Italian

  • Marco Ferreri – Dillinger e morto aka Dillinger Is Dead [+Extras] (1969)

    1961-1970ArthouseDramaItalyMarco Ferreri

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    Description :
    In this magnificently inscrutable late-sixties masterpiece, Marco Ferreri, one of European cinema’s most idiosyncratic auteurs, takes us through the looking glass to one seemingly routine night in the life of an Italian gas mask designer, played, in a tour de force performance, by New Wave icon Michel Piccoli. In his claustrophobic mod home, he pampers his pill-popping wife, seduces his maid, and uncovers a gun that may have once been owned by John Dillinger—and then things get even stranger. A surreal political missive about social malaise, Dillinger Is Dead (Dillinger è morto) finds absurdity in the mundane. It is a singular experience, both illogical and grandly existential.Read More »

  • Marco Ferreri – Diario di un vizio AKA Diary of a Maniac (1993)

    1991-2000DramaItalyMarco Ferreri

    http://img62.imageshack.com/img62/3699/diarioqzq.jpg

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    Quote:
    In this stylish and offbeat black comedy, Benito ( Jerry Calà) keeps a diary of his sexual fantasies and cravings. As a result of his on-again, off-again relationship with the beautiful and insatiable Luigia (Sabrina Ferilli), his thoughts along these lines have grown increasingly bizarre. For his own part, he is driven to pick up and bed women at almost every opportunity. As the fantasies recorded in his diary consume more and more of his life, and grow darker and darker, his ordinary waking life becomes flatter and duller, until he disappears altogether.
    ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Renato Castellani, Marco Ferreri, Franco Rossi – Controsesso (1964)

    1961-1970Franco RossiItalyMarco FerreriRenato Castellani

    Synopsis:
    The Italians continue their penchant for gang-directed features in this sexploitation comedy. Part one is entitled “Cocaine On Sunday” in which a husband (Nino Manfredi) and wife (Annamaria Ferrero) start snorting the stuff after the friend who owned the bottle is arrested. In part two, Ugo Tognazzi plays a professor who feels he is becoming too much like his elderly maiden aunts. In the final episode, a businesswoman agrees to meet a street musician, but he is frustrated when she is delayed by her vocational priorities. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Marco Ferreri – L’Harem (1967)

    1961-1970CrimeDramaItalyMarco Ferreri

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    A sophisticated Italian beauty (Carroll Baker) is unable to pick between the three men she is admittedly in love with. As a result Gianni (Gastone Moschin), Gaetano (Renato Salvatori), and Mike (Michel Le Royer) are invited to a lush villa in the Adriatic coastal city of Dubrovnik to participate in a small contest. There day after day Margherita will toy with the men’s sexual fantasies until they finally realize that no one is expected to win.Read More »

  • Marco Ferreri – I Love You [+Extras] (1986)

    1981-1990CultDramaFranceMarco Ferreri

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    Synopsis
    In another indictment of the flaws of our so-called civilization, this satire from the late director (Marco Ferreri) features (Christopher Lambert) as Michel, a miserable man who has failed at love and finds solace in a mechanical key holder. Michel has just been dumped by Barbara (Anemone) because he has not been able to get her pregnant. He is feeling pretty low when he finds a key holder with blue eyes and big red lips that responds to the sound of a whistle with “I Love You.” Michel tacks this gadget up on his TV set and whistles away. He seems happy with this fool-proof declaration of love until one day, the key holder responds to the neighbor’s whistle and Michel goes berserk. After all, if your key ring can’t be faithful, what’s the world coming to? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie GuideRead More »

  • Aldo Fabrizi – La famiglia Passaguai AKA The Passaguai Family (1951)

    1951-1960Aldo FabriziClassicsComedyItaly

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    PLOT SYNOPSIS:
    Dalla commedia Cabina 27 di Anton Germano Rossi.
    Una domenica al mare di Ostia del cavalier Peppe Passaguai con la moglie e i tre figli. Una macchina comica romanesca che ha le sue ascendenze nel repertorio del teatro dialettale, dell’avanspettacolo e dell’umorismo del settimanale Travaso degli anni ’30 ma anche postbellico, arricchito da trovate più cinematografiche (l’anguria) e da notazioni di costume sulla piccola borghesia. Soprattutto nel primo tempo non mancano le gag azzeccate né le macchiette colorite, appoggiate a caratteristi già affermati (T. Scotti) o in erba (C. Delle Piane). Fu seguita da La famiglia Passaguai fa fortuna (1952) e Papà diventa mamma (1953).
    (Morandini)Read More »

  • Vittorio De Sica – Umberto D. (1952)

    1951-1960ClassicsDramaItalyVittorio De Sica

    Quote:
    Shot on location with a cast of nonprofessional actors, Vittorio De Sica’s neorealist masterpiece follows Umberto D., an elderly pensioner, as he struggles to make ends meet during Italy’s postwar economic boom. Alone except for his dog, Flike, Umberto strives to maintain his dignity while trying to survive in a city where traditional human kindness seems to have lost out to the forces of modernization. Umberto’s simple quest to fulfill the most fundamental human needs—food, shelter, companionship—is one of the most heartbreaking stories ever filmed and an essential classic of world cinema.Read More »

  • Franco Rubartelli – Veruschka (1971)

    1971-1980ArthouseDramaFranco RubartelliItaly

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    from IMDB:
    The copy of this film that I have is in Italian language with no subtitles, so there is little risk of my giving away any real spoilers, but suffice to say it does not take sitting through much of the film’s running time to determine that “Veruschka”, which is named after the then-popular supermodel who plays the lead, is not going to be the fun and frothy story of the jet set life one would expect a woman like Veruschka to lead. Instead we are treated to the story of a very unhappy young woman who is apparently so lost and hopeless that the viewer early on wants to help her, but likewise feels equally hopeless. Much of the film takes place in a car on the road, with Veruschka and her boyfriend (the great Luigi Pistilli) driving and getting into personal trouble all over Italy.Read More »

  • Marco Bellocchio – Sorelle Mai (2010)

    2001-2010DramaItalyMarco Bellocchio

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    Almost exclusively featuring his family, Bellocchio filmed over a ten year period with segments shot from 1999 to 2008. It begins when Elena (Bellocchio’s daughter, and an incredibly natural performer) is five. Elena’s mother, Sara (Finocchiaro), is an actress and is often away from home so Elena spends much of her time with her uncle Pier Giorgio (Bellocchio’s son), a frustrated artist. They live in the small town of Bobbio (Bellocchio’s hometown) with Pier Giorgio’s spinster aunts (Letizia and Maria Luisa Bellocchio).

    Over ten years, the film follows these difficult relationships as the characters come and go from Bobbio, and Bellocchio captures the hopes, disappointments and yearnings of his own family. Moments from Bellocchio’s other films including Fist in His Pocket and The Nanny are also interspersed throughout as quick flashes that relate to the family’s onscreen drama.Read More »

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