La Dolce Vita, 50 years Later

My favorite scene is when Sylvia and Marcello are in the Trevi fountain.

My knowledge of Italian film is mostly relegated to the spagetti westerns made famous by Clint Eastwood. Although, another great film of this genre is "My Name is Nobody" with Henry Fonda. What a hoot! Sophia Loren on the other hand...well let's just say she made puberty a bit more bearable. My wife and I enjoy a meal at Jonny Carino's from time to time. During a recent visit I needed to make use of their facilities. Now most restrooms these days have the local sports page on display above the porcelain for something to read while one does their business. At Carino's they chose to put a photo of Sophia in that spot. It's a bit disconcerting to say the least...

Please ask your wife  to tell us which pin-up boy  is in the Ladies Room. 

Julia: I just asked her and she said there were no glamor shots of any kind not even Dino or Frank. Just some lame potpourri...

Sergio Castellitto. He is unforgettable in "The Starmaker" & "Mostly Martha".
 
His nose is also beautiful & unforgettable......

There  is  a  new  hardbound  book,  by  movie  critic  Mautlin {sic.},  titled  "151  greatest  movies  that  never  made  it  at  the  box  office."   Reviewed  earlier  this  week  on  NPR. Good  stuff  in  there,  smorgasbord  with  half  a  dozen  for  everybody's  taste.   I keep  promoting  "Windy  City,"  1984,  protagonist  won  best  actor  in  Montreal  Film  Festival,
yet  box  office  gross  was  ONLY  $300k   {"chump  change"}.   Filmed  in  Chicago,  my  old  neighborhood.   I  can't  remember  another  movie  where  EVERY  supporting  actor  is  focused  on  world-class  performance.   But  it's  NOT  Italian.....    It  DOES  redefine  "La  Dolce  Vita."   The  good  life  =  family,  friends,  values  that  matter.  My  mantra.

Speaking of Hollywood westerns...one of my favorite Italian films stars Bert Lancaster. Il Gattopardo (The Leopard).
He plays the part of an aging Prince who must adapt to the changing politics of Italy, around the time of our Civil War, and the loss of power of the aristocracy. He struggles to adapt to the new society that he deeply feels is beneath his dignity, but must be accepted. It was one of those grand sweeping historical epics, filled with waltzes and finery and battles and strife...and contemplation.
I liked the book even more - "The Leopard" by Giuseppe Di Lampedusa

Photos in the "travel" icon link section is up and running ang there are some new photos to be seen.

For some reason one of my favorite Italian films is Fellini's Fred & Ginger. Can never really explain as to WHY, yet for some reason it's one of my favorites films to pop in just because.
 
Bebe ~ I happened to LOVE Mostly Martha & especially Sergio.
 
The other Italian Film maker I happen to laugh with & enjoy the films of is Roberto Benigni.  
 
Sophai Loren is still a siren, my dad's favorite actress. I happen to think she was under used by hollywood.  Yet I do think she had a hit role in the film Desire Under the Elms..
 
Looks like a good nite to grab the LA Dolce Vita DVD & play it in the club car, perhaps with some home made Pasta.

I saw La Dolce Vita 'way too young to have an inkling of what it meant, said, set out to mean.  A friend gave me two tickets, and four of us came out afterward with question marks over our heads, questions in our mouths. Only years, YEARS later, reading about it, did I begin to learn of what I had seen.
 
Not only in comedy is timing everything.

 
Gia,

 Being a benefit of the doubt kind of guy, I listened to the golfer until it began to sound like Robert MacNamara, Kennedy's Secretary of Defense, speaking years later about US involvement in Viet Nam.

It was something along the lines of: A bad idea, horribly executed that left us humiliated, embarrassed and... (my words) damned proud of it. 
 

That's the problem with seeing things when you're unable to assimilate. I too saw La Dolce Vita a whle back. I remember the Fountain scene. Little else. Dare I see it again? As far as fairly recent Italian movies, I remember fondly a movie with Benigni and his partner (who has since died) traipsing, via a time machine, though history. Wish I could remember its name. DeSica was also a terrific actor. I too wouldn't disagree with Sophia.

