mbf tod@y

probably, the most powerful scene in italian cinema of the last decade

It just breaks your heart

still one of the best monologues in film history

 

At the end of Monty's monologue, the cinema crowd clapped for three minutes. 

It was like a standing ovation in the middle of the film. 

Quite a scene.

I am still not sure of what to make of it.

The reaction from the crowd, I mean.

Invader in India

via Max Batt

massive attack - new ep - out in october

gender and italian culture - a bleak picture

"Compared to those in other European countries, conservative ideas in Italy die hard, in part because of our famously patriarchal culture but also because of the huge influence of the Roman Catholic Church, whose political and social interference in public affairs seems to have become even stronger since Mr. Berlusconi first became prime minister in 1994. (The church, for example, has threatened to excommunicate doctors who prescribe the abortion pill as well as patients who use it.)

Furthermore, Italy’s glass ceiling has proved to be more resistant than it is elsewhere in Europe. Italy ranks 67th out of 130 countries considered in a recent report of the World Economic Forum on the Global Gender Gap Index, ranking lower than Uganda, Namibia, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, just under half of Italy’s women have jobs, compared with an average of nearly two out of three. At the same time, Italian men have 80 more minutes of leisure time per day — the greatest difference in the 18 countries compared. This is probably explained by the additional time that women devote to unpaid work, like cleaning the house. It is no surprise, then, that many Italian women are unwilling to take on an additional burden of raising children. As a result, the country has an extraordinarily low birthrate.

The Italian media only exacerbate this bleak reality by presenting a picture of women that is incomprehensible to the rest of Europe. Private TV channels have started to broadcast images of women who are typically lightly dressed and silent beauties serving as decoration while older, fully dressed men are running the show. (It is worth noting here that Mr. Berlusconi owns the leading private television networks.)" (Chiara Volpato, The New York Times)

Rule 1: If you want to understand Italy, read the foreign press.
Read more

new literacies, new audiences

"Andrea Lunsford is a professor of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, where she has organized a mammoth project called the Stanford Study of Writing to scrutinize college students' prose. From 2001 to 2006, she collected 14,672 student writing samples—everything from in-class assignments, formal essays, and journal entries to emails, blog posts, and chat sessions. Her conclusions are stirring. "I think we're in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization," she says. For Lunsford, technology isn't killing our ability to write. It's reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions." (Clive Thompson, WIRED)

full text 

texting and driving (via Simon Sellars)

the italian dictatorship bans videocracy trailer

The trailer for Videocracy, Erik Gandini's documentary will not be televised by Italy's public television channels (RAI) because "its message is highly critical of Berlusconi's government" (official explanation). 

Obviously, the spots were rejected by Berlusconi's networks as well.

If you needed another proof that Italy is no longer a free country, there you go. 

Screw RAI television. Screw Mediaset.

Here's the trailer, courtesy of YouTube.

Random thought: I wonder if the movie will be indeed released in theatres, considering the Berlusconi owns the biggest chain in the country...

Welcome to Italy. 

Read more (in Italian)

Erik Gandini interviewed by La Repubblica (in Italian)

toob - dome screens for gaming

The 21st Century Home

The 21st Century Home from paolo pedercini on Vimeo.