow Elsa (Cher) and archaeologist Georgie (Lily Tomlin) — keep a watchful eye over the boy. But the women’s cultivated lives take a dramatic turn when Allied forces declare war on Mussolini.

5. Death in Venice directed by Luchino Visconti.

In this adaptation of the Thomas Mann novel, avant-garde composer Gustav von Aschenbach (Sir Dirk Bogarde) travels to a Venetian seaside resort in search of repose after a period of artistic and personal stress. But he finds no peace there, for he soon develops a troubling attraction to an adolescent boy, Tadzio (Björn Andrésen), on vacation with his family. The boy embodies an ideal of beauty that Aschenbach has long sought, and he becomes infatuated. However, the onset of a deadly pestilence threatens them both physically and represents the corruption that compromises and threatens all ideals.

6. Come September directed by Robert Mulligan. 

Wealthy industrialist Robert Talbot arrives early for his annual vacation at his luxurious Italian villa to find three problems lying in wait for him. Firstly, his long-time girlfriend Lisa Fellini has given up waiting for him to pop the question and has decided to marry another man. Secondly, the major domo of his villa, Maurice Clavell, has turned the estate into a posh hotel to make some easy money while the boss isn’t around. And, finally, the current guests of the “hotel” are a group of young American girls trying to fend off a gang of oversexed boys, led by Tony, who are ‘laying siege’ at the outer walls of the villa. Talbot, to his own surprise, finds himself becoming an overprotective chaperon

7. I Am love directed by Luca Guadagnino.

At a dinner, during which her husband, Tancredi (Pippo Delbono), learns that he and his son, Edoardo Recchi Jr. (Flavio Parenti), are about to assume control of Edoardo Recchi Sr.’s (Gabriele Ferzetti’s) lucrative business, Emma (Tilda Swinton) meets a chef named Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini). Antonio and Emma soon find themselves in bed together. With the family already divided over the elder Recchi’s unusual plans, Emma’s affair is the wild card that might divide the family for good.

8. Genova directed by Michael Winterbottom.

Following the death of his wife in a car accident, a college professor decides to teach English literature at a university in Genova, Italy. Joe is accompanied by his two daughters, 16-year-old Kelly and 10-year-old Mary. The trio occupies a flat in the crowded Genova streets and soon adapts to the local way of life, taking day trips to the beach and hiring an Italian tutor in musical composition.

9. The Italian Job (1969), directed by Peter Collinson

Charlie has a “job” to do. Having just left prison, he finds one of his friends has attempted a high-risk job in Italy right under the nose of the Mafia. Charlie’s friend doesn’t get very far, so Charlie takes over the “job.”. Using three Mini Coopers, a couple of Jaguars, and a bus, he hopes to bring Torino to a standstill, steal the gold, and escape.

10.The English Patient directed by Anthony Minghella.

October 1944, in war-torn Italy. Hana (Juliette Binoche), a French-Canadian nurse working in a mobile army medical unit, feels like everything she loves in life dies on her. Because of the difficulty of traveling and the dangers, especially as the landscape is still heavily booby-trapped with mines, Hana volunteers to stay behind at a church to care solely for a dying semi-amnesiac patient who is badly burned and disfigured. She agrees to catch up to the rest of the unit after he dies. All the patient remembers is that he is English and that he is married. Their solitude is disrupted with the arrival at the church of fellow Canadian David Caravaggio (Willem Dafoe), part of the Intelligence Service, who is certain that he knows the patient as a man who cooperated with the Germans. Caravaggio believes that the patient’s memory is largely intact and that he is running away from his past, in part or in its entirety. 

11. A Room with A View directed by James Ivory.

This is one movie that lives up to the book. Taking place in a Florence Pensione circa 1900 with English guests, George Emerson (Julian Sands) and his dad (Denholm Elliott) offer their rooms with views to Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) and her chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett (Dame Maggie Smith). Lucy and George get acquainted, but Lucy returns to England. George and Lucy meet again, but now she’s engaged.

12. Nine directed by Rob Marshall

I know many people may have an aversion to a musical, but in this ode to Fellini’s 81/2, the cast is brilliant, and the songs are highly entertaining and fun to watch. The story centres around the arrogant, self-centered movie director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis), who finds himself struggling to find meaning, purpose, and a script for his latest movie endeavor. With only a week left before shooting begins, he desperately searches for answers and inspiration from his wife, his mistress, his muse, and his mother. As his chaotic profession steadily destroys his personal life, Guido must find a balance between creating art and succumbing to its obsessive demands.

13. Avanti directed by Billy Wilder.

This is a farcical laugh riot and a much over looked billy wilder film but definitely worth a watch. The film is about Baltimore industrialist Wendell Armbruster, who crosses paths with London shop girl Pamela Piggott, and when they come to Ischia to pick up the bodies of her mother and his father, who have been killed in an automobile accident after a ten-year summertime affair. Straitlaced Wendell tries to avoid a scandal, while free-spirited Pamela is impressed by the romantic setting. After some confusion with the bodies and a blackmail attempt by unscrupulous locals, Wendell and Pamela extend their parent’s affair into the next generation.

