This week’s episode follows the film “Un Americano a Roma.” Your hosts, Salma and Andrew, will be diving into the 1954 Italian comedy directed by Steno. The film follows Nando, a young Roman man so obsessed with American culture that he threatens to throw himself off the Coliseum unless he’s granted a visa to the United States. Idolizing figures like Gene Kelly, Joe DiMaggio, and John Wayne, Nando spends his days performing an exaggerated version of Americanness — eating foods he clearly despises, mimicking Hollywood cowboys, and dreaming of a country he knows only through movies and magazines. But as the film unfolds, it becomes clear that Nando doesn’t truly want America — he wants recognition, distinction, and a sense of identity in a country still piecing itself back together after the war. Caught between two worlds and fitting into neither, Nando ends up a walking, grimacing caricature of postwar Italy’s complicated love affair with the United States.
We’ll be exploring what the film has to say about cultural absorption, identity, and the myth of America — all through two lenses: Italian and American. Salma breaks down how Steno uses Nando as a subtle but sharp critique of uncritical American enthusiasm filtering into Italian middle-class life, while Andrew unpacks how the America portrayed in the film never actually exists — it’s a fantasy constructed entirely from cinema, pin-ups, and propaganda. Together, they’ll dig into why a film rooted in comedy might actually be one of the most important documents of Italian identity in the postwar era.
Make sure to tune in to hear about how Alberto Sordi’s unforgettable performance, the historical backdrop of postwar neorealism, and some truly painful breakfast scenes all come together to ask one lingering question: is Nando pathetic, or is he just ahead of his time?
