Luciano Emmer

Frolickers enjoy a sunny afternoon at a Roman beach.

Review:
Recalling the informal neorealist spirit and sociopolitical consciousness of important prewar ensembles such as People on Sunday (1930) and Treno popolare (1933), while paving the way for the wry comedies of manners produced under the aegis of commedia all’italiana, Luciano Emmer’s wonderful Sunday in August (Domenica d’agosto) skillfully interweaves several stories involving a disparate array of Romans who flock to the beaches of Ostia on the eponymous day to escape both the summer heat and their daily troubles. As this lively blend of fiction and documentary proves, however, they are only partly successful in their endeavors.Read More »

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 »

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 »

The art film by Luciano Emmer: the camera explores the figurative worlds of Giotto, Bosch, Carpaccio, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Picasso. First edition on DVD of a valuable asset for art history and Italian cinema.
This two-DVD boxset presents, collected for the first time, a wide selection of art films made by Luciano Emmer (1918-2009). Emmer, screenwriter and director, is the author of films that told with delicacy and humor about Italy in the Fifties (Domenica d’agosto, Terza liceo) and one of the inventors of TV commercials; especially personal and meaningful is his work on art documentaries, awarded all over the world.Read More »

Camilla, a middle-aged Venetian widow, arrives in Rome to take up service as a maid with the Rossetti family, made up of Mario, a doctor, his wife Giovanna and their children Andrea and Cristina. The economic conditions of the Rossetti are not flourishing and this causes tensions and disagreements.Read More »

Parigi e Sempre Parigi (Paris is Always Paris) was the second feature-length effort from famed Italian documentary director Luciano Emmer. Whereas Emmer’s first feature, Domenica d’Agosto (Sunday in August) was a warm-hearted study of the Italian middle class, Parigi concentrates on a gentle cultural clash between a band of Italian sports fans and the citizenry of Paris. The hero, DeAngelis (Aldo Fabrizi), has heard so much about “naughty Paree” that he’s determined to experience that naughtiness first hand. This plot device, of course, obliges the director to introduce several delectable French mademoiselles in the proceedings. Ultimately, DeAngelis realizes that reports of French libertinism have been grossly exaggerated, but he has a high old time finding this out.Read More »

Quote:
Made on behalf of a Catholic society, it is a short document about anthropological myths and rituals in the city of Naples narrated by Eduardo De Filippo. Long considered lost, it has recently re-emerged in a new light thanks to the restoration of the Cineteca of Bologna.Read More »