Francesca Neri Movies

Their father (Barry Morse) is a wealthy, world-renowned painter, and he brought the three siblings (two sons and a daughter) up in lavish style. The three children have had a falling out over the years, as much due to their differing lifestyles as anything else. Gregorio (Carlo Verdone) is a radio disk jockey, freewheeling and not very conventional. Vanni (Sergio Rubini) is a very stiff-necked concert pianist, the soul of propriety. Finally, Livia (Francesca Neri) is used to being the center of attention and the toast of all men's eyes - which she hardly is for her brothers. In this domestic comedy, when these three individualist's father goes missing, they unite to find him and begin to work out their differences in a more amicable way than before. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Transformed into a superhero during a secret World War II military experiment, Captain America (Matt Salinger) awakens from suspended animation forty years later to face his old enemy, the Nazi warrior Red Skull (Scott Paulin). This low-budget adaptation of the Marvel comic book series received very little attention upon its delayed release. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

Italian director Pupi Avati contrasts his 2007 English-language thriller The Hideout with this sentimental, distinctively Italian comedy concerning a failed actor who can't help but obsess over his lackluster career. After the depressive thespian makes a half-hearted suicide attempt, his three daughters flock to be by his side and organize a surprise dinner party designed to set him up with a potential mate. Later, as dinner gets underway, the situation takes an unexpected turn. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A young couple readying for the birth of their first child agree to let a team of documentary filmmakers follow them on their journey as they go from being a perfect couple to a perfect family. The only problem is that as the pregnancy progresses, their relationship falls apart. Now, the experience is decidedly bittersweet as they embrace the joy of a new baby and the pain of breaking up, all while the ever more intimate gaze of the filmmakers' lens captures their every moment. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

