Showing posts with label Flavia Berucci. Show all posts

Sunday, March 8, 2026

Società Dante Alighieri Auckland Annual General Meeting 2026 and President's Report

Dear Friends,

The Annual General Meeting of the Società Dante Alighieri Auckland was held yesterday, Saturday 7 March, in the new Dante Rooms of the Freemans Bay Community Centre, Auckland. Please find below the President's report.

We also would like to inform our members that it is time to renew your Dante membership, and that the committee has deliberated that there will be no changes on membership fees for 2026, as we wish to keep these low and affordable to everyone.

You can renew your membership online, with a bank transfer to Società Dante Alighieri BNZ a/c 020192-0309263-00 with the reference "LASTNAME/MSHIP”.
Language students can also pay by eftpos when they attend classes.

If you like you can also add a donation to the Society with your membership. The Dante Alighieri Society of Auckland is a registered charity with ‘donee’ status, and we can provide receipts for your donations on request.

Any donation, no matter how small, greatly helps us with the day to day running of our society.

Grazie for all your donations!

The current annual subscription for membership (including GST) is: Single membership - $30 per person Couples or family - $40 per couple or family Seniors and tertiary students - $15 per person

Children up to 18 years of age come under Student or Family membership.

Vi ricordiamo che la Società Dante Alighieri è una Charity e che come tale accettiamo con entusiasmo le vostre donazioni e volontariato.

Le donazioni possono essere dedotte dalle tasse e permettono alla nostra Società di offrire classi, attività ed eventi culturali.

Dante Auckland AGM – President's Report

Cari amici e soci della Dante Auckland,

Welcome everyone and thank you for joining us for our 2026 Annual General Meeting.

This has truly been a year of change and new beginnings for our Society. After many years in our historic rooms, we moved into our new home at the Freemans Bay Community Centre.

This move marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the Società Dante Alighieri Auckland.

It took months of planning, organising, packing, and decluttering. There were moments of chaos along the way! But thanks to the dedication of our committee and volunteers, we made it happen. This has given us a space that will allow more flexibility and more opportunities to grow our activities and bring our community together. At the same time, we are aware that the move has increased our fixed costs, and we remain mindful of managing these responsibly.

I would like to sincerely thank all the committee members who helped to make this move possible. In particular, thank you to Valeria Santillo, Luca Manghi and Riccardo Lucignani, as well as the many volunteers who supported us before, during and after the move. A special thank you also goes to our students for their patience while we adjusted to our new space.

Despite the challenges of relocating, we continued to offer a rich programme of activities.

Our CineDante film series brought several screenings, followed by engaging discussions.

Our monthly Cantastorie sessions continued to be a wonderful opportunity for families to come together. These mornings allow children and parents to reconnect with their Italian background through stories, play and conversation in Italian.

Dedicated to the children was also our Festa di Pasqua, another lovely occasion to share the Italian traditions with the youngest in our community.

Our Colazione gatherings also continued, together with activities such as the Italian Quizzone and special guest speakers, including Federica Bressan, who presented her book Nel cuore della Tuscia.

In October, we celebrated the Italian Language Week under the theme Italophony – A Language Beyond Borders. Thanks to Professor Bernadette Luciano, Barbara Martelli and Elia Bressanello, a rich programme of talks, screenings and events was organised at the University of Auckland, finishing with the beautiful All Vivaldi Concert and Aperitivo.

We ended the year with a joyful Festa di Natale, which also marked the official opening of our new space. It was lovely to welcome members and friends to celebrate together, with live music from the Auckland Mandolinata Orchestra, games for the bambini and families, panettone and other Italian treats, and the photographic exhibition Italians of Auckland by Francesca Brugnoli.

As always, we began the year with our popular Intensive Course, which welcomed more than 50 students for a five-day immersive experience in Italian language and culture.

None of this would be possible without the support of our members, students, and volunteers. I am pleased to say that the Society is in a stronger financial position compared to previous years and has achieved a positive result for the year. Our Treasurer, Lynne Webb, will shortly present the financial report in more detail. Because of this positive position, the committee is pleased to confirm that membership fees will remain the same for the coming year.

I would also like to thank our committee members and teachers.

In particular, I would like to acknowledge Valeria Santillo, who has decided to step down from the committee after many years of dedicated service, including her time as Treasurer. We are very grateful for her contribution and are pleased to offer her an honorary membership.

Fiorella Tomasi is also stepping down from the Committee as she prepares to move back to Italy. Fiorella spent a long time managing our playgroup, where her energy and creativity were both inspiring and contagious. Her generosity and always going above and beyond will be greatly missed. We wish her all the very best in this new chapter.

At the same time, we are also delighted to welcome back Martina Depentor to the committee. Martina has been part of our Society for many years, and we are very happy to have her supporting us again — both from Auckland when she is here and from Treviso when she is in Italy.

Finally, a very special thank you to Lynne Webb, who stepped into the role of Treasurer last year. Her expertise and dedication have been invaluable. Under her guidance, our Society was formally re-registered under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 on 2 December 2025 — an important achievement for our organization.

As we look ahead, the committee remains committed to offering a lively and meaningful programme that promotes and celebrates Italian language and culture in Auckland.

Grazie a tutti for your continued support, enthusiasm, and for being part of our community.

Flavia Berucci
President
Società Dante Alighieri Auckland

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Incontro con la Dante di Verbania

Photo by Peter Dowling

On the 2nd of January we had a visitor from the Dante Alighieri Society of Verbania. Dante member Nicoletta Testori presented, on the behalf of Silvia Magistrini, president of the Dante Verbania, the book

D COME DANTE - Il Comitato Verbanese della Dante Alighieri 1906 - 2018

to our Auckland branch. In the foto from left: Alessandra Zecchini, Dante Auckland former president and current committee member, Nicoletta Testori, Dante Verbania, Flavia Berucci, Dante Auckland vice-president, and Sandro Aduso, Dante Auckland former president.

Il Comitato Verbanese della Dante Alighieri (Dante Alighieri Society Verbania) and del VCO (Verbano-Cusio-Ossola) was founded in 1906. Verbania is the most populous comune (municipality) and the capital city of the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola in Piedmont. It is situated on the shore of Lake Maggiore. A very active society (see the program below for this trimester) located in a beautiful part of Italy! An article about the meeting also appeared on the local newspapers Verbano on 13 January and Eco Risveglio (see the clippingS at the end of the page).

A special thank you to Nicoletta and her husband Giacomo for the visit, and to the committee of Verbania for the lovely book, a welcome addition to our library.

Monday, March 24, 2014

CineclubDante class - 26 March

Dear members,

we would like to remind you of our cineclub class. This month we celebrate the Oscar winning film "La grande bellezza" watching another great Italian movie that won three Oscars and broke the box-office record for profits by a foreign film in the American market: La vita è bella (Life is Beautiful) directed by Roberto Benigni in 1997. Wednesday 26th of March at 1.30pm - Dante's room - in Freeman's Bay Community Centre.

Roberto Benigni plays Guido, a Jewish book seller in the Tuscan city of Arezzo in 1939.

Whit the beginning of the World War II, he and his family have to cope with racial laws against Jews that Mussolini's regime had passed.

Soon the family are placed into a concentration camp and the mood of the film changes abruptly.

Roberto Benigni, as a kind of modern Chaplin, does something really special in this film:

to protect his son, he turns the horrors of the camp into a child's fable, a fabulous world of play, inhabited at least by one benign clown.

This is a language class, a fascinating way to improve your Italian watching and talking about the most beautiful movies of il Cinema Italiano.

There is no need to book for this class – just turn up to watch and discuss the film with Flavia Berucci.

CineclubDante class - 26 March - 1.30pm - Freeman's Bay Community Centre.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Win double passes to the Oscar winning movie La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty). Read Flavia's review of the movie in Italian.

To celebrate the release of this year’s Foreign Language Film Academy Award Winner The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) we have five double passes to give away. To enter just leave a message after this post or on our FB group (or both for a double chance to win) saying why you would like to see this movie. Competition ends Sunday 16 March, winners will be announced on Monday 17 March.

About the film

Rome, in the splendour of summer. Jep Gambardella – a handsome man with irresistible charm, despite the first signs of ageing – enjoys the city’s social life to the full. A successful journalist and inveterate seducer, in his youth he wrote a novel which earned him a literary award and a reputation as a frustrated writer. He masks his disenchantment behind a cynical attitude, which makes him view the world with bitter lucidity. Weary of his lifestyle, Jep sometimes dreams of taking up his pen again, haunted by memories of a youthful love which he still hangs on to. But will he ever manage it? Can he overcome this profound disgust for himself and others, in a city whose dazzling beauty sometimes leads to paralysis?

View the trailer here: www.thegreatbeauty.co.nz

Director: Paolo Sorrentino

Cast: Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli

Runtime: 142 min

Rating: M - Nudity

Scroll down if you like to read Flavia's review of La Grande Bellezza in Italian (a Roman perspective).

2 marzo 2014 – L’Italia vince l’Oscar con il film La grande bellezza di Paolo Sorrentino

Omaggio personale al film La grande bellezza, di Flavia Berucci.