Georgia:   Some  movies,  like  some  great  books  or  speeches,  need  to  be  revisited.  Churchill's  WWII  speeches  were  done  largely  to  boost  up  sagging morale,   yet  substantive  and  long-term  things  were  nuianced  there,  available  to  pull  out  only  in  quieter  and  more  reflective  times.   Volume  afer  volume  followed  the  Gettysburg  Address,  87  words  cobbled  together  on  the  trip  from  Washington  to  the  former  battlefield.  
 
KIndlee:  You  have  lived  abroad,  you  can  confirm  that  nothing  ever  seems  to  change  in  Italy.  Corruption,  infighting,  drama,  problems  with  currency  stability,  war.  Yet  the  country is  so  very  serene  &  beautiful,   if  you  take  the  time  for  more  than  a  case  of  first  impression.  

I could never argue with my boyhood fantasy girl, Sophia Loren. I was thinking about Antonioni's Zabriskie Point, his only film made in America. Does that count since it was an Italian idea?

Growing up within TV range of New York City, I vividly remember watching 'the Italian channel' which played post-war Italian movies in Italian.  (This was in the era of black and white TV so I always remember the films being in black-and-white. Most likely they were....).  My Sicilian grandma, whose English left a lot to be desired, loved to watch them, and since they were subtitled in English I picked up a bit of Italian along the way.  Both my grandmothers passed away the same year -- I was 10 -- but when I see post-war or "film noire" European flicks, I think of her swollen arthritic hands and the hand-carved cane I loved.  Whatever did happen to that cane?  

Hmmm... smart marketing by Leonard Maltin... His book is titled '151 Best Movies You've Never Seen' but I can't find any listing of what the movies actually are... It's like Leonard wants us to buy his book! (Horrors!)   http://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Maltins-Movies-Youve-Never/dp/0061732346

just two words .. .. .. Isabella Rossellini

I'm not a big fan of Italian movies, or Felini, or Marcello, or even Rossellini's father Roberto altho I love her mother Ingrid, and I think Sophia pales in comparison to Bergman -- they're just not my cuppa too strong coffee. 
 
Unless "Three Coins in the Fountain" is considered an Italian movie, this will be about all I have to say about this topic.
 
Oh:  I never even saw "La Dolce Vita."  But I saw a too large woman at the beach with a tatoo on one of her buttocks that I think said 'la dolce vita' but it was kind of hard to read, pretty gross looking anyhow, and what kind of way is that to spend a day at the beach:  chasing a too large woman's arse around?
 
Especially when you're a woman yourself, and holding a camera, it just adds up to trouble.

"The Tiger Speech."
 
Oh, god in heaven, that is so wrong.
 
Not that you said it Gia, but that he had to do it, mea culpae all around.
 
 
It's just not anyone's business and I don't get it at all and wow we've got too many people in this country who need to get their own lives so they can get out there and just live directly and in the moment, and not vicariously through Tiger Woods and his family.
 
It's so wrong.

mea culpas

PETERLAKE:   Right You Are,  Sir !!!   Sophia and Isabella ... and tho' not Italian ....... Isabella's Mother ....... Three rare packages of Beauty, Brains, and Talent  and all three of them, like Fine Wines, just got Better with gentle aging ....... One of the worst things about most younger women, that despoils whatever other assets they might have, is having to explain Punch Lines .......
 
When I'm a young man, I took a beautiful young woman(three years older than I) to the Symphony ... a Featured Guest Soloist was a barely post-pubertal Harpsichordist named Igor Kipnis, and the Piece was, Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, and the young Kipnis acquitted himself superbly ....... Halfway thru the First Movement she asked me I would get her some Raisinettes and a Dr. Pepper , "Before the Show Begins" ... I leaned over and told her that suddenly I was not feeling well and that we'd better leave ... took her quietly outside, caught a Cab, gave the driver a C-Note and told him to take her anywhere she  wanted to go, and explained to her that I was naseaous enough that I ought to go to Hospital, and that I would call her soon ... When they were out of sight, I went back inside and enjoyed the remainder of the Concert ... I drove back to the house alone, and made a quick turn into the Parking  Lot when I spied one of my favorite places, and that was the First, Last, and only time I ever dined in a Tuxedo, at The Dirty Duck .......

IVAN -- I hope you got her some raisinettes for the cab ride.  Loved the story!  Thank you

The depth and breadth of my foreign film experiences and knowledge is sadly lacking and found to be wanting. I don't make a point of seeking them out but I do enjoy them very much when I happen to encounter them. I particularly enjoy running across the ‘original' versions of Hollywood remakes ‘cos I often find them to be superior in so many ways.

One Italian film that was high on my enjoyment meter is ‘For Rosanna' featuring Jean Reno and Mercedes Ruehl; two of my favorite actors. I've always been an easy mark for ‘dark comedy' and this one hit the spot.

 
Jalopkin,

Every coin has two sides. In probably '56, at age twelve, in a blue blazer, khakis, button down(?) white shirt, sweat socks (yep) and penny loafers, I was kicking a stone down the walk winding my way to the Grand.

I encountered a schoolmate, Nadine, who in a crisp lavender and white checked skirt and blouse, knee socks and better than school footwear looked like she was ready for something.

"You like nice," I said, "what's up?"

"I was," she said, "about to say the same thing to you."

I told her that I was going to hear a visiting symphony.

"All alone, why?"

"That's just how it works out," I said, without having come to a complete stop and then: "You wanna come along or something?"

When she ran in to get permission, the curtains must have parted about twenty times as every member of her family peeked out more than once but she bounced out and we went.

About two minutes into the Brandenburg, she brought her folded hands up to her chin and tears ran down her cheeks. She remained in her seat during intermission  so as not to risk waking from the dream and at some point in the evening, she clutched my right hand in her hers and broke about forty knuckles.

We did not become great friends or anything and it wasn't until maybe a fortieth class reunion that she made a point of telling me that nothing in her life was ever the same and that she had always wanted to thank me but didn't know how.

She wasn't the kind of babe that set your mind to spinning with the possibilities and it all resolved itself when she socked my shoulder pretty hard and said: "Thanks, I think about that night all the time."



 

Doc:   Correct,  no  roster  of  films,  he  wants  you  to  buy  the  book.   On  NPR  he  gave  up  only  teaser  lines.   Eventually  an  amateur  will  review  it  online  and  spill  the  beans.

STONEY:  GREAT  STUFF !!! What a marvelous Story, and THANKS for sharing it with us ...
You see, THAT is the kind of Girl I always looked for and could never find, and have ended up being distracted by Lilacs and Fire ....... C'est la vie !!! Or as my Aunt Esther used to say, when she really wanted to say BULLS__T! ... Aroysgevofeneh !!!!!!! And the two exclamations are nowhere related .......

I wish you all a pleasant weekend ... Rest, enjoy yourself ... Take it all in, and be Blessed...

Stoney: You had me at "crisp lavender and white"...and for a time that was all I could see. After many mental images later I finally finished the story. It amazes me how much can be said in so few sentence's. I cry for lack of a better one...

Isbella is still a rocking hot woman.

Jalopkin:  Bull-loney!  You gave your heart to some wanton and willing V-8 engine and we all know it.
 
;)

Here's to stoney, our resident magician with the common word. It's nothing short of magical, how you take it and mix it up with others and show us, us.  You hold the mirror.
 
again...thank you.

I thought I was the only one that had ever had dates like Jalopkin's.... I sometimes wonder about what happens to women like that; they probably have fascinating biographies.  But sometimes it's nice not to be a part of certain people's 'interesting lives'....

Stoney,
  That story was captivating...I loved it!!  Things like that don't happen anymore and it's makes me sad. 
    I have never seen La Dolce Vita but might just have to find it and watch it..I love old movies and it makes my family nuts..(I love that, too!)  How is it that Miss Sophia NEVER ages?? I soooo want to be her when I 'grow up'..  and I think Isbella is beautiful, too! But still..
  
Jalopkin, I enjoyed your story, too..I have never been to the Symphony, but I imagine they don't have Raisinettes or Dr Pepper...Did she ever call and see if you were ok??

