Original subtitles

♪ I wish I could see you in many times ♪

♪ As the masses celebrated ♪

♪ By the high priest ♪

♪ As the masses celebrated ♪

♪ By the high priest ♪

♪ As many times as the friar says ♪

♪ "Let's pray" ♪

♪ I won't say ♪

♪ How much I love you ♪

♪ I'd love to see you ♪

♪ Hanging by a bridge ♪

♪ I'd love to see you ♪

♪ Hanging by a bridge ♪

♪ With your head cut off ♪

♪ Rolling down the street ♪

♪ I took a walk ♪

♪ Through this beautiful world ♪

♪ Felt the cool rain ♪

♪ On my shoulder ♪

♪ Found something good ♪

♪ In this beautiful world ♪

♪ I felt the rain ♪

♪ Getting colder ♪

- ♪ La, la ♪

- ♪ Sha la, la, la, la ♪

- ♪ Sha la, la, la, la ♪

- ♪ Sha la, la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la ♪

♪ Sha la, la, la, la, la ♪

As so many have found throughout history,

it's easy to fall in love with Rome.

She is seductively beautiful.

She has endured and survived many things.

What's left of her former glories, her days of empire,

are in ruins, but those ruins continue to enchant us.

You fall into a trance here.

You think, "No matter what, this beautiful dream

will last forever."

And then suddenly, shit gets real.

Before World War I, Benito Mussolini was considered

a bully and a crackpot.

A short-tempered, ever-pontificating soap box orator

from the small town of Predappio.

In time though, the country was divided and in crisis.

It saw itself as besieged by enemies within

and without.

It needed someone who said he could make Italy

great again.

He was a man on a horse saying, "Follow me,"

and they did.

When fascists marched on Rome,

the Prime Minister resigned and Benito Mussolini

was appointed leader by the king.

It can happen anywhere.

It happened here.

Nearly a century later, this is what he left behind.

The Rome that many Romans still live in today.

So this is not a show about monuments or statues

or the treasures of antiquity.

This is about people, often extraordinary ones,

living their lives in the Rome you don't see much of

in the travel guides or TV shows.

♪

Ah, nice painting of Anna Magnani on the wall.

I was just watching her in such films as "Mamma Roma."

Ettore.

Don't you have a little kiss for your mother?

♪

Oh, all right.

Grazie.

♪

Mmm, yeah.

I love this place.

I wanna die here already, and I might yet.

Some people asked me at my hotel where they should eat.

Just... wherever the concierge tells you to go,

don't go there.

Goddamn.

♪

That's beautiful.

Oh, man, that's so completely awesome.

♪

♪

Biancofiore, I need your help.

Would you blackmail a guy for me?

Pier Paolo Pasolini was one of Italy's

great film makers.

A revolutionary figure in cinema who celebrated

the working-class suburbs of Rome.

He was a vocal opponent of fascism

and of those he felt allowed it to happen.

His characters were down and out, victims, predators,

broodish, and wounded, often played by real people

rather than actors.

Even stolen goods, I don't care.

I buy them anyway.

But they were always, even at their worst,

depicted as angelic in all their flawed

and damaged glory.

Rome's true heroes.

♪

Ah.

The hard slap of leather against wet skin.

The thud of muscle and bone and collision

with muscle and bone.

There is blood and sweat and bitter tears

as these warriors face each other in brutal combat.

But, hey, there's pasta and a nice glass of wine.

Hey, this is pretty absurd.

These people are fighting their hearts out,

getting brain damaged, and I'm merely

eating spaghetti.

This is violent, too.

It looks like somebody's been opened and I'm looking

at the insides of one of those guys.

Actor, director Asia Argento is a member

of a dynastic film family stretching back generations.

Her father is Dario Argento.

Credited with creating a wildly innovative

and whole new style to the modern horror film

as we know it.

♪

How big is your family?

- Like, if you were to have a, like... - We don't.

- You don't.

You don't do, like, a big gathering of the clans?

I love the expression.

You're like Asia has a reputation

for saying what she feels.

-Yeah, [...] him up.

Regardless of what people might think.

Papa, is it true that you're leaving Her

semi-autobiographical film "Misunderstood"

played at the Cannes Film Festival.

I'll be back soon.

I have to shoot a movie and...

Yes, your daddy is going.

But he is not brave enough to tell his daughter

he is leaving her.

- She's crazy! - It's all her fault.

It's my fault for having a daughter

with a dickhead like you.

Asia is the single mother of two children,

and lives modestly in a middle-class neighborhood

on the outskirts of Rome.

She was born, raised, and remains a Roman

by blood and attitude.

- How is it? - This is fantastic.

Mm, yeah, it's actually [...] great.

The gladiators, looks like Ancient Rome in a way.

♪

♪

So Romans complain?

The Romans, they complain about everything.

- Oh, yeah?

- Oh, it's a nightmare.

- Complaining about the Gypsies... - Right.

-About the mayor.

The... who will run Rome next.

Who's taking over?

What about fascism?

- Like, Mussolini. - Yeah.

- My daughter, okay? - Uh-huh?

She goes to a private school, but not, like,

you know, expensive.

Like, not... it's a... It's a nun school

- for [...] sakes, okay? - Uh-huh.

A kid would get on the teacher's desk

and they would start chanting, like,

- "Hitler, I love you,"

and, uh... - Right. Right.

At the same time, as you see around,

there's an obelisk with "Mussolini"

and it hasn't been torn down.

In Berlin, you wouldn't see something like that

- from Hitler. - Right.

It would be absurd.

Here? No.

♪

♪

The series of high-speed straightaways

interrupted by sharp turns with no shoulders,

the Via del Mare was central to Mussolini's dream

of connecting Rome to the Mediterranean.

It is, today, Italy's most dangerous road.

♪

The Via del Mare makes an abrupt dead-end

in the beach-front suburb of Ostia.

♪

There's a monument here to Pasolini,

on the spot he was brutally beaten to death by a band

of young male hustlers.

Though many attribute the murder to neofascists enraged

by his politics.

Hey, how you doing? Hi, guys.

Grazie.

-Eat.

- I meet my good friend, Sara, among Ostia's

post-war housing blocks, just off the beach at a place

that's new to us both.

The people here are originally from Sardinia.

- Many people in Ostia are originally from Sardinia. - Oh, really?

L'angolo Amici, or "The Friends Corner,"

is a bar where everyone knows everybody's name...

if they're sober enough to remember.

He's a professional boxer.

-He's a professional boxer?

- He was. - His ears look good.

That's because I would just knock people down.

They used to call me "Little Tyson."

He calls himself "The Little Tyson."

- It's true I swear.

-Here, everybody has a nickname.

I have done the world amateur championships,

the Italian amateur championships, and I've joined

the Olympics team.

Now he is a champion at changing time.

♪

Ostia might be described, unflatteringly,

as Rome's equivalant to the Jersey Shore.

A suburban seaside near the airport that grew up

as decidedly working class despite Mussolini's

never-realized intent that it would one day

be Rome's front door.

Ostia is a beautiful town.

No, talk to him.

Who are you talking to?

- To him. - Well talk to him instead.

- Forget about the camera. - Okay?

- Where are the cameras? - That's right.

-I'm not used to this.

So tell us about Ostia.

Where are... where are we?

Ostia is a part of Rome.

We're not detached.

We're like one of the its districts.

I studied in a school called "Italian Youth,"

built by Mussolini.

People live in... these are not vacation homes?

No. No, no, no.

Forget about tourists.

-There are not many.

- This is, like, the closest beach to Rome.

Right?

Everybody likes the beach.

Why is it not all expensive hotels

and money, money, money, and casinos, and...

In the 60's Fregene was the place to go,

where all the VIPs would go Here is for the workers

and is... has always been considered,

-uh, not very interesting.

But the sea here is super beautiful.

Everybody comes here to the beach.

- Even if they are judgmental about it. - Mm-hmm.

- Anyway, cheers! - Okay.

-Cheers.

Ah!

Uh, I'm curious, 'cause we're always interested

- in food. - Oh.

Typical day, what's for breakfast?

- What's for lunch? - What's for dinner?

- First, breakfast. - Breakfast?

Like, coffee and a pastry, what?

For breakfast you have a variety of salami and...

- It's called Italian starter... - Salami, ham...

- In Sordinia! - We don't have that in Rome!

-No, here in Rome!

-Here in Rome we have Cornetto

and cappuccino in the morning!

He say... he says that, that... that's a Sardinia,

but here we have cappuccino and croissant.

Biscuits, milk coffee, that's shall I can have.

I'd love to have some sausage and salami.

No, no, I'll say what she says.

- What are you talking about? - In your health condition?

- She said... - You have diabetes!

So you must not eat those things! But I wish I could!

- You're talking bullshit! - " salami, but I cannot anymore."

-Right.

- You figure that their wives have them wash

the dishes at home, and when they come here,

they act like bosses!

What's a typical dish from Ostia?

Grilled rats!

Brings us another pitcher!

I've been introduced to these traditional Roman songs

with titles like, "I Never Want

To Stop Stabbing You"... -Ah.

"Your Dead Relatives."

These wonderful songs, like,

- filled with very regional... - Put it together.

- And I... Apparently, they were originally invented

by people in bars and prisons.

Do you know anything about these songs?

Oh, Stornello is like making fun of somebody...

Stornello is like a sonnet.

- Or so... a situation... - Right.

And uses swear words.

- This is very romantic. - There is one that goes.

This is like a serenade for a girl, so...

"Zucchini flowers are big.

Your girlfriend stinks like a pig."

They're these wonderful expressions like,

if I hear that... if you tell me, - "I'm having a baby."

- Mm-hmm.

I can say, "Your dead relatives"?

- This is an acceptable expression? - "To your lousy dead."

But you're not even angry when you say this.

- This is a sort of a casual expression?

- It depends -on why you're saying this.

- When I meet him, - I may whisper,

- "To your lousy dead." - It means, "Ciao."

If you go like this... "To your bloody

dead relatives,"

- uh, it's a nice thing. - You just take this... wait.

- But if I'm angry at him, I change tone. - It's a nice thing.

But if you change the hand and

the hand becomes like an axe, you're really angry.

-So this is okay.

- This is okay. - But like this is not good.

- No, no, no, no, no. - Now I'm mad.

- Yeah, this is the worst. - No.

This is the worst.

Some swear word, different occasions.

♪

♪ Alimo and Taccitu ♪

♪ Were two Hindu brothers ♪

♪ Alimo was feeling sleepy ♪

♪ Taccitu - to you and your grandpa's lousy dead ♪

♪ Alimo and Taccitu ♪

♪ Were two Hindu brothers ♪

♪ Your brother's eaten up the grapes ♪

♪ Taccitu - to you and his lousy dead ♪

♪ Your sister's eaten up the mortadella ♪

♪ Taccitu - to you and her lousy dead ♪

♪ She's eaten a loaf of bread ♪

♪ Taccitu - you're a bloody son of a bitch! ♪

♪ Got married in Istanbul ♪

♪ They've got a lot of kids ♪

♪ To everybody's lousy dead ♪

♪

Roma Nord, the 'burbs.

Asia lives here with her two kids.

Today, her sister, Fiore, is visiting and making lunch.

♪

- Cheese. - Cheese.

A quick stop at a typical artisanal Italian grocery.

-Fava beans?

- Fava beans, yeah.

For some last minute purchases.

♪

♪

- So we get this? - Yeah.

Yeah.

How they gonna... like, or they do the... yeah.

- Ah, all the way from... - Think about it.

♪

This is one of the things that fascinates me

about the Italian baby food.

I don't... I don't see here, like, rabbit flavor

- and horse flavor and stuff. - Oh, yeah.

♪

♪

Ah, looks good.

♪

Anthony, you're gonna be here.

Asia's son, Nicola, and daughter, Anna.

♪

When I was little, one time, they were putting

my underpant, -and I was, um... - Uh, you peed

on your face.

I peed on my face.

I wanna cry.

Nicola, you're not supposed to say these things

like, um, good things.

♪

Today's menu?

Some Roman classics.

Tripe, some nice ragù, rigatoni with guanciale

and fava beans.

Mmm...

-Anthony, how is it?

-It's good. Oh, I'm very happy.

♪

You liking Rome?

You like it here?

Yeah. Yeah, like, of course.

What do you like?

I like this, uh... This neighborhood, right?

We like this neighborhood.

Why do you live here?

I don't know.

I've lived, um, away for many years

-and then I always come back.

- Mm, she lived in Southeast Asia, no?

- Yeah. - Really? Where?

Singapore and Bali.

Those are not bad places to live.

Yeah, not bad place to live.

-Bali's nice.

- Bali's nice, but then every time, um, when I'm away,

I miss Rome.

When I'm in Rome, I wanna go away.

So do you take it for granted when you drive by

- this magnificent... Colosseum? - Like the Colosseum?

Yeah, I don't even look at it.

What about you?

Do you think, "Well, it's kind of awesome here?"

Mm, yeah, I do, actually.

I appreciate it a lot, but it's not like

every time I drive by I'm like, "Wow, like..."

Like, this year, it's a bit better than

the other year.

- What, the Colosseum?

-Yeah, like... Why is it better?

It's been there for 2,000 and plus years.

- Yeah, but the other year, it was, um... - Dirty.

- Dirty.

And... and it was, uh, like, plastic somewhere.

Oh, they were... when they were renovating,

- they covered it. - Yeah. Oh.

And this year, it's all perfect.

This is ox tail.

- This is really good.

- Mmm... Fiore.

It's really good.

- It's fantastic. - Mamma mia.

Brava.

What is this, eh?

That is... - La Trippa.

- Trippa.

Do you know what that is? Trippa?

- Don't tell him. - This is good meat.

- Meat. - Meat.

It's just meat, bro.

-You love meat.

- I love it.

It's one of my favorite things.

And Romans with the sauce, right?

- In Rome... - See, Romans with tomato.

Romans, with the sauce.

I ate one in Florence without the sauce,

it tasted like human fingers.

Like, skin.

Like, it was... Yeah, it's one

of my favorite things on Earth, but if you don't do it

right, -it smells like wet dog.

- Yeah.

It's got that kind of funky...

I used to like it as a kid, even though I was very

particular about food, - kind of like Nicola.

I didn't... I was not adventurous.

I hated food because my mother would impose us to eat

all this crazy stuff, -like brains, like... - Yes.

Like it was horrible.

Boiled brains when your five, then you see the veins

and such.

Yeah, because they were sure that the brain

- make you... - It was to make you smarter.

-Make you smarter.

- And, uh, somebody's hitting the tripe hard.

Nic, you don't have to eat, like, um...

- If you don't... - If you don't like.

-I mean... I know you.

- I saw your face. - Like, eat some bread.

He's like, "Yeah, I like this."

Look, love, I understand.

We understand.

- Now give him some bread. - It's all good, man.

- It's all good, my friend.

You tried. And, uh... You did good.

Hang in there, dude.

♪

The EUR, built by Mussolini as a symbol of the triumph

of fascism.

♪

These buildings were not designed to thrill

or elevate or warm with their beauty.

They are designed to dwarf the individual,

to intimidate, to remind constantly

that the state is all powerful and supreme.

That the individual is meaningless in the grand scheme

of things.

One person just like the other.

Fungible, replaceable.

Ultimately, worthless.

♪

♪

♪

- Hey. Hi, Tony. Hi.

- How are you?

This is Christina.

Hi. How are you?

- Good to meet you. - Yeah.

- Lucia. - Lucia.

That's my sister, Jacoba.

You say "hi" to Tony.

Hello. Hi.

There's a big difference right away

between living in Italy and living in New York.

They're happy to see kids in restaurants here.

It's a whole different thing.

When you bring a kid into a restaurant in New York,

- these guys shoot you a look like... - Right.

- "You gotta be kidding."

You know, "We're trying to do coke in the bathroom,

- you think we wanna look at..." - Right.

The notorious, once demonic, Abel Ferrara

is a married man now and a daddy.

Things are different.

I was able to really get sober for the first time.

I remember it was my 61st birthday,

and I'm looking at this cake with a 16 backwards,

it was the first time since I was 16 years old

when I had my birthday, I was sober.

The director of "Pasolini,"

"Bad Lieutenant,"

and "King of New York,"

among others.

Ooh...

How long have you been here now?

Living steady here, um, two years.

I came to shoot the film "Pasolini."

- Right. - Then we met Christina.

It was the craziest scene we shot, right?

It was the most crazy scene.

An orgy.

We got 30 people naked, it's 40 degrees out,

and it was love at first sight.

And then... -And then she was born.

- Yeah, then she arrived, -so... - Very soon.

Wow. This is good.

Most beautiful thing of Italy is,

every city you go to, -it's totally different cuisine.

- Yeah, I mean, this is Roman.

All Roman. Oh, there you are.

-Hey, ciao, ciao.

-Ciao, my dear.

- Say "hello." - This is Tony.

Hi, ciao.

♪

I grew up in a southern Italian family in...

- Catholic.

- Yeah, Catholic... - We die in the Bronx.

- How Catholic were you?

You'd have to get on your knees and say the rosary,

you know, like, when your six years old,

- seven years old, right? - Right. Right.

And with the nuns walking back and forth

beating the shit out of you for any reason,

and even though some of 'em looked like Angelina Jolie,

some of the nuns I had, actually.

-Oh, okay, the... really?

I don't know if I wanna... There were some beauties.

This was an issue I had with "Bad Lieutenant."

The nuns were hot.

- Oh, well... - I never saw any nuns

-that looked like that, okay?

-No, no, no.

Those boys.

Those sad, raging boys.

- It's okay, it's okay, - it's okay, it's okay.

- Typical Roman dish?

A typical Roman dish, please.

- Roman snails? - Snails?

Like, uh, this... from the sea? The Whelk?

-No.

- No? Or... no, the... - Normal.

-Yeah.

-The terra.

-Ah, really?

♪

- Oh, man, this is serious.

♪

What's the best thing about this city?

Everything you talked about.

That when you bring the baby in here,

there's a love for life.

The work, the art, the attitude on how to live.

If I'm in a bad mood, I'm negative, I'm down, okay?

- Right.

- And then I walk out, I see this chick.

See this chick here, Lucia?

Okay. Okay, I might be personally like,

"Eh, I don't feel like going to the market,"

but this chick is running the market.

She's like... you know what I mean?

I don't know how old she is, but you dig?

And never... like seeing you,

was like, "Wow, we're alive.

We have this moment on earth,"

and that's part of the food.

-Artichoke.

- Artichoke.

Mm. Oh, man, that's amazing.

Okay, when you care about the people your feeding,

you're gonna do it.

If people come in, you don't care, you don't know,

it's just, "I'm trying to make money."

Then I... I'll cook anything.

These guys can't make bad food.

- Right.

- Because they're caring about you eating.

♪

I am very glad to be able to express

my personal feelings towards the American nation.

My fellow citizens, who are working

to make America great.

♪

Traditional Roman breakfast.

Cappuccino before 12:00, some say 11:00.

♪

Ah, definitely having this.

Oh, man.

There's no dignified way to eat this.

That's good.

I was unaware of this phenomenon previously.

This bomba thing.

I believe we call it a donut.

♪

To Pasolini, it was the outskirts, the margins of Rome

that were interesting and beautiful.

The real Rome.

Not the temples and monuments - of a long-dead empire.

A place where people struggled every day

to live and to love.

♪

Grazia.

You've been eating here for how long?

Since I was a kid.

I used to love it as a child.

It's comforting.

- Food the same more or less? - Always the same.

- I mean, it changes, but... - Yes, that's the thing.

That's why I keep coming back.

The grandma makes it.

It's always her cooking.

She cooks every time that she makes fettuccine fresh.

Rome is a city where you find the most extraordinary

of pleasures in the most ordinary things.

Like this place.

Which I am not ever going to tell you the name of.

Asia's been coming here regularly.

- Grazie. - Forever.

She brings her kids still, so I'm not gonna

screw it up for her.

-Oh, it's good.

- That's good. It's good.

Children's food.

Isn't it comforting?

♪

Is it possible to look at Rome in a non-cinematic way?

I mean, it's a city that kind of demands it.

To me, it's how to shoot it the way it has never

been shot.

There's sides of Rome that... Pasolini, for instance,

who wasn't from Rome, or we shoot here.

- Mm-hmm.

- And he would do the suburbs and get the strengths

of the real Rome.

That's our house over there.

The one with the window in the sun

the panties hanging out.

I went to the Colosseum the first time when I was 16.

Well, how often do New Yorkers go to the Empire State

Building? I mean... Why would you go inside?

