We know that my Italian heritage isn't a secret at this point. That being said, I love this unit. Another thing I love is the movie "La Vita e Bella", or "Life is Beautiful". The movie circles the life of a Jewish-Italian waiter, Guido Orefice when he meets Dora, a pretty schoolteacher, and over time after many fated run-ins wins her over. Through this Guido creates the classic and infamous phrase "buongiorno principessa" (good morning princess). Eventually they marry and have a son, Giosue, who is just the CUTEST thing ever. (I could watch this little 6 year old speak Italian all. day. long.) Suddenly Guido and Giosue are separated from Dora and taken to a concentration camp. Trying to protect his son's innocence, Guido convinces Giosue that their time in the camp is merely a game.
This movie is fantastic, I highly recommend seeing it (with English subtitles). It's funny, sad, happy, and so much more.
You may be wondering why in the world I'm talking about this random movie on the blog and how it relates to our current readings. I think of it in three ways:
1) the unit we're learning about right now is Italian Literature.. so there's that.
2) I got reminded of this classic when I read about Dante's friend Guido in Canto X of Dante's Inferno (and clearly noticing their differences where Movie Guido is a devout Jewish man and Inferno Guido.. well isn't very religious)
and 3) Throughout reading Dante's Inferno, I think I can speak for the majority of the class in saying that it's given us all a chance to kind of reflect on life.. While yes at times, life isn't very fair, it certainly is a beautiful thing. We get to take each day we have and make it count, and I think that's something you can take from a lot of different influences; whether it be La Vita e Bella or Dante's Inferno.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Let's go Bella! Yay for Italian heritage. I think it's cool that the identity that Dante had as an Italian is different from the one we have now, for it has modernized. Adding to the discussion of Italian heritage, specifically of how it relates to the religious nature of Dante's work with the Divine Comedy, I'd like to talk about my own Italian family tradition of the St. Joseph's altar. St. Joseph's Day has been a day on which we set up an altar in honor of St. Joseph, advocating for a day of prayer joint with a culture-sharing experience. On this day, we enjoy our Italian heritage in my family, and it reminds us of the nature of Catholicism in Italy and originally, in Rome as Dante clearly indicates through his literature.
Post a Comment