14. Enchanted April directed by Mike Newell.

When married British women Rose Arbuthnot (Miranda Richardson) and Lottie Wilkins (Josie Lawrence) decide to take a break from their respective spouses, they stay at a castle in Italy for a quiet holiday. Joining the ladies are Caroline Dester (Polly Walker), a young socialite, and Mrs. Fisher (Joan Plowright), an older aristocrat. Liberated from their daily routines, the four women ease into life in rural Italy, and each finds herself.

15. Gladiator directed by Ridley Scott.

This is truly epic and beautifully shot film. The plot revolves around Maximus who is a powerful Roman general, loved by the people and the ageing Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Before his death, the Emperor chooses Maximus to be his heir over his own son, Commodus, and a power struggle leaves Maximus and his family condemned to death. The powerful general is unable to save his family, and his loss of will allows him to get captured and put into the Gladiator games until he dies. The only desire that fuels him now is the chance to rise to the top so that he will be able to look into the eyes of the man who will feel his revenge.

16. Under the Tuscan Sun directed by Audrey Wells.

Frances Mayes is a 35-year-old San Francisco writer whose perfect life has just taken an unexpected detour. Her recent divorce has left her with terminal writer’s block and extremely depressed. Her best friend, Patti, is beginning to think that she might never recover. “Dr. Patti’s” prescription: 10 days in Tuscany. It’s there, on a whim, that Frances purchases a villa named Bramasole–literally, “something that yearns for the sun.” The home needs much restoration, but what better place for a new beginning than the home of the Renaissance?

17. The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone directed by  José Quintero

The film is based on a novel by Tennessee Williams and in true Williams style this story campy, seductive and tragic. The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961) directed by José Quintero staring Vivien Leigh, Warren Beatty, Coral Browne, Jill St. John. It centres around a failing star who is faced with a lifestyle change when her rich husband suddenly dies while they are en route to Italy. She then sets off in a series of flings with gigolos found for her by an aging contessa. Each contact spirals further out of control until she becomes obsessed with one young man, who initially treats her well, but then with disdain.

18. Call Me by Your Name directed by Luca Guadagnino.

It’s the summer of 1983, and precocious 17-year-old Elio Perlman is spending the days with his family at their 17th-century villa in Lombardy, Italy. He soon meets Oliver, a handsome doctoral student who’s working as an intern for Elio’s father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of their surroundings, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.

19. My House in Umbria directed by Richard Loncraine.

After surviving a gruesome terrorist attack on an Italian train line, romance novelist Emily Delahunty (Maggie Smith) opens up her home and solitary life to a trio of stranded survivors. She soon forms friendships with each, but develops a special attachment to the young orphan Aimee (Emmy Clarke). So when Aimee’s distant uncle (Chris Cooper) arrives to retrieve the girl, Emily strives to convince the cold, mourning man that Umbria is Aimee’s rightful home.

20. The Talented Mr. Ripley directed by Anthony Minghella.

The 1950s. Manhattan lavatory attendant, Tom Ripley, borrows a Princeton jacket to play piano at a garden party. When the wealthy father of a recent Princeton grad chats Tom up, Tom pretends to know the son and is soon offered $1,000 to go to Italy to convince Dickie Greenleaf to return home. In Italy, Tom attaches himself to Dickie and to Marge, Dickie’s cultured fiancée, pretending to love jazz and harboring homoerotic hopes as he soaks in luxury. Besides lying, Tom’s talents include impressions and forgery, so when the handsome and confident Dickie tires of Tom, dismissing him as a bore, Tom goes to extreme lengths to make Greenleaf’s privileges his own.

21. The Trip to Italy directed by Michael Winterbottom.

Years after their successful restaurant review tour of Northern Britain, Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are commissioned for a new tour in Italy. Once again, the two comedy buddies and rivals take on the landscape as well as the cuisine of that country in a trip filled with witty repartee and personal insecurities. Along the way, their own professional and personal lives come into play as these slightly older men’s friendship comes through.

Some others films worth a mention are listed below as they have wonderful scenes set in in Bella Italia:

All three of the latest Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, Spectre plus you get to watch the handsome Danial Craig in action. Secondly, a Night on Earth a brilliant Jim Jarmusch film, that follows five stories, each involving a cab ride and set in a different city around the world including one in Rome also The Red violin a lovely film that begins in Cremoni, Italy which is known as the birthplace of the violin. It centres around a mysterious red violin and its owners over the course of 400 years. Six Underground a fast-paced, violent, bonkers of a thrill ride directed by Micheal Bay and starring Ryan Reynolds it’s definitely not for the faint hearted but it has an amazing opening sequence in Florence. Lastly, The Godfather (1972) directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The story, which is based on Mario Puzo’s 1969 novel, is set in the 1950s and takes place between New York and the rural village of Corleone, south of Palermo. By the time of filming, the real-life Corleone had been modernised and therefore two other locations just a few miles north were used – Forza d’Agro and Savoca. Both show stunning views of the Sicilian hinterland and the typical architecture of small hillside towns.

Well, I hope within this list you have found something new to watch that ‘tickles your fancy’ or perhaps rediscovered an old classic you may have forgotten about. Take the time whilst you have it to lose yourself in the art of cinema and in particular one that transports you back in time to the glorious unfettered world we used to know BC – Before Covid19.

Do get in touch to let me know if I have missed one of your favourite films set in Bella Italia or you have a film suggestion to add to my list.

And please stay safe and well in these challenging times. The show must go on.