Who's in It: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Vincenzo Amato, Aurora Quattrocchi, Francesco Casisa
The Basics: A really poor Italian immigrant widower and his family make the journey to America in the last part of the 19th century. While on the boat, he meets a well-bred Englishwoman, and they hook up in that we-need-no-words-for-our-love way, which is lucky for them, since they don't really speak each other's language.
What's the Deal? The worst thing you ever hear about someone's family coming to Ellis Island at the turn of the 20th century is that maybe they ended up with their name spelled wrong, and then they're stuck with it forever. And what this movie does is take the "new world" fantasy (Nuovomondo also happens to be the film's Italian title) and bonk it on the head with some harsh historical realities about how welcoming Ellis Island really was for lots of people. It wasn't.
A Couple of Those Harsh Realities: Not only were families frequently separated when they arrived, quotas were set up for various groups based on fake science that tried to prove their relative genetic inferiority. Then you got to go work in a factory with no union.
Counterpoint: What makes this unlike other "My great-grandpapa came to this country with only the clothes on his back" stories is how it seesaws back and forth between the stone-cold unhappiness and confusion of being in a new place with the awe of finally getting to the place you've fantasized about. Even better: Here, the fantasies involve frolicking around with giant vegetables, specifically using giant carrots as flotation devices on rivers of milk.
Who Should See It: Fans of A People's History of the United States and cinematography-philes.