I PAESANI DI NICOSIA

VIDEOS: NICOSIA, ITALIAN - SICILIAN IMMIGRANTS

MENU LIST: 1*NICOSIANI NEL MONDO
2*PHOTOS
3*"The Heart in the Suitcase"
Book List
ENGLISH TRANS. P. 107 -- 115
NICOSIANI IN CHICAGO (BOOK)
Translation p. 115 --119
NICOSIA BOOK P. 115-119
4*VIDEOS: NICOSIA, CHICAGO IMMIGRANTS, SICILIAN EMIGRANTS
5*ANTI STEREOTYPES
6*PHOTOS
7*RED GOLD -- WW II ITALIAN POWs
8*UNDER CONSTRUCTION
9*LINKS

 MOVIES & DVDs:
 
1.  Nicosia: a Pearl in the Heart of
      Sicily
 2.  And They Came to Chicago  
 3.  Golden Door (Sicilian  Immigrants)
 4.  UNCLE NINO
 5.  List of other films

ORDER NICOSIA VIDEO/DVD HERE

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    Nicosia: a pearl of the heart of Sicily Nicosia: a pearl of the heart of Sicily

    Text and Direction Giovanni Montanti

    sponsored by

  • Carmela Cesario-LiVolsi and

  • Linda Messina-Holda

  •  

  • Information about how to purchase this video

  •  
     
     NICOSIA VIDEO

    Giovanni Montanti has produced a video of Nicosia. 
    " Nicosia: a Pearl in the Heart of Sicily
    Choose English or Italian narration. 
    Mr. Montanti has produced over 100 videos for Sicilian towns.
    See website: Il Sole Editrice, www.sicilyvideo.it

    For more info please contact:

    info@sicilyvideo.it

    http://sicilia.indettaglio.it/eng/comuni/en/nicosia/editoria/editoria.html

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    NICOSIA VIDEO/DVD
    The churches, the works of art, the palaces, the ruins
    of the castle, the villas, the masserie, the processions, the natural environment, are not simple marks of a town which is mindful of its glorious past and proud of its beautiful landscape, but they are strong and living values which Nicosiani exported all over the world.
     
    He who was born and still lives in Nicosia, who left the town and never returned, or the generation which was born abroad, all have the awareness of belonging to a community which was witness to the splendor and opulence  
    that gave Nicosia its great charm. 
     
    Wherever they are people from this shining pearl in the heart of Sicily will have pride in being "Nicosiani". 
    This documentary tells the ultra-milenary
    history of a town and its people. 
     
    Text and Direction Giovanni Montanti
    Voice over (Italian version) Giancarlo Cara
    Voice over (English version) Antonella Scaduto
    Historical research and consultancy Filippo Costa
    Shooting and Assembling Adriano La Blunda - Michele Leonardi
    Post-production Nonsolovideo - Nicosia
    Duration min. 40
    DVD: USD 50,00 (included mail delivery service to your address)
    Available in English and Italian.

    The video was sponsored by Carmela Cesario-LiVolsi and 

     Linda Messina-Holda

    Il Sole Editrice

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    New Video/DVD:

    The history of the Italian immigrants in  Chicago

     " And They Came To Chicago:  ....

       The Italian American Legacy"

    Executive Producer: Gia Marie Amella
     
     

    Modio Media logo

    And They Came To Chicago: The Italian American Legacy

    Narrated by Tony-Award winner
    Joe Mantegna

    Winners of 5 Silver Telly Awards

    A documentary tracing 150 years of the
    Italian American experience in Chicago

    "And They Came to Chicago"       

    traces the 150-year history of Italians settlement in Chicago, from early arrivals who laid the foundation for burgeoning Italian enclaves to the Italian American contribution to politics and labor, the arts and culture. Combining rare historical footage and photographs, interviews with prominent Italian Americans, authors, historians, and individuals who came of age in Chicago’s Little Italies, And They Came To Chicago journeys to the heart of one of the city’s most vibrant, and misunderstood, communities for an unforgettable look at Chicago’s Italian American legacy.

     

    Now On DVD!