Che bello questo film. Non lo dico soltanto perché sono romana, nata e cresciuta proprio tra l’Isola Tiberina e Piazza Navona, set privilegiato di questo film (insieme a tanti altri). Lo dico anche perché, come il protagonista, anche io per un periodo sono stata travolta dal vortice della mondanità e della dolce vita. E mi sono ritrovata più volte a passeggiare dopo una festa a notte fonda o all’alba per le strade deserte di Roma e mi dicevo, guardandomi attorno, “che bellezza, quanto sono fortunata!”.

Paolo Sorrentino dice che “questo è il film di uno innamorato dell’Italia” e secondo me si vede, perché quando si ama si prende tutto, il bene e il male, il bello e il brutto e molto si perdona.

Sacro e profano. Ecco, Roma è un po’ così, un po’ volgare e cafona, un po’mistica e sublime e incredibilmente bella.

La bellezza di Roma è in gran parte qui, in questo particolare connubio che da tempi remoti l’ha sempre caratterizzata.

La Roma dell’Impero, con i sui cesari e suoi imperatori. La Roma degli intrighi, dove si ha l’ardore di assassinare anche Giulio Cesare. La Roma del Colosseo, dove gladiatori, schiavi e nemici venivano dati in pasto ai leoni e al popolo gaudente. Il film è pieno di queste reminiscenze, tantissimi sono gli sguardi sulla Roma antica. La telecamera indugia tra le rovine delle Terme di Caracalla, dell’Acquedotto romano e sull’incredibile vista del Colosseo dalla bellissima terrazza del protagonista.

La Roma del papa re, carnascialesca e ridanciana, affascinante e tragica. Anche qui non mancano i riferimenti nel film, dalle suggestive riprese del Cupolone di San Pietro a Castel Sant’Angelo e il suo ponte sul fiume Tevere, con quella lunga fila di angeli bianchi, lì come guardiani e muti testimoni di un tempo che sembra essersi fermato per sempre, dilatato fino al presente.

La Roma di Michelangelo e dei tanti, tantissimi incredibili artisti che nei secoli hanno riempito chiese, gallerie, palazzi, musei, giardini. La Roma dell’antica aristocrazia patrizia, oggi un po’ decaduta e un po’ indecente, ma nel segreto ancora depositaria di un tesoro e di un sapere immenso, racchiuso in una valigetta che detiene le chiavi dei più bei palazzi romani. Il regista ci offre affascinanti immagini di questi palazzi in cui le opere d’arte, come fantasmi dal passato, si offrono allo sguardo ancora intatte e potenti.

Il film ci cattura e ci trasporta a passeggio per questa città, accompagnati da Jep Gambardella, un giornalista arrivato ai 65 anni, nel momento in cui la vita gli chiede il conto.

La sua arroganza e il suo sarcasmo cedono ed emerge la fragilità umana. Quando la verità si manifesta, non basta il pesante makeup a nasconderla, non basta il botulino a cancellarla, la musica assordante delle discoteche ad azzittirla, le insegne luminose e le sirene incantatrici ad accecarla. Quella fragilità la vediamo sui volti dei tanti personaggi che come in un girotondo accompagnano Jep nel suo viaggio: ballerine, prestigiatori, aspiranti scrittori e scrittori in crisi, nani, preti e cardinali, sante e prostitute.

Il girotondo della vita tanto caro a Federico Fellini a cui lo stesso Paolo Sorrentino si ispira in questo film. Stringendo in mano la statuetta appena vinta, Paolo cita Federico tra i pilastri della sua vita insieme ai Talking Heads, Diego Armando Maradona e la sua famiglia.

Un “assist” bellissimo, per dirla in termini calcistici.

Che bello questo film, e lo dico da italiana, che ci regala un altro Oscar dopo 15 anni dalla vittoria di Roberto Benigni con un altro capolavoro: La vita è bella.

E mi piace pensare che nonostante la fragilità, il chiacchiericcio della gente, la miseria umana, il rumore, le paure, le sconfitte, i numerevoli crolli e i tanti errori, questa nostra Italia sia ancora una gran bellezza! E grazie a Paolo Sorrentino per avercelo ricordato.

Flavia

Screening in NZ from 27 March:

- Rialto Newmarket (Auckland)

- Bridgeway (Auckland)

- Academy (Auckland

- Lido (Auckland)

- Penthouse (Wellington)

- Lighthouse Cuba St (Wellington)

- Lighthouse Petone (Wellington)

- Lido (Hamilton) APRIL 24

- Rialto Taurnga

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