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Final Two Half-Price Italian Movie ‘Ebooks of the Week’

This week we have our final half-price Italian movie easy reader ‘Ebook of the Week’ promotion (for this year, at least.)

Final because next week we’ll be publishing something new, and after that we have other promotions and offers scheduled – there are lots of other ebooks for learners, besides classic Italian movies, for you to explore!

So on to this week’s discounted ‘easy reader’ titles from our Classic Italian movie series – the last two bargains (for now) are  Amarcord (level A2/B1, pre-intermediate/intermediate) and Ieri, oggi, domani (level B1/B2, intermediate/upper-intermediate).

The two short texts with online audio were written for you by an award-winning scriptwriter, who teaches Italian between movie projects, the idea being to make well-known films from Italian movie history accessible for all learners of the Italian language, not just advanced students with developed listening-comprehension skills.

As in previous weeks, I’d advise checking out the reviews and downloading the sample chapters BEFORE you buy your copies. Both of these films are ‘non-traditional’ by Hollywood movie-making standards (except virtually everything by Tarantino, obviously), which is to say that you don’t get spoon-fed, that a certain amount of thinking is involved, that the narrative might not proceed  in a linear fashion, that the ending might not be what you were expecting, and so on…

Cioè, read what other people thought, and check the level is suitable for where you’re at with your Italian:

‘Amarcord’ reviews | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

‘Ieri, oggi, domani’ reviews | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Don’t forget that this week each ebook will cost you just £4.99. Why not get BOTH, but pay just £9.99, the usual price for one?

For a complete learning and cultural experience, read/listen to the ebook, then seek out the movies online and give them a try, too.

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Cover image: Amarcord

Directed by the brilliant Federico Fellini, ‘Amarcord’ is a masterpiece of Italian movie history. The title means “I remember” in dialect. The movie is Fellini’s heartfelt homage to his hometown, Rimini. Through the eyes of Titta – the young protagonist – we meet some of Rimini’s characters and live through a typical year in the town’s life in the early 1930s.

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 8 chapters to read and listen to
  • Comprehension questions to check your understanding
  • Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
  • Suitable for students at any level
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Amarcord, just £4.99! | Free sample chapter (.pdf) | Classic Italian Movies series | Catalog

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Italian easy readers - Ieri, oggi, domani - cover image

The classic Italian movie ‘Ieri, oggi, domani’ tells the stories of three women, Adelina, Anna and Mara, who live in three different Italian cities, Naples, Milan and Rome. Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni play the leading roles in each story. This re-telling for learners of Italian makes a great introduction before watching the movie itself or simply an excellent supplement to your study program!

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 9 chapters to read and listen to
  • Comprehension questions to check your understanding
  • Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
  • Suitable for students at B1/B2 level and above
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Ieri, oggi, domani, just £4.99! | Free sample chapter (.pdf) | Classic Italian Movies series | Catalog

How do I access my ebooks?

When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?

P.S. Logo of EasyItalianNews.com

And here’s the usual reminder to read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news from EasyItalianNews.com.

These FREE bulletins are published every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Each one contains a selection of ‘easy’ articles and an online audio recording, the idea being that regular reading/listening practice will help students build their comprehension skills, as well as consolidating the grammar they’ve studied and helping learn new words.

Browse EasyItalianNews.com | Subscribing is FREE

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New B2-level ‘easy reader’ ebook, – 25% this first week!

Improve your Italian reading and listening skills with our newest ‘easy Italian reader’, Il sesso nell’antica Grecia, level B2 (upper-intermediate).

Easy Italian reader ebook - Il sesso nell'antica Grecia - cover image

Motivating Italian reading and listening practice, memorable insights into human sexual behaviour, and plenty of triva to quiz friends or colleagues with!

Check out the cover image for an idea of whether this material might be unsuitable for you (in which case, please don’t download it…) Then use the free sample chapter linked to below to confirm that the material is appropriate for your current level in Italian.

Il mondo occidentale contemporaneo è figlio della civiltà greca. La nostra cultura è nata nelle antiche poleis, piccole e combattive città-stato come Atene e Sparta. Però il passare dei secoli e nuove civiltà, l’influenza del cristianesimo e le scoperte scientifiche hanno modificato profondamente il nostro sistema di pensiero, le nostre abitudini e convinzioni. Anche in tema di sesso le cose sono cambiate radicalmente.

Nelle prossime pagine, utilizzeremo i miti greci e i loro protagonisti, gli dèi e gli eroi, per introdurre gli argomenti. E poi tratteremo questi temi da un punto di vista storico. Quali abitudini sessuali e quali perversioni avevano gli antichi greci? Quali comportamenti sessuali erano socialmente accettati e quali no? Insomma: come vivevano la sessualità gli uomini e le donne nelle poleis greche?

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 10 chapters to read and listen to
  • 10 exercises
  • Italian/English glossaries
  • Suitable for students at intermediate level or above
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Il sesso nell’antica Grecia (B2) just £7.49 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | History-themed easy readers | Catalog

How do I access my ebook?

When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?

P.S.

Logo of EasyItalianNews.com

Have you read/listened to Saturday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news from EasyItalianNews.com?

The thrice-weekly bulletins are published on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Each contains ‘easy’ articles along with online audio, and is free to access on the website.

Subscribing – to receive each bulletin via email as soon as it is published – is FREE, too!

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Two Very Different Italian Movie ‘Ebooks of the Week’ -50%!

Our half-price ‘Ebook of the Week’ offer this week features two VERY DIFFERENT titles from our Classic Italian movie series of Italian ‘easy readers, L’avventura (level B1/B2, intermediate) and Per un pugno di dollari (level B1/B2, intermediate).

The two short texts with online audio have been written by an award-winning scriptwriter (who teaches Italian between movie projects to pay the rent) with the idea of making well-known films from Italian movie history accessible for all learners of the Italian language, not just advanced students with developed listening-comprehension skills.

Why ‘VERY DIFFERENT’? Well, I suppose by way of warning, though more so for L’avventura, our ebook of which garnered (unfairly, as it accurately recounts the movie…) some terrible reviews! People were ‘quite disappointed’, ‘hated this ebook’ etc. Without giving too much away (though there are plenty of spoilers in the reviews) the movie (and so the ebook) is not what film-goers have been taught to expect…

The reaction to the second movie, starring the not yet famous-issimo Clint Eastwood, and other well-known Italian actors, was much more positive (‘very enjoyable‘), as were the sales. I remember reading the ebook myself – it summarises the film very nicely – then seeking out the Italian original of the movie online and sitting through it one Saturday evening with a six-pack. And a lot of fun it was, too.

On the other hand, I suppose I could have written here that the movies were VERY SIMILAR, because, in a sense, they were.

An ITALIAN WESTERN? Who’d heard of such a thing? And who would pay to watch one? And anyway, weren’t westerns old hat?? Sergio Leone, the director, thought differently, obviously, and was proved right. This ‘different’ type of cowboy movie was a success, as was, in a way, the confounding but prize-winning L’avventura (described at the time as ‘the most ‘beautiful’ film ever shown at a festival’ – the critics liked it, even if the public didn’t…)

Different/similar, decide for yourself. Until we close down the offer early next week, each costs just £4.99. So you could get BOTH but pay just £9.99, the usual price for one!

Read/listen to the ebook, then seek out the movies online and give them a try. A complete learning and cultural experience!  Just don’t complain to me if you hate them… I wasn’t the director.

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Italian easy reader ebook - L’avventura - cover image

In 1960, the same year that Felini’s masterpiece ‘La dolce vita’ won the Cannes Film Festival’s ‘Golden Palm’, another Italian director, Michelangelo Antonioni, presented a movie which, though it went down badly with audiences, was admired by his peers. Fellow director, Roberto Rossellini, described it as ‘the most ‘beautiful’ film ever shown at a festival’, so it was no surprise when ‘L’avventura’ was awarded the prestigious Jury Prize.

The first part of an existentialist trilogy, the film was shot in the scenic Aeolian Islands, and on nearby Sicily. A group of friends – including Anna, her best friend Claudia, and Anna’s well-off architect boyfriend, Sandro – are holidaying on a luxury yacht. While they are moored at a tiny, uninhabited island, one of the party mysteriously disappears. A search is begun, but the weather begins to worsen…

This re-telling for learners of Italian makes a great introduction before watching the movie itself. Or simply an excellent supplement to your study program!

