What have we here? It’s a 1967 British Pathe newsreel (really? they were still making newsreels in Britain?) showing us ‘The Real Rome’. The quality of the color photography is excellent and the musical score is quite perfect. And then there’s the narration which is an astonishingly stupid and snide grab bag of cliches about the primitive Italians, all delivered in a clipped and snooty tone by an English announcer. Typical for the time, pasta was referred to as spaghetti–a word the Italians rarely used–and much is made of the ‘simple pleasures’ enjoyed by the brainless, crude Italian locals. There’s much to like and dislike in this reel but anything set in Rome in 1967 is worth a look. By the way, when I was three years old in 1967, we spent three months in Rome. My father was rewriting a script that was already shooting. It was a war movie called “Anzio” and although I may not have clear memories of the experience, I have sensory ones. The smell of Alfredo sauce mixed with Acacia (which they called ‘Robinia’) brings me back to the city and the time we have on view in this little newsreel. Newsreel? They were still making newsreels in Britain?