Remo Girone Movies
Guillaume Depardieu, Jeanne Balibar, and Michel Piccoli star in director Jacques Rivette's adaptation of the Balzac novella The Duchesse de Langeais, which tells the tale of a Parisian socialite who is romantically pursued by a Napoleonic war hero. The story begins as grieving French general Armand de Montriveau (Depardieu) arrives at a Majorcan church to speak with French nun Antionette le Langeais (Balibar). General de Montriveau believes le Langeais to be a woman he once loved dearly, but eventually lost. As the pair is reunited under the watchful eyes of the presiding priest and mother superior, their romantic past gradually comes into focus. It was five years ago that bored socialite Antoinette first became enamored with the wounded soldier whose rousing tales of adventure offered exciting contrast to her highly refined lifestyle. Though she was married at the time, the coquettish cosmopolitan quickly fell under the spell of the commanding military man -- who vowed that very night that Antoinette would be his lover. As their romance grows more complicated, the passionate pair finds it increasingly difficult to deny the powerful connection that binds them. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeanne Balibar, Guillaume Depardieu, (more)
German filmmaker Tom Tykwer helmed this feature, which was adapted from a screenplay co-authored by the late Krzysztof Kieslowski. Philippa (Cate Blanchett) is a British schoolteacher living in Italy, whose husband fell victim to a drug overdose, as have several of her students. Marco Vendice (Stefano Santospago) is a powerful local drug dealer who sold the dope which killed Philippa's husband, as well as a number of neighborhood teens. Disgusted with the inability of the police to bring Vendice to justice, Philippa takes the law into her own hands, planting a bomb which is intended to kill the dealer. However, Philippa's plan goes awry, and instead the bomb kills four innocent bystanders. Philippa is arrested and brought before the police for questioning, not knowing that the interrogating officer in charge of the case, Pini (Mattia Sbragia), is one of Vendice's secret business associates. More comfortable with English than Italian, Philippa requests a translator, and multilingual officer Filippo (Giovanni Ribisi) is brought in to serve as interpreter. Filippo finds himself falling in love with Philippa, and with his help she's able to escape and go into hiding; however, despite her deep regrets about the loss of four lives in the bombing, she is still bound and determined to see Vendice dead. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cate Blanchett, Giovanni Ribisi, (more)
- 1997
A glorious dancer and a beautiful actress, Marquise (originally known as mademoiselle Du Parc) won the hearts of some of mid-17th-century France's brightest lights, including Moliere, the actor Racine and even the Sun King himself, Louis XIV. Beginning with considerable comedy and ending with almost Grecian tragedy, this lush costumer recounts the story of her life amidst the muck and splendor of medieval Paris and beyond. It was Moliere and his companion Gros-Rene who discovered Marquise dancing in the rain before an eager crowd of men. The girl's father collects the money they offer while she dutifully services each and every one. Moliere, Gros-Rene and their acting troupe pause briefly to watch her dance. The rotund comic Gros-Rene immediately falls head over heels, and even though she is with an old man he rushes up to propose and offers to steal her away to Paris. Marquise accepts and so launches her career. Though there will be many other men in her life, she keeps a special place in her heart reserved only for her unlikely spouse. Marquise later becomes involved with Racine. The two work together often, but as his career takes off towards the stars, hers goes in another direction, one that leads to tragedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sophie Marceau, Bernard Giraudeau, (more)
- 1995
This romantic thriller follows the exploits of a single mother who assists a handsome Ukranian refugee and finds nothing but trouble. Anna supports her 8-year old daughter by driving a cab. One day she observes an armed robbery at a service station. Both of the robbers are Ukranian refugees. One of them is Andrei whom Anna helps escape. Andrei claims to be a ballet dancer who came to Budapest to look for work. Anna takes him in; they become lovers. Soon he finds a job at a sleazy strip club, the Red Colibri. The club is owned by Ukrainians at least one of whom is a gangster. Anna becomes involved with the strippers and the club's owner and resident gangster. Trouble ensues as Anna gets more deeply involved. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1990
In this leisurely melodrama, a middle-aged man has resented his schoolteacher mother for decades because he imagines she had an affair with a colleague. In fact, he hasn't spoken to her in almost as long. This resentment has scarred his emotional life irreparably. Only when he hastens to his mother's deathbed and arrives too late does he get a letter from her via her supposed lover, which corrects his misconceptions and explains the scene we see at the beginning. In it, she is reading a poem to her son when he is a boy, which reads: "Footsteps echo in memory along the corridor we didn't take to the door we never opened." ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ottavia Piccolo, Massimo Ghini, (more)