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 8 chapters to read and listen to
  • Comprehension questions to check your understanding
  • Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
  • Suitable for students at B1/B2 level and above
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy L’avventura, just £4.99! | Free sample chapter (.pdf) | Classic Italian Movies series | Catalog

Italian easy readers - Per un pugno di dollari - cover image

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‘Per un pugno di dollari’, directed by Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood, was filmed in the deserts of Spain and released in Italy in 1964. The film wasn’t the first of the so-called ‘spaghetti western’ genre, but did a lot to popularise this rethinking of what was, by then, the rather tired western format. Two further films followed, and the trilogy was released in 1967 in the USA – at which point the director and many of the cast took on American-sounding stage names so as to seem more familiar to moviegoers.

Giovanni Galavotti’s re-telling of the story of the film for learners of Italian makes a great introduction before watching the movie itself (ideally in Italian!) Or it can be used simply as supplementary reading/listening material which, for lovers of the wild west, is guaranteed to liven up your study program!

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 8 chapters to read and listen to
  • Comprehension questions to check your understanding
  • Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
  • Suitable for students at B1/B2 level and above
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Per un pugno di dollari, just £4.99! | Free sample chapter (.pdf) | Classic Italian Movies series | Catalog

How do I access my ebooks?

When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?

P.S. Logo of EasyItalianNews.com

Don’t forget to read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news from EasyItalianNews.com.

These useful, FREE materials are published every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Each contains a selection of ‘easy’ articles and an online audio recording, the idea being that regular reading/listening practice will help students build their comprehension skills, as well as consolidating the grammar they’ve studied and helping learn new words.

FREE material for learning Italian | Subscribe for FREE

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New B1/B2-level ‘easy reader’ ebook, – 25% this first week!

Improve your Italian reading and listening skills with our newest ‘easy Italian reader’, Le vie del cuore, level B1/B2 (intermediate/upper-intermediate).

Easy Italian reader ebook - Le vie del cuore - cover image

In your home town, street names may have been chosen by a city planner hoping to orientate you, by a developer so as to evoke pleasant images in your mind (and raise real estate prices), or by local leaders to commemorate an important person, place or event. At the very least, they’ll be familiar to you. But in another country? The names of Italy’s piazze, strade and vie can often seem mere strings of hard-to-remember syllables, devoid of any meaning to visitors from afar…

But no! Take a little time and – with the help of this ‘easy reader’ ebook – you’ll soon know as much as any local!

Chi visita più di una città italiana, trova alcuni nomi di vie e piazze molto ricorrenti: sono i nomi di personaggi celebri e importanti, di date significative o di luoghi con un valore storico o sociale. Per esempio, in molte città italiane c’è una “Via Leonardo da Vinci” o una “Piazza Dante Alighieri” in onore del grande genio e del famoso autore della Divina Commedia. Ci sono anche tante “Via Roma” in ricordo della splendida capitale…

E poi ci sono un sacco di nomi ed eventi sconosciuti o quasi. Per esempio: chi diamine era Giuseppe Mazzini? Perché è famoso Enrico Fermi? E cosa è successo il 4 Novembre?! Conoscere i personaggi e i fatti che danno il nome a molte strade e piazze delle città del Bel Paese è un po’ come fare un tuffo nella cultura italiana. Allora, siete pronti a tuffarvi?

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 4 chapters (19 typical street names) to read and listen to
  • Five exercises to test yourself (or your classmates)
  • Suitable for students at intermediate level or above
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Le vie del cuore (B1/B2) just £7.49 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Catalog

How do I access my ebook?

When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?

P.S.

Logo of EasyItalianNews.com

Did you read/listen to Saturday’s FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news from EasyItalianNews.com?

These thrice-weekly bulletins are published on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Each contains ‘easy’ articles along with online audio, and is free to access on the website.

Subscribing – to receive each bulletin via email as soon as it is published – is FREE, too!

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Psst! Fancy a free Italian/Spanish/French/German lesson?

