Movies in Italy – and where one led

My Italian continues to improve but it is still all but impossible for me to watch and Italian language films without subtitles. I have both Amazon Prime and Netflix here and watch a bunch of stuff, choosing the spoken language as Italian and the subtitles also in Italian. I hope that it is soaking into my brain.

I’m not constrained to watch movies at home on the TV. In Bologna there are 2 or 3 theaters that show films in the original language and fortunately one of the better ones is near me, Cinema Lumiere. I’ve seen several films there, the most recent was Green Book. Of course all of the films shown with the original language have Italian subtitles. One thing that I’ve noted is that when it comes to cursing like a sailor we Americans seem to have a larger, well, range of options than Italians judging from the subtitles which largely are limited to variations of “cazzo” (shit) or “vaffanculo” (fuck you).

Recently I also went to see a film in Torino. It seems that Torino, although a much larger city than Bologna has only one theater that shows films in the original language, Cinema Centrale Arthouse. So I went there recently with Laura to watch the latest Clint Eastwood film “the Mule”. It was a good film as most of his are. One thing that struck me as I watched the movie was how old Clint is by now. I found that he is 88. Oh my god, that’s me in 15 years. Of course we’re all getting older and I’m much more aware of it now (as is my body) but I really started to reflect on the fact. So where do I want to be in 15 years? Would I return to the United States, California or elsewhere? Would I stay in Italy and if so where? Do I want to live where a car is essential to living a decent life? Where the lifestyle tends to emphasize quantity versus quality? Where the cost of living is generally higher than where I am right now?

Well, the answer obviously is that at least at this point in time I cannot imagine living anywhere but Italy and probably Bologna. Torino has it’s attractions but it is much easier to live in Bologna (especially if you live in the center as I do) without a car. Bus service is very good and relatively cheap (unlimited bus rides for a month for the price of a tank full of gas in the U.S.). Since the city is medieval and the streets are generally much more narrow, the traffic in the center is severely limited. So crossing the street is pretty easy. Things are generally close by or at least close to a bus stop when you arrive. The quality and variety of foods in the markets is spectacular with costs similar to that in the U.S. Costs of eating out are substantially less for the same quality here. What more can I say?

Now if only the bureaucracy was more efficient….

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