A group of rogues steal a scroll granting its bearer the property of the land of Aurocastro in Apulia (south of Italy). They elect a shaggy knight, Brancaleone from Norcia, as their leader, and decide to get possession of this supposedly wealthy land. Many adventures will occurr during the journey.Read More »
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SYNOPSIS: Roberto Rossellini’s follow-up to his breakout Rome Open City was the ambitious, enormously moving Paisan (Paisà), which consists of six episodes set during the liberation of Italy at the end of World War II, and taking place across the country, from Sicily to the northern Po Valley. With its documentary-like visuals and its intermingled cast of actors and nonprofessionals, Italians and their American liberators, this look at the struggles of different cultures to communicate and of people to live their everyday lives in extreme circumstances is equal parts charming sentiment and vivid reality. A long-missing treasure of Italian cinema, Paisan is available here for the first time in its full original release version.Read More »
At a stage performance of Alexandre Dumas fils’ celebrated novel Camille, an old man reflects on the events which provided the inspiration for the story. He is Plessis, the father of Alphonsine, a celebrated courtesan who died five years ago from tuberculosis.
A country girl, Alphonsine was sold by her father to a neighbour before escaping to Paris to make a living as a seamstress and prostitute. The wealthy Count Stackelberg adopts her after the death of his own daughter, and then she marries the Count Perregaux. When she separates from her husband, Alphonsine returns to Paris and resumes her career as a prostitute, in spite of her declining health.
This sumptuous period drama from acclaimed Italian director Mauro Bolognini recounts the life of Alphonsine Plessis, the famous Parisian prostitute who was the inspiration for Alexandre Dumas’ novel Camille and Guiseppi Verdi’s opera La Traviata. Isabelle Huppert plays the leading role with delicacy and sensitivity, portraying Alphonsine as a vulnerable waif-like character who is constantly tormented by her ill health and her voracious sexual appetite. (filmsdefrance.com)
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There are two versions of this film: the Italian theater version, and the extended version presented at Cannes 1960, both in Italian. This is the latter.
PLOT SYNOPSIS:
In keeping with his previous film Generale Della Rovere, filmmaker Robert Rossellini pursues a wartime theme in his “personal epic” Era Notte a Roma.
The story concerns three Allied POWS, who escape from their camp and hide out in Rome. The trio is given shelter by a beautiful young woman. With something tangible to fight over, the three prisoners’ national chauvinism (one is Russian, one English, one American) simmers to a boil.
For reasons which remain obscure, Era Notte a Roma was never given a widespread American release.
(Wikipedia)Read More »
Michelangelo Antonioni’s Identification of a Woman is a body- and soul-baring voyage into one man’s artistic and erotic consciousness. After his wife leaves him, a film director finds himself drawn into affairs with two enigmatic women: at the same time, he searches for the right subject and actress for his next film. This spellbinding antiromance was a late-career coup for the legendary Italian filmmaker, and is renowned for its sexual explicitness and an extended scene on a fog-enshrouded highway that stands with the director’s greatest set pieces (-Criterion)Read More »
Released from jail, Nanni (Checchi) punches prison guard Stefano (Ninchi) who has
denounced him. In order to take revenge, Stefano suggests the suspicion that, during his
absence, his wife has had business with the Count Paolo (Rimoldi). A few days later, at
night, a deadly ambush will be prepared.Read More »
Avere vent’anni (To Be Twenty) – (the title refers to the famous phrase at the beginning of Paul Nizan’s book, Aden Arabia: I was twenty years old. I will never allow anyone to say that these are the best years of my life.), was shot by Fernando di Leo in 1978. He also wrote the script which dates back to some years earlier and came from the desire to portray new female characters who had established a revolutionary psychology, and attitudes in society after 1968.
The intermediaries for this story are two young travelers, Tina and Lia – played by Lilli Carati and Gloria Guida, both very popular actresses at that time, who leave the Italian provinces and go to Rome to join a “community” and are under the illusion of being able to live in complete freedom, especially sexual freedom, without restraints or limits.
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From xploitedcinema.com:
Historical drama around the sexual exploits of the young Lucrezia Borgia, daughter of Alexander Borgia and sister of the infamous Cesare Borgia.
Simonetta Stefanelli stars as the ruthless Lucrezia Borgia in Luciano Ercoli’s take on the Borgia family. In the early 16th century, Italy is ruled by the powerful Borgia family, led by Cesar Borgia and his sister Lucrezia (Martine Carol). In a ruthless power play, Cesare plots to have his sister’s husband murdered.
But without her brother’s knowledge, Lucretia has taken a strong lover who will challenge the Borgias, but Cesar’s love for his sister will once again lead to the demise of Lucrezia’s lover and unite the 2 siblings in an incestuous relationship.Read More »
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This was the first long catalogue Yervant and Angela compiled from an archive found in 1977, composed of films with russian actor legend Ivan Muzzhukin and underwater films from around the world, wild life scenes and other exotic imagery from japanese silent films to the turkish shadow theater to which the title of this piece makes homage. Slowed down, carefully crafted tinted and completely silent, this work stands out as one of the most beautiful and moving of their works. Images will speak more clear than my words ever will, do not miss this masterpiece of found footage.Read More »