Caro Diario

In between transcribing an interview about theology and transhumanism I got distracted. This is pretty common in the line of work I do which involves a desk and a computer at all times. I was looking up movies set in Rome, specifically by Italian directors. I don't know that much about the city and compared to a lot of other things in Italian culture I know almost nothing about cinema.

One of the movies I noticed was one I had been meaning to watch for some time, Caro Diario by Nanni Moretti. Romani taught me about it in Italian Civ II. The class was organized into a study of Italian History from unification on. The final portion was about current cultures and themes in specific cities. She explained that Moretti is almost the Woody Allen of Italian Cinema.

Caro Diario starts in Vespa in Moretti’s favorite part of the city, Garbatella. I still don't know where I’m living but UniRomaTre is on the edge of the Garbatella near the Tevere. Garbatella is historically a working class neighborhood. Moretti says it was settled in the late 1920’s. Suburban, it looks like a blend of old, new, city, suburban, it is beyond the part of the city which dates back to ancient times, but it still has history by most standards, “Garibaldi fought here” they say in Diario.

This film has a lot of great elements which I find irresistible, the way Moretti says Jennifer Beals with an Italian accent, riding vespa, a part of Rome I will probably know well, the 90’s, world music, humor, the way Moretti interacts with people is like an Italian version of Seinfeld. He loves just looking at houses, there’s the facades, there’s a bridge he must cross twice a day. I mean for me this is more the relatable. He dances like a nut on his Vespa. If the first part of the movie is about anything it’s about regionalism. We know how I feel about that.

One question: does Jennifer Beals really speak Italian?
I must be "a little off center"