Italian

  • Mario Monicelli – Speriamo che sia femmina (1986)

    1981-1990ComedyDramaItalyMario Monicelli

    PLOT:
    This family drama by Monicelli features an impressive international cast: Liv Ullmann, Catherine Deneuve, Philippe Noiret, Stefania Sandrelli and Bernard Blier, and it won a series of prestigeous film awards upon its release. It is a less comedic film, than most of Monicelli’s oeuvre up to this point, although the folly of the Italian male is still a central theme, as it had been in so many of his films from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s.
    In this case, a group of several generations of women are pulled together, when an accident strikes the padre familias (Noiret) that they all in various ways are, or have been, involved with. Thus, the second half of the film focusses on this group of very different women, and how they manage to relate to each other and get along, when they are faced with a series of serious challenges.Read More »

  • Marco Ferreri – Nitrato d’argento AKA Silver Nitrate (1996)

    1991-2000ArthouseFantasyItalyMarco Ferreri

    This documentary celebrates the 100th anniversary of the cinema birth. It is an historic running through the technical and artistic evolution of the 7th art. We move from mute to sound, from B&W to color, trough all the genders (musical, Lyric, politic…). Beside it we have a kind of resume of the historic contest in which cinema lived till now, events and movements (neo-realism, classical etc.). All the aspects are taken in consideration: fashion, star system till the end, the sad end, of cinema in the theaters.Read More »

  • Ferzan Ozpetek – Allacciate le cinture (2014)

    2011-2020DramaFerzan ÖzpetekItaly

    Elena and Antonio are not made for each other: they are too different, in terms of character, life choices, worldview and the way they relate to others. They are total opposites. However they are overwhelmed by a mutual attraction that they should avoid. Not only because they are not compatible, but also because Elena is engaged to Giorgio, and Antonio is engaged to Silvia, who is Elena’s best friend. Plus Fabio, the young Elena’s best friend, hates Antonio because he is openly homophobic. Initially, between Elena and Antonio, there is physical attraction and this is the first real turbulence in Elena’s life. Everyone will have to deal with the unexpected in a sudden storm of passion that changes all the rules of the game of their relationships. However this will not be the only turbulence in Elena’s life…Read More »

  • Franz Marischka – L’uomo dal pennello d’oro (1969)

    1961-1970ComedyFranz MarischkaGermany

    Edwige Fenech plays the girlfriend of beatnik-hippy artist Archie (Willi Colombini). Throughout the film Edwige is either having her body painted during a hippy party, posing naked for Archie or seducing other men. All is not fun and games for Edwige though after another hippy girl (Marcella Michelangeli) has her eyes on Archie.Read More »

  • Elisa Fuksas – Nina (2012)

    2011-2020DramaElisa FuksasItaly

    Quote:
    The contemporary architecture of Rome – rather than the traditionally seen Roman viaducts and amphitheatres – are at the heart of the beautifully shot and winsomely appealing Nina, which charts the oddball escapades of a young woman in a depopulated Rome during one hot summer.

    The film is a playfully familiar story of a young woman drifting through life as she tries to find some sort of direction, but debut director Elisa Fuksas – a trained architect and daughter of famed Italian architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas – shoots with a real eye for structure and shape, making this Roman holiday interlude an enjoyable and often heart-warming tale. The film had its world premiere in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival.Read More »

  • Riccardo Freda – Il cavaliere misterioso AKA The Mysterious Rider (1948)

    1941-1950ActionAdventureItalyRiccardo Freda

    Quote:
    However trivial – or downright ridiculous – the plot may become, Freda shows a mastery of sheer cinematic style that puts most of the more highly-touted Italian directors to shame. Like Minnelli or Sirk, Mizoguchi or Ophuls, Visconti or Fellini, he is in love with the visual and sensuous possibilities of the camera itself. The breathtaking decor and costumes (by Vittorio Nino Novarese, who went on to dress the most elephantine of Hollywood epics) are as strong a dramatic presence as the actors themselves. That’s no slight against the cast: Gassman was as great an actor as Marcello Mastroianni; Sanson and Canale are as strong as they are sensual, as gutsy as they are glamorous – a world away from the insipid sex objects that decorate most action movies!Read More »

  • Jean-Marie Straub – L’inconsolable (2011)

    2011-2020ArthouseItalyJean-Marie Straub

    L’Inconsolable
    2010, 14 minutes 44 secondes, couleur
    D’après L’inconsolabile, Dialogues avec Leucò de Cesare Pavese.

    Sept des Dialogues avec Leucò (1947) sont mis en scène dans De la Nuée à la résistance (1979), cinq le sont dans Ces rencontres avec eux (2006). Le genou d’Artémide (2009), Femmes entre elles (2009) puis L’inconsolable (2011) en constituent donc les treizième, quatorzième et quinzième adaptations.Read More »

  • Pier Paolo Pasolini – Sopralluoghi in Palestina per il vangelo secondo Matteo (1965)

    1961-1970ArthouseDocumentaryItalyPier Paolo Pasolini

    Synopsis:
    Director Pier Paolo Pasolini visits the original sites of the Gospel: Lake Tiberius, the Jordan River and Jerusalem., looking for the locations for The Gospel According To St. Matthew.Read More »

  • Christian-Jaque – La legge è legge aka The law Is the law (1958)

    1951-1960Christian-JaqueComedyItaly

    Assola is an imaginary village on the border between Italy and France and the borderline crosses the village itself. The French customs agent Ferdinand is always trying to catch the Italian smuggler Giuseppe. Giuseppe discovers that Ferdinand was actually born in Italy and therefore he can’t be a French customs agent.Read More »

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