Italian Renaissance
As of late, Italians are invading my life in books, food, movies, music and video games. Not sure why this Italian renaissance is coming into my life now but here’s some stuff discovering and rediscovering as of late:
This film was released in 1988 but just watched it this past weekend. It’s an endearing film about …life. When Salvatore’s mom calls him to tell him that a close family friend named Alfredo died, he has a flashback of growing up with this father figure who had introduced him to the world of Italian cinema. It is a delightful film that comes with as many laughs as tearjerkers. Alfredo was a wonderful actor and the boy who played Salvatore was adorable. And it was such a sweet surprise to find that the music was by my favorite movie composer, Ennio Morricone.
Morricone is a musical god to me. I first learned of his music through one of my favorite films, The Mission. The music is absolutely beautiful. One of the scores in that film, Gabriel’s Oboe, was so moving. I felt it perfectly reflected the scene where Gabriel, the Jesuit priest, plays his oboe at the top of the waterfall; the music was heavenly. I also loved how Morricone incorporated local instruments for this movie since it was about the Jesuit priests mission with the Guarani Indians. I posted the video of Gabriel’s Oboe before and will post again; it continues to mesmerize people and elicit so much praise:
After watching some other movies in which Morricone composed the music, I can definitely sense his style. Sometimes I find that the scores in “The Mission”, “Once Upon a Time in the West,” “The Untouchables,” and “El Cinema Paradiso” sound similar to each other.
I loved this book. I chanced upon it while looking at a bookshelf in my boyfriend’s apartment. (It’s his roommate’s, but he’s reading it now.) I felt like I could identify with what the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, was going through when she was having what appeared to be a mid-life crisis. Somehow the stars align and everything falls into place for her to take a year-long journey to Italy, India and Indonesia to detox or find herself.
I have to say her experience in Italy was my favorite part. She made me want to go to Italy again, eat pasta, go to a football game, speak Italian with my hands and eat tons of gelato in between.
Another book that is making me want to eat Italian is “Heat”. I bought it because it was on sale for $6 at The St. Marks Bookshop. (I picked up “Rogue Regime” for the same reason but reading it at the same time is kind of depressing since it’s about the lack of food in North Korea and Heat is all about food.) I’m only about 70 pages into “Heat” but so far it’s been a hilarious account of a cook working at Mario Batali’s restaurant Babbo. Of course it’s making me want to visit the restaurant and eat some pasta….despite the account where Batali searched around in the garbage to see if he could find any scraps to cook. Tasty!
Awesome video game about a young Italian nobleman who avenges the death of his father and two brothers. I haven’t actually played it yet but I’ve watched my bf play it and it’s beautiful. It’s set in Florence in the 1600s and the details of the city are nice – from the Duomo to people’s clothes. Your character also gets to scale walls and ride a horse so the viewpoints are nice from those angles as well. I may buy it for my PSP…and I don’t even like role playing games.
Any other favorite Italian restaurants, artists or books I should look at, let me know. Capisci?
Assassin’s Creed II… hahaha!
Seriously though, perhaps its time for a trip to Italy. Might I recommend the northern triangle of Milan, Florence, and Venice? 10 days and a rental car can get you a lot of mileage out there.
Might I recommend that you find yourself some limoncello di Capri? I brought a large bottle back with me on my last trip there, and it was probably one of my favorite after meal drinks.
thanks for the recommendation! will do …when i get some money