Category Archives: Italy

Ennio Morricone – Italian composer

Posted on November 20, 2020 by

“Ennio Morricone, OMRI (Italian: [ˈɛnnjo morriˈkoːne]; 10 November 1928 – 6 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpet player who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well … Continue reading →

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Chet Baker – Italian Movies (1958-1964)

Posted on October 20, 2020 by

“Before delving into the music on this collection, it’s important to offer a note of caution to Chet Baker fans: Italian Movies is not a really a compilation of the trumpeter’s work, so much as a series of film scores … Continue reading →

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I Survived Vietnam. Will I Survive This Pandemic?

Posted on May 10, 2020 by

Servicemen lined up at Tan Son Nhut Airfield, in South Vietnam, during services for American killed in action in 1962. “SARNANO, Italy — A very long time ago, I was one of more than two million American men and women … Continue reading →

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Ermanno Olmi – Il Posto (1961)

Posted on January 1, 2020 by

“Ermanno Olmi’s first feature, Il Posto (1961), is often misrepresented as being a continuation of the tradition of neorealism. This highly influential postwar film movement, which produced such masterpieces as Roberto Rossellini’s Rome, Open City (1945) and Vittorio De Sica’s … Continue reading →

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The Stranger – Luchino Visconti (1967)

Posted on August 30, 2019 by

“Beware the movie based on literature, or, in that showbiz term of art, a ‘literary property.’ Not because adaptations are an inferior form of cinema—I don’t believe that for a moment—but because they create an added layer of copyright issues … Continue reading →

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I Fidanzati – Ermanno Olmi (1962)

Posted on August 21, 2019 by

“First the glimmering white and black images of Ermanno Olmi’s I Fidanzati light up the screen and warm your heart. Then they abruptly flicker out—like imagined fleeting glances of a love affair you can’t forget but couldn’t hold onto. In … Continue reading →

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La Dolce Vita – Federico Fellini (1960)

Posted on April 5, 2019 by

“La Dolce Vita (Italian pronunciation: [la ˈdoltʃe ˈviːta]; Italian for ‘the sweet life’ or ‘the good life’) is a 1960 Italian drama film directed and co-written by Federico Fellini. The film follows Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni), a journalist writing for gossip … Continue reading →

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The revolutionary challenge of “the long 1968”

Posted on January 9, 2019 by

Poster by OSPAAAL, the Cuban Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America. “In revolutionary moments, social realities that are hard to see in calmer periods rise to the surface as they are threatened, crumble, forced … Continue reading →

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Luis Buñuel – Belle de Jour (1967)

Posted on December 14, 2018 by

“Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour is 50 years old and back in UK cinemas with all its creamy elegance and scabrous humour intact. With co-writer Jean-Claude Carrière, Buñuel creates a secret theatre of erotic shame. The only thing that really … Continue reading →

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Decolonizing society: the legacy of 1968

Posted on October 7, 2018 by

Student protesters in Paris, May ’68. “In 1964, students at the University of California at Berkeley staged a sit-in at Sproul Hall to protest campus restrictions on political activism. Shouting through his bullhorn, Mario Savio, the leader of the Free … Continue reading →

Posted in Berlin Wall, Black Power, Chicano, CIA, Civil Rights Mov., Computing, Cuban Revolution, Czech, Dick Gregory, Eldridge Cleaver, Feminist, Free Speech Mov., Happenings, Hippie, Huey P. Newton, Italy, Jerry Rubin, Mexico, Napalm, Paris, SDS, Street theater, Timothy Leary, Tom Hayden, Vietnam War | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment