Italoamericano

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.

Italianamerican (1974)

*** (out of 4)

Martin Scorsese short has him and a film crew talking with his parents about their history in America. The premise of this thing doesn't sound too interesting but Scorsese's parents are great storytellers and that keeps this 50-minute film moving quite well. Scorsese's father is very funny in his storytelling and his beliefs and without question he's the highlight.

Turner Classic Movies shows this every once in a while but you can also find it on a R2 disc but I'm not sure if that's official or not.

I recently read a pretty vicious attack on Scorsese in an excellent evangelical periodical, Books and Culture. It claimed Scorsese is, in a word, bloodthirsty, and still a street punk at heart.Granted, Scorsese has done his share of bloody films, but the violence which obsesses him isn't PHYSICAL, its emotional. In addition, Scorsese isnt simply obsessed with blood..hes obsessed with honor, tradition,and family. A clue to the shallowness of this critique of Scorsese could be found in the fact that the author actually thought Age of Innocence was just a studio assignment,which Scorsese agreed to do reluctantly. In fact, Scorsese obsessed over Wharton's novel for a decade after his pal, Jay Cocks, gave it to him. Everyone of Scorseses critics should watch this heart-felt, tender, and utterly bloodless film. I really hope he finally gets around to doing his long-planned feature film about his parents courtship,and his own boyhood in little Italy. P.S.the film also inspired me to buy The Scorsese Family cookbook!

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.

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.