Vittorio Gassman

20 years after the monumental “I mostri” which was a great example of Italian sketch comedy, 3 of the greatest Italian directors ever (Risi, Monicelli, Scola), the best Italian writers ever (Age, Scarpelli), the best Italian actors ever (Tognazzi, Gassmann, Sordi) and one of the most beautiful woman in the world (Ornella Muti) participate to this great tribute. The last sketch (a funeral) is symbolic : the death of the Italian comedy, which made Italy the second country in the world for cinematographic productions during 50’s and 60’s.Read More »

Synopsis:
Gerardo, an aspiring actor, trying unsuccessfully to cross over from comedy to tragedy, is involved, due to his ability to mimic dialects of Italy, in a scam concocted by Lallo against a rich cloth-merchant.Read More »

Five people, all united by the fact of being on a train to Monte Carlo, will find themselves being involved in the murder of an elderly millionaire of Dutch origin, a regular guest of the glamorous Riviera location….Read More »

Story
A fugitive is pursued by a lawman who is obsessed with his capture.Read More »

This two hour film contains no less than twenty different vignettes. Traffic jams, a father passing on to his son the deceitful ways to survive everyday life, punch drunk ex-fighters, exploitation of a blind man are among the many stories. Vittorio Gassmann and Ugo Tognazzi lead the cast of actors in this film directed by Dino Risi.
from AllmovieRead More »

The Harvard Film Archive writes:
A rare science fiction foray from Altman, Quintet is set in a future ice age where people in an otherwise barren society gather with religious zeal to play a mysterious board game that is suddenly transformed into a life-or-death struggle by corrupt, power-hungry officials. With beautifully dystopian winter vistas filmed in the Arctic Circle and on the site of Montreal’s former Expo ’67 complex, the all-encompassing alternate reality of Quintet offers no comfort or solace. However, it is the hopeless darkness that makes any sign of humanity shockingly foreign and blindingly bright and perhaps helps explain why Altman later remarked, regarding the film’s poor critical response, “I have this great optimism that always translates into pessimism.”Read More »

Plot:
Questi fantasmi is based on what was a very popular play by Eduardo De Filippo. In fact, so popular that it was filmed three times during the ’50s and ’60s. The version uploaded here was the latter of these three adaptations, directed by Renato Castellani, and starring Vittorio Gassman and Sophia Loren in the principal parts of the married couple, who moves into a house that may or may not be haunted. Its “classic” pedigree notwithstanding, the film feels very much like a ’60s production, and it is not Castellani’s best work, even if the charming performances by Gassman and (especially) Loren manage to keep things interesting. Possibly best of all is the opening sequence depicting the moment the two fall in love on a rooftop. over a cup of coffee, so to speak.Read More »

Quote:
However trivial – or downright ridiculous – the plot may become, Freda shows a mastery of sheer cinematic style that puts most of the more highly-touted Italian directors to shame. Like Minnelli or Sirk, Mizoguchi or Ophuls, Visconti or Fellini, he is in love with the visual and sensuous possibilities of the camera itself. The breathtaking decor and costumes (by Vittorio Nino Novarese, who went on to dress the most elephantine of Hollywood epics) are as strong a dramatic presence as the actors themselves. That’s no slight against the cast: Gassman was as great an actor as Marcello Mastroianni; Sanson and Canale are as strong as they are sensual, as gutsy as they are glamorous – a world away from the insipid sex objects that decorate most action movies!Read More »

Synopsis:
Set in Rome and its surroundings, the film tells in a frighteningly realistic, ruthless and grotesque the evil of two powerful men of Italy in the seventies: a Director of illegal buildings (Vittorio Gassman), extremist fascist, and an upright judge, cynical looking in part to the Italian law (Ugo Tognazzi). Both can not stand each other, given the contrasts between the two men in any social, political and philosophical. Everyone hates each other and would like to delete it, but just because of the bad example that the two men give power to the people, many Italians are adversely affected because of cheating and rudeness of the fascist manufacturer and the communist magistrate. The director Dino Risi underlines the misdeeds and the weakness of the Italian people to react accordingly, by focusing on the story of these two men who are each other’s opposite of the net.Read More »