Park4: I think Jalopkin's current squeeze is a lusty V-12...sooner or later he will get back to the V-8 but not until his had his fun...

Stoney B-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l !!!   I will never forget my 4th or 5th grade "date" with my daddy.  My uncle was regularly able to score tickets to the St. Louis Symphony and my parents loved going--one of the few times out in their limited pocket money kind of life.  At some point they decided that once in a while my dad would take my sister or me to a concert.  My turn came and after a meal of a St. Louis Italian speciality (fried ravioli---really it is delicious!) at an Italian restaurant my mother swore was run by the St. Louis Mafia, daddy and I sat in the darkened concert hall and I inhaled Beethoven's 3rd symphony.  I fell madly passionately and eternally in love with Beethoven and quite obviously have forgotten very little of that date.  I can even see what I was wearing and recall snatches of conversation with my rather taciturn dad that night.    Of course, classical music itself was not new to me since that was all we reallly heard at home, but oh my what a special night that was!  How good to remember.

Ivan ~ Please don't be mislead into thinking that it is only men who find women lacking in brilliance! Women can, and do, encounter the same problem...
Once upon a time, I was having dinner with a girl friend of mine, as a prelude to attending a performance of the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andre Previn. A couple of tables away there was seated a very handsome dark-haired young man, who stared at us for quite awhile. Finally, he came over to our table and, flashing a brilliant smile, asked if we were sisters, when we said "no" he asked, "Oh, are you twins then?"
My girl friend thought he was just being cute and invited him to join us. During dessert, I happened to mention how much I was looking forward to the Schubert. He asked what kind. He loved orange! I was quite relieved that it was a sold-out, ticketed event and we had to leave the man behind...
Oh...and my sincere apologies to Burt Lancaster, in memoriam, for inadvertently spelling his name incorrectly, earlier...I guess we all can have our "dense" days...

Curmudgeon:  I recall yesterday or the day before reading a mention of a V-12, now that you bring it up.
 
Isn't that just like Ivan?
 
A Don Juan if there ever was one.

Spur Flower:  put it on your list, "Go to the Symphony."  A good one, but it needn't be world reknowned, just good enough to give you the feeling that the music is taking over and wrapping around you and soon you feel like you have no breath. 
 
The experience is that good, that worth it.
 
I've enjoyed the Chicago Symphony, at Orchestra Hall, but the best performances are in the evenings at Ravinia Park on the North Shore...Chicagoans will know Ravinia, the sitting/laying on the lawn, under the trees and stars, champagne and candlelight on linen cloths spread on the grass...and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing from the bandshell.
 
Go!
Find a performance wherever you live, and go.
You won't regret it!

renowned - no "k"

I once went to the Boston Symphony with an Italian crush named Sonny. He was soooo cute.
But I was quite suprised when he was suprised that I could keep up with the program to Carmen.
And when he left me in Harvard Square to go home to East Boston and me to Arlington it was all over.

Never trust a guy named Sonny, korthal.  Remember "The Godfather"?
 
;)

STONEY---- Just an awesome story. Really charming that you were able to relive it 40 years later. Amazing!!!! Take a bow.....
 
PARK--- your story about the woman's tattooed **s on the beach is beyond funny. I can actually picture you stalking her to read it clearly. What did she expect- she put it there!!!!You are a riot tonight.... I also agree- I feel guilty that I could never figure out the Marcello factor--- he never did it for me.
 
IVAN--- Maybe you could still find her,and take her to a bowling alley so that she can order up some champagne & corndogs.....
 
James Caan was the most luscious pigdog in that movie.
 
KINDLEE--- For some reason men seem to very easily overlook intelligence in a woman if she is gorgeous, while all the women I know who are intelligent just will not be w/ a dumb man-- no matter his level of beauty. Go figure....
 
KORTHAL--- Italian men- beautiful, beautiful, beautiful--- but rude trumps beauty every time.

