What's in a Title? Italian Cinema Quiz

Answer: Cabiria

The young girl's name is Cabiria. When Mount Etna erupts, her parents fear the worst, but she actually escapes with her nurse, only to be kidnapped by Phoenician sailors. She is then sold to the grand priest who plans on sacrificing her along with 99 other kids.

Pastrone's film is stunning. It is considered to be a landmark in cinema and hugely influential thanks to some of the camera shots, particularly the rolling dolly shots. It's also highly-entertaining and exciting throughout. The character Maciste went on to thrill audiences in umpteen films, some starring Bartolomeo Pagano (who made his debut here) as the Herculean hero.

D'Annunzio didn't really write the screenplay but did word the intertitles. As Italian film historian Gian Piero Brunetta has suggested, his inclusion was no doubt a brilliant bit of marketing since he was a renowned poet, novelist, and politician.

Answer: Paisan

The words "paisà" and "paisan" are actually dialect forms of "paesano", meaning villager ("paese" means country town/village). However, "paese" is also used to mean country as in nation, so "paesano/paisan" can mean fellow countryman, and even friend.

"Paisan/Paisà" is split into six episodes, each one a self-contained vignette, which are all connected by the time-setting (from the Allied invasion of Sicily in mid-1943 to December 1944), as well as the theme of misunderstandings due to lack of language skills.

The film was heralded as a masterpiece and its reputation has anything but paled since its release. Not only is the breadth of poignant story-telling what gained the film its prestige, but also the film-making in itself. Both these qualities had already been seen in Rossellini's "Rome, Open City", but with "Paisan", his reputation was cemented.

"Paisan/Paisà" is on the list of "100 Film Italiani da Salvare/100 Italian Films to Save".

Answer: Bitter Rice

The title "Bitter Rice/Riso Amaro" is a play on words in Italian since the word "riso" translates as both rice (the film takes place in the paddy fields of the Italian Po valley), and laughter/smile (Francesca often sports a wry smile).

Francesca was played by American actress Doris Dowling, whilst the archetypal charming baddie (Walter) was played by Vittorio Gassman. Another worker in the rice fields is Silvana, played by the super-sexy Silvana Mangano, and the hero is played by Raf Vallone, who had been a successful footballer, journalist and Communist resistance fighter before getting into films.

"Bitter Rice" is an extraordinary film which manages to be a politicized Neorealist film noir. It also boasts the unusual, and possibly unique, setting of the Italian rice fields and the harsh world of the female seasonal workers known as "mondine".

"Riso Amaro/Bitter Rice" is on the list of "100 Film Italiani da Salvare/100 Italian Films to Save".

Answer: The Moralist

Agostino, played by comic actor Alberto Sordi, is General Secretary of O. I. M. P., i.e. Organizzazione Internazionale per la Moralità Pubblica (International Organization for Public Morality), a private watchdog organization with powers to veto any entertainment which might hint at impropriety, such as films and advertising. He even manages to have an amusement arcade which he deems a den of iniquity shut down.

The comedy in the first part of the film derives from Agostino/Sordi's geeky mannerisms, whereas the second half reveals that the apparently upstanding local citizens, including the President of O. I. M. P. (played by Italian Neorealist director extraordinaire Vittorio De Sica) are anything but spotless moralists.

Alberto Sordi (1920-2003) is a serious pretender to Totò's throne as the king of Italian comedy. Sordi also earned his keep as a voice actor and was the voice of Oliver Hardy in numerous films, such as one of the red herrings, "A Chump At Oxford" (1939).

Answer: Juliet of the Spirits

Juliet explores her imagination and her psyche throughout the film, which gives us a clue to understanding the title, albeit not fully. Some feel that the lack of a coherent plot lets the film down, but when seen as a slightly surreal dreamscape, it works well.

"Juliet of the Spirits/Giulietta degli Spiriti" was Fellini's first feature film in colour and the way he revels in it displays his painterly leanings. His love of carnival atmosphere is also abundant, with all manner of man and beast parading around.

