Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Alessandro explains some things about the characters in his books and tells a story about when he won the Strega award. The Strega Award is the most important Italian literary award. It gets its name from one of its creators, the owner of the company producing Strega, a brand of an amaro (after-dinner, digestive bitters).
Difficulty: Advanced
Italy
Pasolini explains the difficulty of framing a city through the lens, only for it to be ruined by modern buildings that seem to have nothing to do with the form of the city itself. He wants anonymous, simple poetry to be preserved just like the works of Dante and Petrarca.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Leaving the outskirts of Rome, Annalena goes to a middle-class neighborhood where she meets professor and writer, Alessandro Piperno. He talks about what it was like growing up there and about his identity as a writer.
Difficulty: Advanced
Italy
Still on the beach, Pasolini asks more people their opinions on divorce, which became legal in 1970. The second part of this segment is part of a 1969 episode of Processo alla tappa, a TV talk show devoted to the Giro d'Italia (the Tour of Italy), a famous, 21-stage bike race.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Melania Mazzucco grew up in a part of Rome on the outskirts, not the part people usually associate with the beautiful city. The white Fiat 500 her father bought for the family became an important part of her life.
Difficulty: Advanced
Italy
In a Q & A, Pasolini explains to a journalist what he means when he refers to the elite. In another clip, he asks people on the beach about sex.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Melania talks about her relationship with her father when he was still alive. He didn't say much, but unbeknownst to her, tried to get a story of hers published. She talks about one her favorite parts of Rome: Isola Tiberina (Tiber Island), the only river island in the part of the Tiber that runs through Rome.
Difficulty: Advanced
Italy
Pasolini doesn't want to talk about his enemies, but does talk about the people he loves the most: simple folk, who might not have even finished grade school. For his early films, he took inspiration from Antonio Gramsci.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Melania Gaia Mazzucco talks about one of her novels set in seventeenth-century Trastevere, quite a different place than what we see today. Although she has traveled the world, Mazzucco comes from generations of romani di Roma (Romans from Rome).
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Pasolini is asked what he thinks about progress and development. He is also asked about the inspiration he seems to have taken from subjects of the New Testament of the Bible.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Armando talks about how the works of Duchamp influenced his work and that of so many contemporary artists. The choice of a unique exhibition hall played a part, as well.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Annalena continues talking with Paolo Giordano, who talks about how places such as Afghanistan and Apulia have influenced his writing.
Difficulty: Advanced
Italy
In this segment, we're on the set with Pasolini as he shouts directions to Totò through his megaphone, and at the same time discusses the shoot with his crew. Naturally, authenticity often means people speak over each other, so it's hard to understand what is said. Then, Pasolini is asked by a journalist about his views on neorealism and here, the speech is clearer (and interesting), so don't give up!
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Not only are Armando's photographs reminiscent of the universe and nature — they also recall other works of art from history.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Annalena meets up with Paolo Giordano who talks about the trauma of moving from Turin to Rome. Giordano's first novel, La solitudine dei numeri primi (the solitude of prime numbers) from 2008 was made into a popular film of the same name in 2010.
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