Okay, we are all busy this semester, but surely you have time to rent a DVD. Here are some suggestions to get you ready for your visit to Rome.

''Big Night'' is movie I think you would enjoy. Tell me if I am wrong. It is also a wonderful film about Italian food and about what I hope is an exaggerated criticism of the effect of capitalistic democracy here in the good old USA. It suggests that getting to know Italy and (some) Italians might help us gain some perspective on ourselves, as I believe to be the case.

"Breaking Away" is also easy to enjoy. It's about a young man who falls in love with the idea of Italy, only to learn that the real thing is not quite so beautiful. Hope triumphs nonetheless.

Italy was devastated in WWII, and many films depict this in various ways. ''Open City'' and ''Two Women'' are set during the war. "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis" depicts the unexpected persecution of Jews during the war, and ''Bicycle Thief'' is set just after the war and shows a moral struggle set in motion by an extreme poverty. A more recent film depicting the plight of the Jews in Italy (and Germany) during WW II is "Life is Beautiful." 

My favorite Fellini film is "The Nights of Cabiria" which shows the Rome of the early postwar period and even more importantly shows an unbreakable human spirit. Take a good look at the restaurant in the next-to-last scene, with the guitar player, and I'll take you there (though this is not an offer to pick up the tab). Although they are most unlike today's Hollywood films and hence might seem peculiar, Fellini's other early films are quite likable, I think. Google him. Do the same with Anna Magnani, Marcello Mastroianni, and Vittorio De Sica.

Martin Scorsese has two volumes of a film called "My Voyage to Italy," and it is about the effect of Italian film on his youth. The first volume is an excellent introduction to Italian film, with a good narrative and a lot of clips from different films.

Here are some "heavier" Italian films or films about Italy. They are the subject of CU's other maymester course in Rome: