Italy

  • Gianni Franciolini – Notte di tempesta (1946)

    1941-1950DramaGianni FrancioliniItaly

    The story is taken from the drama “I Pescatori” (The Fishermen) by Raffaele Viviani, and is set in a fishing island off the coast of Naples (clearly identifiable with Ischia). Here lives Concetta, a widow with two children, who now lives with another man who however secretly lusts after his stepdaughter until when, on a stormy night…Read More »

  • Antonio Pietrangeli – La Parmigiana AKA The Girl from Parma [+Extras] (1963)

    1961-1970Antonio PietrangeliComedyCommedia all'ItalianaDramaItaly

    Synopsis
    Forced to leave her village because of a scandalous love affair with a seminarian, Dora looks for work and refuge in Parma, where she becomes involved with a petty criminal. Another of Pietrangeli’s bitter comedies of deracination, reflecting the sudden urbanization of Italy during the industrial boom years of the 1950s and 1960s.Read More »

  • Mario Monicelli – Proibito (1954)

    1951-1960DramaItalyMario Monicelli

    Don Paolo, a young parson troubled by his love for Agnese, tries to make peace in a little village in Sardinia where two families are at war.

    Don Paolo, Sardinian priest, returns home as a pastor in his native town, torn by hatred and revenge. He tries to restore peace and confidence in the law and deter Agnes, in love with him. He succeeds, but it’s hard.
    In the film’s figurative and narrative scheme, in his vague westerns impression, fostered by the intense beauty of the landscape, the character of Nazzari, compared to the somewhat fuzzy others, has coherence and vitality.Read More »

  • Paolo Heusch – El ‘Che’ Guevara (1968)

    1961-1970AdventureItalyPaolo HeuschPolitics

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    A good old fashioned story about the Third-World’s attempt to rip off their colonial shackles.Read More »

  • Giorgio Simonelli – I baccanali di Tiberio AKA Tiberius (1960)

    1951-1960ComedyEpicGiorgio SimonelliItaly

    Imdb:
    Cassio, a tourist guide, and Primo, his bus driver, are taking a bus load of tourists to visit villa Jovis, at Capri island. Close to the Salto di Tiberio (Tiberius Fall…) they have an accident, and they knock their heads hard, losing conscience. They come awake in Tiberius villa, in the midst of an orgy, complete with a group of British dancers, mostly blondes, who are performing for the emperor. Soon, they are wise to an attempt on the emperor’s life by his Secretary, who plans to bring the blame on Cassio and Primo’s heads. The two men dress up as dancers and try to mix with the British dancers, who are led by Cinthya O’Connor.Read More »

  • Guido Brignone – La fuga di Socrate aka Socrate’s Escape (1923)

    1921-1930ComedyGuido BrignoneItalySilent

    Synopsis:
    Socrate, a weird parrot, one day flies away through an open window. The mistress of the parrot imposes on her boyfriend Ajax a terrible condition: if he doesn’t find Socrate, she will marry another man. Ajax immediately starts to look for Socrate, but soon he discovers that the parrot has been captured and sold to a young lady leaving for Havana. Finally Ajax manages to get to Cuba, but once there he finds out that Socrate has already flown away to return to his original owner; she telegraphs Ajax asking him to return to her – but she will wait in vain: Ajax has already fallen in love with the young lady who emigrated to Cuba.Read More »

  • Marco Ferreri – La grande bouffe (1973)

    1971-1980ArthouseComedyItalyMarco Ferreri

    Quote:
    Subversive Italian satirist Marco Ferreri directed and co-wrote (with Rafael Azcona) this grotesquely amusing French black comedy about four men who grow sick of life, and so meet at a remote villa with the goal of literally eating themselves to death. The quartet comes from various walks of life — a pilot (Marcello Mastroianni), a chef (Ugo Tognazzi), a television host (Michel Piccoli), and a judge (Philippe Noiret) — but all are successful men with excessive appetites for life’s pleasures (food is used as mere metaphor here, as graphic as that metaphor becomes). ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Leopoldo Savona – Byleth – il demone dell’incesto aka Byleth the Demon of Incest (1972)

    1971-1980ExploitationHorrorItalyLeopoldo Savona

    Synopsis:
    The Duke Lionello Shandwell is delighted that his sister Barbara has returned home, after being away for a year in Venice, to his lonely ancestral castle in the Roman countryside. His happiness is disrupted when she reveals that she has since gotten married to Giordano. Although he doesn’t fully show it around others, Lionello is deeply disturbed by his sister’s new union, and it’s not in a protective big brother sort of way. While his sister and brother-in-law stay with him, Lionello sometimes retreats into a tormented, depraved, and jealous state, spying on them making love, harboring repressed aggression towards Giordano. Barbara is a red head, and meanwhile a giallo-esque killer is going around killing red heads. Could it be Lionello venting his aggressions over his unrequited love for Barbara, or is it something more demonic?Read More »

  • Roberto Roberti – L’ultima vittima AKA A Victim of Vengeance (1913)

    1911-1920DramaItalyRoberto RobertiSilent

    A VICTIM OF VENGEANCE

    Original lenght: 852 m

    Emma Vallona, an oriental dancer, is suffocated by debts due to her expensive life; so she does not hesitate to induce the Minister d’Angy to endorse a bill in her favour. While the Minister is gradually being overwhelmed by this scandal, which contributes to destroy his political career, she carefree moves to Spain under the false name of Madame d’Ambois. There she meets the Prince of Gébraléon, who asks her to marry him. She agrees but, just before the wedding, the Minister d’Angy reappears. Read More »

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