Could Italo High Speed Train be a Cinema Paradiso on Rails?

Hang out the bunting folks, Italy has finally embraced the age of High Speed Rail with the launch this week of Italo, the first privately run High Speed train service in Europe. This comes only a few months after the launch of the new Thello sleeper trains in Italy.

The service, run by NTV, sprints from Turin to Salerno (in Campania) in a blistering 6 hours and 22 minutes, stopping off in Milan, Bologna, Florence, Rome and Naples en route, while another branch will connect Venice and Florence five times daily in a mere 2 hours 5 mins.

For now the line operates between Milan and Rome, with routes from Rome to Venice and Turin to Salerno being added later in the year.

Somewhat incredulously, prices are pretty reasonable too, with introductory offers starting from around 30 Euros for a single journey from Milan to Rome or 20 Euros from Florence and Rome. Do those crazy I-tal-i-yuns know what they’ve unleashed I wonder? Affordable, High Speed rail in Europe, who’d have thunk it?

To anyone who cherishes romantic notions of roving on the Italian rails, this seems impressive enough, but wait, there’s more tricks up its shiny, red and black TGV sleeves.

It has a cinema on board.

Ya’know, especially for those of you who may tire of gazing out at the scrolling vistas of one of Europe’s most eye-candy-tastic countries.

Naturally this got me to wondering what would be the ideal film programme to curate for the journey? Just a few weeks ago a New Orleans-based film producer contacted me, under my aegis as social meejah henchman for the good folks at the Train Chartering Company, about the tantalising prospect of staging a film festival on the American rails.

It’s yet to come good, but there’s no harm in doing a little advance planning I always say (you what chief? Just when do you ever say that? Oh yeah, just then.) So here are my suggestions for the inaugural Italo Film Festival:

1. La Dolce Vita

Obvious I know, but we could scarcely ignore Fellini’s prized paen to love and life a Roma for this reason. See also La Strada, the Bicycle Thieves, 8 and a Half etc.

2. Death in Venice

Thomas Mann’s angsty treatise on obsession, guilt, writer’s block and tortured sexuality would be sure to stir up some atmospheric yearnings for those leaving Venice’s misty canals behind…

3. Don’t Look Now

…And this little baby would certainly crank up the tension further. Time to don those creepy red anoraks in earnest trainspotters!

4. Speed

Seems entirely appropriate no? Maybe the train staff could even re-enact some of the chase scenes on those curvaceous (insert those Italy is well sensuous clichés here) Neopolitan bends? Or maybe we could simply tie Keanu Reeves to the roof and see if it changes his perennially gormless facial expressions for once?

5. Source Code

OK, maybe the fragility of human life and destiny is not ideally conveyed with a film about a horrifically inevitable train crash while you’re sitting on one yourself, but, hey it has BOOM factor.

6. Hugo

It may lay on the syrupy, sentiments like a Gelateria generously dousing your Cornetto with enough strawberry sauce to sink an armada of gondolas, but there’s no denying this film’s indulgent charm in celebrating both the early French pioneers of movie making and the golden era of the rail travel. Look out for that pesky steam engine hurtling its way towards the screen in 3D though!

7. Cinema Paradiso

An equally sickly cinematic confection which plucks shamelessly at the old heart strings, but still a charming enough slice of Southern Italian movie theatre nostalgia nonetheless.

Source: c-films.de via VisitPortugal on Pinterest

8. Night Train to Lisbon

You’ll have to wait a bit for this one, not due out til early 2013. Jeremy Irons and Bruno Ganz star in the adaptation of Pascal Mercier’s cult novel about a mild-mannered teacher suddenly who takes an impetuous sleeper train ride in search of an enigmatic author.

Which films would you propose and why? Don’t be shy, tell us with a comment below!

Full info on prices, routes can be found on Italo’s website, alongside details of their actual cinema programme. This includes two films a week. Those programmed over the coming weeks are an intriguing mix of Hollywood and lesser-known homegrown movies, including Green Zone, A Serious Man, Quo Vadis Baby, Whatever Works and Sofia Coppola’s Somewhere.

Want to read more about trains in Italy? Check out this post on the new Thello Paris to Italy sleeper service.

Share and Enjoy

This entry was posted Thursday, 3 May, 2012 at 5:54 pm
You can follow any responses to this entry via RSS.
You can leave a comment or trackback from your own site.

€30?! Blimey, that’s bargainous. I’m a big fan of travelling by train through Italy (I’ve done England to both the toe and the heel of the boot and loved it, as well as other, shorter journeys), but it’s usually ruinously expensive. I’m trying to get to Rome from Sicily next weekend and it’s going to cost me somewhere around the €75 mark for a single journey, so €30 has me leaping for joy. Hope they bring it down south, too. I’m already missing the night trains from south to north. Sigh.

Katja on May 4th, 2012 at 12:14 am

Sounds wonderful! Let’s hope they don’t over-sell seats like they do on their other long distance trains. I’ve never spent so much time standing up on trains as I have in Italy, despite having tickets for seats.

Love the idea of the cinema! And of your list, 1, 2, 3, 7 & 8 are perfecto! As for the others, best not consider a career change to film curating

lara dunston on May 4th, 2012 at 6:17 am

Thanks Lara, well I expect the demand for seats will be high, especially at those introductory prices, but yes let’s hope they dn’t repeat the overselling you’ve experienced, that’s terrible. As for the choices, well I have tried to kick it more mainstream this time as you can probably tell!

Jools Stone on May 4th, 2012 at 9:02 am

Thanks Katja, and welcome! Yeh, those are special promo intro rates so I’d guess they’ll go fast. Have they pulled the night trains altogether then, and on which route?

Removal Office on May 4th, 2012 at 12:53 pm

It’s the long-distance night trains that have gone – the ones that used to take you all the way from Sicily, Calabria and Puglia to Bologna or Milan. The furthest you can get now is to Rome, where you have to change onto a different train. It’s a real shame. The reason given is that there’s not enough demand for them. However, whenever I’ve travelled by night train they’ve been absolutely rammed. Boh. *shrugs, Italian-fashion*

Katja on May 5th, 2012 at 1:05 pm

Ah that’s a real shame. I always wanted to get the one that goes on the ferry over the Messina Straights, boo. I suppose these High Speed services fill a gap in theory if they get you from north to south quicker, or vice versa.

Jools Stone on May 6th, 2012 at 10:15 am

I think we needs must conspire to get together for extensive testing of this newfangled thing. I only hope they have microwaves on board, for this clearly requires popcorn.

Jools Stone on May 6th, 2012 at 6:31 pm

You can still get on the train going on the ferry over the Straits – you just can’t get all the way to the north on it. Actually, I’m going to be on that very train on Friday night, heading for Rome. Can’t wait! I’ve travelled on the ferries enough times, and avidly watched the trains being loaded and unloaded, but I’ve never been on the train itself. Another experience to tick off the list …