Cristina Gaioni

This is a lovely colorful adaptation of a novel by Anton Chekhov about the adventures of Jegoruska, an eight-year-old Russian boy, in a journey across the “steppe” or open plains of Russia on the en route from his home village to a market city where he is to go to school. It is in a way an allegorical trip which exposes him to some of the grimmest realities of life and some of its better ones. We get a social message as well, for example, the harsh conditions of the peasantry of 19th Century Russia. The director Alberto Lattuada often adapted Russian works or made films with Russian settings as in CUORE DI CANE, THE TEMPEST, and THE OVERCOAT. Most of the location scenes here were shot in Yugoslavia. The cast, which includes Charles Vanel as a priest and Marina Vlady as a countess, are uniformly good. Handsome young Daniele Spallone as the boy is marvelous.Read More »

Synopsis:
Jason M wrote:
In the midst of his early comedic period, Fulci directs this somewhat screwball-ish comedy about two businessmen Parodi (Ernesto Calindri) and Manzini (Luigi Pavese) seeking to make a fast turn on an investment when they decide to establish a youth centre for young women. But they have to convince a local politician, Cipriani Paolini (Louis Seigner) that it’s all going to be fair play, so he sets his secretary Bellini (Philippe Noiret) to supervise the finalization of the agreement. Before you know it, the blokes all want to pass some time, and do so by visiting a trio of masseuses (code for prostitutes), Marisa (Sylva Koscia), Iris (Cristina Gaioni) and Milena (Valeria Fabrizi) who jump at the opportunity as they see a possibility of saving their own massage parlour racket that’s having a hard time financially.Read More »