Cinema di Gennaio

I have to do some further research on it, but from what I hear the cinema in Italy, especially in Rome, is pretty big. Of course it's overshadowed by Hollywood and Bollywood. Here are two films that have recently come out, and have movie posters all over the city of Rome. Qualunquemente (which is a made up word), and Immaturi (Immature).

Qualunquemente is about a corrupt politician, based off of the character Cetto al Qualunque (created by Antonia Albenese). The title of the movie means "whatever-ly." It seems that the character is similar to Sacha Baren Cohen's Borat in that it is first created and then  a film is based on it. It's obviously a comedy, but meant to be a satire and possibly a political commentary on Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. In 2009, the prime minister allegedly attended an 18-year-old girls' birthday party in Napoli and had her to a private villa for new years. Rumors have flown around Italy that he hired prostitutes as well. The trailer is in Italian, but you can get the basic gist.

Immaturi is also a comedy. It seems to be a very character-arc-relationship film. The idea is that each of these characters have carried on their lives 20 years after graduating high school. And after 20 years, they find out that their final exams were cancelled and therefore annulled (something with the government), which means they didn't really receive their diplomas. Now they must study for the exams and go back to high school to complete them.

X Factor Italia

Ciao! Instead of telling you about how I'm studying abroad in Rome, which is exciting for me but most likely boring and slightly envious for you, I'm going to focus on popular culture of Italy instead, mainly focusing around music, movies, and slang. I'm not taking Italian this semester, nor am I taking the pop culture class I signed up for--the professor even told us to drop it, telling us it didn't really focus on Roma, to which I said to myself "che di merda!"--so I'm going to attempt to meet Italian giovane (youngn's) like myself instead, and find out the lingo of the country from their point of view.

My Dirty Italian book will only get me so far.

I'll be starting off with something pretty awesome and universal, televised singing contests becoming a fast-track shot to mainstream music. We have American Idol, Europe has the X Factor. We're going to have it soon, and it will most likely replace American Idol unless Steven Tyler can bring it back. Whatever, X Factor's better. Italy's version began in 2008, and has had 4 winners thusfar. Here are videos of the past two winners, season 4 (Nathalie) and season 3 (Marco Mengoni). Both fantastic singers. Nathalie's a little on the rougher pop-rock side (think Pink and Avril Lavigne), and M

Muse's "Time is Running Out"--Nathalie (they sing in English too)

"In punta di piedi"--Nathalie. There's a better version here, it won't upload right on blogger.

"In un giorno qualunque"

E tutti per oggi. Arrivederci!