italiafile

Big Brother 5 (Italy version) is in full swing. The big news is that one lad has been thrown out of the house...... for swearing. It is indicative of the difference between Italy and the UK. In fact there is an English girl in the Italian house. Out of the entire group she is the one who screams, shouts, bounces around and is generally a pain in the arse. The rest of the housemates got their revenge this weekend by telling her it was the weekend against sound pollution and that all of Italy was refraining from shouting, shrieking and screaming. As a result the Big Bro house was a haven of tranquility all weekend, the British girl constantly saying what a fabulous idea a quiet weekend was, and how it could never happen in Britain. The story became more convoluted as one boy explained it all started with the muffled horses hooves at Verdi's funeral in Milan. How many of the UK contestants could talk in any way, shape or form about opera?
Here the housedwellers sit around and discuss philosophy and politics; a far cry from mud wrestling, and effing and blinding discourses on different ways to perform oral sex that keep the British house on the screen.
In a typically Italian way, good challenge results, birthdays and such like are rewarded not with copious alcohol but with mamma's home cooking. Parents are in the studio every week to give teary eyed cut away shots in response to their child's deprivations. ANd of course never ending love is professed by all and sundry. And you believe it. I am sorely tempted to show my students my dvd of Big Bro UK highlights, but fear their opinion of British youth would sink even further.