Columns

A number of contemporary Italian films will be available to stream in the coming months. Gianfranco Rosi’s new documentary “Notturno” will be available via the New York Film Festival’s Virtual Cinema on October 6. Having just premiered at the Venice Film Festival, the documentary film was shot over a three-year period along the borders between Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan and Lebanon. Rosi gives voice to a human drama that transcends geographical divisions and time, with encounters and images of the life that is impacted by the continuous tragedy of civil wars, brutal dictatorships, foreign invasions and interference and living in the …

How do I say, “TV show” and “movies” in Italian? The programs we watch on a television set (il televisore) or on a screen (lo schermo) are referred to most commonly in both English and Italian as “TV.” The pronunciation, of course, is different in each language. In Italian, the abbreviation “TV” is pronounced as an Italian would pronounce the letters “t” and “v,” which sounds like “tee-vooh.” Notice from the table below that there is an Italian word for TV programs in general (la televisione), and therefore the Italian abbreviation TV is feminine as well, and takes the feminine …

Buying property is one of the biggest investments you’ll make in your entire life. To get the most out of that investment, you need to find the right broker. You’ll need to do a lot of research before you make you decide, but all the upfront effort will be well worth it in the long run.   One thing you want to pay attention to when picking a broker, is how much experience they have. Ask them how long they have been in the business and which areas they usually work in. Getting referrals from friends, family, neighbors, or anyone …

The beauty of life in Roseland is that, as varied as it was, it had happenings that were so dependable as to be practically traditional. That memory endures even in a pandemic world where everyone’s events have been curtailed, cancelled, downplayed, postponed, simplified and placed in a downward spiral. Roseland’s traditions make reminiscing easy. Since this is my October column, we have plenty of events to recall. The Pullman House Tour, which has take place every year on Columbus Day weekend for the past 46 years, has been cancelled for the first time ever. I recall when I first bought …

Sapere  To be “in the know” about how the Italian language works, we must know how to use the verb sapere and be acquainted with the verb conoscere.   Let’s start with sapere. Sapere is an irregular verb that ends in -ere. It means “to know,” as in to know a fact. Since sapere is irregular, the root will be different from the infinitive verb for all forms except the voi form.  Interestingly, the root for the noi form differs by only a single letter from the regular root — with the addition of a second letter p. The irregular conjugations are given …

As I’ve sat with a number of people over the years, discussions have often turned to who the people of Kensington, Pullman and Roseland are. As a child in St. Anthony’s Parish, the answer was clear: We’re all Italian. Of course, then I became more aware of the world around me. I came to realize that some of the last names called for attendance at school weren’t Italian: Knudson, Ramirez, Mrozowski, Clark, Timmerman, Vanderwahl, and a few more. Hitting the playground gave further proof of how diverse the entire community of Roseland was. The playgrounds of summer gave us ample …

With a lockdown that seems to go on forever, it’s safe to say we’ve all spent a lot more time at home than we ever have before. As a result, we’ve all become intimately familiar with the things about our home that we love and the things we’d love to change. If you were planning on buying a new home before COVID-19, spending a lot of time in your current home will help you decide what you want by giving you the opportunity to look closely at what you have and don’t have right now with an eye toward what …

Ho bisogno di…  When we express our needs, we are also communicating our feelings, and the ability to do this in different ways makes our language skills much more rich.  In Italian, there are several verb phrases that can be chosen if one want to express a need: “ho bisogno di,” “mi serve,” and “averne voglia.”  Many times, these three verb phrases are interchangeable, but there are subtle differences that determine the choice one makes to use each one. The very popular phrase, “ho bisogno di…” means, “I need…”  The verb ho is, of course the first person conjugation of …

As we grew up in Roseland, we would meet new people and our horizons would expand. When we were little, we would go from playing around our house to playing at our friends’ houses. When we went to grade school and met new friends, we couldn’t wait to go on adventures with them in the schoolyards, parks and prairies in our community. Our horizons really expanded when we went to high school, met a whole new circle of friends and learned to drive. Along the way, we made new discoveries and learned to deal with different situations. Imagine if you …

Based on the bestselling novel by Wally Lamb, the HBO limited series “I Know This Much Is True” follows the struggles of Dominick Birdsey as he goes to great lengths to protect his identical twin brother, Thomas, who is suffering from severe mental illness. The series stars Italian-American actor Mark Ruffalo in a bravura performance as both brothers. In the fifth episode, Birdsey’s efforts lead him to a book written by his grandfather, a Sicilian immigrant. Calabrese actor Marcello Fonte, who is featured in the June issue of Fra Noi, gives an outstanding performance as Domenico Tempesta, a ruthless, violent …