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Fatti Coatti....e tamarri
| This
Micromodule is designed for Italian teenagers wanting to deliver a lesson
on what "being and acting coatto" is like. The point is to
understand what kind of universal values or lack of values the Coatto is
the expression of and his/her social function.
Learning objectives:
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Lorenzo Nando Meniconi Mario Brega i personaggi di Guzzanti i personaggi di Christian De Sica i personaggi di Carlo Verdone il Miles Gloriosus....ETC ETC EXAMPLES OF FAMOUS COATTI IN ITALIAN CULTURE
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STEP 1: In groups of 3 read the passage below and underline unfamiliar words. Look them up in the dictionary and re-translate them in your argot-coatto-register. |
| STEP 2.: in pairs take a walk downtown and take a snapshot of some coatto (if you live in Rome you can easily find lots of them listlessly cruising up and down Via del Corso on a Saturday afternoon) | ||
| STEP 3: observe a bunch of Coattoes move around and give a vivid naturalistic description of his/her ways (draw inpiration from Emile Zola) | ||
| STEP 4: in groups of 3, try to act them out and produce a short one-act play over an invented but plausible plot | ||
| FOLLOW UP: Now read the following questions and try to answer them. | STEP 5: videorecord yourselves digitalize your production and use the forum and the website to start a comparative study with your European net-peers | |
| 0. How many categories of Coatto could you find? | ||
| 1. Is the Coatto the expression of globalized urban consumerism? (justify your answer) | ||
| STEP 6: add at least 4 other famous coatti to the list above using google search engine | ||
| 2. Can you sum up his life philosophy (if any)? | ||
| 3. To what extent do the social and cultural values promoted by the media contribute to the thriving of types like "Lorenzo" ? | ||
| 4. Compare 2 or 3 cinema 's coatto characters with 2 or 3 TV-driven coatto characters, what are your comments? |
Coatto: the terms refers to a regional (Roman) variety of middle-to-low class semi-illiterate rascal living with the myth of consumerism and with a cultural background based entirely on football (Roma AS). He very often embodies the typical latin macho stereoptype, whose attitude to women is far-fetchedly and disgustingly derogatory. For him all women are hookers except for his mother, sister and fiancée. The Coatto becomes a "Tamarro" in the North of Italy, the connotations are the same, just the argot changes.
A famous Coatto was the Plautus'Miles Gloriosus. He gradually evolved in language, habits and attitudes along with changes in Italian culture and technology. However the Coattoes always retained their basic mischievous, illiterate, arrogant and ego-centred traits. Famous examples of Coattoes in Italian cult movies are embodied in Alberto Sordi's Nando Meniconi, Vittorio De Sica's Conte Max, Mario Brega's characters, and Carlo Verdone's vulgar, feeble and "in aura mediocritas" unfortunate anti-heroes. On TV a famous nonsense show of the early 90es "Avanzi" by Serena Dandini e Corrado Guzzanti featured the pathetic character of a globalized, inarticulate adolescent school-dropout from Rome called "Lorenzo" , whom all Italy was rolling on the floor laughing at except teenagers.. can you make out why?
Famous Coatti: what do they look like?
Net movie poster archives Italian Movie posters archives
Study questions for other urban non-italian friends|
1.is there a cultural equivalent for a Tamarro or a Coatto in your urban culture? |
| 2. can you list 2 and give a description of them? |
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3. Do you find them funny? |
| 4. they can be so funny that they usually end up being extremely pathetic and tragic.. why? |
EXAMPLES OF FAMOUS COATTI IN ITALIAN TRADITION
| Nando Mediconi | movie: "Un Americano a Roma" 1954 - starring Alberto Sordi (links) |
| Il Conte Max | movie. "Il Conte Max" - starring Vittorio De Sica |
| movie: "Un sacco bello" - starring Carlo Verdone (links) | |
| Chi è il coatto - a Coatto's identity | http://www.kayenna.it/verdone.htm |
http://www.google.it/search?q=Verdone++Carlo&lr=lang_it ricerca
http://utenti.tripod.it/carloverdone/ sito ufficiale
http://www.italica.rai.it/principali/argomenti/bibliografie/verdone.htm biografia e foto
http://www.italica.rai.it/principali/argomenti/filmografie/verdone.htm filmografia
http://www.italica.rai.it/principali/argomenti/cinema/cedrone.htm gallo cedrone – comicita’ e battute
http://www.raidue.rai.it/raidue/schede/9016/901680.htm schede – segue filmografia con trame e commenti
http://www.starsonweb.com/it/V/verdone_carlo.html motore di ricerca per artisti
http://www.tempimoderni.com/1998/interviste/verdone.htm
http://www.tempimoderni.com/1995/interv/verdone.htm intervista su ………….
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Picture/9932/ tutto su ….anche in inglese++++++++++
http://www.ironico.it/mitici/verdone.htm film