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Just a curiosity of mine... actually, I watch almost always US movies - maybe, 90%? - probably due to the fact I love sci-fi, fantasy, horror, action films, genres not so prolific in Italy.
And, if you watch them, which genres, years, titles, directors, actors do you prefer?
(warning: anyone who writes " cinepanettoni" shall be shot!  )
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I have sort of favorites from every genre, as I don't have a preference to a genre:
Divorzio All'Italiana/Sedotta e Abbandonata (Comedy), Il Conformista/Cinema Paradiso (Drama), Profondo Rosso/Suspiria (Horror), The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly/Once Upon a Time in the West (Western)...
I think that European films today, and Italian films too, tend to look like they are television dramas that somehow found their way to the big screen. Gone are DOP's who made such a great use of color and light, everything looks so homogenized. In Israel, practically all those films are mostly seen by people over 50 who like films with no real conflict or drama, which saddens me, as those countries, in contrast with US made films, were very bold in the past, in their style and in their subject matter. So I much prefer films from the 50's-80s.
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Usually I don't watch many Italian movies...
Sci-fi: almost not present - Nirvana was a notable exception, and I think they gave some food for thought to the Wachowski brothers sisters for their Matrix; L'arrivo di Wang is nice but quite weak.
Horror: was good in 80s/90s, but lacking in the latest decades - I liked Dellamorte Dellamore; maybe some exception in the last years, must investigate.
Drama is not one of my favourite, but I watched Latin Lover lately on TV, and it was unexpectedly nice, bittersweet, fun.
Spaghetti western: I watched a lot during my childhood - my father loved them - but I don't remember many of them... frankly, not even sure to have watched the dollar trilogy at the time, and still have to watch one film... but, apart Leone and few other notable ones, the others were almost all produced to ride (pun intended) the horse of success in those years.
Commedia all'italiana: a "forbidden" genre for us, Italian teenagers at the time - so forbidden that everyone watched them, during the "night" (read: after lunch, well before midnight) - don't know if there is a corresponding genre outside Italy!
Comedy: apart Fantozzi (r.i.p. Paolo Villaggio) that was a sort of mith here, I don't like actual ones... stupid, silly movies that would almost never make me laugh, often with actors taken from TV shows, and does not deserve the price of a theater ticket; prefer to watch on TV some 50s/60s film with Totò - incredibly actual, despite they are more than half century old! And I liked Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, too.
Can't believe that they released not one, not two, but THREE cinepanettoni for this Xmas! 
All in all, I don't like particularly current Italian cinematography, but it seems something is slowly changing... maybe I should give some chances to few films that flew under the radar.
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2017-12-19, 12:21 PM
(This post was last modified: 2017-12-19, 12:22 PM by CSchmidlapp.)
My favorite Italian film is probably an obvious one, Life is Beautiful (1997).
This scene (among many) floored the audience I watched it with 
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I'm not too aware of newer Italian films. There's some older ones I like, though.
Sergio Leone is one of my favorite directors - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is wonderful.
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I'm a fan of most films by Michelangelo Antonioni, Bernardo Bertolucci, Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone. In addition to those, Life is Beautiful and Bicycle Thieves are classics.
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I love Cinema Paradiso.
Besides that, I've recently took interest in old 50s-60s Italian Summery movies, after I saw Il Sorpasso which I adore.
films like:
1950 - Domenica d 'Augosto
1955 - Gli innamorati
1957 - Poveri ma belli
1959 - Le sorprese dell'amore
1960 - La giornata balorda
1963 - Il Giovedi
But i can't find others I'd like to watch with English subtitles.
Also, I love Italian peplum movies of 50s-60s but unfortunately those aren't released on Bluray! (and there aren't even hdtv versions)
Movies with Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott, etc. (hercules, maciste, romo e romylo, Giant of Marathon etc.)
I grew up with some of these so it's part nostalgia too.
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^ I second Cinema Paradiso and the peplum films. I quite like Il gattopardo (1963) too.
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I'm a fan of the Italian horror stuff from the 60s-80s. As well as the schlock from the late 70s to early 80s. Throw some 70s Italio-crime in there, too.
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I too am a big fan of genre film all over the world, Italy being included.
Westerns are a big thing of mine and Italian Westerns are no exception. I just love to watch them. I've also dabbled in the Italian horror and crime genre and of course the big one: Italian Neo-realism of the post war years.
But I'm posting this since I just watched Il sorpasso and loved the hell out of it and that is a little out of the ordinary for me.
Comedy is very difficult since it is very subjective but even worse it is difficult to literally translate it from it's native language and still be funny. Particularly, when puns or twists on language are used. Even worse, comedy plays on a country's native cultural morals/norms. So if you don't know the culture you might not get the feel for the comedy. While I watch a lot of non-English films, I tend to avoid comedies for this reason including Il sorpasso.
But man I enjoyed the film. It was funny but really it traffics in a lot of tragedy and pain just boiling under the surface. Everything is great until you really start to look. So you have to keep the party going so you never have to look.
Also it was just neat to see that particular time and place portrayed in this film.
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