At EasyReaders.org we publish ebooks for language learners, mainly Italian, but also French, Spanish, German and a sprinkling of other languages.

Our FREE samples, and FREE titles, are downloaded often (find them on our Catalog page) so we know there are lots of language students out there looking for a bargain!

EasyReaders.org used to also sell one-to-one online language lessons, but that’s now done through a dedicated website (with a different mailing list) NativeSpeakerTeachers.com.

But guess what? This week NativeSpeakerTeachers.com is giving away 150 FREE TRIAL ITALIAN/FRENCH/SPANISH/GERMAN LESSONS.

Bargain hunters, it’s party time!

Obviously, you should check out the details of the ‘free trial’ offer on their website.

Then, it’s a simple matter of ‘buying’ the lesson that interests you (priced at £0.00 instead of the usual £22.00 – no catches, nothing to pay) and waiting for them to contact you.

You can do that here:

Italian | Spanish | French | German

As I said, you should read the details of the ‘free trial’ offer on their website, but it’s a genuine offer, and it ENDS ON SUNDAY FEBRUARY 18th 2024.

Next week we’ll have a new Italian ‘easy reader’ ebook to tell you about!

But in the meantime check out the details of the ‘free trial’ offer.

Or go browse ebooks.

P.S. Not interested?

All bulk email we send contains a prominent ‘unsubscribe’ link. Click it once and your email will be permanently removed from whichever list it’s part of (not from other lists you might be on.)

Hundreds of people use the ‘unsubscribe’ link each week, so there’s no reason to be reading emails like this one if you’re not interested.

The unsubscribe process is more or less instant. Do give it a try!

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Two More Italian Movie ‘Ebooks of the Week’ – Half Price!

Yet again, our half-price ‘Ebook of the Week’ offer comprises two titles from our Classic Italian movie series of Italian ‘easy readers.

The two short texts with online audio have been written by an award-winning scriptwriter (who teaches Italian between movie projects to pay the rent) with the idea of making well-known films from Italian movie history accessible for all learners of the Italian language, not just advanced students with developed listening-comprehension skills.

This week’s half-price choices are Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (level A2/B1, pre-intermediate/intermediate) and I soliti ignoti (level B1, intermediate). Until we close down the offer, early next week, each costs just £4.99. So you could get BOTH but just pay £9.99, the usual price for one!

Cover image: Nuovo cinema paradiso

One of Italian cinema’s masterpieces, the Oscar-winning ‘Nuovo Cinema Paradiso’, directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, is retold here for learners of Italian.

Growing up without a father in post-WW2 Sicily isn’t easy, but Totò makes friends with Alfredo, projectionist at the town’s only cinema, and develops a passion for movies…

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 8 chapters to read and listen to
  • Comprehension questions to check your understanding
  • Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
  • Suitable for students at any level
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, just £4.99! | Free sample chapter (.pdf) | Classic Italian Movies series | Catalog

Cover image: I soliti ignoti

Mario Monicelli’s 1958 classic comedy is now retold for learners of Italian: a gang of small-time criminals plan a night-time raid on the safe of a pawn-broker’s shop – with hilarious results!

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 8 chapters to read and listen to
  • Comprehension questions to check your understanding
  • Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
  • Suitable for students at any level
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy I soliti ignoti, just £4.99! | Free sample chapter (.pdf) | Classic Italian Movies series | Catalog

How do I access my ebooks?

When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?

P.S. Logo of EasyItalianNews.com

Don’t forget to read/listen to today’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news from EasyItalianNews.com.

These useful, FREE materials are published every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Each contains a selection of ‘easy’ articles and an online audio recording, the idea being that regular reading/listening practice will help students build their comprehension skills, as well as consolidating the grammar they’ve studied and helping learn new words.

FREE material for learning Italian! | Subscribing is FREE, too

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Homer’s Odissea, ‘easy reader’ ebook, – 25% this first week!

Improve your Italian reading and listening skills with Odissea (attributed to Homer), a B2-level Italian ‘easy reader’, and a follow up to the B1-level L’Iliade that we published back in November.

