10 Movies to watch before visiting Rome
WARNING!
This is quite a long post.
My list of movies to watch before visiting Rome should have been a Top 5, but then I kept adding and adding, and finally I could not make a choice! So here it is my personal selection of...
10 MOVIES TO WATCH BEFORE VISITING ROME
This is one of my favourite movies of all times. Maybe because I love Audrey Hepburn, or just because this movie, filmed in 1953, is a sequence of splendid images of Rome as it was almost 70 years ago: beautiful, elegant and much less chaotic than it is now! But also because this is a great classic romance and the legendary tour in Vespa in central Rome is epic!
Here the city offers its most wonderful locations: Piazza di Spagna, Piazza Venezia, the Lungotevere, the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Imperial Forums and, again, Via delle Quattro Fontane, Largo Argentina and the Vittoriano.
Can a Roman be so fascinated by American culture that he wants to give up his own identity and culture?
This is the idea of An American in Rome, where Alberto Sordi desperately and clumsily tries to look as much like an American as possible, mimicking what he believes about the American lifestyle, clothing and diet. His madness continues to the point of pushing him to climb the Colosseum threatening to kill himself if someone doesn't help him leave for the Promised Land overseas.
Another classic, that sees Rome as filming location, with the famous shots of the Colosseum, and the authentic Roman spirit and culture as the true protagonists of the story.
Not to be missed: the cult scene of macaroni!
Federico Fellini dedicates this 1972 film to a chaotic and lively Rome.
A young provincial arrives at Termini station just before the Second World War, and finds a city that looks like a Babel.
Rome appears to the young man as inconsistent and contradictory between clerical processions and brothels. The representation of the overbearing characters has all the flavour of a satire which however reaches high peaks of lyricism.
Another personal favourite, from 1993. Nanni Moretti,'s Dear Diary, winner of numerous awards including the David of Donatello, is a film that shows a semi-deserted Rome in summer.
The first chapter, entitled "In Vespa", takes the viewer through the less touristy districts of the city. And while the camera captures buildings, streets, glimpses, architectural and monumental details, the director and performer accompanies the viewer with personal reflections on life and his hometown.
A true masterpiece of Italian Neorealism by Roberto Rossellini with excellent interpretations by Aldo Fabrizi and Anna Magnani.
The film shows the years of the Resistance and the fight against fascism in the city of Rome.
The most recent of this series of films shot in Rome is definitely Lo Chiamavano Jeeg Robot (They call me Jeeg).
The first real Italian superhero movie; a contemporary adaptation of an evergreen story in suburban Rome, with unique perspectives and amazing aerial shots.
This is the film that won Paolo Sorrentino the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2014.
The movie, which in some way wants to be a celebration of the Fellini school, aims to denounce a city dominated by contradictions: the decadence of the contemporary Roman society is enveloped by the timeless charm of the views of Trastevere, the baroque churches, the Orange Garden and the most hidden, perhaps even more mysterious, Rome.
Perhaps a little too farcical, this film is, nonetheless, a sublimation of cinematographic photography, in which the only real protagonist is the great beauty with a thousand faces of the Eternal City.
This is a real masterpiece of Italian Neorealism.
It is 1948, after the Second World War, when Vittorio De Sica shot Thieves of bicycles in a beautiful and uncontaminated Rome. The story unfolds among the most evocative places from Piazza Vittorio to the famous Porta Portese market.
Sergio Leone also appears in the film as a seminary student. After the first screening of the film on November 24, 1948, the film was distributed around the world and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1949.
Mamma Roma is the story of a Roman prostitute determined to change her life; a film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1962. The film is inspired by a real event, the tragic death of a young inmate in the Regina Coeli prison.
Most of the movie is filmed in the suburbs of Rome.
The images of the house where Anna Magnani lives, at the beginning of the film, are shot at the Palazzo dei Ferrovieri in Casal Bertone. Filming of her new home is instead carried out in the Quadraro neighborhood and in the adjacent Parco degli Acquedotti.
In several scenes, the dome of the Basilica of San Giovanni Bosco (that was under construction at the time) can be seen in the skyline in the background. And the final scenes shot in front of the hospital are set in Tor Marancia in front of the San Michele Institute.
THE BELLY OF AN ARCHITECT 1987
If "Art is the food for madness" as the movie poster says, then Rome can be called the canteen of fools.
This dramatic movie, directed by Peter Greenaway, follows the story of an American architect, Stourley Kracklite (Brian Dennehy), who travels to Rome to open an exhibition dedicated to Étienne-Louis Boullée, a French architect of the 18th century.
Shortly after arriving in the Eternal City, Stourley begins to suffer from stomach pains. Over the next nine months he becomes obsessed with his illness and is abandoned by his wife (Chloe Webb) for another man.
Most of the scenes are filmed around the Pantheon.
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