La Grande Bellezza triumphs at the Golden Globes

On Sunday night, director Paolo Sorrentino took home the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film for La Grande Bellezza, beating out critic favorite Blue Is the Warmest Color. 

Sorrentino on the set of La Grande Bellezza

The last Italian film to be awarded the prize was Giuseppe Tornatore's Nuova Cinema Paradiso, in 1989. 

La Grande Bellezza is perhaps best summed up in a single scene, when protagonist Jep Gambardella looks out over the hulking corpse of the Costa Concordia cruise ship. It's a striking metaphor for both Gambardella's character and the country in which he lives- both stuck, both dormant. 

What happened here? How did this country- with its natural beauty and infinite cultural treasures- reach the stagnancy in which it now finds itself? This is the difficult question that Sorrentino poses in his film.

Sentieri will be screening La Grande Bellezza on Saturday, January 25. For those interested, more information can be found here.

Additionally, the first six participants to sign up for the screening will be given a ticket to Giuseppe Tornatore's The Best Offer running at the Gene Siskel Film Center from January 17-30. More information about the film can be found here.

See you at the screening!

Gisella

Sentieri Blog Contributor

Italian cinema in Chicago: "The Best Offer"

 The Best Offer (La migliore offerta)

 

Dominating Italy’s Oscar-equivalent Donatello Awards with six wins including Best Picture and Best Director, THE BEST OFFER has been hailed as Tornatore’s best film since CINEMA PARADISO.

The film is built around a powerful performance by Geoffrey Rush as a fastidious art auctioneer who prefers to keep life and love at an aesthetic distance. Then he falls under the spell of a beautiful recluse (Sylvia Hoeks) confined by agoraphobia to her musty mansion.  By coaxing her out of her self-imposed prison, he might free himself from his own--but can emotions, like works of art, be forged?
The film’s amenities include a lush score by Ennio Morricone, an antique automaton that tops the one in HUGO, and memorable supporting performances by Donald Sutherland as the protagonist’s shady accomplice and Kurina Stamell as a dwarf whose photographic memory carries a crucial plot twist.  

In English.  DCP digital. View trailer here.

TWO-WEEK RUN!

January 17--23
Fri. at 6:00 pm 

Sat. at 5:15 pm and 7:45 pm
Sun. at 3:00 pm
Mon. at 8:00 pm

Tues. at 6:00 pm

Wed. at 8:00 pm

Thu. at 6:00 pm

January 24--30
Fri. at 7:45 pm;
Sat. at 3:00 pm, 5:30 pm, and 8:00 pm;
Sun. at 4:45 pm;
Tue. at 6:00 pm  

Wed. at 7:45 pm  

Thu. at 6:00 pm

  

Special Discount tickets available for Friends of Sentieri: $7.00 for individual tickets (a savings of $4.00/ticket) when purchased in person at the Gene Siskel Film Center Box Office. Use discount code: ITALY

Additionally, the first six people to sign up for Sentieri's Cineforum "La grande bellezza" will win a FREE ticket to "The Best Offer".

  

Gene Siskel Film Center 

164 N. State Street

312-846-2800

  

www.siskelfilmcenter.org

 

http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/best-offer

Cineforum: La grande bellezza

La Grande Bellezza

Journalist Jep Gambardella has been a permanent fixture to Rome's literary and social circles for many years. But as his sixty-fifth birthday passes, Jep finds himself looking past his extravagant life of nightclubs and parties and he begins to see Rome in a new light. Winner of the Golden Globe for best foreign film and candidate in the same category for the Oscars. View trailer here.

After the viewing there will be a light reception for a discussion of the film. The film is in Italian with English subtitles.

Saturday, January 25^th

4:00 – 7:00pm

$10 - member discount

$15 - general admission

by 1/23/2014

or $20 at the door, last minute seating

Cash Only

Call or Email

773-275-5325

enrico@sentieri.com

Sentieri Italiani

5430 N. Broadway Ave

Chicago, IL 60640

Amara Lakhous and a Clash of Civilizations

January 26 marks the beginning of Sentieri's Winter Book Club, the theme of which is the immigrant experience in Italy. The book is Scontro di civilità per un ascensore a Piazza Vittorio, the author Amara Lahkous.

Published in 2006, this satire takes place in the most diverse neighborhood in Rome. Eleven different perspectives on life in Piazza Vittorio, all centering around the mysterious "Amedeo," a beloved figure but also the prime suspect of a murder that occurred in the elevator of the building where they all live. Few of the characters are Italian (even fewer are Roman) and the apartment building soon becomes a microcosm of the ever-growing multicultural capitale. Delightful in its ability to entertain, this story combines tragedy and comedy, humor and serious criticism.

Lakhous himself knows a thing or two about Piazza Vittorio. Originally from Algiers, he moved to Rome in 1995 after receiving numerous death threats for his work as a radio journalist. Before writing Scontro di civiltà, he worked in Piazza Vittorio as a cultural mediator in a city-run home for new immigrants.

If you're interested in reading this fascinating book, there's still time to register. Registration and a payment of $150 (materials not included) are due by January 18.

The course will be meeting on four Sundays– January 26, February 9, February 23, and March 9– from 2 to 4pm.

-Gisella

Sentieri Blog Contributor

Winter 2014 Italian Book Club :

Letteratura dell'immigrazione in Italia

Led by Daniela Cavallero

“Scontro di civiltà per un ascensore a piazza Vittorio”,

by Amara Lakhous

Join Sentieri in a Sunday afternoon discussion group that will explore this remarkable novel suitable for intermediate and advanced Italian students.

Winter 2014's book is a compelling mix of social satire and murder mystery. A small culturally mixed community living in an apartment building in the center of Rome is thrown into disarray when one of the neighbors is murdered.

Meets Sundays, from 2-4pm, January 26th, February 9^th and 23rd, and March 9th
Registration and payment in hand by 1/18/2014.
Cash/check: $ 150.00
+ Materials not included, to be ordered independently
+ Membership discount does not apply.

+ $15 surcharge for payment by Visa or Mastercard.

Interpreting and Translation

Interpreting and Translation Services

English and Italian

Services for general language and specific language including commercial language, business language and legal language.

·        General Language Interpreting for 1–5 people:

$80.00 per hour*

·        General Language Interpreting for 6-10 people:

$100.00 per hour*

·        Specific Language Interpreting : $150.00 per hour*

·        Customized General Language Interpreting for 10 or more people.

*Minimum of 3 hours.

·        General Language Translations: ¢20 per word

·        Specific Language Translations: ¢25 per word

·        Italian Citizenship Document Translations: $50.00 per page

Past and Present Clients:

·       C.A. Studio Nervi, Torino, Italy

·       Chicago Symphony Orchestra

·       Prudential Relocation, USA

·       Inlingua Cross-Cultural Services, USA

·       Cendant Cross-Cultural Services, USA

·       McDonalds Co., USA

·       Whirlpool Co., USA

·       NTC, USA

·       Rand McNally, USA

Eataly Opens Tomorrow!

A great week for Chicago Italian-food enthusiasts.

Italian food emporium Eataly opens tomorrow, December 2nd, at 4 p.m. at 43 E. Ohio Avenue. The two-story megastore will host eight restaurants, two coffee bars, a microbrewery, a gelateria, a bookstore, and retail stands that sell produce, fish, meat, cheese, pastries, and salumi. And it would be remiss of us not to mention the Nutella stand.

Now, who's excited?


Gisella
Sentieri Blog Contributor