The English title of this complex Italian film is apt. Featuring 65 main characters and 130 speaking parts (famous faces abound and many of the actors appeared gratis), and ranging in tone from tartly humorous to darkly tragic, it presents 30 interwoven slices from the lives of modern day Romans during a single day. The lone, silent figure of a lone jogger provides a sort of continuity between the vignettes. Beginning at sunset of the previous day, the jogger is seen warming up on his apartment terrace, looking for all the world as if he would like to jump. The rest of the stories seem to be randomly presented. Stories include the robbery of a Chinese restaurant that causes a birthday celebrant to die of fright, two different newlyweds who find themselves attracted to each other, an opportunistic mechanic's plan to capitalize on the death of a rival, a sneaky, sadistic meter maid and others. One uniting feature of the stories is their underlying bitter assessment of modern humanity. People are seen as selfish and basically cruel, still the stories move quickly and the balance between humor and drama, affection and cynicism, and shallowness and complexity is carefully maintained. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A father's love for his troubled daughter may be the only thing that can save her in this drama from writer and director Pupi Avati. It's 1938, Benito Mussolini is the fascist ruler of Italy, and Michele (Silvio Orlando) is a high school teacher living in Bologna. Michele and his wife Delia (Francesca Neri) have a teenage daughter Giovanna (Alba Rohrwacher), and Giovanna is the most important thing in Michele's life -- so much so that Delia often finds herself wishing her husband was as devoted to her as he is to their child. As much as Michele indulges her, Giovanna is an unstable and disturbed young woman, and one day in a fit of anger Giovanna murders one of her friends. Sergio (Ezio Greggio), Michele and Delia's next door neighbor, is a police officer who uses his authority to help his friends, and he's fond enough of Delia to see that her family is well cared for, but Giovanna's crime is too severe for him to be able to help, and while the courts spare the girl's life, she's sent to a mental hospital where she receives only the most minimal care. Michele stands by Giovanna and tends to her in the hospital, leaving Delia at home to look after their home with the help of Sergio. Il Papa di Giovanna (aka Giovanna's Father) was an official selection at the 2008 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Noted Italian comic Francesco Nuti directs and stars in this oddball romantic comedy about a man who falls for his girlfriend's lesbian lover. Divorced, middle-aged, and unattached, Dado (Nuti) is bowled over when he meets wild gal Francesca (Agathe de la Fontaine), who wrecks his car, beds him, and then dumps him by scrawling an AIDS threat on his bathroom mirror. Utterly crushed, Dado mopes about for days until he meets beautiful engineer Andrea (Francesca Neri) who warns him to stay away from her girlfriend, Francesca. Dado and Andrea start a no-holds-barred struggle for her heart until, tired of them both, Francesca leaves town. Soon the passions of animosity between Andrea and Dado turn into the passions of romance. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Virginia (Lea Massati) is shocked to learn her 25-year marriage to Maurizio (Erland Josephson) is plagued by his philandering betrayal in this distaff tear-jerking drama. She finds solace in her two daughters and Silvano (Jean-Luc Consuelo), her longtime admirer, a cellist in the local symphony. Virginia also tries to help a troubled runaway teen, with little success, and tries to move forward with her once-idyllic life that has been shattered by her husband's infidelity. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A police captain plays a mental game of cat and mouse with a convicted terrorist as they cross Italy in an armored car. The story is set in 1983 and takes place over a 24-hour period. The prisoner Braccio, serving the fourth year of a 30-year sentence, is told that he is going to Milan where he can spend one month visiting with his lover Giulia. His guard is known only as the Captain. As they travel, the kindly captain encourages Braccio to speak of the past and the events that led to his conviction. Braccio doesn't know that the Captain is really after the names of his former cohorts. Along the way, the two have several key encounters that eventually lead Braccio, who will get a reduced sentence if he rats, to make a painful decision. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In 1974, many died when terrorists bombed the Piazza del Loggia in Brescia, Italy. The incident was part of a series of politically-motivated terrorist attacks (some of which may or may not have been covertly government sponsored) that threatened to tear Italy apart during the 1970s. Adapted from the events surrounding the Brescia bombing, this tense thriller begins almost 20 years afterward in the office of Claudia, a psychoanalyst whose sister was killed in the blast. Her newest client is Tancredi. He says that he is a journalist and that he suffers from having witnessed numerous atrocities in Bosnia. The events he describes sound just like those of Brescia, and Claudia, who still grieves for her sister, begins to wonder if Tancredi is telling the truth. Her investigation proves that he is lying, but it leads her to wonder why he has chosen her as his psychoanalyst. After talking to her husband, Claudia visits her old mentor who suggests she continue working with Tancredi but warns her not to call in the police. After that the story frequently jumps to 1998. By then Claudia and her newborn baby have become part of the witness protection program and she is preparing to testify against those involved in covering up government-sponsored terrorist activity. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Matrimony is a drama about the complexity of relationships. On Christmas Eve, perfect housewife Giulia Francesca Neri is worried about a family heirloom which has cracked and rushes to the junk shop to get it repaired -- little anticipating her perfect marriage is about to fall to pieces as well. While everyone in Bologna is making last minute preparations, Giulia runs into her childhood sweetheart, Fausto Paolo Sassanelli. The meeting rekindles old feelings and Giulia realizes that to create the perfect marriage which everyone adores, she has sacrificed her own personality. While waiting to meet her parents at the station, she climbs into a departing train and disappears. The family slowly disintegrates, as if she were the binding element. Cristina Comencini, the daughter of well-known Italian director Luigi Comencini, has written several scripts for her father before launching her own film career in 1988. Matrimoni is also scripted by her, and based on an idea by her and Roberta Mazzoni. It is definitely a woman's film, which tries examine complex feelings of women caught between familial responsibility and individuality. Matrimoni was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi

An attractive circus performer (Francesca Neri) gets gang raped and takes justice in her own hands using her shooting skills. Things go awry, however, and she ends up on the run from the police. This undistinguished melodrama is not a high point in the career of celebrated Spanish director Carlos Saura. ~ Yuri German, Rovi