Giovanni Frezza Movies
In this run-of-the-mill, derivative film about vulgar road warriors in the year 2019 -- after a nuclear holocaust -- the two macho heroes (Giancarlo Prete and Fred Williamson) have to single-handedly save a band of religious nomads plagued by the evil Templars. Between scenes and characters lifted from several preceding successes, flat acting, and a general lack of originality, I Nuovi Barbari has nothing new about it. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fred Williamson, Anna Kanakis, (more)
Christopher Connelly (Trauma) plays an archaeologist who desecrates the tomb of a 5,000-year-old god of cruelty and evil, and is temporarily blinded by lasers from a blue stone in the wall. Meanwhile, a sightless old woman gives his daughter, Susie (Brigitta Boccoli), an identical stone -- the Evil Eye -- in a town square. Back in New York, Susie's eyes start glowing blue as she plays with her brother, Tommy (Giovanni Frezza), and her babysitter, Jamie Lee (Cinzia De Ponti). Everything goes haywire after that. The apartment security guard plunges to his death in an elevator shaft, a cobra shows up in the living room and gets lodged in Susie's esophagus, and her mother's friend, Luke (Carlo De Mejo), turns to sand. It seems that the evil god is using Susie as a vessel to open a rift in the space-time continuum. Before too long, Susie and Tommy are jetting back and forth through the rift to Egypt, Jamie Lee has disappeared, and Susie's mother seeks out a man named Adrian Marcato (see Rosemary's Baby) to exorcise the demon. That night, the stuffed birds which he keeps in his store come to life and attack him, rending his flesh as he dies screaming. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Christopher Connelly, Martha Taylor, (more)
- 1979
The old Guy De Maupassant story The Devil would seem to be the springboard for the Italian-made Leap Into the Void. Michel Piccoli plays an Italian jurist whose sister Anouk Aimee is a bit "light in the belfry". Piccoli entreats Michele Placido to convince the awkward Aimee to kill herself. The results are unexpected, and fascinating. As with most of his work, director Marco Bellocchio uses the seemingly petty problems of his bourgeois characters as a mirror of what is going on in society at large. Leap Into the Void was originally released as Salto nel Vuoto; both Michel Piccoli and Anouk Aimee won Best Acting awards at the 1980 Cannes Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Anouk Aimée, (more)
