Italian

Ermanno Olmi’s PROFESSION OF ARMS adds significantly to the reputation of one of the most distinctive Italian filmmakers of the post-war period. Olmi established his career with a number of beautifully observed studies of ordinary people, culminating in his winning the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes for “‘L’albero degli zoccoli’ The Tree of Wooden Clogs” in 1978. His subsequent work focused on historical subjects, leading to this magnificent film, one of the best Italian productions in years.Read More »

Naples, 1959. Renato Caccioppoli, university professor in pure mathematics, is a disillusioned and tormented man who lives the last days of his life. Grandson of Bakunin on his mother’s side, interned in a psychiatric hospital for his anti-fascist acts, abandoned by his wife, and now become estranged from his own Communist Party comrades and his University collaborators, he lives his life with disenchanted detachment until his last act, suicide.Read More »

A man who lost an arm and his family to a tribe of cannibals returns ten years later to bring back his teenager daughter, only to find that she grew up into a beautiful blonde woman who became the cannibals’ queen.Read More »

Some stories need to be told after they are over. We need to know that all the events are past and gone, in order to feel the same nostalgia as the storyteller. When a story is happening “now,” there is always the possibility of surprise and happiness. But when a story happened “then,” and it is a love story, then even the happy moments feel bittersweet, and of course that is the whole point of the story.Read More »

Italy 1973. Giuseppe Tritoni (Ugo Tognazzi) is an ultra-right-wing congressman that doesn’t agree anymore with his fascist party policy. He contacts many Italian Army officers and built a net of relationship in order to organize a Coup d’Etat (Golpe). Something goes wrong and the Interior Minister (Home Secretary) Mr. Li Masi (Lino Pugliesi) got the all information about the attempted Golpe. So the Minister organizes a counter-Golpe.Read More »

A priest undergoes a crisis of faith after a young woman’s confession ignites desires he can’t ignore, sharing in her sin through a forbidden act.Read More »

Stefano, a young restorer, is commissioned to save a controversial mural located in the church of a small, isolated village.Read More »

VITO AND THE OTHERS is the groundbreaking film which drew international attention to the problem of neglected youth and street crime in poverty-stricken Naples. The film’s opening moments are startling and deeply disturbing. A despairing Rosario has just murdered his wife and daughter at the dinner table on New Year’s Eve. Somehow, Vito quietly convinces his father to drop the gun, spare their lives and call the police. Placed in the custody of sexually abusive relatives, Vito is left free to roam the trash-strewn back streets of Naples where he and his friends engage in drug abuse, prostitution and petty crime. Ably acted by a large cast of nonprofessional street kids, VITO AND THE OTHERS is a heartrending portrait of innocents without a future.
—Jim StarkRead More »

Gradually picking up dramatic steam as it moves through its 2 1/2 hour running time, this gangster film is loosely based on the career of one of Naples’ most sadistic crime bosses, Raffaele Cutolo. Here, the mobster (played by Ben Gazzara) is simply called “The Professor” and is first introduced in prison where he landed after murdering a stranger who was flirting with his sister. From prison he begins to move up the Camorra ladder when he recruits inmates to join him in bringing down the leading crime boss and has his sister pay off their families in return. Without ever leaving prison “The Professor” succeeds in replacing the ruling “don” but far from resting on his laurels he starts to wipe out his enemies and anyone whose loyalty might be in question. Still hampered by his incarceration, he finally escapes and joins forces with the Cosa Nostra and even begins to put major politicians in his pocket. It seems like nothing can stop him until a lone and much-benighted police chief (Leo Gullotta) enters the picture.
Eleanor Mannikka
New York TimesRead More »