Ciak... si parla italiano is a text designed specifically for courses in Italian conversation that focus on cinema as the context for discussion. This text covers sixteen films ranging from 1960-2003, and covering a broad range of genres including comedy, drama, science fiction, and historical.

Exercises include vocabulary building, character analysis, narrative comprehension, scene analysis, advanced grammar, imaginary interviews, creative script writing, further research suggestions, and poetry analysis.

Each film chapter includes readings that are varied and augment the film screenings and class discussions. There are five types of readings: background information on the director and film, cultural explications, scene transcriptions, director’s comments, and poetry. While the first two serve to orient and contextualize the films for the students, the transcriptions allows for a more detailed linguistic analysis of a particular scene. The director’s comments provide an insightful interpretation to stimulate discussion. The poetry readings were inspired by filmic references and inspire students to expand their insights beyond the specific film