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Tombolo, paradiso nero is a 1947 film directed by Giorgio Ferroni. Inspired by an article by Indro Montanelli, the film depicts the undergrowth of smugglers, prostitutes and deserters from the post-war Pineta del Tombolo, when the US military was stationed in the area.Read More »
Aldo Fabrizi plays a widowed school janitor with an infant son. The film depicts the joys and sorrows of father and son, as they journey through life. Maybe we could say that this is something like an Italian Goodbye, Mr. Chips; it is certainly no less affecting. Watch for author/director Mario Soldati in a small, but crucial, part as one of the professors at the school, where father and son live, study and work.Read More »
Since the IRS has ordered new taxes, all traders in the village are tormented. Only Torquato Pezzella, a wealthy merchant of rain does not give in to despair general. To escape the contributions it has offered a tax advisor, the very respectable Curto Hector, who is in reality an ignorant on the subject. Still, Pezzella that has so far managed to avoid the taxes through the valuable advice of his new partner. Until one day an inspector of the brigade versatile, the formidable Topponi Fabio decides to check himself the accounting of this individual who is enriched by eye and does not report to the state. The note is difficult to digest; home Pezzella owes more than fifteen million in contributions. However, an unexpected event will upset all the data …Read More »
The Film:
The Flowers of St. Francis is Roberto Rossellini’s answer to the despair
of the Italian neorealism he had previously been credited with initiating;
through a disconnected series of events in the story of the popular saint,
it affirms Christian beliefs at their most pure. The original Italian title
‘Francesco, giullare di Dio’ translates as “Francis, the Jester of God.”
It is even more inspirational than Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Gospel According
to St. Matthew mainly because of the natural behavior of the characters.
. . . Glenn Erickson,Read More »
The mood is set with the opening with excerpts from the Excelsior Ball, a famous ballet at the turn of the century that heralded the advances of the upcoming century, for a book-dealer to introduce the various stories in this compilation film. The first story chosen is (English titles) “Less Than a Day”, a comedy of would-be lovers meeting in a country-side rendezvous; “A Question of Property” is a story of two men who fight over the ownership of a load of manure; “The Idyll” is the story of a well-to-do young boy who has a crush on the girl next door, and he has been told by his mother that babies are born when two people kiss. Read More »
Mr. Pezzella (Toto) owns and operates a luxury clothing store very well established. By its nature, but does not like and does not consider it right to pay taxes and therefore uses a tax consultant (Louis de Funès) to be able to evade more calmly. Unfortunately for the cavalier Pezzella the Guardia di Finanza decides to send an inspection, in the person of Marshal Topponi (Aldo Fabrizi) and Brigadier Bardi. They start attempts Pezzella (guided by the advice of dishonest and ineffective tax advisor) to get into dell’inossidabile marshal to try to bribe him, and sometimes openly declaring with excessive dose of servility.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 »
Synopsis:
Tragicomedy telling of the trials and tribulations of a troupe of variety show artists.Read More »
Personally, Bolognini did not feel that he was really at home with comedy, yet he was often offered comedies, and in the early stage of his career he accepted some of these assignments. These films were very successful, and the director ascribed the credit for this to the stars he worked with; in this case unquestionably a handful of Italy’s funniest men of the day: Alberto Sordi, Aldo Fabrizzi, Peppino De Filippo, and Gino Cervi.Read More »