Top 10 films to learn Italian • Wanderlix

Want or need to initiate yourself to the subtleties of Dante's language? To perfect your Italian, the V.O. will be your best friend. Here are the best films to learn Italian!

Learning a language can be arduous: complex grammar, difficultly intelligible accents, variations... Want to learn Italian? Good news, you already speak French and the two idioms are very close! They drift from Latin and share an almost identical structure.

In order to simplify the task and avoid a trip abroad, dive into the richness of Italian by watching a film in this language. Italy, a great country in cinema, is full of major film works.

With or without subtitles, you will become acquainted with the transalpine. To help you, we offer you a list of the best films to learn Italian. Andiamo!

1. The Good, the Brute and the Truand

Released in 1966, this spaghetti western of the great Sergio Leone is considered one of the best films in history! The scenario, which takes place in the U.S., is simple: it tells the adventures of three bandits obsessed with money.

Amazed by the music of Ennio Morricone, the film is part of the Trilogy of the dollar. He concluded this film triptych, including "For a handful of dollars" (1964) and "And for a few more dollars" (1965). We recommend it for the performance of the mysterious Clint Eastwood and the legendary dialogues!

2. The Dolce Vita

Undoubtedly the greatest Italian film of all time, this masterpiece of 1960 helped to establish the legend of Federico Fellini ! The director staged a Montreal columnist vibrating in the Italian elite to pick up some scoops.

This film is recommended to learn Italian because of the beauty of scenes in the alleys Rome . The maestria of Fellini was to juxtapose the nihilistic vicissitudes of a disabused aristocracy. Ciseled dialogues, VO, are an enchantment for the ears!

3. Life is beautiful

Life is beautiful is one of the most beautiful Italian films. We owe it to Benigni: the director signs one of the classics of the year 1997. This dramatic comedy illustrates the life of an Italian family under Mussolini.

Guido, the father, a Jew, suffers the troubles of the fascist administration. The whole family is deported because of racial laws that came into force. Guido will then travestir the dark daily concentration camps, turning the cruelty of the camps into a game for his son.

Rich, high in colour, this monument of cinema allows you to learn Italian easily... and offers masterly lighting on this dramatic era!

4. Cinema Paradiso

This Italian film is made by Giuseppe Tornatore. Released in 1988, this beautiful film on the cinema staged... Philippe Noiret, one of the best roles!

The drama took place in Rome in the late 1980s. He retraces the story of Salvatore, a filmmaker in vogue, who remembers his childhood in Sicily. The bambin then shared his free time with Alfredo, a projectionist who showed him films and, at the same time, taught him life.

A pretty music by Ennio Morricone, a melodrama dyed with nostalgia, awards to the shovel: Oscar and Golden Globes of the best foreign-language film... From emotion to pure state!

5. Call Me by Your Name

" Call Me by Your Name" broke the chronicle in 2017. This dramatico-romantic film by Luca Guadagnino is the last part of his "Trilogie du Désir" after "Amore" (2009) and "A Bigger Splash" (2015).

The scenario took place in Northern Italy in the summer of 1983. This is the powerful story weaved between two young boys who wake up to love and life.

If we recommend this film to learn Italian, it is for its aesthetics and the quality of the game of the actors. Known by the environment, obtaining numerous distinctions, it is a film of great depth on a delicate subject.

6. Caesar must die

Cesare deve morire , in the language of Dante, is an Italian film directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. Released in 2012, he was shot as a fiction documentary.

Particularity: it is interpreted by inmates! These prisoners are locked in a high-security neighbourhood in Rebibbia prison in Rome. Guided by a director, they aim to play "Jules Caesar", by William Shakespeare.

This film is very interesting to learn Italian because they use several different accents and dialects. This film, shot in part in black and white, won the Golden Bear in 2012!

7. The Godfather

American film... but featuring Sicilian characters, "Le Parrain" is an iconic saga! Directed by Francis Ford Coppola based on Mario Puzo’s eponymous novel, he presents one of the five families of the mafia of New York: the famous Corleone!

History: the patriarch aging and refusing, by honor, to adapt to the drug traffic then booming. Violent, baroque, bloody, staged with brio: the wheels of the Mafia in all their crasses.

The film won three Oscars including the best film and best actor for Marlon Brando. You will quickly understand why!

8. Nikita

The action enthusiasts will appreciate this Franco-Italian thriller, created by the great Luc Besson. In this dark and violent work, a young drug addict participates in the robbery of a pharmacy. The robbery goes bad and police officers are shot.

Imprisoned, it is forced by "Bob", a mysterious man, to work secretly for the government... and to become a professional killer... We'll let you discover the rest!

With the sublime Anne Parillaud and the Dark Tcheky Karyo, this film is ideal for learning Italian. The dialogues are rather simple to integrate, because of a staging to facilitate their understanding.

9. Mediterraneo

This war film by Gabriele Salvatores in 1991 received the Oscar for the best foreign film. Summary: In 1941, during the Second World War, eight Italian soldiers landed on a small Greek island. Soon delivered to themselves, they will weave friendly or even in love with the local population.

This touching and philosophical Italian comedy stands for a wide audience. Interest: sometimes fierce dialogues and situations... Ideal for learning Italian!

10. The Chamber of the Son

“The Son’s Chamber” is a tragic Italian film that we owe to Nanni Moretti. Released in 2001, he won the Palme d’or at the Cannes Film Festival. This work takes the form of a disturbing story about the death of a child leading to the dissolution of a united Italian family.

Enjoying a sleek staging, it’s an excellent feature to learn Italian! More than a film about death, it is mostly a film about life. The correctness of the characters and the great fineness of the script affect up to the hardest of the filmmakers.