KINDLEE:  I readily admit that Men account for a great percentage of the Brain Dead among us ... but that isn't as startling or disappointing, or as unusual as it is on a woman ... Its like Drunks; Drunken Women are a lot more repulsive than drunken Men ... Be it Booze or Brains, we have come to expect women to be liltingly sweet, demure, smart, and delightful ....... On Marie MacDonald(Ken Murray's Wife) the ill-educated Bimbo routine was funny, and it was very Charicter-Effective on Barbara Nichols, who happened to be one of the shrewdest Business Women ever, and she had a Masters Degree from Beaver College(don't laugh, that was the name of it) in Pennsylvania ... Anyway, it is just so disappointing to find an attractive woman who is a Dunce ... pathetic even ... We expect Guys to be Dummies, and not be able to concentrate on anything other than Football or Hockey, and think that Muzak is Classical Music, and that Eating is a Competitive Sport ... but such numbness between the ears on a woman, is just Heartbreaking ....... NOTICE: Doesn't mean that such women cannot make worthy candidates for Wife or Girlfriend ...
 
BEBE:  That Girl/Woman retired from Waiting Tables about fifteen years ago, and is living in a Retirement Subdivision in Arkansas,and the last I heard had become a Mahjong Maven ... a place where they sit around in the evenings and listen to each other's food digest, and on Saturdays they take turns giving each other Adrenaline Shots .......
And I gotta tell ya ....... The first thing I notice about a woman is her face, then I start looking for signs of Intelligence ... I think intelligence is sexy, and I always made passes at Girls who wore Glasses ... but thats just me ....... (I don't think Champagne and CornDogs is Kosher)
 
PARK4:  Ya got me ... I'm busted ... I love Flatheads, and always have ... I've cancelled Dates to stay home and work on them ... They are a piece of Art, Beautiful, Dependable, and very Moving(You should pardon the pun) Most of the time, when I'm a kid, I was home under a hood, rather than goin' out gettin' in Trouble ... and besides that, I had my own Ice Box as a Beer Cooler in my Garage ... Working on Cars made me a little extra money too, to supplement the Income from my two other Full Time jobs, so's I could afford to dress my Flatheads up !!!  I like Overheads too, and own a bunch of 'em ... But Old Iron, particularly Fords, are best with a Flathead V8 ... Cadillac had it's version of the Flathead V8 too, until 1948 when they put the first OHV's in, and Cadillac had a V16 back in the 30's ... The Lincoln V12 was gone in 1948 also, and now Cadillac has a Concept Car, you can see at Most Autorama, that has a really complicated V12 ... All my Flatheads I have had over fifty years, and they all still run just like new ... Sometimes I drive one of 'em when I go to the Bowling Alley .......
 
SPUR FLOWER:  She called one time, and suggested we should get together the following weekend, but I apologized profusely, told her I was having a Frontal Lobotomy Thursday, and I probably wouldn'tt be able to remember who she was or how to find her ... I wished her a Great Life and told her to work on the Phrase, " Do You Want Fries With That?"

  
~ Epilogue~

The symphony story, better received than imagined (and thank you for that), was about a third of how it had been shaping up for years inside my head.

I felt bad about leaving out the navy and red diagonally striped silk club tie a gift from a haberdasher when I opened an account at his store. At twelve.

Then, there was a little uneasiness after she peeled off at her front walk: "Seeya," that her older brothers might misunderstand her red-eyed snuffiness and come storming out of there with an eye wringing my neck.

They had no chance of catching me but knew where I lived and though they were no match for my brothers, it wouldn't have been the first time that temporary insanity made warriors out of wienies. Didn't happen.

I should probably have included the fact that at the class reunion when she wanted to set things right, that she returned my kickin' stone an almost truly round pinkish beauty about the size of a cue ball and with a quartz equator.

When it seemed harder for her to give up than it was easy for me to accept, we went outside and whacked it in two on the pavement. She got the half that looked like it had frosting and The other went into my pocket.

I don't know what became of it or the tie either for that matter.

You know how it goes.

Doc Nolan: If you go to Amazon.com, you will find a listing for the Leonard Maltin book and if you click on "Surprise me" you can look at random pages in the book. I also found the Table of Contents at this spot. Try it.

"WARRIORS OUT OF WIENIES ..."   By GOD, I wish I had written that Line .......

Resounding applause to you,  Friend Stoney !!!