Perfetti Sconosciuti and Technology’s Disruptive Role in Friendships
Scandals and secrets abound in this Italian comedy-drama.
by Brian Alcamo
Do you ever think about how technology is disrupting your most intimate relationships? Maybe not recently, since online communication has been one of the key parts of staying sane during the pandemic. Even still, phone dings and Instagram pings can interrupt more than our workflow, they weasel their way into every conversation we have. Some of us still struggle to not check social media even when on a Zoom call. Notifications and the impulse to refresh our feeds normally simply erode our attention to the present moment, but in the movie Perfetti Sconosciuti, they end up bringing people together, if only to quickly push them apart.
Perfetti Sconosciuti (Perfect Strangers) is a 2016 Italian film directed by Paolo Genovese that follows seven close friends as they share a meal and learn more about each other than they have in years. You might think that a movie set entirely at dinner sounds boring, but dinner isn’t the star of the show here, it’s technology. What starts as a friendly meal turns into a social experiment when Eva, played by Kasia Smutniak, decides to play a game with her and her husband Rocco’s (Marco Giallini) friends.
The rules of the game in Perfetti Sconosciuti are simple. If someone’s phone buzzes, everyone else at the table gets to know every detail of the notification. Things start out simple enough, with little text messages sparking tiny rifts in friendships. It doesn’t take much time, though, for the real secrets to start spilling out. Lies, deceit, and evidence that some characters have moved from the similarities that led to friendship in the beginning start to fill the movie with tension. You never know whose phone will ring, and what new information will be revealed.
Notifications are used as a ticking bomb in this movie, providing a sort of suspense that is hard to equate to anything other than a horror film. The difference between this movie and a horror film, though, is that you can’t shout at the screen “don’t go into that locked closet!” The characters commit their damning act early on in the film. Putting their phones on the table unleashes a plotline that takes a few elements from Greek tragedies: the second the devices are front and center, we know we will spend the rest of the movie watching our characters meet their demise.
What is interesting about this movie is that it is predicated on a very Italian (and European) form of friendship. These seven characters have been friends for life, and it can be seen in how comfortable they are in each other’s company. These people aren’t friends because of newfound adult common interests, or even because of college, they’re simply friends because they… always have been.
Long-term friendships like this don’t endure as commonly in the United States as they do in Italy. Americans are more likely to move out of their hometowns for work or other reasons, thus leaving behind the community in which they grew up. For the movie to work in an American context, it might need to feature a tight-knit nuclear family. Imagine you’re sitting at dinner, and your mom receives a text from her other child. A peaceful, enjoyable meal would probably be off the table (no pun intended). Secrets leap out of Pandora’s box in Perfetti Sconosciuti, and it’s only a matter of time before everyone’s dirty laundry is hung out to dry.
Watch it On Your Own!
Will these seven italiani stay friends? Watch for yourself to find out. Perfetti Sconosciuti is a roller-coaster of a film, and you strap in to the mayhem from the very beginning. Check it out to practice your Italian listening skills while considering how technology impacts your relationships. The movie is so great that there’s an American version starring Issa Rae on the horizon. But be sure to watch the original so that you can tell your friends “Oh, I saw the Italian version already,” and feel like a hip and international cinema-lover. Would you ever try this experiment at a friends’ dinner? What about with your family? Comment below, and be sure to give this blog a heart!
Computers Appreciate Art, Too: Italian Technology Preserves Artistic Artifacts
Want to restore your favorite painting? Come to Venice.
by Brian Alcamo
Italy’s arrival to the world of high tech took a little more time than other countries in the European Union. You could blame the tardiness on a laid-back Mediterranean lifestyle, but Spain’s tech boom would have you begging to differ. More likely, Italy’s startup scene has been slow-growing due to a lack of funding (which prevented the fledgling companies from scaling). It’s not only startups that have grown slowly, though. The culture surrounding digital life is taking a while to flesh out, as well. Even in recent years, the country has been “starting from scratch” in its attempt to build out its digital footprint, with only 10% of businesses selling their services online. Back in 2016, the country was lagging behind the rest of Europe. Thankfully in recent years, startups have been receiving more money, and Italy is ready to carve out a space for itself in Europe’s growing tech industry.
A Decentralized Center for Scientific Research
Serving as an academic backbone for the technological innovation taking place all over the Italian peninsula is the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT). Based in Genoa, this scientific research center has 11 partner locations all over Italy, and 2 other partnerships with MIT and Harvard.
A blog post from MIT’s Technology Review boasts that Italy still has a very active manufacturing economy that relies on nimble networks of small and mid-sized companies rather than larger monopolies. In fact, Italy is so ready to ride on its industrial prowess that it launched Industry 4.0 back in 2016. The initiative is in collaboration with Germany and France to promote digital standards of manufacturing.
While Italy might be playing catch up when it comes to promoting digital methods of work and connectivity, it was a center of innovation during a few periods of history (just tiny things, though, like Ancient Rome and the Renaissance). Merging its older troves of artifacts while embracing modern methods that will help the country succeed in the future.
Cultural Heritage Technologies Bridge the Gap Between Old and New
Cultural Heritage Technology has a huge presence in Venice, but is also making a name for itself in Rome. (Livia Hengel)
One particularly novel approach coming out of multidisciplinary efforts are Cultural Heritage Technologies. Cultural Heritage Technologies are the exact kind of technology that you’d expect to be flourishing in Italy. These technologies work to combine modern computing and machinery with the complex pieces of heritage, both tactile and esoteric, that make human culture so captivating to study and experience. Arianna Traviglia is the Coordinator of the IIT Centre for Cultural Heritage Technology. Her work is based at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, which offers a Masters Degree in Conservation Science and Technology for Cultural Heritage. Think of it as the 2020 equivalent of whatever Armie Hammer’s character was studying in Call Me By Your Name. The same amount of sculptures and statues, just more computers and coding.
The discipline combines aspects of art history, computer science, life sciences, humanities, and even robotics. The technology hopes to be used in restoring and digitizing the sometimes fragile artifacts of past civilizations. Here’s a link to a paper discussing machine learning in cultural heritage work if you’re looking to geek out. Many Italians are hopeful that digital technologies will help preserve and propagate their history. What better place to cultivate the science of cultural preservation than in a country with 50 UNESCO Cultural Heritage sites?
In a 2018 interview with Ca’ Foscari University’s news outlet, program coordinator Elisabetta Zendri describes some of the department’s projects, such as The Tintoretto project, which is a collaborative effort that aims to study “the ceiling teleri in the Chapter House of the Scuola [Scuola Grande San Rocco] and,” and analyzes “the influence of the environment on the stability of these extraordinary works.” She believes that material conservation will be a big part of the future. However, while high tech restorative efforts make the headlines most often, the culture of conservation much “switch from the concept of ‘restoration’ to the ones of ‘prevention’ and ‘maintenance.’”
A Bright Future
Italy may have been late to the high tech game, but it’s well on its way to standing with the rest of the world in terms of technological advancement. Just look at recent headlines for its contact tracing app, or Europe’s weather center’s move from London to Bologna. The country is even building an app that centralizes government documents and bills. In the meantime, we can dream of a future filled with robots that look like Renaissance statues.
Thanks for Reading!
Would you have your favorite painting restored with the help of a robot? Comment below, and be sure to share this post with your friends.
(Thumbnail Photo by Marco Secchi)