Thanksgiving is gone and Christmas is on its way.
But before I get to the main theme of my blog—Italian Christmas traditions—let’s not forget that another season is also upon us: Movie season. Hollywood rolls out its “big movies” for potential Oscar nominations come January 2025. A few have Italian and/or Italian related themes. Here’s a quick take:
Conclave, about the election of a new pope, seems to be getting the VIP (Very Important Picture) treatment of yore. This consists of three main criteria: name actors (Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini); a big budget (the entire Sistine Chapel and parts of the Vatican were reconstructed); and a serious theme (religious skullduggery, with a nod to the current zeitgeist via male vs. female). I’ve seen the film. It’s a well-upholstered bore. And its chief villain is, of course, a rabid, race-baiting, cigar-chomping Italian cardinal named Tedesco, aka Archie Bunker in a berretta.
I’ve also seen the sequel (twenty-three years later!) of Gladiator, named, appropriately, Gladiator II. Again: name actors (Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, and the young Irish actor Paul Mescal); a big budget (arenas were built from scratch in Malta); and a serious theme (reforming classical Rome). I’ve also seen this movie. It is also a bore (and full of gore, if I may rhyme). Two Italian Americans wrote the script. Ah, ethnic pride. Thumbs down!
I’ve yet to see the new Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown starring Timothee Chalamet. But Elle Fanning, who plays his muse in the film, is allegedly based on Suze Rotolo, the Italian American artist and activist who opened the young songwriter’s eyes to beauty, philosophy, and social justice. It will be interesting to see if Fanning’s character resembles the real-life Rotolo, who, after separating from him in the early 60s, became a painter and illustrator.
Will her Italian American ethnicity even be acknowledged? Dylan certainly noticed it when he first saw her at a folk concert (very 1960s, that).
Here is how he described Rotolo in his memoir, Chronicles, Volume One:
“Right from the start, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was the most erotic thing I’d ever seen. She was fair skinned and golden haired, full-blooded Italian. The air was suddenly filled with banana leaves. We started talking and my head started to spin.”
Like a rolling stone indeed!
As for Italian Christmas traditions, I direct you to a recent (October 29 2024) piece by Emma Singer on a website called “pure wow.” This phrase certainly describes the feeling generated by any of the 13 Italian traditions she describes in the article, some of which may be unfamiliar to readers.
My favorite tradition—and still a bucket list item for me—is the last one (#13): the “giant Christmas tree” constructed from miles of bright lights on Mt. Ingino, located in the Umbrian medieval town of Gubbio. That same town is also where the gentle St. Francis famously tamed a wild wolf.
And Francis, of course, is the same man credited with creating the first “live” presepio (nativity scene) in world history (AD 1223, in a cave near Greccio).
In sum: All roads lead not only to Rome but to the Holy Season itself. -BDC
Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo!
Recent Comments