This article originally appeared in the June/July 2024 issue of Dream of Italy.
With streaming platforms making international programming available globally, Italian television programs and films arrive quickly on American small screens, particularly via Netflix. A whole new world is ready to be explored, and potentially to help your Italian language skills if you search content on your streaming apps for “Italian.”
One key takeaway when developing your Italian lexicon is: repetition is key. This makes a strong case for repeatedly watching the shows you love in Italian, over and over, episode after episode. Remember that the purpose of exposing yourself to Italian via television shows and movies is not to understand 100% of the dialogue on screen but to comprehend the overall plot of the show and a portion of the dialogue.
As a non-native Italian speaker, it may take decades before you can turn on the nightly Italian news and catch every single nuanced headline word for word. Your goal should not be full comprehension but rather understanding enough to motivate watching more!
Thanks to La Vita è Bella we will never forget that “Buongiorno Principessa!” means “Good morning, Princess!” Eat, Pray, Love taught us “to cross over” in italian is “attraversiamo.” We recall Julia Roberts repeatedly saying the word to practice the roll of the tongue and cadence of the sounds, the camera focusing on her famous mouth as she practices the typical Italian “ee-ah-mo” sound at the end of the word.
Studies show significant improvement in comprehension when watching television or films in your non-native language with subtitles in the same language. Of course, to be able to watch a show in Italian with Italian subtitles, a base level of Italian is needed. A full immersion language program or consecutive months spent in Italy would be ideal to jumpstart your learning, but getting used to the sounds and vocabulary can easily be done from home. Hearing new words, reading subtitles and tying that information to images on screen reinforce your learning.
Italian television and film critic Alessandra De Tommasi credits her love for TV as her prime motivation for learning and perfecting English, her second language. She watched and rewatched episodes of American television and discussed the shows with a community of other Italians. “We were totally mesmerized” she says, “and we overcame the fear of learning a second language through the moments of joy we shared.”
When she is working, Alessandra keeps English television shows or movies playing in the background like some would play music. Instead of songs, she lets the English language flow from her speakers as a passive way to expand and perfect her vocabulary.
Here are a few picks for favorite recent Italian movies and TV shows you can stream on Netflix. Buona visione!
The Law According to Lidia Poët (La Legge di Lidia Poët)
This show which debuted last year, is set in Turin in 1883 and (quite) loosely based on the story of how the Albo degli Avvocati or Registry of Lawyers tried to disbar the first female lawyer in Italy Lidia Poët. Lidia works in her brother’s firm, and despite her family’s hesitations, puts together a case to overthrow the unfair, biased ruling.
Besides starring the captivating Matilda De Angelis as Lidia, the role of Jacopo Barberis is played by Eduardo Scarpetta of the nationally renowned Scarpetta-De Filippo family. Jacopo Barberis is a completely invented character, designed to bring some comic relief to the story.
Much to the Poët family’s chagrin, the actors use colloquial language that is not entirely historically accurate. While this is an inaccuracy, it is helpful for the viewer in that the language used is a modern Italian and therefore similar to what people speak today.
There is the introduction of a love interest and a focus on Lidia’s beauty which the family argues steals the focus from Lidia’s extraordinary intellect and perseverance, but somehow she still comes across as a powerful figure and has the viewer rooting for her from start to finish.
An Astrological Guide for Broken Hearts (Guida astrologica per cuori infranti)
Alice (pronounced Ah-lee-cheh) Bassi works for a tiny fictional television network, Dora TV, in modern-day Italy. After a breakup, she leans on one of the stars of the TV network who is an “astrology expert” and tries to get over her heartbreak with his guidance.
Aside from the scenes shot at the television network which could be anywhere in the world, the street views are distinctly Torinese. Turin’s famous Mole Antonelliana tower is recognizable in the skyline shots and a must-see on a visit to Turin. It houses the National Museum of Cinema and a spectacular glass elevator that takes visitors up 250 feet in one minute flat, for 360-degree views of the city.
Still Time (Era Ora)
With a twisted Groundhog Day adjacent time-traveling plot, Dante, played by Edoardo Leo, celebrates his 40th birthday and then with each new morning, finds himself one year in the future. He relives his birthday continuously. He is forced, each day, to relive his birthdays, jumping 365 days every 24 hours.
The story gives a peek into Italian family life and relationships with different family members. Often, Italian mothers are stereotyped and their sons are portrayed as “Mamma’s boys” but this film shows an alternative reality to the complicated relationships modern families cultivate.
Italian television and film expert Alessandra De Tommasi notes “Era Ora is one of the most loved Italian comedies on Netflix of the past few years. Why? Because Edoardo Leo is very loved, sure. But, also because it is fresh and yet deep. Time can change everything….”
The time hops show Dante the state of his failing relationship with his partner, his daughter and other relatives and friends. and he ultimately scrambles to try and stop the passing of time or at least the very least make his life better. This movie is heartwarming and relatable in a modern world that moves velocemente.
Alessandro Cattelan: A Simple Question (Alessandro Cattelan: Una semplice domanda)
This 2022 program opens with the poignant question posed by Cattelan’s daughter. She asks “Dad, what is happiness?” and he sets off around Italy to discover the answer to that question. This show is ideal for practicing your Italian fluency because it features accents from all over the country. Cattelan, a famous television host in Italy, travels up and down the boot and lets regional accents shine.
The answers to the question on happiness are truly telling of Italian culture and what is important to Italians. He interviews some famous Italians like soccer stars Gianluca Vialli and Roberto Baggio and Paolo Sorrentino– the famous director who hit it big on the world stage with his works La Grande Bellezza, Youth- La Giovinezza and The Young Pope.
What better way to peak into a culture’s heritage than to get answers to one of the most basic and telling questions one can ask? Love, faith and pain are topics intertwined with happiness throughout this show and the complicated answers to seemingly simple questions lead to warmhearted answers. The final episode answers the question “can one learn to be happy?” Tune in to find out.
The Lying Life of Adults (La Vita Bugiarda degli Adulti)
Elena Ferrante is perhaps the best-known Italian author of the past decades, although the public knows little to nothing about her fiercely private personal life. Her internationally best-selling Neopolitan novels, including My Brilliant Friend (L’amica geniale, 2012) became a widely adored television series that premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2018. Film expert, Alessandra De Tommasi, says “Ferrante is considered to be a goddess, a modern one, capable of reading society and describing light and darkness.”
This latest series, The Lying Life of Adults, based on her recent novel of the same name, is a charming look at one of Italy’s most vibrant cities and languages as napoletana is often considered a language of its own. Well-to-do Giovanna spends time in a rougher part of Naples with her Aunt Vittoria and the city and local dialect are as much main characters in this show as the actresses.
Family secrets unravel as Giovanna digs deeper into her relatives and the result is a beautiful coming-of-age story that only Ferrante could imagine and create. Much like her book-to-screen adaptation of My Brilliant Friend,
De Tommasi says “la vita bugiarda degli adulti describes how often women need to do whatever is necessary to survive,” a sentiment recognizable the world over, but particularly so in Naples, where often society rests on the backs, and in the hearts, of its women.
–Danielle Abbazia
Danielle Abbazia is associate editor of Dream of Italy magazine. She lives in the Eternal City with her husband and their two tiny Romans.