The familiar '70s query, "Is it art or porn?," took on a whole new dimension with The Night Porter (NSFW), a stylish and astoundingly seamy fusion of erotica and stark concentration camp trauma. While many subsequent films, mostly Italian, took the Nazi sexploitation route to unbelievably tastless levels, Liliana Cavani's treatment remains more problematic. More concerned with mood and characterization than cheap thrills, the film is nevertheless extremely kinky and shocking enough to prove that its R rating is the product of a ratings system far different than the one we have now. [more inside]
posted by Trurl
on Oct 19, 2011 -
17 comments
[Michelangelo Antonioni's Chung Kuo] as a documentary film was one which was draped with fascination for both filmmakers as well as an audience, rather than championing anti-whatever sentiments from either side of the world. Not having seen many movies, either features, shorts or documentaries made during the Cultural Revolution era or about that era in question (propaganda included), I think this Antonioni film has more than made its mark as a definitive documentary that anyone curious about the life of the time, would find it a gem to sit through.
posted by Trurl
on Jul 11, 2011 -
3 comments
Despite my absolute fidelity to Sade's text, I have however introduced an absolutely new element: the action instead of taking place in eighteenth-century France, takes place practically in our own time, in Salò, around 1944, to be exact. (some links extremely NSFW)
posted by Joe Beese
on Feb 14, 2010 -
95 comments
Pauline Kael called it "a huge, jerry-built, crumbling ruin of a movie". Roger Ebert called it "such a silly and stupid movie... our immediate reaction is pity". Few directors of
Michelangelo Antonioni's stature have followed a film as acclaimed as
Blowup (1966) with one as reviled as
Zabriskie Point (1970).
[more inside]
posted by Joe Beese
on Jun 25, 2009 -
30 comments
Gyrations atop a giant Rubik’s cube? Check. Uber groiny, hardbodied ballet dancers in metallic bowler shoes? Check. Intimated BJ three-way with male Moschino models? Check. Glittering Mickey Mouse butt cleavage? OKAY NOW THAT’S JUST GOING TOO FAR. Coilhouse is awesome.
posted by cgc373
on May 31, 2009 -
49 comments
Three years after the failure of his recklessly ambitious Marxist epic
1900, Bernardo Bertolucci returned to directing with
La Luna - a story of opera and
incest featuring a Golden Globe-nominated performance by Jill Clayburgh, then at the height of her late 70s fame. [Also appearing in small roles were Fred Gwynne and an up-and-coming Roberto Benigni.] Writing in The New York Times,
Vincent Canby described it as "one of the most sublimely foolish movies ever made by a director of Mr. Bertolucci's acknowledged talents."
Roger Ebert wrote, "Bertolucci has sprung his gourd this time."
[more inside]
posted by Joe Beese
on May 30, 2009 -
4 comments
In Mamas Kitchen was born in the experience of living in New York where a
bodega exists within blocks of a
Jewish deli which is around the corner from an
Italian salumeria which shares space with
Chinatown which abuts
Soho's gourmet stores. While this speaks of the legendary variety available in New York, it also tells of similarity, for in every bodega, every salumeria is someone shopping for the food that sustains physical life with a
recipe that nourishes our hearts.
posted by netbros
on Dec 15, 2008 -
11 comments
Italian Spider-Man: homemade costume, cheesy 70's music, mafiosos in wrestling masks ... what more could you ask for?
posted by bwg
on Nov 15, 2007 -
6 comments
"I've hidden myself and covered myself for too long. Now I want to show myself fearlessly, even though I know my body arouses repugnance. I want to recover because I love life and the riches of the universe. I want to show young people how dangerous this illness is." French Comedienne
Isabelle Caro, 27, an anorexic who weighs just 68 pounds, was displayed on Milan
billboards (NSFW) for
fashion designer Nolita as the city celebrated fashion week. The prevalence of eating disorders within the
fashion industry have only recently been
addressed officially, however
Georgio Armani has complained that since Caro isn't a model herself it proves
"even people who take no notice of fashion get anorexic."
posted by miss lynnster
on Sep 30, 2007 -
116 comments
Madonna and Child by
Duccio di Buoninsegna (ca 1300) “is widely considered a key forerunner of the Italian Renaissance style and a landmark in Western European painting”. The painting “resides in a Plexiglas case in the middle of a room of medieval Italian paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art” and was purchased in 2004 for about $50million, the most expensive acquisition in the Met’s history. However
James Beck, Columbia professor, founder of
ArtWatch “established for the dignity of the art” (
previously mentioned in this forum), is emphatic: “
It’s a poor painting and
it is a fake.” In a recent interview to Paul Hond in the Columbia Magazine Fall 2006 issue he admitted that such a bold and counter-mainstream proposition is “…calling attention to the mistakes of our favorite institutions of great power would not have been readily available if I didn’t have tenure.”
posted by carmina
on Oct 17, 2006 -
18 comments
"
My cancers are so bad that I think I've arrived at the
end of the road. What a pity. I would like to
live not only because I love life so much, but because I'd like to see the result of the
trial. I do think I will be found
guilty."
-Oriana Fallaci
posted by felix betachat
on Sep 15, 2006 -
47 comments
Griko is a language used by the descendents of ancient Greek colonists in southern Italy that still has thousands of speakers.
Pennsylvania Dutch, the only German language native to North America, was used as a first language until well into the twentieth century.
Ladino ia a variant of medieval Spanish written in the Hebrew alphabet that florished among refugees from the Spanish Inquisition in modern Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece. Welcome to the world of
ethnolinguistics.
posted by huskerdont
on Jul 20, 2006 -
22 comments
NJ Guido! A site for guidos, by guidos... hilariously enough! The pics are great (actually, many hotties), but the clincher has got to be the proud testimonials (under "writings"). Can anybody say B&T?
posted by adamms222
on Oct 22, 2002 -
52 comments
Now
here's guy who'll be pretty popular with the ladies: Italian man refuses to stop shtupping woman -- whom he'd just met -- in pool,
until she has an orgasm.
posted by baylink
on Aug 19, 2002 -
55 comments