    For more info check MODIO MEDIA

    http://www.modiomedia.com/projects/atctc/

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     New DVD

    Martin Scorsese presents
    A film by Emanuele Crialiese

    GOLDEN DOOR

    http://www.goldendoor-movie.com/

    GOLDEN DOOR, with an original mix of both magical and provocatively  authentic visuals, turns the classic tale of coming to America into a wondrous   and soulful experience. It is a romantic fable that takes audiences into the very  heart of this quintessential American experience – as one man, driven by fantastic dreams and confronted with shocking realities, makes an epic odyssey in search of a brand new world.

    On a perilous steamship journey from his Sicilian village, the widower Salvatore Mancuso (Vincenzo Amato) encounters a ravishing, mystery-shrouded Englishwoman, Lucy (Charlotte Gainsbourg,) – as the Old World literally collides into the New with seductive results.  Amid a harrowing crossing, an unexpected love story unfolds all the way to the halls of Ellis Island, where both Salvatore and Lucy will stop at nothing to make it through the GOLDEN DOOR to the America of their imaginations.

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    NOW ON DVD

    UNCLE NINO

    A visit from a distant relative teaches a modern family about old-fashioned values in this family drama. Robert Micelli (Joe Mantegna) and his wife Marie (Anne Archer) are a couple living in Chicago with their two children, 15-year-old Bobby (Trevor Morgan) and 12-year-old Gina (Gina Mantegna). The Micelli Family is not as close as it once was; Robert is busy with work as he tries to earn a promotion, Marie has given up on cooking as a hobby, Bobby has started a rock & roll band with his friends and prefers to hang out with them, and Gina wants both a puppy and more attention from her dad. One day, Robert's elderly Uncle Nino (Pierrino Mascarino) arrives for a visit from Italy -- much to the surprise of the family, since Gina misplaced the letter Nino sent to announce his impending arrival. It doesn't take long for Nino to see that he's staying with an unhappy family, and he reaches out to them, reintroducing Marie to her love of good food, teaching Bobby about music, and teaching Gina about caring for pets and enjoying life; however, convincing Robert to spend more time with his family and less time worrying about work turns out to be a tough sell. Uncle Nino initially failed to find a distributor until the film's producers booked it into a theater in Grand Rapids, MI, where the film became a surprise hit playing to steady crowds for over a year. - Mark Deming

     

      ------------------------------------------------

    More Films

    1) Bicycle Thief
    Many critics consider this Oscar-winning classic to be one of the greatest films ever made. Vittorio De Sica used non-professional actors to tell the simple, human tragedy of a working man whose bike, which he needs for his job, is stolen, sending him and his son on a harrowing search through the streets of Rome.

    2) Bitter Rice
    Silvana Mangano became an international sensation with her performance as a shapely city woman working in the rice fields of Italy's Po Valley after World War II. The sexy Mangano is caught in a love triangle with the respectable Raf Vallone and the unscrupulous Vittorio Gassman. A Neo-Realist classic.

    3) Ciao Professore!
    A tender and often hilarious comedy from Lina Wertmuller centering on a teacher who is mistakenly assigned to a third-grade class in an
    impoverished town in Southern Italy. The teacher soon faces the Mafia, truancy, and pupils with family problems while trying to steer his students in the right direction.

    4) Cinema Paradiso
    A charming, bittersweet tribute to the power of movies which won 1989's Best Foreign Film Academy Award. A film director looks back on his childhood in Sicily, where he served as an apprentice to the projectionist at his small town's only movie theater. Giuseppe Tornatore directs.

    5) Death in Venice
    Luchino Visconti's brilliant version of Thomas Mann's classic story. Dirk Bogarde stars as a jaded, middle-aged composer on holiday on Venice who spots a handsome young boy on the beach. His doomed obsession with the youth renews his interest in living.

    6) Divorce, Italian Style
    Marvelous, Oscar-winning farce starring Marcello Mastroianni as a man facing mid-life crisis who discovers it's easier to kill his annoying wife than divorce her. Eventually he falls for a gorgeous younger woman, played by Stefania Sandrelli.

