La prima cosa bella
che ho avuto dalla vita
e il tuo sorriso giovane…
The first beautiful thing
that I’ve had in life
is your young smile…
Last night, the Italian club in San Jose treated us to a special filming of the 2010 hit movie La Prima Cosa Bella, directed and produced by Paolo Virzi. This film has not been released in the USA yet, therefore it was extra special to be able to see it. The movie was a candidate for an Academy Award for best foreign film, but sadly, didn’t make it to the finals. Irregardless, it was a great movie – both a poignant drama and a light comedy.
The story is of a young mother who, in 1971, won the contest for Miss Mamma Estate (Miss Summer Mother) at a beach resort. She had two beautiful children, but winning this contest brought out a jealous rage in her husband. The marriage began to fall apart, leading to an eventual separation and divorce. Through it all, Anna did everything to try to create a normal and happy life for her children. Despite tears and rejection in her adult life, she always put on a happy face for her children – leading them in song and carrying on with frivolity and fantasy.
The movie jumps between the past and the present where her children are all grown up and she is living her final days. Even though she is in her final moments of life, she still finds the joy of life and laughs and sings with them. Throughout the movie, the flashbacks help us to understand her life as well as the development of her children and why they have become the adults that they are. Her final words to her children moved me to tears when she said to them….”Abbiamo avuto una bella vita insieme, bimbi miei” (we’ve had a beautiful life together, my children).
The movie stars Micaela Ramazzotti as the young Anna and Stefania Sandrelli as the older Anna, Valerio Mastandrea as Bruno (her adult son), Claudia Pandolfi as Valeria (her adult daughter) among others. It won numerous awards and accolations, among them David di Donatello and Nastri d’argento.
When and if this movie becomes available in the USA, I can highly recommend it!
Il Mio Tesoro 
I was about to call you yesterday a.m. to see if you’d like to go the movie together but thought it would be tough to make plans last minute. I decided not to go as I didn’t want to go alone… I’m so glad you had the chance to see it and so disappointed I didn’t go on my own or call you sooner!
That would have been fun to see it with you!!! They informed us that they will be having “Italian Movie Night” the first Wed of every month, so maybe next time? We’ll keep in touch!
This film came out when I was living in Italy, and 10 months later was one of our featured films during my Italian language course. I did have to control the sniveling at the end…Just love Italian cinema!
It was a happy sniveling, though! I really enjoyed it, though I was a bit upset that I needed to have the subtitles to understand all of it!!! Between the mumbling and the talking at warped speed, I was having trouble grabbing all the words!
Do you know, I still play and sing ‘La prima cosa bella’, written by Nicola di Bari and which won the 1971 San Remo Festival ;o)…
Great songs stay around forever!!! I had never heard the song before, but I really like it! I’m glad I discovered it! Thanks for visiting my blog and for your comment! I hope to see you again soon…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpA3kWnNjng (a bit better as for recording and clarity of voice)
You and some of your readers, if you and they like and have time to devote to, could try and make a ‘voiceover’ from this videoclip…
Sorry for mistaking two things I’ve written: it was in 1970 and Nicola di Bari (a nickname) scored a second position…
I’ll link this nice blog of yours with pleasure…
“unavitaazig”,
The It…Alien Union Project,
http://italienunion.wordpress.com.
Thanks so much for linking my blog to yours! Italian music is my favorite and it sounds like yours will have lots of good suggestions for me to listen to! Grazie mille!
Barbara, it’s a pleasure: I choose very carefully blogs, websites and portals and the people who has created and manages them, after I’ve read some posts, comments and their profiles and after exchanging some comments. I do not simply collect links just to have some published, hoping to be linked in my turn by silly or unfair people ;o)…
Among other things I used to be a nearly professional guitar player in a previous life (1962-1968) ;o).