Athos Magnani, a young researcher, returns to Tara, where his father was killed before his birth, at the request of Draifa. The father, also named Athos Magnani and looking exactly like the son, was killed by a fascist in 1936 — or so says Draifa (his mistress), the town statue, and everyone in town. As the son untangles the web of lies this story is constructed from, he finds himself ensnared in the same web.Read More »
Alida Valli
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Bernardo Bertolucci – Strategia del ragno AKA The Spider’s Stratagem (1970)
Drama1961-1970Bernardo BertolucciItalyMystery -
Robin Davis – Ce cher Victor (1975)
Robin Davis1971-1980ArthouseComedyFrancePlot Synopsis: Anselme, a fussy, retired grocer has borne the brunt of abuse from Victor, a despotic and infantile tyrant whom he has known for forty years, and with whom he shares lodgings. Victor humiliates Anselme at a society gathering and the latter plots a cruel joke that will drive the former insane. (BFI)Read More »
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Ted Tetzlaff – The White Tower (1950)
USA1941-1950AdventureClassicsTed TetzlaffSynopsis:
The White Tower, a Matterhorn-like mountain in the Swiss Alps, has never been climbed. Carla Alten’s father, a famous mountaineer, died in a long-ago attempt. Now, Carla, determined to fulfill her father’s dream, has assembled an unusual climbing party to tackle the nearly-impossible ascent.Read More » -
Mario Mattoli – La vita ricomincia AKA Life Begins Anew (1945)
Drama1941-1950ItalyMario MattoliRecently returned to Rome after a long imprisonment of war, doctor Paolo Marchini learns that his wife Patrizia was arrested for murder.
Three years before, not having money to treat her seriously ill child, she had consented to an appointment with a wealthy unknown gentleman, whom she had not met again ever since.
This man had showed up the night before, trying to draw on her again. Quarrel, gunshot…
Patrizia is acquitted at the trial. For the three, life begins anew.Read More » -
Luchino Visconti – Senso (1954)
1951-1960DramaItalyLuchino ViscontiRomanceQuote:
This lush, Technicolor tragic romance from Luchino Visconti stars Alida Valli as a nineteenth-century Italian countess who, during the Austrian occupation of her country, puts her marriage and political principles on the line by engaging in a torrid affair with a dashing Austrian lieutenant, played by Farley Granger. Gilded with ornate costumes and sets and a rich classical soundtrack, and featuring fearless performances, this operatic melodrama is an extraordinary evocation of reckless emotions and deranged lust, from one of the cinema’s great sensualists.Read More » -
Goffredo Alessandrini – Noi vivi aka We the Living (1942)
1941-1950DramaGoffredo AlessandriniItalian Cinema under FascismItalyThe time is the Russian Revolution. The place is a country burdened with fear – the midnight knock at the door, the bread hidden against famine, the haunted eyes of the fleeing, the grublike fat of the appeasers and oppressors. In a bitter struggle of the individual against the collective, three people stand forth with the mark of the unconquered in their bearing: Kira, who wants to be a builder, and the two men who love her – Leo, an aristocrat, and Andrei, a Communist. In their tensely dramatic story, Ayn Rand shows what the theories of Communism mean in practice. We the Living is not a story of politics but of the men and women who have to struggle for existence behind the Red banners and slogans.Read More »
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Mario Soldati – Piccolo mondo antico aka Old-Fashioned World (1941)
Drama1941-1950ClassicsItalian Cinema under FascismItalyMario SoldatiPlot:
Franco, a young man of noble descent, decides to marry Luisa, daughter of a humble clerk, against his grandmother’s will. But a terrible tragedy upsets the life of the newly married couple: their little daughter Ombretta drowns in Lake Como and Luisa goes to the brink of madness…Read More » -
Carol Reed – The Third Man (1949)
1931-1940Carol ReedFilm NoirMysteryUnited KingdomAn out of work pulp fiction novelist, Holly Martins, arrives in a post war Vienna divided into sectors by the victorious allies, and where a shortage of supplies has led to a flourishing black market. He arrives at the invitation of an ex-school friend, Harry Lime, who has offered him a job, only to discover that Lime has recently died in a peculiar traffic accident. From talking to Lime’s friends and associates Martins soon notices that some of the stories are inconsistent, and determines to discover what really happened to Harry Lime.Read More »
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Pierre Grunstein – Tendre Dracula (1974)
1971-1980ExploitationFranceHorrorPierre GrunsteinQuote:
Two writers and their girlfriends visit the castle of an actor who specializes in playing vampire roles. As the night progresses, they begin to wonder if the man is an actor playing a vampire, or a vampire playing an actor.Read More »