Italy

The story is set in southern Italy and recounts the tragedy of Canio, the lead clown in a commedia dell’arte troupe, his wife Nedda, and her lover, Silvio.Read More »

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Stunningly lensed around a homespun mafia tragi-comedy, but lacking even a shred of sympathy for its grotesque characters, It Was the Son (a.k.a. The Son Did It) describes a dysfunctional family from the underbelly of Palermo as monstrous stereotypes whose future is as dead-end as the highway leading to their gray housing block. There are some rueful smiles along the way but look for no heart-felt comedy in this adaptation of a novel by Roberto Alajmo. This cruel satire on the Italian South certainly has curiosity value, but it ends up feeling too flat and bleak to make a serious splash at the boxoffice after its Venice and Toronto bows.Read More »

Two horror tales based on short stories by Edgar Allan Poe directed by two famous horror directors, George A. Romero and Dario Argento. A greedy wife kills her husband, but not completely. A sleazy reporter adopts a strange black cat.Read More »

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An American journalist works for a French newspaper. He is writing an article about the reaction against people with AIDS, without knowing he is infected too. Once he finds out, he decides to cut off himself leaving his wife and daughter.Read More »

Micaela and Marcello are unable to conceive a child, so they decide to adopt their neice Letizia (Franca Gonella), who is at boarding school. Letizia, however, has had some congress with a demon, or is proficient in witchcraft, or is possessed by a vengeful spirit, or all of the above. Using her powers to bewitch men (and women…), Letizia induces the members of the household, including her adoptive parents, their maid, and their servant, into various compromising situations. Then, for some reason, people begin to die. Plot is not the strongest virtue of this film.

You know the drill. Some witchcraft, some psychedelic nonsense, some skin. Voilà. Excellent soundtrack. Enjoy!Read More »

A woman is strangled in the bath by a black-gloved killer who disposes of her body in a large trunk. The trunk is delivered to St. Hilda College, an exclusive finishing school. Betty-Anne, one of the female students, is strangled in the school cellar. The police, led by Inspector Durand, are called in to investigate. Suspects include La Floret, the voyeuristic gardener; Di Brazzi, the new swimming instructor; Mrs. Clay, the summer school French mistress; an old professor who collects birds; and a philandering young teacher called Richard. The murders continue but Jill, a keen amateur detective, helps the police identify the unlikely killer…Read More »

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Inmates at a prison in Rome rehearse for a performance of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

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Set in an Italian prison, Caesar Must Die tells the story of the production of Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar by a group of long-term or life prisoners. While the film is a documentary and the people in the film are actually all prisoners, it is filmed in such a cinematic way that you forget it’s a documentary that you’re watching. The film starts by the very end of the performance, and then skips back in time 6 months to when the staging of the production was announced. We see the most of the play from the audition period, through the many rehearsals around the prison, right to the actual performance in front of a crowd, of who we can assume are friends and family of the men.Read More »

The evil crime syndicate Thanatos is bent on taking over the world, using a magnetic wave generator that will cause all metal-based machinery to grind to a halt. However, the well-known British secret agent normally assigned to such tasks isn’t available, so they engage his civilian brother, Neil, to help. Neil, played by Neil Connery, is a world-class plastic surgeon, hypnotist, and lip-reader, which turn out to be precisely the skills required for thwarting Thanatos. (From IMDB)Read More »

The original Italian is La Viaccia (the name of the family farm which motivates the plot). The death of a wealthy patriarch in 1885 sets off an interfamily power struggle. Son Ferdinando buys out his other relatives in order to gain full control over the dead man’s property. But Ferdinando’s country-bumpkin nephew Amerigo holds out. Amerigo’s stance is weakened when he heads for the city and meets prostitute Bianca. To support her in the manner in which she is accustomed, Amerigo steals from his uncle. Disgraced in the eyes of his family, Amerigo decides to stay near his beloved Bianca by becoming a bouncer in her brothel.Read More »