Il palazzo azzurro

[Xmmm]

This log is dedicated to the attempt to develop B2 skills in Italian in 960 hours.

The focus will be on TV until I hit 800 hours of listening, at which point I'll use Italki for speaking.



: 160 / 800 Listening

[Xmmm]

Il segreto dell'acqua (available on amazon video as Palermo Connection) is the best Italian TV show I've seen. And it's not even close. Highly, highly recommended. I don't know how I'm going to go back to watching Montalbano after this ...



One (minor) interesting thing about the show is that one of the underlings seems to speak dialetto Palermitano (?). At least, he's very nasal and they keep encouraging him to speak standard Italian.

[Xmmm]

Xmmm's Italian Recommendations

Movies

1. Song 'e Napule -- A rookie cop with a degree in classical music goes undercover to infiltrate a cheesy pop band with mob ties.
2. Reserved
3. Reserved

TV

1. Il segreto dell'acqua -- A masterpiece. From the writing to the casting to the acting to the camera work to the music to the local color. How a TV cop show should be done (my opinion).
2. Reserved
3. Reserved


Books

1. Il deserto dei tartari -- A young officer is assigned to a quiet, isolated mountain fortress where things are exactly as they seem.
2. Reserved
3. Reserved

Music

1. Nina Zilli Modern Art -- I picked this pretty much at random because it had a lot of stars on amazon.it and I could download it from amazon.com. But it was a happy choice. She sings well and clearly and the songs are catchy.

[Xmmm]

For the commute in the car, I've noticed that I just don't do well with podcasts. I zone out. So I bought a Nina Zilli album. I don't know anything about her but she sings clearly ... I can hear all the words.

I've decided to lower my TV watching level to the point where I understand at least 55% of the content, and have been shopping around for shows that fit that description:

Castlevania -- this is a pretty dumb show. Hard to believe it's for grown ups because the kid cartoons are more interesting.

Dragons: Race to the Edge -- it's okay. A little hard to take in big doses.

Sahara -- This is an animated kid film about a bunch of snakes. There's a couple of cool snake dance scenes but otherwise pretty ... tired. It's a formula rehash of a hundred other movies.

Huntik -- This shows seems formulaic, but of a formula I'm not that familiar with. It's annoying, though, because there are fight scenes every five minutes and every time there is a fight scene, everyone has to drag out their amulets to materialize their spirit monsters to fight for them.

Le avventure del gatto con gli stivali -- This is the clear winner so far. Somewhat entertaining with plenty of Spanish guitar music. And fortunately there are five seasons of it.

I should hit 200 hours of listening tomorrow and 400 by the end of the year. Nina Zilli won't count, has to be shows that I'm focused on and actively trying to understand.

[Xmmm]

I've spent twenty hours this week listening to Italian, and more than half of that was watching and rewatching Il segreto dell'acqua. On the first time through I was only understanding 30% but I'm happy to report on the second pass I'm getting 40%. Would that there was some way to turn off Amazon's English subtitles, because right now I have to cover a third of the screen.

I'm pretty sick of watching dubbed American shows and would prefer to watch Italian stuff even if it has to be Don Matteo or Montalbano (the vanilla and French vanilla of Italian cop shows, whereas Il segreto is more like the spumoni).

By the way, I tried watching some show called Catturandi on RAI. Most of the first episode was just another mediocre cop show (which would have been okay), but the last minute of it was so dumb I realized the writers have no idea what cops do for a living or how they are trained (either that or they don't train cops in Italy, they just hand out guns). So, scratching that one off the list of possibilities. I also watched an episode of Gomorra, which is hyped a lot but I don't understand why. Bunch of unlikeable mumbling thugs attack another bunch of unlikeable mumbling thugs. Much shooting ensues. Who cares?

Thumbs up on Nina Zilli's album Modern Art.

[Xmmm]

In Il segreto dell'acqua, the protagonist is a tormented intellectual cop. He carries around a suitcase full of books to read when he's not working, and they all seem to be either fairly obscure works of literature or self-help books that are forty years old and have achieved semi-classic status. One of them happens to be Creatività e pensiero laterale, which I bought yesterday. It's as easy (or difficult) as Harry Potter #1 (which I read last week) and much more fun to read. This is the first time I ever took a book recommendation from a TV show ... it's a weird experience.

As for the show itself, my comprehension went up noticeably on the second viewing. What I still can't understand well:

1. The comments of the old psychologist. I think this is purely a question of vocabulary as he seems to be talking about a lot of Greek mythology and dream symbolism (or something like that).

2. Any time the minor characters really crank up the Palermo accent. The character Escalone, in particular. Also the thug who becomes a major character in the last couple of episodes.

3. Any time the conversation goes on too long. I think I'm good for 3-5 sentences, and then rapid continuous speech tends to overwhelm my ability to process it. Dramatic pauses are very helpful in this regard.

I want to catch all ten hours of the series for the third time in October but I guess I'll veer off and watch something else in the meanwhile.

[reineke]

I'm pretty sick of watching dubbed American shows and would prefer to watch Italian stuff even if it has to be Don Matteo or Montalbano (the vanilla and French vanilla of Italian cop shows, whereas Il segreto is more like the spumoni).

Keep processing. You got me intrigued, by the way. I like La Piovra but that show might feel a little dated to some people:

[Xmmm]

I'm pretty sick of watching dubbed American shows and would prefer to watch Italian stuff even if it has to be Don Matteo or Montalbano (the vanilla and French vanilla of Italian cop shows, whereas Il segreto is more like the spumoni).

Keep processing. You got me intrigued, by the way. I like La Piovra but that show might feel a little dated to some people.

I've seen the first two episodes of La Piovra. It's dated all right. Fortunately, I am also dated.

It has what all the current Italian "Miss Marples" lack ...

#1 verisimilitude: Cattani's life is messy. The investigation is really the least of his problems
#2 a real sense of danger. Maybe Cattani himself is safe because he's the hero, but I wouldn't want to be on his team -- or in his family.

Definitely a good tip. Grazie!

[reineke]

I'm afraid that as far as Italian goes I'm living in the eighties (and nineties). I may decide to modernize. I must admit that Gomorra got me interested (and I do enjoy Breaking Bad). The trailer is a put off. Unlikeable characters? Try Brutti, sporchi e cattivi. I don't remember why I liked that movie.

[aaleks]

I watched La Piovra dubbed in Russian (it's called Спрут). It was a quite popular series in the USSR in the late 80s. Back than it seemed too scary to me, well, the series hardly was meant to be watched by preteens. Probably La Piovra/Спрут aired in 90s too, because I remember that I was watching it as a teenager (and it wasn't so scary anymore ). But I don't remember what was the last season I saw.