Italy

  • Eriprando Visconti – Una spirale di nebbia AKA A Spiral of Mist (1977)

    1971-1980Eriprando ViscontiGialloItalyThriller

    The lovely Maria Teresa is unhappily married with the impotent lawyer Marcello. Maria Teresa’s marriage is contrasted by the passionate Valeria, who is killed during a chase. Is Valeria’s husband the murderer? Maria Teresa helps him…Read More »

  • Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub – Sicilia! (1999)

    1991-2000ArthouseDanièle HuilletDramaItalyJean-Marie Straub

    Synopsis
    After many years away, Silvestro returns from northern Italy to the Sicilian countryside of his childhood to visit his mother. On his journey, he has conversations with strangers in a port, fellow passengers on a train, his mother, and a knife-sharpener.Read More »

  • Alberto Lattuada – Christopher Columbus (1985)

    1981-1990AdventureAlberto LattuadaItalyTV

    Under the direction of Alberto Lattuada, the film traces with economy and clarity the development of the dream to sail west in order to establish a new route to the riches of the East.Read More »

  • Kim Rossi Stuart – Anche libero va bene AKA Along the Ridge AKA Libero (2006)

    2001-2010DramaItalyKim Rossi Stuart

    Writer-director Kim Rossi-Stuart helms and stars in the relentlessly disturbing Italian-language domestic drama Libero, from a script he co-penned with Federico Starnone, Linda Ferri and Francesco Giammusso. The story opens on a household in Rome, where single father Renato (Stuart) juggles responsibilities in his job as a cinematographer with his paternal obligations, which involve raising his son and daughter: teenager Viola (Marta Nobili) and primary schooler Tommi (Alessandro Morace). Read More »

  • Giorgio Ferroni – La Notte dei diavoli AKA Night of the Devils (1972)

    1971-1980GialloGiorgio FerroniHorrorItaly

    Italian genre film legend Gianni Garko stars in this terrifying masterpiece of the macabre, based on Tolstoy’s story The Wurdulak, itself previously adapted in Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath. A nameless mentally ill man (Garko) is found wandering in the woods, his mind lost in fever dreams of gruesome, sexual imagery. After admitted into a psychiatric hospital, the man flashes back to his nightmarish encounter with a backwoods family whose dynasty holds a centuries old curse. Read More »

  • Luigi Comencini & Nanni Loy & Luigi Magni – Quelle strane occasioni AKA Strange Occasion (1976)

    1971-1980ComedyItalyLuigi ComenciniLuigi MagniNanni Loy

    The first episode with Paolo Villaggio was the centre of controversy over its tastelessness, resulting in director Loy removing his name from it. The star resides in Amsterdam with his wife, making very little money selling specialty Italian food; one day he crosses paths with a local bigwig who notices the generous size of his member and, soon, Villaggio starts bringing home lots of dough – appearing in mask and costume, billed as the “Italian Superman”, in live porn shows making love to nubile girls stretched out on a large plate of pasta!Read More »

  • Raffaello Matarazzo – La nave delle donne maledette AKA The Ship of Condemned Women (1953)

    1951-1960AdventureDramaItalyRaffaello Matarazzo

    Caged of the sins of their past, they break for freedom climaxed by an orgy of wanton lust and revenge.
    This interesting twist to “the ship of lost souls” theme has a ship of women convicts being taken to the colonies to be kept under control. One of these, Britt, has been framed in the killing of her child. Manni, the lawyer responsible for her conviction, sneaks on board after suffering remorse for his deeds. Also on board ship is Britt’s cousin, Weber, the real murderer who has gained her passage through a marriage to a rich businessman. She allows her husband to die in order to inherit his riches, and then takes up with the captain. When Britt and Manni publically denounce her, the prisoners mutiny, killing Weber and the captain. A storm rises up, and despite the…Read More »

  • Roberto Andò – Sotto falso nome AKA Under False Name (2004)

    2001-2010DramaItalyRoberto AndòThriller

    A writer at the height of his fame: Daniel Boltanski, known to the world as bestselling author Serge Novak, lives in Switzerland with his wife Nicoletta. Her son Fabrizio is getting married on the isle of Capri. On the way there, on the hydrofoil, Daniel meets an extraordinarily beautiful woman, Mila, and they spend the night together. Daniel wakes up in the morning after a wild night of sex to discover there’s no trace of her. He’s late for church; everyone’s waiting for him. As the radiant bride enters, Daniel realizes she’s the woman he’s just spent the night with. But they secretly keep up their affair, abandoning themselves to their passion. It’s the start of a relentless mechanism where Daniel is the target of a devious blackmailer…Read More »

  • Francesco Rosi – Salvatore Giuliano [+Extras] (1962)

    1961-1970DramaFrancesco RosiItaly

    Synopsis
    In 1950, 28-year-old outlaw Salvatore Giuliano is found gunned down in a Sicilian courtyard. Little is as it seems. The film moves back and forth between the late 1940s, when Giuliano and other reprobates were recruited by separatist politicians to do their fighting, and the days leading up to and following Giuliano’s death. After Sicily’s self-rule is declared, will the outlaws be pardoned as promised? And why does Giuliano order his gang to fire on a peaceful May Day rally? Police, Carabinieri, and Mafia have their uses for him. There’s a trial after his death: will the truth come out or does the code of silence help protect those in power? (IMDB)Read More »

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