Chiedemi se sono felice.

Last Saturday, I watched movies alone for the second time. No, they were not commercial movies showed in cinemas for around 200 bucks.

Watching free movies has proven to be one of my hobbies this year. Free international movies shown in either Shangri-La or UP are quite fun and exciting. The line up includes: Japanese, European, French, Brazilian, Taiwanese and on-going Italian.

And so I watched two Italian movies last Saturday (I was actually planning to see one, but to maximize my time and money spent for the fare, I decided to see another one).

Italian humor is quite good considering the first movie I’ve seen was comedy which was released in Italy in 2000. The movie was “Ask Me if I’m Happy” with Italian translation “Chiedemi se sono felice” I just love the sound of felice in my mouth. I want to say it over and over.

The story is about friendship and how reckless actions can ruin such relationship. The three guys, Aldo (which I think is the most handsome), Giacomo and Giovanni actually have the same names in real life and directed the movie as well. Cool!

I love all the parts that include biking, and the one where they played basketball with the round guards and broke the ear and nose of a saint statue. And I love their friendship and antics.

The second movie, “Stendhal Syndrome” (La Sindrome Di Stendhal) which was quite old, was kind of disturbing and just confused me. It was a 1996 movie directed by Dario Argento (if I remembered it right) and starred his own daughter Asia Argento, which in the movie was a policewoman and rape victim and eventually turned out to be a psychotic killer. I don’t know if they really spoke English or were just dubbed, but when I checked the internet some actors (the two main guys) did really appear in some Hollywood movies such as Once Upon A Time in Mexico and King Kong.

Stendhal syndrome by the way is a real disorder, where a person experiences rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting and hallucinations when exposed to magnificent artwork. Such experienced was first recorded by the writer Stendhal (Henri-Marie Beyle) while visiting a museum in Florence in 1817.

The lead character in the movie, Anna Manni, had the same experience which led her to the hand of the serial killer/rapist during a visit in the Uffizi Museum. The movie is kind of slow-paced for me, unlike most US thriller movies.

I love the background music though; the one that is played every time you know something is up. :)