Italianamerican

Martin's grandfather arrived in America in 1901. My grandfather arrived in 1888, during the Great Blizzard. Martin's father recalls how Italians were treated by the Irish. During the Columbus Day parades, the Irish would make fun of the Italians, ending in a huge fist fight.

Like his father's family, my parents grew up in poverty. There were large families living in small living places. My ancestors came to America to work for a $1 a day. As a hod carrier, my grandfather carried bricks and mortar up and down ladders all day, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Even when he was dying from prostate cancer, he had to work, pissing blood, to support the family.

Life was not a bowl of cherries, yet my parents believed in the American Dream and worked hard, saving their pennies, to provide their children with a decent life.

If you are an Italian American baby boomer, you will relate to this film.

I absolutely love this DOCUMENTARY!! They spoke just like Italian people talk if you were brought up like this you will totally understand why you are the way you are They were just like my grandparents. Listening to them tell stories brought me back to the days I miss so much I could watch them for hours. I would listen to my aunts and uncles talk for hours (drinking wine and espresso)telling these stories never ending stories .. The stories were intriguing. I really felt like I belonged in this family. There's something about Marty's Mom and Dad that relaxing they can be your own parents what a gift I stumbled across.

Sweet little documentary where Catherine and Charles Scorsese casually talk old stories of their immigration, childhood, cooking..etc Random stuff. It is one of those rare pieces of work that can put it's audience in good mood and can make us appreciate little things.

I got to see a clip of this documentary when Martin Scorsese came to Providence, Rhode Island to accept an award on behalf of Brown University. We got to see a small clip from every directed film that Scorsese had made in his 40 plus year career. Out of all the films, Italianamerican got the biggest laughs and the longest applause. Having been the only Italian and the only person who did not attend Brown University that got into Brown's auditorium (the security was terrible) to see Scorsese, I enjoyed the realism that Scorsese captured by watching his parents be themselves in front of the camera. All the other Irish people who attended the event enjoyed the film as well, but not as much as me.

Like someone opening up a family scrapbook or putting on a video from footage you haven't seen in years, Italian/American is Martin Scorsese's personal look at his family, most particularly his parents Catherine and Charlie. Both have had memorable bits in his films (Goodfellas being their prime, as Catherine was Pesci's mother and Charlie the onion-cooking prisoner in jail), but are also willing to be on-screen for a kind of personal inquisition from Martin about the family's history. We learn about the ancestry of the Scorseses, on both sides, and how this influence came into the family. At times, strangely in such a short amount of time, the 'home video' factor is actually a little boring, as it would be in real life. Yet a fascination remains with these people, and the director's own deep interest in it (he references the family's history as well in My Voyage to Italy). A highlight actually occurs in the end, as Catherine offers up her recipe for tomato sauce! For Scorsese die-hards a must-see; a curiosity for anyone else interested.