Italian easy reader - Odissea - cover image

L’Odissea è un poema epico scritto in greco antico nell’VIII secolo a.C. Il titolo significa “le avventure di Odisseo” e, insieme all’Iliade, è uno dei testi fondamentali della storia occidentale.

Odisseo (che i Romani chiamano più tardi “Ulisse”) è il mitico re di un’isoletta greca chiamata Itaca. E’ nipote di Ermes, il dio greco degli imbrogli. Odisseo è molto curioso e astuto: ha un’intelligenza di tipo pratico che gli permette sempre di risolvere i problemi e salvarsi in situazioni difficili, che non mancano!

Ha affrontato dieci lunghi anni di guerra a Troia e, insieme agli altri re greci suoi alleati, ha finalmente preso la città (una parte di questa storia è raccontata nell’Iliade.) Finita la guerra, Odisseo deve affrontare un pericoloso viaggio per ritornare a casa…

Why read the Italian version of a classic of world literature? Well, why not? Sometimes a familiar tale is reassuring when faced with the complexities of reading and listening in the language you’re learning.

Besides, you can do both! We have ‘easy reader’ versions of some of the classics of Italian literature, too!

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • introduction + 8 chapters to read and listen to
  • Comprehension questions to check your understanding
  • Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
  • Suitable for students at intermediate level or above
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Odissea (B2) just £7.49 | FREE sample chapter (.pdf) | Catalog | World Literature | Italian literature

How do I access my ebook?

When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?

P.S.

Logo of EasyItalianNews.com

Did you read/listen to the latest FREE bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news from EasyItalianNews.com?

The thrice-weekly bulletins are published on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and contain ‘easy’ articles along with online audio.

Subscribing – and so receiving each bulletin via email as soon as it is published – is FREE, too!

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Two Classic Italian Movie ‘Ebooks of the Week’ – Half Price!

This week’s half-price ‘Ebook of the Week’ offer comprises two more titles from our Classic Italian movie series of Italian ‘easy readers.

The two short texts (with online audio) were written by an award-winning scriptwriter, who teaches Italian between movie projects, to pay the rent.

The idea is to make well-known films from Italian movie history accessible for all learners of the Italian language, not just advanced students with developed listening-comprehension skills.

This week’s half price choices are Ladri di biciclette (level A2/B1, pre-intermediate/intermediate) and Divorzio all’italiana (level B1, intermediate).

You can easily find both movies on the Internet, but most people never will, which is a shame. Ladri di biciclette is terribly sad, Divorzio all’italiana bitingly funny, both are worth your time.

For those willing to give reading and listening to Italian a try, below are links we found while writing this. You can go straight there and get started.

Ladri di biciclette: Wikipedia page | online movie

Divorzio all’italiana: Wikipedia page | online movie

Why then bother with our ‘easy reader’ ebook versions? Perhaps because other learners like you have found them helpful (and fun) in the past. Check out these reviews to see what they thought:

Ladri di biciclette ‘easy reader’ reviews | Divorzio all’italiana ‘easy reader’ reviews

And here are the ‘easy readers’ themselves, HALF-PRICE this week, remember!!

Cover image: Ladri di biciclette

1948’s Ladri di biciclette, directed by Vittorio De Sica, won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Bafta (all in 1950…) So it must be good. It’s terribly sad, though…

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 8 chapters to read and listen to
  • Comprehension questions to check your understanding
  • Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
  • Suitable for students at any level
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Ladri di biciclette, just £4.99! | Free sample chapter (.pdf) | Classic Italian Movies series | Catalog

Cover image: Divorzio all'italiana

In contrast, 1961’s Divorzio all’italiana, directed by Pietro Germi, won ‘Best Comedy’ at Cannes the year after…

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 8 chapters to read and listen to
  • Comprehension questions to check your understanding
  • Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
  • Suitable for students at any level
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Divorzio all’italiana, just £4.99! | Free sample chapter (.pdf) | Classic Italian Movies series | Catalog

How do I access my ebooks?

When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?

P.S. Logo of EasyItalianNews.com

Don’t forget to read/listen to Tuesday’s bulletin of ‘easy’ Italian news from EasyItalianNews.com.

These useful, FREE materials are published every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Each contains a selection of ‘easy’ articles and an online audio recording, the idea being that regular reading/listening practice will help students build their comprehension skills, as well as consolidating the grammar they’ve studied and helping learn new words.

