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in english in rome

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cinemas in Rome
showing movies in English

For a weekly fix of movietime in Rome, a safe bet is to drop in almost any night at 'The Quirinetta' in Via Minghetti which shows two performances of 'original version' (usually English) movies every weekday and Saturdays.
Listed below are more cinemas in Rome showing English language films, though only at certain times, usually one night per week. Phone for their schedules (but you'll need to speak Italian to the person at the other end of the phone):

Alcazar: Via Merry del Val 14. Tel 5880099
Augustus: Corso Vitt. Emmanuel 203. Tel 6875455
The British Council: Via Quattro Fontane 20. Tel 478141
Greenwich: Via G. Bodoni 59. Tel 5745825
Majestic: Via SS Apostoli 20. Tel 6794908
Nuovo Sacher: Largo Ascianghi 1. tel 5818116
Pasquino: Vicolo del Piede 19. Tel 5803622

Check local Rome newspapers for listings - Movies in English will have the letters 'VO' appended to each movie title. VO stands for 'version originale' (original version). But watch out, because it could mean that it's a Spanish or German film for instance thats being shown in German.

There's also the new Warner Village near Acilia - It's an out-of-town venue, so there's space for eighteen screens, (at least two of them state of the art), theme cafés, shops and a flight simulator. They will occasionally show big Hollywood box-office movies in English on their number one screen. Highly recommended. Get there early or go to an early show - the parking lot is huge but it soon fills up after dark. Warners also have a new multiplex right in the center of Rome, in Piazza Republicca, and tend to show one movie in English once a week, usually a matinee show I think.

English language video and DVD hire:

Economy Book & Video Centre
Via Torino 136. Tel 4746877

We also now have BlockBuster Video stores here in Rome, several branches across the city and suburbs, which is great, because not only do they really have their act together, but they also have an Original Language section in most branches. Be careful, as if it's a Spanish movie, that means it'll be in Spanish, but if it's a British or American title, it'll be in good old English.

Alternatively you can hire DVD's at Blockbuster, which of course have multi-language soundtracks on them. Be careful though, because while ninety percent of DVD's on Blockbuster's shelves have the English soundtrack option, some don't, so always read the label carefully on the back of the box where the languages are listed. If it doesn't say English, it isn't.

Blockbuster charge slightly more for hiring videos in English than in Italian, which I don't think is really fair, as they surely source all their videos from the same internatonal corporate supply chain. You may as well pay just a little bit more again and hire the movie on DVD, it's worth it for the improved picture quality. However, Blockbuster Italy's stock of video tapes in English far exceeds their choice of DVD's, so if you're in a hurry to see a new video release in English you'll just have to pay theri price for the tape, as it could be a while before it comes through on DVD. By the way, Italians pronounce DVD as 'Dee-Voo-Dee' ), (not dee-VEE-dee).

You can also hire Playstation and Nintendo games there at BlockBuster. They're a bit pricey, and there's a membership fee of around 5 Euros, but with all the Star Wars merchandise and popcorn buckets behind the counter, I guarantee you'll feel right at home...

There are numerous other small independent video hire shops with English language videos in Rome as well, but for now we've only listed these two main ones.                                                     

Click here for a manually updated webpage that lists weekly schedules of the main English speaking movies currently showing in Rome.

If it's not updated, try clicking here instead for an Italian database-driven site that's continually updated with movie listings (though always phone the cinema to double check a listing, as sometimes theer are errors or last minute schedule and screen changes at the cinema itself.

Some cinemas in Rome showing 'VO' films do not actualy screen the movie in English, but they loan or hire a headset to you at the ticket office. Once in the theater auditorium, you put on the headset and (like on an airplane) you select the channel the English soundtrack is on. Not a perfect solution, as you can still hear the much louder booming of the Italian soundtrack from the house sound system in the background, but it's better than nothing, and also a great way to have a shared movie experience with Italian friends - They listen in Italian whle you simulatanously hear it in English.

You'll often find you're the only one laughing at jokes in movies in an Italian movie theater. Normally extrovert and bubbly Italians are surprisingly reserved once they're sitting shoulder to shoulder with strangers in the dark of the cinema. It's another manifestation of the paranoid intellectual snobbishness which has taken over the current generation of Italians. They hate to be laughed at or seen as gauche or not 'in the know', and are zipped up so tight in their designer jeans that they've forgotten how to have fun anymore. Like sheep, they herd together and don't want to stand out in a crowd unless they're driving a Ferrari. And of course, these days, it's considered politically incorrect in Italy to find value in anything that's Made In America. My gosh, these people are so sad. They cut off their noses to spite their face.

Even if Italians do loosen up during a screening of an English or American movie, more often than not, if it's an American film, even if they are watching it translated and dubbed into Italian, they will generally not get the full import and cultural significance of 'in jokes' that you and I might understand. So be prepared for mass embarrassed silence while you're rolling on the floor in an Italian cinema laughing at Bill Murray's latest punchline.

Oh, and speaking of Bill Murray, click here for Romebuddy's exclusive video coverage of the second Charlie's Angels movie's Italian premiere night in Rome back in summer 2003.

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