Buondì.
Thanks to club member Paul, who sent a link to an online Italian film festival beginning later this week.
It’s free, apparently. You can find details of their program here, and full details of how to participate on their homepage, the gist of it being that they’ll post access details for each film (Italian original audio, English subtitles) on their Facebook page.
Personally I don’t use Facebook, so it looks like I won’t be joining the fun. But if you do, you have a few days to get in touch and score your free tickets, or passwords, or whatever.
And talking of films, by a total coincidence (really!), today we’re publishing the latest of our sixteen ‘ebook of the classic Italian movie’ easy readers, so NOT an actual movie, but a retelling of the story of the film by one of our online Italian teachers, Giovanni Galavotti, who is also an award-winning scriptwriter!
This one is L’avventura and it’s the first part of an existentialist trilogy, apparently. The film was shot in the scenic Aeolian Islands, and on nearby Sicily.
In 1960, the same year that Felini’s masterpiece ‘La dolce vita’ won the Cannes Film Festival’s ‘Golden Palm’, another Italian director, Michelangelo Antonioni, presented a movie which, though it went down badly with audiences, was admired by his peers. Fellow director, Roberto Rossellini, described it as ‘the most ‘beautiful’ film ever shown at a festival’, so it was no surprise when ‘L’avventura’ was awarded the prestigious Jury Prize.
What’s it about? Well, a group of friends – including Anna, her best friend Claudia, and Anna’s well-off architect boyfriend, Sandro – are holidaying on a luxury yacht. While they are moored at a tiny, uninhabited island, one of the party mysteriously disappears. A search is begun, but the weather begins to worsen…
So why did it ‘go down badly with audiences’, you may be asking? Well, this movie is ‘existentialist’, remember? If you don’t know what that means, exactly, there’s a definition and examples here. But basically, if you like a happy ending, this might not be for you…
L’avventura is £5.99 all this week, rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ price of £7.99. Which means that, miserable plot or not, it’s probably great value as study material!
Here are the details, copied and pasted from our shop, including the link to the free sample chapter:
- .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
- .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
- 8 chapters to read and listen to
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
- Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
- Suitable for students at B1/B2 level and above
- Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
How do I access my ebook?
When your order is ‘completed’, which should happen immediately after your payment is cleared, a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook (.mobi/Kindle-compatible, .epub) cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them.
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And here are the links if you want to buy a copy, or just look at the free sample chapter:
Buy L’avventura, just £5.99 this week! | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)
Movie fans will find all sixteen of our ‘Classic Italian movies’ easy reader ebooks, here.
But if you’re not that into cinema?
No worries. You’ll surely find something to interest you on our Catalog page.
Or just go visit our online shop and click stuff.
A mercoledì.
P.S.
Saturday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news (simplified text + online audio) is FREE to read/listen to.
How come? Because it’s funded by donations from people who find it helps them with their Italian.
See who, here and/or send us some cash yourself, why not?
Subscribing to EasyItalianNews.com is FREE, too.
Just enter your email on this page to receive three bulletins of ‘easy’ Italian news each week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Your email won’t be used for other purposes, such as begging for donations (as I can do that here…)
Not interested in reading/listening to free materials either?
Oh well… then I’d point out that the club website has masses of GRAMMAR, which is also free. The link is below.