Movies and Language

Some of the best movies ever made have come from Italy, but as resources for improving your language, you have to be careful what kinds of movies you decide to watch.

In my opinion, your best bet is to watch movies that are more current and movies that do not involve dialect. There's nothing wrong with Italian dialect, but for beginner and intermediate students of Italian, I just don't see any benefit from struggling to watch a movie that is entirely in the dialect of Naples or Rome. You'll spend too much time referring to subtitles and at that point, it might just be better to be reading a book.

So my advice:

• Try to pick movies that are more current (1980's onward) -- the language will be more accessible, and hopefully there's little dialect.
  
  
• Pick movies that will interest you -- you're more likely to pay attention and be attentive if you will enjoy the story. If romances and overly dramatic love stories are not for you, then don't watch a movie just because it's in Italian. You won't appreciate it, and you will probably have trouble following the story. Interest plays a huge part when learning anything.
  
  
• I advise not using subtitles when you watch a movie, or at least try. I know that Italians speak fast, but then they think English speakers speak fast as well. :) Do your best to at least understand the situation. If you're still in the dark, try again with subtitles. You might be surprised to see that you understood more than you thought.
  
  
• Movies are good to watch to improve your Italian because it involves seeing and listening. When someone says something that seems unintelligible to you, but you still understand what they said, how is that so? The answer is "context". Having a context in which you watch something allows your brain to make associations based on what characters are doing or not doing.
  
  For example, if a character is in the kitchen and cuts themselves and then yells a lot, chances are they aren't happy and are not in a good mood. You can probably guess that they're swearing or yelling at themself for being so clumsy. While you might not have understood what the word meant, you know how it was used in that context and can probably infer the meaning.

Coming soon will be a list of new and old movies that make good learning tools!