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The story is set in a manor farm on the slopes of Etna near Catania, at the beginning of November, during some days of vacation that are the occasion for a family of the Sicilian bourgeoisie to come together.
Nino is a restless teenager of seventeen, who harbors an unbridled love passion for Cettina, the sister of his mother. The woman, who is married and mature, partly reciprocates the attention of his nephew Nino, but at the same time is interested in an associate of her husband, Sasà, young and handsome. The husband seems to push her toward the partner for the sake of convenience.Read More »
Gina Lollobrigida
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Mauro Bolognini – Un bellissimo novembre AKA That Splendid November (1969)
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John Huston – Beat the Devil (1953)
Humphrey Bogart stars as one of five disreputable adventurers who are trying to get uranium out of East Africa. Bogart’s associates include pompous fraud Robert Morley, and Peter Lorre as the German-accented “O’Hara”, whose wartime record is forever a source of speculation and suspicion. Becoming involved in Bogart’s machinations are a prim British married couple (Edward Underdown and blonde-wigged Jennifer Jones). As a climax to their many misadventures and double-crosses, the uranium seekers end up facing extermination by an Arab firing squad. The satirical nature of Beat the Devil eluded many moviegoers in 1953, and the film was a failure. The fact that the picture attained cult status in lesser years failed to impress its star Humphrey Bogart, who could only remember that he lost a considerable chunk of his own money when he became involved in the project. Peter Viernick worked on the script on an uncredited basis. Beat the Devil eventually fell into public domain, leading to numerous inferior editions by second and third-tiered labels.Read More »
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Carlo Lizzani – Achtung! Banditi! (1951)
During the winter of 1944, near Genoa, a group of Italian partisans embark on a mission to recover weaponry from a factory controlled by the Nazis. This is a gritty and gripping war drama starring Andrea Checchi and Gina Lollobrigida.
It is also the first feature film directed by Carlo Lizzani, who had spent the years up to this point making a series of short documentaries, as well as working as scriptwriter and assistant director to Roberto Rossellini, Alberto Lattuada and Giuseppe De Santis.Read More » -
Mario Monicelli & Steno – Le infedeli AKA The Unfaithfuls (1953)
An industrialist has his wife tailed because he secretly hopes she is betraying him so that he can ask for a divorce and marry the model he’s fallen in love with. This leads to a series of thefts, blackmail and a suicide as well.Read More »
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Melvin Frank – Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968)
Synopsis:
During World War II, an Italian villager (Gina Lollobrigida) befriends three American soldiers. Later, when unsure which of them fathered the daughter she has, she invents a dead captain named Campbell, declares herself his widow and accepts support checks from all three soldiers. Twenty years later, a reunion unexpectedly brings the three veterans — and their wives and children — back to Italy. Mrs. Campbell panics as she endeavors to keep her lively past from her daughter.Read More » -
Mario Monicelli & Steno – Vita da cani AKA It’s a Dog’s Life (1950)
Synopsis:
Tragicomedy telling of the trials and tribulations of a troupe of variety show artists.Read More » -
Luigi Zampa – Campane a martello AKA Alarm Bells (1949)
Agostina is a maid turned prostitute during World War II. She sends all the money she makes to the local priest in her home village for safekeeping. After the war is over, Agostina and her friend plan to open a clothing store so they return to her home island to collect the money from the priest. But after arriving there, Agostina learns in shock that the priest has been dead for more than a year and that his eccentric successor mistook the received money for donations and spent all of it on building a new orphanage for war orphans. To make matters worse, other islanders think that Agostina is now a millionaire and beg her to help them financially.Read More »
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Robert Siodmak – Le Grand Jeu AKA Flesh and the Woman (1954)
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Not really epic material, this is a fated romantic drama (a typically French quality) set against the exotic background of the Foreign Legion and, actually, a remake of Jacques Feyder’s 1934 film LE GRAND JEU.The plot involves a successful young lawyer (Jean-Claude Pascal) who, due to a shady deal, finds himself penniless and separated from his wife (Gina Lollobrigida). Stranded in Algeria, he’s persuaded to join the Foreign Legion where he befriends a couple of similar losers (played by Raymond Pellegrin and Peter van Eyck). Read More »
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Jean Delannoy – Notre-Dame de Paris AKA The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956)
Paris, 1482. Today is the festival of the fools, taking place like each year in the square outside Cathedral Notre Dame. Among jugglers and other entertainers, Esmeralda, a sensuous gypsy, performs a bewitching dance in front of delighted spectators. From up in a tower of the cathedral, Frollo, an alchemist, gazes at her lustfully. Later in the night, Frollo orders Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer and his faithful servant, to kidnap Esmeralda. But when the ugly freak comes close to her is touched by the young woman’s beauty…Read More »
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