- 1990
Serafina, Pulcinella and Isabella are three lusty, beautiful members of a traveling theatrical troupe touring the French countryside in the 17th century, leaving in their wake a crop of broken hearts. This picaresque romantic comedy is based on the 1863 novel Le Capitaine Fracasse by Theophile Gauthier. In the story, the company stops at a castle owned by the scruffy young Baron de Sigognac (Vincent Perez), who is deeply smitten with the charms of the middle-aged (and somewhat morose) beauty Serafina (Ornella Muti). He decides to travel with the company, and Serafina perversely tries to get him to woo the youngest of the company, the newly bereaved Isabella (Emmanuelle Béart). When the company plays before a group of noblemen, the three women make yet more conquests, a few of them unwelcome, and a series of competitions and duels for the hearts of the lovely ladies follows, before everyone settles down with the "right" person. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Massimo Troisi, Ornella Muti, (more)
- 1985
The sacrifices made by the three grown children for their elderly father are realistically portrayed in this award-winning first feature film by Nicola de Rinaldo. A family crisis suddenly looms when their old homestead on the coast is threatened with foreclosure due to nonpayment of back taxes. The father in the family (played by Luigi Compagnone, the author of this story) does not have a clue as to the problem. In the meantime, his son Nino (Remo Girone), an aspiring actor, demeans himself by begging for money from a moneybags producer. His son Isidro (Mario Scarpeta) almost prostitutes himself to get cash, and his daughter Lucia (Lina Polito) seeks out her former fiance, now married, and asks him for the money. He leads her on, she agrees to have sex with him, and then he says he cannot give her the money, but another man can. One cannot help wondering why no one checked out Dad's real feelings before bending their lives out of shape.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Remo Girone, Lina Polito, (more)
- 1982
Set in a fictional area in Northern Italy during World War I, this story spins around Marcello (Jimmy Briscoe), a man blessed with the wealth of his landowner parents, but cursed with a "deformity" he cannot alter -- he is a dwarf. His family is ashamed and keeps him secluded, and their feelings pretty much exacerbate Marcello's loneliness. The unfortunate man is even resented by maimed soldiers returning from the front lines because he is exempt from military service. As though life were not already difficult, Marcello falls in love with María (Nathalie Nell) a prostitute, not knowing that she has a boyfriend, Cesare (Antonio Marsina) who plans on robbing and then killing him. Cesare is supposedly Marcello's good friend. María predicts Marcello's danger while doing a reading of her tarot cards, and in the end, she is able to save his life -- though at a cost to her own well-being that did not seem to have been in the cards. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jimmy Briscoe, Nathalie Nell, (more)
- 1980
This autobiographical drama is a captivating look at the ambiance of a strong family and a small provinicial town in times gone by. Based on a book by Mario Tobino, who also wrote the screenplay, the story centers on his mother (Anna Maria Gherardi) and her memories of childhood. The elderly woman goes back home to the town where she and her extended, wealthy family lived for many years. She revisits her early period in the town during the weeks preceding her death: eccentric villagers come and go, she and her sisters interact, and she revels in trips to the countryside with her children. Interspersed with her memories are her son's own remembrances of his childhood and how he viewed the same villagers, the same family, and his mother. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anna-Maria Gherardi, Luigi Diberti, (more)
- 1977
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. This is an Italian adaptation of The Sea Gull by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Laura Betti, Giulio Brogi, (more)
Alberto De Martino's imitative occult horror film, photographed by Aristide Massaccesi (aka Joe D'Amato), is probably the best of numerous Italian copies of The Exorcist that flooded theaters in the mid-'70s. Carla Gravina stars as Ippolita, a paralyzed young woman with serious mental problems stemming from the death of her mother. Her crisis of faith and the intervention of a well-meaning psychologist lead Ippolita to remember her past life as a witch during the Inquisition. Eventually, Ippolita becomes possessed and starts seducing local men, only to break their necks. Eventually, she sleeps with her brother, makes a local sorcerer lick vomit from her hand, and levitates out the window. It takes an exorcism performed by an aging monk (George Coulouris) and the family housekeeper (Alida Valli) to restore order. De Martino and the talented cast manage a few chilling moments despite the predictable storyline, and Gravina is quite good in the lead. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Carla Gravina, Mel Ferrer, (more)
