Stefano Dionisi Movies

Arriving on the eponymous Sicilian island with his wife and child to investigate the murder of a would-be informant, FBI agent Matt Benson (Harvey Keitel) attempts to contact the only person who knows the truth behind the killing - the dead man's eleven-year-old son. As Benson races to reach the boy before the mafia, it's only a matter of time before the endangered boy meets the same fate as his father. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Rolf Schuebel makes his directorial debut with this subtly-told true story about one the 1930s' most memorable melodies. Set just prior to WWII, the film focuses on Hungarian beauty Ilona (Erika Marozsan) and her significant other Laszlo Szabo (Joachim Krol), a dapper owner of Budapest's finest restaurant. Though Ilona is known for her prowess on the piano, the two decide to hire a professional as the finishing touch on their classy establishment. They hire Andras (Stefano Dionisi), a taciturn man with a certain mysterious charm. Meanwhile, regular customer and German businessman Hans (Ben Becker) finds himself utterly and completely smitten with the vivacious Ilona. When she spurns his advances, he drunkenly jumps into the Danube. Laszlo manages to rescue him and the three grow to become close friends. At the same time, Andras and Ilona grow to be something more than friends, and -- with the knowledge and approval of Laszlo -- they become lovers. Later, Andras composes a tune dedicated to his new consort and Laszlo quietly arranges for a couple of Austrian record execs to come to the restaurant to listen. Oozing with jaded ennui, the song, sans lyrics, quickly becomes an international success, yet it also seems to cast a dark spell over listeners -- people cannot help but commit suicide. In Hungary alone, 157 people killed themselves in the span of eight weeks. At the same time, the Third Reich marches into Austria. As the film progresses, Hans returns to Budapest, this time as an SS officer. There he offers Laszlo, who is Jewish, and who offers him free passage in exchange for money. This film was screened at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

While pioneering pre-feminist author George Sand has been the subject of several film biographies focusing on her ten year relationship with Frederick Chopin, Les enfants du siècle looks at an earlier period in Sand's life, in particular her stormy romance with poet Alfred de Musset. In the early 1830's, Baroness Dudevant (Juliette Binoche) has abandoned her husband and arrives in Paris with her children in tow as rioting divides the city. The Baroness decides to reinvent herself and pursue a career as a writer; she renames herself George Sand, begins wearing clothes modeled after men's suits, and smokes cigarettes while penning manifestos denouncing marriage and affirming a woman's right to sexual satisfaction. Alfred de Musset (Benoit Magimel), a noted author, finds her brash nature fascinating, and they become first friends, then lovers as he helps her craft her literary efforts. However, Sand is six years older than de Musset, which leads to a severe conflict with his family; the couple heads to Venice in search of escape and inspiration, but Alfred decides that he prefers the city's brothels to George's company and that they should keep separate rooms from now on. George makes the acquaintance of an Italian doctor, Pagello (Stefano Dionisi), with whom she has a passionate affair; the realization that he's driven her into the arms of another man proves too much for Alfred, who returns to France. Eventually, George leaves Pagello and gives Alfred another chance, a decision she comes to regret. Les Enfants du Siecle had its world premiere at the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director Mike Figgis, creator of the Academy award-winning Leaving Las Vegas, presented this film's world premiere at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. The story is made up of non-linear, interconnected episodes about a man at different stages of his life, all of which explicate thematically the film's title. The film also juxtaposes a retelling of the classic biblical fall-from-grace tale of Adam and Eve. We see the leading character, Nic, at 5 years old as a boy in colonial Kenya, at age 16 in swinging London in the '60s, and as a grown man working as a film ethnographer. Each sequence shows how he lost some degree of his sexual innocence, whether it be through love, puberty, or masturbation. Shot all over the world, including Tunisia, Italy, and England, the film is an exploration of sex and loss through the life of one individual. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide

Paralyzed after an auto accident, wheelchair-bound Pablo (Stefano Dionisi) teaches at a Rome residential community center for the disabled. Initially, he resents conscientious objector Daniele (Massimo Bellinzoni), but they soon become friends. However, a romantic triangle develops after blonde Chiara (Stefania Rocca) comes between the two. With a blowup to 35mm, this film played at several 1997-98 fests (Sundance, San Jose). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Italian chemist turned author Primo Levi was interred at Auschwitz during WW II until 1945. Following his release, he returned to his native Turin and penned the wrenching autobiographical account of life in the concentration camp If This Is a Man. In 1962, he wrote a companion book, The Truce, a chronicle of his hellish nine-month journey from the camp to Turin. Both books are crucial entries in the history of the Holocaust. This careful adaptation of the second book took filmmaker Francesco Rosi 10 years to make. Levi's trek begins when shortly after the Germans leave, four Russian horsemen ride up and tear down the gates of Auschwitz. Levi is quickly aboard one of the first outbound trucks. Over the next few months, he goes to many different countries, and along the way he meets and is befriended by assorted fellow travelers. Through them, his appreciation of life and freedom slowly returns, but with it also comes a deep rage and an abiding guilt at having survived, a guilt that may have led Levi to suicide in 1987. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This drama, set in 1938, chronicles a month in the life of the Portuguese journalist Pereira. He is first seen as a lonely, widowed, and overweight editor of the culture page of a second-rate Lisbon newspaper. Earlier in his career, he had been a news reporter. Pereira is fascinated with old literature; he is also obsessed with death. He hires himself an assistant, Monteiro Rossi, to prepare obituaries for old writers before they die. The young man and his girlfriend are both passionate fighters against the dictatorship in Portugal. They, along with a German Jewish woman, help to draw Pereira out of his dusty old books and spark his interest in the current political turmoil of Europe. Eventually they strongly encourage him to use his position to post notice of the impending dangers to the public. At their urging, Pereira is emboldened to publish his translation of an anti-German French short story. Although he sneaks it past the censors, his editor catches it and Pereira is in deep trouble. Meanwhile Rossi leaves his job to join the underground revolutionaries. Pereira keeps sending money to Rossi's girl, but he doesn't become totally committed to the cause until he meets up with the philosophical cardiologist who narrates the tale. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This television miniseries recounts the biblical story of Joseph, the 11th son of the Hebrew patriarch, Jacob. Joseph (Paul Mercurio) has an extraordinary gift: the ability to interpret dreams. He also enjoys the special favor of his father. One day, Jacob (Martin Landau) presents his son a splendid coat as evidence of his deep affection for him. Envious, his brothers sell Joseph into bondage to an Egyptian. But Joseph eventually rises out of slavery after he interprets a troublesome dream of Pharaoh (Stefano Dionisi) as a sign that Egypt will experience seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Impressed by Joseph's strange powers, Pharaoh elevates him to the highest government position in Egypt next to Pharaoh's. Then Joseph wisely directs Egypt to store grain during the years of plenty. Finally, after famine strikes, Egypt sets bountiful tables as before, but other lands suffer severe deprivation. Jacob sends Joseph's brothers to Egypt for grain. After gaining an audience with the esteemed Joseph, they do not recognize him. So much time has passed, after all. And who could imagine that their own brother, a mere Hebrew slave, could have cast off his yoke and ascended to such heights of power? As the film moves toward its conclusion, viewers wonder whether Joseph will hold his brothers to account for their wrongdoing -- or reconcile with them and renew familial relationships. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide

The performer known as Farinelli, born Carlo Broschi (and played in this film by Stefano Dionisi), was famous in the 18th century as the world's greatest castrato, a male singer whose testicles were removed in childhood so that he would retain the high, clear voice of a child while gaining the control and power of an adult vocalist. A strikingly gifted singer with a range of more than three octaves, Farinelli was given little choice but to sacrifice his manhood in exchange for his art, and as his career was founded on the surgery that would dramatically restrict his off-stage life, his art was in turn hemmed in by his family. Carlo's father declared early on that he should only sing the songs of his brother Riccardo (Enrico LoVerso), and while Farinelli's fame gives Riccardo's career a needed boost, the mediocrity of Riccardo's compositions holds Farinelli back. When the singer is given the opportunity to work with the great composer Handel (Jeroen Krabbe), his brother's jealously and Farinelli's own poorly chosen career alliances stand in his way. The brothers' often contentious partnership also extends to the bedroom; while Farinelli's performances set women on fire, he's physically incapable of satisfying them sexually, so he provides the foreplay in a bizarre game of seduction and then turns his conquests over to his brother. Farinelli il Castrato received a Golden Globe award as Best Foreign Language Film of 1994 and an Academy Award nomination in the same category. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The relationship between a working class father and son provides the focus of this Italian drama set in Genoa. Corrado works as a night watchman on the Genoan harbor. His wife works at a dry cleaners. He is close to retiring, but finds he misses the factory where he spent his youth. He gets his son Gabriele a job there instead. Gabriele wants to pursue his own interests and soon quits. This creates a great gulf between father and son. The conflict is only partially resolved at the film's end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Cristina is passionate, charming, magnetic and forceful, and when she gets involved with Sergio while he is studying at the university, the experience is nearly overwhelming for him. He is easygoing and somewhat aimless; she is determined to have a career as an opera singer. Soon enough she is pregnant and they have a son. He is bemused by the whole experience; she is progressively more irritated by his puzzlement. Before long she has abandoned Sergio and her son, taking work as a singer in Paris. Four years later, this supremely self-concerned woman comes back and wants to claim her son. However, Sergio has devoted the past four years of his life to the boy, and his parenting is not something to shrug off lightly. Enraged, she brings out her big guns, claiming she was pregnant when she met Sergio and that the child is not his. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Several different stories are brought together by the end of this film, which chronicles how a number of Italians spend, or mis-spend their Saturday evenings prior to becoming acquainted during an auto collision. In one appealing story, a stripper agrees to do her act for a group of well-heeled teenagers while their parents are away. When the mother of one of them returns and calls the cops on her, the boys who arranged her performance run away with her, and she and the lads become friendly. In another story, two adrenaline-addicted, druggy girls allow themselves to be picked up by a pair of novice womanizers. In another story, the stakes in a poker game grow uncomfortably high and involve bets which have nothing to do with money. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide