Last night I saw A Casa Notra, an Italian ensemble drama of intersecting lives (yes, another one of those: it's the hot genre). Early in the film a character named Gerry is celebrating an anniversary with his wife when an attractive blond behind their table catches his eye and shamelessly flashes him her phone number with her hands. Looking at the actor playing Gerry (Luca Argentero) it's easy to assume this is a everyday occurence... minus the wife and the anniversary, we hope.When I got home and looked up Luca Argentero on the internet I decided he had to be the hump day hottie. Anyone willing to shamelessly flaunt their hunkiness in a cheesy beefcake calendar should be celebrated I think.
A Casa Nostra's most recognizable star stateside is Valeria Golino who plays a tenacious financial officer named Rita investigating a criminally inclined very wealthy business man who Gerry becomes entangled with, too. The girl flashing her digits was the businessman's mistress. Oops, Gerry's bad. A Casa Nostra was fairly intriguing as cat and mouse / multiple character dramas go (the face off between Rita and her businessman prey is a major highlight and very well played by Gulino) In the end though I couldn't help feeling that I was missing something. It plays like one of those films where knowledge of political climate and homeland cultural hot buttons might greatly inform the viewing. Not knowing much about Italian life or corporate politics, I was at least content to watch the many beautiful thespians onboard do fine work with their volatile romances and business dramas within the story.
After I was done processing the movie and my mind started drifting away from Argentero, it got me to thinking about a friend I've long since lost touch with, Luca Calvani, who is also an Italian actor. I lost touch with Luca when he left NYC for LA but I use to marvel at his ability to turn heads everywhere (though to his credit he didn't seem to notice). Even in banal places like subways where people generally ignore each other it would happen. People couldn't help but stare. So... heres to Luca(s).Are all men named Luca crazy beautiful?
While you ponder that question it's off to another screening with me.
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9 comments:
I remember stumbling upon pictures of Argentero in that calendar a couple of years ago and swooning... so he was passable as an actor? I think he was on Big Brother in Italy, too. So so pretty, he is.
yeah his performance was fine. i thought he was an actor (didn't know his fame came from ... elsewhere)
I'm from Italy, I'm a regular visitor of the blog and you just can't imagine how surprised I was when I saw Luca Argentero as the new hump day hotty! Past the shock, I just have to say I totally agree with you choice! Luca was on Big Brother and he does some crappy tv series too. But we may forgive him since he's sooo handsome and he's managed to obtain two very interesting roles in "A casa nostra" and in "Saturno contro" (do you know Ferzan Ozpetek, the turkish director working in Italy?) showing he's not as bad an actor as one could imagine...
About "A casa nostra" you're right, the movie is an insight depiction of Italian society, and here in my country we can appreciate it more than anywhere else. Italian movies are often too self-referential to have a really international appeal, it irritates me a lot. But I liked this movie very much nonetheless and, as you pointed out, there were many interesting performances, and particularly that of Valeria Golino (not Gulino, by the way) whom you may remember as Tom Cruise's gal in Rain man and Charlie Sheen's in the Hot Shot movies. Now she's become one of Italy's most serious and appreciated actresses.
About Luca Calvani, I saw him in a guest stint on Italy's most popular soap "Un posto al sole" just a few weeks ago and now I realize he also had a small role in one of Ferzan Ozpetek previous movies, "Le fate ignoranti". On imdb i founf out he even did a reality show (the Italian version of Survivor) and won... I hope both the Luca guys manage to get out of italian tv milieu very soon because it's just a waste of their time and beauty...
P.S. I know two guys named Luca and they're just not that crazy beautiful...
i've seen le fate ignoranti which goes by "his secret life" here because Luca told me he had made it ... but that's the only Ozpetek I've seen so far. do you recommend any others?
Well, "Il bagno turco" is interesting but a bit inconcludent, while "La finestra di fronte" and "Saturno contro" are very good. They're touching and deep, and with very fine performances. I liked'em more than "His secret life" actually, but I wonder if they've had any american distribution at all...
Wow, if I were friends with Luca Calvani, I would NEVER let myself lose touch with him. Gggrrrrrooooowwwl... I do love me the Italians.
Is it pronounced "lusah" or "lukah"?
It's pronounced "luka" (or "looke(r)" for that matter, depending on your accent ;)
AND yes, he's in Ozpetek's new film as well. Actually, I still think that Le fate ignoranti is his best film, though all his films except for Harem suaré are pretty interesting. Hamam - Il bagno turco is a classic gay favourite (at least in Europe, you can find it sitting on the shelves of gay shops from Paris to Budapest and back).
And to fuel the imagination: in Saturno contro, Ozpetek's latest, he plays the boyfriend to the manly Pierfrancesco Favino (who played Columbus in Night at the Museum and will play Lord Glozelle in the upcoming Narnia sequel).
well I know another Luca, he's not famous or anything, he's from Argentina and is a friend of mine and let me tell you this, he's gorgeous and has a helluva body... ALL (and I really mean ALL) of his body is just perfect.
Mark
Yes, La finestra di fronte DID have an american distribution, under the name of Facing Windows, so will in october Saturno contro, with the title Saturn Opposing.
And yes, both Luca Argentero and Luca Calvani raised to popular fame in Italy after appearing in reality shows, the former as a contestant (not winner) of Big Brother, the latter as the winner of 2007 edition of Celebrity Survivor (generating a lot of buzz about the "is he/isn't he gay?" kind..)
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