Magali Noël

  • Luciano Emmer – La ragazza in vetrina AKA Woman in the Window (1961) (HD)

    Luciano Emmer1961-1970DramaItalyRomance

    La ragazza in vetrina was supposed to be a turning point in Emmer’s cinema but it went on to become a cursed film. In accordance with the evolution of Italian cinema, the director chose a story by Rodolfo Sonego which combines a tough theme, Italian migrants working in Dutch and Belgian mines (the tragedy in Marcinelle, near Charleroi, which left 262 dead, half of which were Italian, took place only four years earlier), with a raunchy one, about the red light district in Amsterdam. It combines his love of wandering and the sketch with a harsh new gaze, bolstered by the black-and-white cinematography of Otello Martelli, fresh from La dolce vita. The first half-hour of the film depicts the difficult lives of the miners; then it concentrates on two characters, one timid, the other self-confident, but both lonely and unhappy, as they meet two prostitutes. Read More »

  • Claude Goretta – La Mort de Mario Ricci AKA The Death of Mario Ricci (1983)

    Claude Goretta1981-1990DramaMysterySwitzerland
    La Mort de Mario Ricci (1983)
    La Mort de Mario Ricci (1983)

    Quote:
    A country road glimpsed through a dirty windscreen… a mangled car wreck on a garage forecourt…Volonté blowing up an inflatable coat hanger and reminding his assistant that ‘it’s the details that count’. And so they clearly do in Goretta’s film, although quite what they add up to is never sharply defined. A crippled TV journalist (Volonté) arrives in a Swiss village to interview a specialist in world food shortages disillusioned by the non-application of his theories. But he soon becomes embroiled in a web of local intrigue resulting from the death of a young immigrant worker. Goretta counterpoints his two stories with deft assurance, letting them strike subdued ironies off one another; there are thematic strands galore here, clearly signposted but seemingly left deliberately smudged. Yet there is no shortage of delights either: fine atmospherics, immaculately fluid camerawork, and a towering performance from Volonté, sympathy and disdain flickering back and forth across those marvellously expressive features.Read More »

  • Christine Laurent – Vertiges (1985)

    1981-1990Christine LaurentDramaFranceMusicalThe Female Gaze

    Life and loves of a theatre inside and outside the stage. The troup is playing Les noces de Figaro.Read More »

  • Luciano Emmer – La ragazza in vetrina AKA La Fille dans la vitrine [+Extras] (1961)

    Drama1961-1970ItalyLuciano EmmerRomance

    PLOT SYNOPSIS:
    A romantic drama partially set in Amsterdam, this standard tale starts out in a mining area in Holland where conditions are about as rough as they get. Two of the miners, Italians Federico (Lino Ventura) and Vincenzo (Bernard Fresson) take off together for the city’s red-light district, where the women pose in windows for prospective customers. There the duo meet Else (Marina Vlady) and Carrel (Magali Noel) who are willing to leave their windows to spend a weekend at a resort with the two men. Soon Else has fallen in love with Vincenzo and the future of the two hookers, as well as the miners, seems to look brighter.
    (Allmovie)Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – Amarcord (1973)

    Drama1971-1980Federico FelliniItaly

    Quote:
    Federico Fellini returned to the provincial landscape of his childhood with this carnivalesque reminiscence, recreating his hometown of Rimini in Cinecittà’s studios and rendering its daily life as a circus of social rituals, adolescent desires, male fantasies, and political subterfuge. Sketching a gallery of warmly observed comic caricatures, Fellini affectionately evokes a vanished world haloed with the glow of memory, even as he sends up authority figures representing church and state, satirizing a country stultified by Fascism. Winner of Fellini’s fourth Academy Award for best foreign-language film, Amarcord remains one of the director’s best-loved creations, beautifully weaving together Giuseppe Rottuno’s colorful cinematography, Danilo Donati’s extravagant costumes and sets, and Nino Rota’s nostalgia-tinged score.Read More »

  • Sacha Guitry – Assassins et voleurs AKA Murderers and Thieves (1956)

    1951-1960ClassicsComedyFranceSacha Guitry

    Synopsis:
    Surprised by a burglar (Michel Serrault), the doleful Philippe (Jean Poiret) regains his composure, then asks the thief for his assistance. It seems that Philippe wants to commit suicide but hasn’t the nerve to pull off the deed himself. In flashback, Philippe recounts the events that led up to this critical and anxious moment. As it turns out, our “hero” is a bigger criminal, both actual and moral, than the nonplused burglar could ever be.Read More »

  • Fernando Cerchio – Totò e Cleopatra (1963)

    1961-1970ComedyFernando CerchioItaly

    PLOT SYNOPSIS:
    Returning from Egypt where he was bewitched by Cleopatra, Mark Antony is sequestrated by his wife, who sends a double (Totonno, a slave trader) to the Pyramids.Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – Amarcord aka I Remember [+Commentary] (1973)

    1971-1980ClassicsDramaFederico FelliniItaly

    SYNOPSIS:
    In this carnivalesque portrait of provincial Italy during the Fascist period, Federico Fellini’s most personal film satirizes his youth and turns daily life into a circus of social rituals, adolescent desires, male fantasies, and political subterfuge, all set to Nina Rota’s classic, nostalgia-tinged score. The Academy Award-winning Amarcord remains one of cinema’s enduring treasures.Read More »

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