FREE material for learning Italian! | Subscribing is FREE, too

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New Italian Easy Reader, ‘Dagli antichi romani a noi’, -25%!

This morning we published ‘Dagli antichi romani a noi’, an ‘easy reader’ ebook for students of Italian.

Italian easy readers - Dagli antichi romani a noi - cover image

The level of this one is B2 (upper-intermediate) and as always it comes in .pdf format (the default download), with .epub & .mobi formats available on request at no extra charge.

Use them on your computer or tablet, print the .pdf to study the old-fashioned way, or read the text on your Kindle or other ebook reader.

So, what’s it about?

Well, a while back we published ‘Dagli antichi greci a noi‘, a brief introduction to the influence of Ancient Greek terms on modern Italian.

This one does the same for Latin.

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L’origine latina di 100 parole italiane

Motivating Italian reading and listening practice, memorable insights into Italian vocabulary, and a rich source of triva with which to quiz family, friends, or colleagues!

Many thousands of Italian words originated in Latin, the language of the Romans. This short but fascinating ebook presents a hundred of them, and explains which Latin words they derive from.

Given that a lot of the terms are the same or similar in English, and other modern languages, this brief introduction will open your eyes to our linguistic inheritance.

The eight chapters are organised alphabetically, so in Chapter 1 you’ll find out about the Latin words baculum, bellum, bonus, and captivus.

Baculum (parola italiana: imbecille)
Il termine baculum significa “bastone” e il prefisso “im” indica l’opposto. Il termine “imbecille”, che noi usiamo come insulto sinonimo di “idiota” o “cretino”, significa letteralmente “una persona senza bastone” e, cioè, senza appoggio. Come a dire che gli manca qualcosa, che la testa non lo supporta o non funziona…

So an ‘imbecille’, originally, would have been a ‘stick/staff-less  person’, someone with no useful contacts. As Romans might have put it, two thousand years ago, ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know!’

Which Italian words derive from the bellum, bonus, and captivus? You could probably guess some, we’re sure. But take a look at the Free Sample Chapter to check if you’re correct. While improving your Italian reading and listening skills!

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 8 chapters to read and listen to
  • 8 exercises to check what you’ve learnt!
  • Suitable for students at intermediate level or above
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Don’t forget to check out the Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) before you buy a copy. That way, you’ll know whether the level is suitable for you, and that the format works on the device you intend to use it on.

Remember, this being the first week ‘Dagli antichi romani a noi’ is 25% discounted, so just £7.49 rather than the usual ‘easy reader’ ebook price of £9.99.

Buy ‘Dagli antichi romani a noi’, just £7.49 | Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) | Catalog

How do I access my ebook?

When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?

P.S.

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Love Hollywood movies? You might hate these movie ebooks…

It’s been a good while since we did a half-price Italian ‘Ebook of the Week’, but new year, new energy, so here are two!

One of our more neglected ‘easy reader ebook’ categories is the Classic Italian movie series, for which we’ve done eighteen titles, going from WWII era classics, taking in spaghetti westerns that few people actually realise are Italian movies, and including famous Oscar-winners of more recent decades.

Get this straight – we aren’t selling the actual movies. You can find those elsewhere. What we do is get a text written by a real movie expert (an Italian teacher who is also an award-winning scriptwriter), which is then recorded, the idea being to make the movie itself more accessible for learners, while at the same time providing graded reading/listening practice.

One reviewer, Mary, put it very well, years back. She wrote:

“I took a look at the film of “Accattone” and was disappointed to find I understood next to nothing, but the setting, atmosphere and main characters really left a strong impression. Determined to understand more, I downloaded and started reading my EasyReader. It was so helpful. I found that, besides learning some interesting new vocabulary, I was also getting an impression of characters and scenes from the film. I read the story a couple of times and then took another look at the film. I was amazed to find I had a good grasp of what was going on. The EasyReader had made the film much more accessible. It had introduced me to the characters and helped me to understand the plot. I really enjoyed the whole cultural experience; EasyReader, EasyReader with audio, Accattone the film, and finding out about Pasolini.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself. A word of warning, though. Italian cinema over the decades has taken all sorts of non-Hollywood-style twists and turns, which you may not like. Some of the movies in our series are really depressing, or deliberately confusing, or leave fundamental plot lines unresolved, which some people hate!

