Last night I saw the musical film Nine, directed by Rob Marshall who is best known for his film adaptation of the stage musical Chicago. The trailer of the movie is very intoxicating as it is filled with chic beautiful people in iconic Italian scenery set to a catchy musical number titled “Be Italian”.  For this reason I wanted to see the movie, although the reviews haven’t all been stellar.

My brother is our family movie critic and he said it was “entertaining”, which was enough to be able to convince my Italian boyfriend to accompany me. This post isn’t to review the film itself but more to reflect on what the film captures so well, which is the era when Cinecittà (Cinema City) was at its peak.  It was a time in the late 50s and 60s that you had world famous Italian and international directors making glamorous and historic movies at this 99 acre Roman movie studio. The chic, elegance of the Italian society was both a beautiful backdrop to these movies but also these glam images were exported to the rest of the world via glossy magazines reporting on the on-goings of the stars living and working in the Italian capital. Some might say that this era was Italy at its best and it was a delight to indulge in watching a movie that captured this Campari-drinking, Alfa-Romeo spider driving period so well. In the movie there are 2 particularly catchy tunes. One is titled “Cinema Italiano”, which is sung by Kate Hudson.

The song is about the director but has a few verses that reflect the images of this era. For example, “I love the dark and handsome guys with their skinny little ties dressing mod and looking out of site. I love to watch them as the cruise with their pointy leather shoes, wearing shades in the middle of the night”. The song I like the most was the title song, “Be Italian”, which is sung by Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas. She does an excellent performance playing a grittier, more sexual Italian woman and in her performance was mesmerizing portraying this essence of Italian. Enjoy the clip and I’d love to hear your views of the movie.