Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Franca was very skeptical about doing the broadcast with Mimmo, but ends up on the radio with him. There's one word to describe them: bravissimi! Remembering that these performances were live, not taped makes it all the more exciting to watch.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
For the radio show, Mimmo sings a very sad song, based on a story he had read in the newspaper. Note: The images of the event may be disturbing. This broadcast was one of the last Mimmo and Franca would be doing, and they talk about the immediate future as they walk home.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Franca's career is going nicely, and Mimmo decides that he'll do whatever they want him to: Sing, dance, act...
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
At their meeting with the head of Curci music publishers in Milan, Riccardo and Mimmo dare to mention the word "contract." Once back in Rome, the Prince shows up at the artists' circle where Mimmo is having dinner.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Before the prince leaves the gathering in a very melancholy mood, he tells Mimmo about a job. Mimmo gets the job, but has a hard time satisfying the director (who is a bit eccentric, it must be said). Franca comes to the theater to see Mimmo at a certain point, but it might not have been the right moment.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Franca, disappointed and hurt, goes to visit her grandmother in Sicily and writes a letter to Mimmo.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The piazza where Mimmo and Franca perform is deserted, but everything changes once he starts singing a Tarantella. Later on, Mimmo takes Franca to one of his favorite spots.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
As Mimmo and Franca enjoy the beach and swimming in the clear water, he tells her about his childhood in the town they can see from where they are sitting.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
When they get to his hometown, there's one person Mimmo doesn't want to see and one person he does want to see. Later on, he talks to Franca about how frustrated he is about his career.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
Mimmo goes to Paris and hears some great music, but doesn't have much success with his songs. That leaves him little choice but to go to Canada. It's cold there! He keeps in touch with Franca during his travels.
Difficulty: Adv-Intermediate
Italy
The episode closes with one of Domenico Modugno's most famous songs, Tu si' 'na cosa grande (you are something great to me), as Mimmo muses about the present and the future.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
This documentary about the life of Vittorio De Sica, Italian actor and film director, is narrated by Marco Paolini. We begin during the occupation by the Nazis. Vittorio is in Rome shooting a film.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Vittorio De Sica did different kinds of movies, both as an actor, and a director, and had great success, although critics appreciated his comedies more than his serious movies. Whatever kind of film he was directing, he laughed and cried along with the actors. They loved him.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
When the Americans bombed Rome in 1943, Maria was shooting a film in the San Lorenzo area, right where the freight yards were, the target of the bombing. Vittorio, on the other side of town, rushed to the site. Life would soon become extremely complicated and dangerous for those in the film industry.
Difficulty: Intermediate
Italy
Vittorio De Sica, along with other filmmakers and actors, does not want to be transferred to Venice, as has been mandated by the State. There, he would have to shoot propaganda movies for the Fascists. Luckily a Catholic film company wants to make a movie about a train of sick and deformed people on their way to seek miracles at the shrine of Our Lady of Loreto, a popular pilgrimage destination in the Marches region. The kind of train that carries pilgrims is called un treno bianco (a white train).
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