Mauro Bolognini

Quote:
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 »

Stendhal’s epic tale of a young French officer in the Napoleonic wars, and his aunt – a duchess of legendary beauty and resourcefulness.Read More »

After years of black plague, Venice shines again. Angela and Valeria, two women from noble families, set their heart on a man in the Venetian crowd and decide to seduce him.Read More »

Synopsis
In his youth, Leah was fascinated by black magic. After her marriage and the birth of her son, she naturally continued to brew toad potions and lizard decoctions to protect the beloved child from diseases and misfortune. The cherub, now an adult, is threatened by two terrible scourges, women and war. Broths of critters are no longer sufficient and Leah must take drastic measures to deviate friends and enemies from the road of his son’s…Read More »

Rome, 1880. Gregorio has decided to close his bakery, the family business. Then he tells his sons Pippo, Mario and daughter Teta that they will have to fend for themselves. But newly married Irene, Pippo’s wife, a beautiful, calculating and ambitious young woman, wants to take over the inheritance. Acting on intelligence, weighing every step and its consequences, she manages to convince the brothers that they must prevent at all costs that his father falls in love again to avoid the risk of losing their inheritance.Read More »

Women love handsome Antonio because they think of him as the perfect lover. But he has problems to fullfill this ideal and Barbara only notices his failures when they are married. When the town learns about his trouble they start laughing at him…Read More »

Personally, Bolognini did not feel that he was really at home with comedy, yet he was often offered comedies, and in the early stage of his career he accepted some of these assignments. These films were very successful, and the director ascribed the credit for this to the stars he worked with; in this case unquestionably a handful of Italy’s funniest men of the day: Alberto Sordi, Aldo Fabrizzi, Peppino De Filippo, and Gino Cervi.Read More »

Synopsis:
The film consists of six short stories created by different directors, but all the stories share one thing: a warm irony to current events.

Review:
Italian PORTMANTEAU film, a bit uneven.

Segment four by Pier Paolo Pasolini is by far the best; a completely MINDBLOWING and DERANGED rendering of OTHELLO played in a puppet theatre with human marionettes!
TOTÒ has the main role in this, and also in segment 2, where he hates Italian beatniks and stalks them as THE SUNDAY MONSTER! Both segments are very funny in completely different ways, but segment 2 would probably not have worked without Totò.
Segment 5 is completely unlike everything else; four minutes short, based on a animated cartoon by Pino Zac, and with Silvana Mangano as the Queen of England, and with guest appearances by James Bond (model Sean Connery)! The other three segments are fully watchable, although not so FAR OUT as number 2, 4 and 5.Read More »

Plot:
A film of five separate comedy to drama segments–directed by Visconti, Bolognini, Pasolini, Franco Rossi and de Sica. The international cast includes Clint Eastwood, Annie Girardot and Alberto Sordi, and features Silvana Mangano. Important Note: This film has been manufactured from the best-quality video master currently available and has not been remastered or restored specifically for this DVD release. 16 x 9. Important Note: This film has been manufactured from the best-quality video master currently available and has not been remastered or restored specifically for this DVD release. From Warner Brothers Website!Read More »