    7) The Garden of The Finzi-Continis
    Director Vittorio De Sica's Oscar-winning drama centers around an upper-class Jewish family living in Fascist Italy, oblivious at first to the growing tide of anti-Semitism that soon threatens their existence.

    8) Il Postino
    Lovely romance set in a small Italian town during the 1950s where exiled Chilean poet Pablo Nerudo has taken refuge. A shy mailman befriends the poet and uses his words - and, ultimately, the writer himself - to help him woo a woman whom he has fallen in love. With
    Philippe Noiret and Massimo Troisi (who died a day after filming ended).

    9) La Strada
    Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning study of members of a travelling circus troupe, as a brutal strongman uses a simpleminded woman who loves him, forcing her to find solace with a good-hearted clown.

    10) Seven Beauties/Le Sette Bellezze
    Giancarlo Giannini stars in Lina Wertmuller's dark serio-comedy as a small-time hood in WWII Italy trying to support his sisters. His desperate attempts to stay alive take him from jail to a mental hospital, and eventually put him in the hands of an obese concentration camp commandant.

    From  Italian Cinema site:

    http://italian.about.com/cs/cinema/tp/movies.htm

     
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    ITALIAN COMEDIES
     
    5 BEST
    Italy is known for producing movies that combine slapstick comedy with serious social themes, a combination found in all of the 5 best Italian comedy movies. Italian comedy is an acquired taste that more American audiences ought to sample.

    1."Big Deal on Madonna Street" ("I Soliti Ignoti") This 1958 film--also released in the United States as "Persons Unknown"--is considered the first great film in the Italian comic tradition. It masterfully uses a crime-splattered plot to push its comedy to the extreme. It’s a heist movie and, of course, the heist obviously goes wrong ... very wrong. Starring two of the greatest Italian film stars ever, Marcello Mastroianni and Toto (albeit in a minor role), the film is directed like a straightforward crime drama yet the continual missteps in the attempt to rob a government-type pawn shop full of treasure creates wonderful comedy. An American remake "Crackers" in 1984 went woefully wrong, but a Woody Allen remake "Small Time Crooks" (2000) fared a bit better. But forgot those flicks and see the original to understand the best of early Italian comedy.

    2."Divorce--Italian Style" ("Divorzio all'italiana") Pietro Germi’s 1961 comedy was another like "Big Deal" that solidified Italy as a country with some great comic chops. The plot, which is full of funny twists, involves a man who has a mistress and wants to divorce his wife; however, divorce is not possible. Therefore, he decides to kill her, but finds her having her own affair. Comic craziness ensues. The screenplay won an Oscar and the witty wordplay and action justify it.

    3."La Dolce Vita" Directed by legendary Federico Fellini, this 1960 movie is yet another star vehicle for Mastroianni. "La Dolce Vita" achieves some of its greatness from having an underlying comic sensibility during the dark journey Marcello Rubini takes through the decadent corridors of his life on a search for the title’s “sweet life.” Some might not call it one of the best Italian comic movies, but it is dead-on with its satire. Roger Ebert calls it “a cautionary tale of a man without a center,” which points to the film’s serious nature. Still, the religious imagery and the sense of Rubini descending into Dante’s inferno of nightlife decadence develops the comedy found in excesses—of sex especially (the orgy scenes were very controversial at the time, but tame by today’s standards).

    4."Amarcord" ("I Remember") Widely considered to be Fellini’s best film, this 1973 memoir-comedy of characters in a small Italian village records small absurdities and lends a loving, comic eye to them all. Like a typical Flannery O’Connor short story, "Amarcord" shows a sincere regard for its characters, while making fun of their idiosyncrasies. Women stand out in this film. There is the lovely hairdresser Gradisca on whom whole town pins its hopes and desires and the barefoot and crazy prostitute Volpina whose laughter evokes our own, not pity. Lastly, no one can forget the shop owner whose huge bosom fascinates and “envelops” the young boy narrator in one of the movie’s classic scenes.