Take, for instance, one of the most famous Italian movies ever, Fellini’s La dolce vita (it’s NOT half price this week), which was my own first attempt at watching Italian cinema. Not only could I not understand basically anything that was said, at all, but the actual story-telling seemed perversely-twisted, and none of the characters seemed to have conventional movie motivations. What were these people ON? Where was the good guy? Why doesn’t the hero get the girl? I rued the significant sum I’d spent on the VHS tape!

It would have been easier, obviously, if I’d had Mary to advise me, and one of our ‘easy reader ebooks’ to help, but that was two decades before they were conceived of and written. Oh well! Over the last eight or nine years I’ve greatly enjoyed working with Giovanni to put together our Classic Italian Movies series, and learnt a lot about cinema, Italian, and Italians.

Though I’d still not suggest anyone begin with La dolce vita… SO, this week’s half price choices are Il sorpasso (level A2, pre-intermediate) and Accattone (level B1/B2, intermediate/upper-intermediate).

Cover image: Il sorpasso

I must have been busy when I wrote the blurb for this first one in our ebooks store…

Read and listen to the story of one of the most famous masterpieces of Italian cinema, Il sorpasso, directed by Dino Risi.

… which isn’t very helpful, is it? Students of Italian might like to find out more on this Wikipedia page, and/or just download the Free Sample Chapter (.pdf) to see if it grabs them.

Use the sample to check if the level is good for you, click on the online audio link to see how fast/slow the audio is, and so on. You could also read the reviews. I always do.

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 8 chapters to read and listen to
  • Comprehension questions to check your understanding
  • Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
  • Suitable for students at any level
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Il sorpasso, just £4.99! | Free sample chapter (.pdf) | Classic Italian Movies series | Catalog

Classic movie ‘ebook of the week’ no. 2 is the much more gritty Accattone, the one Mary was writing about. Not only is it less cheery in tone (to put it mildly) but it’s also harder, in terms of level, so do check the free sample chapter before you consider buying a copy.

Italian easy readers - Accattone - cover image

The blurb is more helpful this time, at least…

Pier Paolo Pasolini was already famous as a writer and poet when he directed his first film, Accattone. Few of the actors were professionals, they were simply kids from Rome’s slums. Each character in the film has a nickname, above all the main character ‘Accattone’ (beggar). Pasolini shows us the world of the underclass and of petty criminals. His images contrast with sacred music by the composer Bach. This re-telling for learners of Italian makes a great introduction before watching the movie itself. Or simply an excellent supplement to your study program!

… but there’s an Italian Wikipedia page for this one, too, the whole movie can be found on Youtube, and of course there are the reviews to check out.

  • .pdf e-book (+ audio available free online)
  • .mobi (Kindle-compatible) and .epub (other ebook readers) available on request at no extra charge – just add a note to the order form or email us
  • 8 chapters to read and listen to
  • Comprehension questions to check your understanding
  • Italian/English glossary of ‘difficult’ terms for the level
  • Suitable for students at B1/B2 level and above
  • Download your Free Sample Chapter (.pdf)

Buy Accattone, just £4.99! | Free sample chapter (.pdf) | Classic Italian Movies series | Catalog

How do I access my ebooks?

When your order is ‘completed’ (normally immediately after your payment), a download link will be automatically emailed to you. It’s valid for 7 days and 3 download attempts so please save a copy of the .pdf ebook in a safe place. Other versions of the ebook, where available, cannot be downloaded but will be emailed to people who request them. There’s a space to do that on the order form – where it says Additional information, Order notes (optional). If you forget, or if you have problems downloading the .pdf, don’t worry! Email us at the address on the website and we’ll help. Also, why not check out our FAQ?

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These useful, FREE materials are published on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Each contains a selection of ‘easy’ articles and an online audio recording, the idea being that regular reading/listening practice will help students build their comprehension skills, as well as consolidating the grammar they’ve studied and helping learn new words.

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