Italy is on my mind and in my heart right now. The situation is dire. I am thinking of friends in Italy and those of you with family and close ties there.
In times of difficulty I think of Blaise Pascal’s concept of always keeping something beautiful in mind. For me thinking of Italy conjures deep connections, fond memories and great beauty.
During my high school exchange year in Germany, I spent a week exploring Tuscany. I was a super nerdy and totally oblivious 17-year old from California living it up in Italy: stumbling through the Uffizi looking for Michelangelo’s David (only to find he’s in the Galleria dell’Accademia), making friends with locals in Lucca, lounging on the beach in Elba musing about Napoleon in exile, pulling all sorts of shenanigans and mostly getting away with it. It was incredible, and even more so now looking back on it.
Italy not only figures prominently to Switzerland as a neighboring country, but the Italian language, culture and history are integral to Swiss national identity. When we lived in Zurich, we would often take trips to Ticino and northern Italy.
It was by way of Italy that I discovered Switzerland. On that first trip to Italy, I saw Switzerland for the first time and was captivated by its breathtaking beauty. I knew then that I had to come back. By the next summer I had gotten my first internship at Coop Schweiz headquarters in Basel and was living it up there as a film student.
As with a lot of my life, it was through the movies that I discovered and developed a deep appreciation for Italy and Italian culture. So many great auteurs and films, too many to cover here. But when the news gets to be too much or you’ve just had enough, here are a few gems of Italian cinema that will take your breath away:
Vittorio De Sica’s haunting and beautiful The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis, Liliana Cavani’s enigmatic The Night Porter, Gillo Pontecorvo La battaglia di Algeri, a political tour de force, Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso – Ennio Morricone’s music makes me cry every time. And it’s not possible to mention Ennio Morricone without Once Upon a Time in the West, one of Martin’s all time favorites.
Recent Italian favorites of mine are Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name and, of course, Paolo Sorrentino’s La grande bellezza / The Great Beauty.