    5."Life is Beautiful" ("La vita è bella"). Americans are probably familiar with this 1997 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film. The star, writer and director Roberto Benigni also won an acting Oscar for the film, reminiscent of early Italian comedies in their stark realism. You can’t get more darkly realistic than having a comedy set in a Holocaust concentration camp and then proceeding to say life is beautiful at the same time. Guido is a clown—a hotel waiter who can’t help but be goofy, lovable and over-the-top. So, as Guido, Benigni wins over the audience and you want to take the journey with him through the beauty and joy of his life. You just might not think it would work to go with him to the death camp. The continual work of hiding reality from his son while there constitutes the tragicomic genius of the movie. While many found this mixture offensive, the integrity of the comedy and the movie itself lies in the exploration of Guido’s character: the only tool he has for his circumstances is comedy and you have to admire that.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    10 Best Italian Comedy Movies

    The 10 best Italian comedy movies include films made in the English language and those made in Italian including English subtitles. Italian comedy is a serious area of study for film students. The comedy after World War II that set the mood for comedy is sometimes referred as part of the neorealism, realistic comedy.

    1."Divorce, Italian Style." This well-known Italian comedy, directed by Pietro Germi is a seminal film that was used by Vittorio De Sica as an inspiration for "Marriage, Italian Style." The film stars Marcello Mastroianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli and Leopoldo Trieste and was released by Embassy Pictures Corporation in 1962.

    2."La Dolce Vita." Starring such acting greats as Marcello Mastroianni, this Italian comedy was directed by Federico Fellini in 1960. The title means the good life and the main character's seemingly entertaining life as a newspaper reporter is interrupted by more serious self-examination when he explores his love, life and work. The movie was nominated for four American Academy Awards.

    3."Life is Beautiful." This 1997 release stars Roberto Benigni, Giorgio Cantarini and Nicoletta Braschi. Benigni also wrote and directed the movie about life during World War II. The film won American Academy Awards for best director and best foreign film.

    4."Marriage, Italian Style." Released in 1964 and directed under the film master Vittorio De Sica, Matrimonio all'italiana describes a tale of a businessman and his mistress. The man intends to dump his wife and remarry, but not for his longtime mistress. The comedy stars Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni in the title roles, with Aldo Puglisi, Tecla Scarano, Marilu Tolo, Gianni Ridolfi and Generoso Cortini in supporting parts.
     
    5."Big Deal on Madonna Street." This 1958 film directed by Mario Monicelli stars Vittorio Gassman and Claudia Cardinale. A group of thieves attempt a robbery at the local pawnshop only to start a comedy of errors to avoid detection. The movie was later released with English subtitles under the title "Persons Unknown in the UK."

    6."The Monsters", aka "I mostri." This best Italian comedy movie directed by Dino Risi in 1963, not to be confused with the American animated film, and was followed by "The New Monsters" in 1977. The film revolves around twenty episodes all starring Vittorio Gassman and Ugo Tognazzi. Some segments were removed with the re-release under the titles "15 from Rome" and "Opiate '67."
     
    7."Johnny Stecchino." Released in 1991, this film was made under the direction Roberto Benigni. The film also stars Benigni as the main character Dante who is a poor public employee is talked into impersonating the husband of a wealthy woman who in real life is married to the mob.

    8."The Great War." Director Mario Monicelli takes on the tough topic of war and adds a comedy slant in this 1959 film featuring Alberto Sordi and Vittorio Gassman. The film was nominated for the "Best Foreign Film" award for 1959 at the American Academy Awards.

    9."Tea with Mussolini." Franco Zeffirelli directed this odd 1999 Italian comedy movie about an illegitimate son of a businessman. The film stars Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith and Judi Dench and presents autobiographical elements from Zeffirelli's own life.

    10."The Icicle Thief." Released in 1989, this film directed by Maruizio Nichetti, mocks the media industry. A dramatic film shown on television is cut into commercials to create an odd blend between the drama and the consumer advertisements.
     
