A documentary immersion into all things Eco, Davide Ferrario’s film takes us on a tour of Umberto Eco’s private library, guided by the author himself. Combining new footage with material he shot with Eco in 2015 for a video installation for the Venice Biennale, Ferrario documents this incredible collection and the man who amassed it. As Eco leads us among the more than 50,000 volumes, we also gain insight into the library of the mind of this vastly prolific and original thinker.Read More »
Vera lives in the shadow of her famous father. Tired of her superficial life and relationships, she drifts through Roman high society. When she injures a child in a traffic accident in the suburbs, she forms an intense relationship with an eight-year-old boy and his father. But soon she must realize that also in this world she is only an instrument for others.Read More »
“What the camera sees it films pitilessly, without sympathy, without taking sides,” it begins. “This film only says farewell to the old Africa and gives the world a picture of its agony.” As colonialism collapsed in 1960s Africa, Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi rushed to the Dark Continent to record the horrifying battle for control that followed. Here was a world now ruled by rebels and refugees, plunderers and poachers, mercenaries and murderers, a land suddenly aflame with brutality, racism and unspeakable slaughter. At the risk of their own lives, the filmmakers’ cameras captured it all. The result is a daring and disturbing work that ranks among the greatest achievements in documentary cinema, an experience that remains as shocking – and shockingly relevant – as it was 40 years ago. This is AFRICA BLOOD AND GUTS!Read More »
Maicol’s mother Anita (Sabina Regazzi) is distracted by too many concerns to pay him much mind, so Maicol (Simone Tessarolo) seeks fulfillment in his inner life, which is very busy and rich. The five year-old has made a world for himself populated by situations and people from the movie Dune, and anything he says to anyone is unlikely to refer to anything else. When his unmarried working mother takes him with her to the train station for her rendezvous with her lover, he occupies himself during their long wait by exploring everthing in sight. Unused to dealing with anything but his fantasy life, after he gets himself lost he is of no help to the police in their search for his mother.Read More »
Nazisploitation porn film (an interesting combo) about a Paris bordello where willing women pleasure high-ranking members of the SS for cash. High productions values make this a classier affair than it has any right to be. Sets and costumes are impressive and definitely add to the enjoyment of the film. There are even a few period vehicles on display. The hardcore scenes are in limited supply and of varying quality. The first FFM sex scene is the highlight of the bunch. Some lesbian scenes try to spice up the second half of the film but the action is strictly softcore and bland. Thankfully, the lovely Brigitte Lahaie is on hand to add significant eye candy throughout (here still a brunette, a few years before her trademark blonde look). Exploitive elements are kept to a minimum but include some sexual bondage and a scene where one of the prostitutes thoroughly washes her vagina after sex with a commander. There’s also a gunshot suicide and a scene where one of the women is accused of spying on the Nazis and is tortured with live wires after being stripped and bound. Definitely not a film for everyone, but those familiar with daring 70’s porn films should know what to expect.Read More »
An Italian adaptation of The Sea Gull by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov.
A young writer is trapped between his awful actress mother (Laura Betti) and the knowledge that he has only a mediocre talent as a playwright and almost no force of character. After the young man in this story suffers the loss of his mistress to his self-satisfied novelist stepfather, his self-respect is so shattered that he commits suicide.Read More »
In 1958 Angelo, a rich and spoiled boy, enters a religious school, where students are tired of its vice-rector, and the strict rules and old-fashioned teaching methods of priests. Soon, Angelo exerts strong leadership among his peers and incites turmoil among them, helped by intellectual Franco and shy Camma. They expel the prefect from the school, organize a Grand Guignol show, and disappear the corpse of an old professor.Read More »
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A modest Neapolitan man meets a young woman with excessive hairiness. He exhibits her at fairs and marries her.It is after marriage that he receives a tempting offer from a French manager.Read More »
New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
The notorious final film from Pier Paolo Pasolini, Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom has been called nauseating, shocking, depraved, pornographic . . . It’s also a masterpiece. The controversial poet, novelist, and filmmaker’s transposition of the Marquis de Sade’s eighteenth-century opus of torture and degradation to Fascist Italy in 1944 remains one of the most passionately debated films of all time, a thought-provoking inquiry into the political, social, and sexual dynamics that define the world we live in.Read More »