U Sicilianu O Cinema - Learn Sicilian with movies

Spoiler alert if you haven't watched White Lotus, season 2!

You probably remember the Di Grassos, played by F. Murray Abraham, Michael Imperioli, and Adam Di Marco. They’re in Sicily on a trip to find out more about their family. Here they finally reach the house where their cugini (cousins) live. And they find the amazing Aurora Quattrocchi.

In this episode you’ll hear a lot of spoken sicilianu and will have the chance to follow what I'll be reading. Have you ever heard of Harry Potter? Maybe you watched the movies or read the books by JK Rowling. Ever heard of Cademia Siciliana? It’s an association born to protect the Sicilian language. Gaetano Mazza had the idea to translate a bit of the 1st book, the “Philosopher’s stone” from English to Sicilianu. So I decided i’ll read it for you guys. This will be a 2 episodes job. Then we'll be back to movies scenes.

In this episode we listen to a scene from a 1947 movie by Luchino Visconti, the title is “La terra trema” (the earth trembles). Nedda laughs about Ntoni's advice on who to marry!

Did you know the movie #Baaria (2009) was originally made in #Sicilian and then dubbed in #Italian for the italian theaters? Such a shame! In this scene we go to #Bagheria (in Sicilian Baaria) to hear the voices of two native speakers: Salvatore Ficarra and Luigi Maria Burruano.

In the #Godfather Part II there’s a great care of the Sicilian language. Only in one scene, in my opinion, the English subtitles don't match with what's being said in Sicilian. Want to know which one? Check this episode! But first let's listen to a great dialogue with Robert De Niro and Peter LaCorte as young Vito Corleone and Signor Abbandando.

Happy 2023 to everyone! 

In this episode we go to Corleone, but it’s not the fictional Corleone we saw in the Godfather, this is the real story of Placido Rizzotto, a trade union leader murdered by the mafia - the real mafia - in 1948. The movie "Placido Rizzotto", directed in 2000 by Pasquale Scimeca, says a lot about what life was like in Sicily in the late ‘40s specially for the peasant workers.

World war 2 has just ended. Placido left the Italian army in northern Italy to join  the resistance against the nazis and the fascists and just came back to his hometown Corleone. We’ll hear the voices of Placido, played by Marcello Mazzarella and young Saro, the son of the shepherd - who existed in real life too - played by Giuseppe Gennusa. 

The movie in this episode is “due amici” (two friends), directed in 2002 by Spiro Scimone and Francesco Sframeli, from #Messina, #Sicily.

The voices you’ll hear in this dialogue are the two main characters on their way for a special delivery. Nunzio is in love with a girl and his friend Pino is walking with him to the shop where she works. Nunzio is holding a big bouquet of roses. He’s quite nervous and is asking his friend for advice.

The movie in this episode is "Stromboli, Land of God" (Roberto Rossellini, 1950). The voices you'll hear, among the others, are Mario Vitale and Ingrid Bergman! No, she's not gonna speak Sicilian... Everyone else will!

In this first episode we visit Bar Vitelli. This is the only 100% Sicilian scene in the Godfather (1972). The voices you'll hear are Angelo Infanti, Franco Citti and Saro Urzì.