Yeah. I know.

'Cause it's tall?

I guess.

So we were talking before about that church

-with the paintings of martyrs.

-Yeah.

These super violent... ♪

And you said something to me inter...

Interesting. You said, you know, "In times of trouble

and stress, when people are afraid or angry,

that people are in a buying mood."

Yeah, you want people scared at home

taping their windows, so they become buyers.

♪

The Church did something similar in the sense that,

if you have sinned, you have greatly sinned.

Only if you repent and you go there,

you will be forgiven.

- Right.

You're scared.

It's, like, kind of the first horror movies

of all time, the Christian art.

♪

- When people are scared... - Uh-hmm?

They go running to the Church.

What about fascism?

- Like, Mussolini. - Yeah.

What... very popular man.

Yeah, and people say, the Romans, "Mussolini

was a good man."

-Uh-hmm.

- Hitler came and him up, but he did good.

Architecture, build things, and my grandma would say,

"Mussolini, a good-looking man,"

and she would like, like, you know, "A realman."

- Like, with the?

-Uh-hmm.

You know? Like, some... A man... a manly man.

- Right. - "A manly man."

- Right. - "Mussolini was a manly man."

So you're not optimistic about the-the-the...

- Optimistic?

- The political health of the world?

-I don't even care.

I don't vote.

- I never voted. - Really?

Never once.

I don't go on the news.

I don't want to bring that stuff with me.

That shit is poison.

There's just, like, this Italian way

of like, "Let it go.

You know, as long as it doesn't bother me,"

and I am completely like that.

Like, I care about my neighborhood,

my children, my building.

- You know? - I care about that.

It's a lot to care about already.

♪

♪

Pick an autocratic ideology,

German, Italian, or Soviet, and you end up

with structures like this.

So this was... I forget what it was

- in "The 10th Victim." I think - it's a... it's a chase scene?

- The runaway... yeah.

It's a chase scene, right?

- He's running, yep.

But in "The Conformist,"

it was a men... this was a mental institution.

- Yeah.

♪

I mean, the ideas, I understand it was...

This was gonna be the shining example of, you know,

the new Superman, the new... the fascist, uh...

-For a fair.

- This is what fascism can do for the...

For the World's Fair, -I think it was the plan,

and it... -Yeah.

20 years... celebrating 20 years of fascism,

- but it never happened. - The war... the war broke out.

The war broke before.

And then, after the war, this neighborhood

was overgrown by weeds and trees.

It was forgotten.

People wouldn't come here.

It was shameful.

They haven't bombed it as much as in Berlin.

They bombed everything else, but they... you know,

this is still standing even though they... to this day,

they don't use it very much.

Do you have any family history here?

What was, uh... I always ask... Anytime I meet a German,

I always ask... I'm always thinking, "What did they do,

you know, during the war,"

and I'm... you know, I always assume the worst.

My grandmother and her brother were the photographers

of fascism.

She made beautiful pictures, very much grandiose

like this architecture, of muscular men,

women, and, uh... What do you think

of this style of architecture?

I think it's beautiful.

I like the fact that it's called rationalist,

but grandiose, huge.

I mean, this is link... it looks just like Lincoln Center

to me.

I mean, in New York.

It's the same... -Yeah.

- Exactly the same style of, uh, -of architecture.

-So what are you trying to say?

- I'm saying, "What's the problem?" - "They're fascists too"?

You're... there's a little fascists

-inside each one of you too.

- Um... Look. Visit the States these days.

It's, uh... it's coming back.

It's big.

It's coming back in what sense?

-What is, uh, about the fascism?

- I think we're looking... - We're looking for, you know,

a man on a horse -to make everything better.

- That we are... yes, but we always have.

Humans always have.

God figure, father figure, that is going

to tell you what to do.

People in Italy... in Rome still love Mussolini.

And what happened to Mussolini again?

- As I recall, um... - Uh, he got hung

upside down in Milan, Piazzale Loreto.

Everybody would go there and throw stones.

What a turn around.

I mean, he... one time, so popular and then...

That's what happens with all the idols.

You know?

With... you create them, so you can destroy them.

Wow.

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Thank you for bringing me here.

I don't think I've ever been or ever will come back.

Maybe for movies.

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