The character of Juliet/Gìulietta was played by Fellini's wife Giulietta Masina. Apparently the couple never agreed on the underlying meaning of the final scene in which Juliet/Giulietta is walking away from her house and into the woods: Fellini saw it as release, to Giulietta it meant abandonment.

Answer: The Birds, the Bees and the Italians

The Italian title is "Signore & Signori" (Ladies and Gentleman), which makes more sense since the film is a damning, yet very funny, indictment of post-war, economic-boom period, provincial Italy and all its hypocritical bigotry. The English title, "The Birds, the Bees and the Italians" really only focuses on the cliché of Italians being sex-mad.

Although it's never specified, the town is clearly Treviso to anybody familiar with the area. However, the dialect used is Venetian, quite sensibly not particularly thick Venetian so as to render it accessible, one would suppose.

"The Birds, the Bees and the Italians" (joint-)won the Palme d'Or at Cannes 1966, and is on the list of "100 Film Italiani da Salvare/100 Italian Films to Save".

Answer: The Bird with Crystal Plumage

The title "The Bird with Crystal Plumage/L'Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo" refers to a rare bird which is housed in Rome zoo (in the film), next door to which the killer lives, thus its distinctive call can be heard in the background of the threatening calls. However, as usual with Argento at his best, it's not quite as simple as it seems.

Argento, who eventually became known as the king of Italian horror, made his directorial debut with "The Bird with Crystal Plumage", which is actually more of a "giallo" than a horror. It's a really classy affair, and set the benchmark for all his subsequent films, some of which lived up to it, others which didn't.

Sam is played by American actor Tony Musante, and his supposedly Italian girlfriend by British actress Suzy Kendall.

Answer: Padre Padrone

The title "Padre Padrone" translates as father (padre) and owner/master (padrone). It refers to when Gavino, whose native language is Sardinian, goes to "the continent" (mainland Italy), struggles to make himself understood, and is forced to learn Italian. He goes through a dictionary learning several words from the same root, so "padre, patriarca, padrino, padrone, padre eterno, patron" (father, patriarch, godfather, master, God, patron). However, this proves to be the film's major flaw since the dialogue up until that point has been in standard Italian, so this pivotal moment falls flat.

"Padre Padrone" is based on the autobiography of Gavino Ledda, who went on to become a language scholar. The life of the young Gavino growing up and learning how to become a farmer in the inhospitable Sardinian wilderness is pretty bleak, mostly due to his brutal father.

"Padre Padrone" is on the list of "100 Film Italiani da Salvare/100 Italian Films to Save".

Answer: House on the Edge of the Park

Apart from the first ten minutes or so, the whole of the film takes place in the house and its environs, which creates a stifling atmosphere. The violence erupts quite early on and doesn't really let up until it reaches its dramatic climax.

On the DVD's audio commentary, Deodato claims his penchant for showing extreme violence is connected to his childhood. However, he is at pains to underline he had a wonderful childhood, but since he was the youngest boy in a large family, he was the butt of any practical jokes, which all sounds innocuous enough until he tells tales of being woken up by his brother urinating on him, fake executions, and a host of other hijinks and tomfoolery.

The star of the film is David Hess who plays Alex. Hess had played a very similar role in Wes Craven's "Last House on the Left" (1972), but Deodato got an even more frightening performance from him. They worked on several other films together despite having a rocky relationship. Indeed, on the audio commentary Deodato calls Hess "viscido" (slimy).

Answer: Malena

"Malèna" is a very simple story in many ways, and like many of Tornatore's films, nostalgic and at times sentimental. However, while this sentimentality is a major flaw in "Cinema Paradiso" and "Baaria", in "Malena" it is anything but saccharine. In fact, Malena is used and abused throughout the film, and judged harshly for it.

The character Malena Scordia is played by Monica Bellucci, who despite having already been in a number of films was still best known as a model at the time. While the role didn't require a huge amount of acting, her sexy strutting around the provincial Siciian town under the lustful gaze of all the male citizens, brought her to the attention of audiences worldwide.