Quentin Tarantino’s love of older Italian films, particularly spaghetti westerns and horror films, is well known. In a recent interview with a leading Italian television magazine, Tarantino dissed the current state of Italian cinema. “New Italian cinema is just depressing. Recent films I’ve seen are all the same. They talk about boys growing up, or girls growing up, or couples having a crisis, or vacations of the mentally impaired.”

I have no idea what film Tarantino may have referred to with that last bit about mentally impaired vacationers. Some of the greats of Italian film have responded bluntly. From Sophia Loren: “How dare he talk about Italian cinema when he doesn’t know anything about American cinema?” Filmmaker Marco Bellochio was quoted as stating, “Tarantino is a brute.”

While I don’t agree with Tarantino, I can see his point to a limited degree. Italian film has not had the kind of excitement it generated back in the Sixties when Antonioni, Fellini and Visconti made their best films. Of the genre filmmakers that Tarantino loves, only Dario Argento is still alive and active, making theatrical films.

Of recent Italian films, two of the best that I’ve seen were made for television. One is the epic film about, yes, boys and girls growing up - The Best of Youth. It is long, six hours, but it is a film that actually got better as it progressed. Another terrific film made for television is Uno Bianca, a crime thriller directed by Michele Soavi, best known for his horror comedy, Cemetary Man. Both of these films are on DVD should you wish to check them out. It should be noted that as Italian films don’t get the kind of distribution in the US that they had in the past, one has to actively seek out some of the better films.

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