Spaghetti, aglio, olio, peperoncino with Alberto Sordi

Last Sunday we launched the eighth edition of our winter series Cinema & Cibo with an update from our first edition in 2014, a film shown that year at the Berlin Film Fest that has recently been made available online by Cineteca di Bologna. Click here for the story. In this week’s edition, a fun, quick recipe for a classic Roman dish and some recollections of the great Roman actor Alberto Sordi.

This interview took place in the mid-late 1990s. In this clip, he talks about how he and his actor friends didn’t have much money in the early days, so they just ate once a day and it was always prior to a performance to build up strength. During the interview, the host was insisting on talking about the beautiful women with whom he shared the screen and he seemed bashful about it, almost uncomfortable, saying that he never kissed on-screen and wouldn’t divulge the off-screen romances of his youth. Although he seems a little tired, I enjoyed this interview because his subtle sense of humor really comes through. Actually, I enjoy all of his interviews.. he was always very generous and patient with the press and very articulate when answering their questions. He really did appreciate his fans, or his “pubblico” as he often referred to him. Click here to watch the series video post on Instagram. Click here to watch the complete interview with Sordi.

The films in order are “Bravissimo,” “Una vita difficile” and “Un americano a Roma.” The first and last are available to stream on Amazon. Even though he's been gone for 18 years, all you have to do is read the comment section of his interviews and films on YouTube to understand how profoundly he is missed by people of all ages. He had the ability to reach beyond his own generation and continues to entertain the young people of today.

Click on the images to watch the films on Amazon..

In staying with the Roman theme, the song is Semo Tutti Romani (We Are All Romans) by Claudio Villa, who was also born in the 1920s in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome like Sordi. I wonder if they knew each other when they were growing up there. Sadly, Villa passed away in 1987 of a heart attack. He was very popular in the ‘50s and ‘60s, having won the San Remo music festival four times- in 1955, ’57, ’62 and ’67. The song is a famous Italian folk song. I’m not sure when it was written but this version is from a 1961 compilation of Italian songs. Click here to listen to the complete album.

Buon Appetito and Buona Visione!

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