Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Sue in Italia redux

I met up with Nancy in Farmington and she drove us down to WSU. It was fun catching up with her. We got there early so I went looking for Rafeale wondering what had happened to my independent study project that I need graded to get reimbursed for the tuition. He immediately started talking Italian when he saw me. When he asked how I was, I answered comme-ci, comme-ca by mistake instead of cosi-cosi. Dumb-having trouble keeping languages straight.He said I need to go on Wayne's web site for the grade, which would be an A minus. He said academic papers need references, which I had none but otherwise the paper was clearly an A as it was thorough and well-written. Jim, my Italian teacher then showed up then all sunburnt. It was fun seeing them again. Down in the movie room, I found Joann sitting behind Nancy. They hate each other. Holly, one of the nicer students was also there. I said that I think that on the common website I could identify which pictures were hers. I was right. I had been walking with her when she had taken some of the earlier pictures. She had put up only 40 or so of her 1000.
Piero, the advanced Italian teacher, gave the intro to the film. He is so cute but still is so sweaty. Still hasn't discovered that American custom of deodorant.He will be married in a few weeks in a civil ceremony before having the Catholic ceremony in Italy this summer. WSU has yet to give him a full time position-he is in adjunct hell-which is cheaper for WSU.

The theme of the film festival was the 'piazza' or public square. Italians spend alot of time on theirs observing and commenting on everyone. Apparently all the films have alot of piazza time in them but will feature different sections of Italy. Last night's movie-Divorce, Italian Style (1961) was set in Silicy. Divorce was illegal until 1974 so if you didn't like your spouse, too bad. There was a provision in the law that if you found your wife (not husband as it turned out) in bed with someone else, you could kill her and it would be considered an 'honor' killing. Still illegal but had a very light sentence. So the main character (played by an excellent Marcello Mastroianni)tries to figure out how to get his suffocating wife fall in love with someone else so he can catch them in the act. His attempts are very funny. The movie actally won an Academy Award for best screenplay that year despite it being a foreign film. Everyone really liked the movie and it had lots of moments that reminded us of Gagliano with the church bells, the saint processions, the over-excited talk and hand gestures..
Elena, my cinema teacher, was there at the end. It was so good to see her.
Joann was wearing a black denim jacket. When we were in Italy, Nancy was hell-bent on finding one there so we went to many stores looking for one as she hadn't found one in the US but Nancy didn't notice Joann or her jacket as she didn't even want to make eye contact.
Nancy and I went back to Farmington where I had left the car and had a drink and some munchies. A good time but the rest of the movies are on Wednesdays when she takes care of her grandchildren so I need someone else to go to WSU with.

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