    11 -- Amici Miei (1975)
    July 19, 1976
    Screen: 'My Friends,' Italian Comedy:4 Middle-Aged Men in the Provinces Outrageous Practical Jokes in a Parable

    12 --  Il ciclone" of Leonardo Piraccioni

    Io Non Ho Paura".
    Panini and Tulipani."(Bread and Tulips),
    "The Leopard."
    IL POSTINO
    " Tutti Beni"
    Kaos



    MORE COMEDIES

     Italian Comedy Mini Film Festival

    Pranzo Di Ferragosto (Mid-August Lunch) 2008 Italy
    Rome, mothers, comedy, food, holiday, Ferragosto, guests, Italy

    Scusa ma ti chiamo amore (Sorry, if I love you) 2008 Italy
    Rome, romance, comedy,love, jealousy, cheating, marketing, lighthouse, friends, Italy

    Scusa ma ti voglio sposare (Sorry, if I want to marry you) Italy 2010 Rome, romance, comedy, love, marriage, jealousy, cheating, marketing, friends, Italy

    La Passione (The Passion) 2010 Italy
    Tuscany, director, play, Passion of the Christ, hill town, comedy, unemployment, actors, Italy

    Generazione mille euro (1000 Euro Generation) 2009 Italy
    Milan, Barcelona, comedy, youth, contract work, roommates, job, marketing, physics, teaching, dreams, 1000 Euro Generation, Italy

    Tutta la vita davanti (Your Whole Life Ahead of You) 2008 Italy
    Milan, Palermo, comedy, youth, contract work, roommates, job, telemarketing, philosophy, teaching, dreams, 1000 Euro Generation, Italy

    Figli Delle Stelle (Children of the Stars) 2010 Italy
    Venice, Rome, Valle d’Aosta, death, crime, kidnapping, comedy, farce, government, corruption, Italy

    .Si Puo Fare (It can be done) 2008 Italy
    Milan, comedy, cooperative, 1980s, mental institution, insane asylum, patients, crazy, dignity, treatment, drugs, tragedy, uplifting, Italy

    . . Here’s to La Dolce Vita!
    http://www.cinemaliberated.com/2011/02/26/italian-comedy-mini-film-festival/

    www.cinemaliberated.com
    Italians are funny and I can't help but smile when I think of their emphatic ways of communicating. Combine that comedy with iconic Italian themes like mothers, food, love, youth, fashion, and of course passion, then you've got the makings of a great Italian Comedy!


     FILM SITES:

    Join us on a cinematic tour of Italy as we take a road trip down the Calabrian coastline (18 Years Later),
    walk across beautiful Basilicata (Basilicata Coast to Coast),
    ferry through the Venetian lagoon (Ten Winters),
    bicycle in Milan (Happy Family),
    take a train across Puglia (The Cézanne Affair),
    romp through the fields of Abruzzo (The Thin Match Man),
    zip across Liguria on a Vespa (The First Beautiful Thing)
    and soar above Rome (Hayfever)
    --all while in the comfortable seats of a venue near you
     
    www.italianfilmfests.org
    Developed by Italian Film Festival USA
     
    iloveitalianmovies.com
     
    Cinema Paradiso", -- la musica è fantastica
     
    Study of Immigration experience per books/movies:
     
    Movies:
    1 Tree of Wooden Clogs
    2 GOLDEN DOOR
     
    4 UNCLE NINO
     
    5 The Leopard
    Books:

    1 ) Customs and Habits of the Sicilian Peasants, edited and translated by
    Rosalie N. Norris: written by Salvatore Salomone-Marion, 1897.
    2. "The Fortunate Pilgrim", by Mario Puzo...written in 1964,
    3. The Leopard

     
     
    From:   Italian Cinema         http://italian.about.com/cs/cinema/tp/movies.htm
     
                                  SICILIAN FOOD
     
    Sicilia’s food dates back to its first Greek domination with the use of oregano, garlic and olives and has evolved through the influence of the Arabs with the introduction of confectioneries such as cassata (meaning casserole), dry fruits and marzipan. The latter was mainly used by the nuns of Martorana to prepare cakes with the colors and shapes of fruits.
      
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    Ciao !
    MESSINA38@AOL.COM