Search - Caterina in the Big City on DVD

Great movie...accurate portrayal of Roma

Schoolgirl | Philadelphia | 03/03/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A good movie and since I just returned from a year in Italy, I can say that this film accurately portrays the style, language, and politics that define Roma. The subtitled translations are not that great, but if you don't speak Italian you would never notice and it doesn't contribute to anything being missed or lost within the plot or anything. I highly recommend this film"

Better than average movie

Wendy Schroeder | Englewood, Co United States | 08/14/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I really enjoyed this film. Caterina is a country girl who moves to Rome with her parents. Her father is a teacher who has a grandiose vision of himself as a great writer (his work reads like a cheap paperback). Her mother is kind and pretty but a bit of an airhead. Caterina is trying to fit in at school. Does she belong with the Bohemians or with the rich socialites (think teenage Paris Hilton)?

It's a charming coming of age movie. I couldn't help but think that Italy has the same social and political divide as we do in America. I found it amusing some classmates called her a "Hillbilly". Back in Detroit in the '70s I knew a Sicilian who called himself an "Italian Hillbilly". I thought it was kind of funny but I bet he was called that as a kid. I think anyone who remembers being a teen will like this flick.
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Respectable italian moviemaking (will beat 75% of what comes

Nearabout Wednesday | around parrots a lot | 02/26/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"don't read if you don't want plot items revealed...other reviewers have branded this a coming of age story...true enough, but the sub plot is the father, a middle aged man slowly becoming estranged from his family and losing his grip in the workplace as well. a scene outside the cafe kinda characterizes the entire picture when caterina's new friend dismisses her with cab fare, on his mother's orders. alas moving to roma is not the same as living in a small town... filmed around rome,you'll recognize some of the places if you've been before."

Excellent italian comedy, with serious undertones

Andres C. Salama | Buenos Aires, Argentina | 01/31/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This excellent Italian comedy is very similar in plot to Mean Girls (who came out on theaters in about the same time). The difference is that this is a much more politicized film. Caterina is a shy teenager from a small town in Italy, who moves to Rome with her long-suffering mother and her teacher father, when he is assigned to a new job there. In her new school, she has to choose to what clique to belong: the children of the progressive intellectuals or the children of the rich industrialists. The left or the right. What this film says is that these people are not terribly different between themselves. They both hold a degree of fame and power in Italian society, and look down upon those who don't. The outstanding performance in the movie is that of Caterina's father, the teacher Giancarlo (Sergio Castellito), a hothead angry that others have gotten all the breaks in life, who rants against the rich and privileged but who would sell his soul in a second in order to join the establishment. He is a familiar type of malcontent in real life but one who is seldom shown in the movies. There is a silly subplot of Caterina falling in love with an Australian boy, but all in all, this is one of the best Italian movies of the last years."