Filippo Timi Movies

In the aftermath of a job gone awry, an American hitman retreats to the Italian countryside, where he befriends a local priest and strikes up an unexpected romance while awaiting the details of his next assignment. Jack (George Clooney) is lucky to be alive after his Swedish assignment went sour, and he knows that it's only a matter of time before his luck runs out. Not eager to tempt fate again, Jack arrives in a small Italian town and takes a job assembling a weapon for the mysterious Mathilde (Thekla Reuten). During this uncharacteristically peaceful interlude, Jack befriends kindly clergyman Father Benedetto (Paolo Bonacelli), and connects with pretty local Clara (Violante Placido). But in the process of reaching out for a little human contact, Jack is making himself more vulnerable than ever. The American was adapted for the screen from the novel A Very Private Gentleman by author Martin Booth. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

This unusual and offbeat historical drama rests on a little-known conceit. Though seldom discussed in history books (and reportedly undisclosed for half a century), fascist dictator Benito Mussolini conceived an illegitimate son by a woman named Ida Dalser -- a son Mussolini allowed to be born, acknowledged, and then promptly denied for the duration of his life. The tale begins in early 20th century Milan, with Benito (Fabrizio Costella) working as the socialist editor of a controversial newspaper called Avanti. His dream in life involves triumphantly leading the Italian masses away from monarchy and toward a "socially emancipated future." He met the young and wealthy Ida (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) once before, in Trento -- where they enjoyed a brief exchange; they re-encounter one another during Mussolini's period at Avanti and it becomes clear that Ida has fallen deeply in love with Benito. She believes wholeheartedly in his ideals and his future as the leader of Italy -- to such an extent that she sells everything she has (her apartment, furniture, jewelry, and the beauty salon she owns) to fuel the development of his newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia.

While the two become romantically entangled, with Ida positively magnetized by Benito's charisma and Benito hooked on a lust for power, Benito quickly switches spiritual and political allegiances overnight, changing from an atheistic socialist to a deeply Catholic fascist -- Catholic, because an allegiance with the Vatican will enable him to wrest and retain control over Italy's government. Benito and Ida marry and parent a son together, Benito Albino Mussolini (circa 1915), but the marriage certificate soon conveniently disappears and Ida learns, to her horror, that Benito has married someone else. She unwisely begins to protest the situation -- so loudly and persistently that she's first forced into house arrest and then shoved permanently into an insane asylum -- raising key questions about the fate and future of her young son. On a stylistic level, director Marco Bellocchio films this historical material with the passion, theatricality, lyricism, and tragedy of a classical Italian opera. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Oscar-winning Italian filmmaker Gabriele Salvatores (I'm Not Scared) returns to the helm for this feature film, based on the novel by best-selling author Niccolo Ammanniti and following the tale of an eleven year old boy and his neo-Nazi father. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Turkish-born director Ferzan Ozpetek's meditative, character-driven ensemble drama Saturno Contro (a French-Italian-Turkish co-production, from a script co-authored by Ozpetek and Gianni Romoli) studies the interrelationships of a tightly-knit group of gay and straight friends, in the period surrounding the premature death of one young man and the split of a married hetero couple. At the story's center are Lorenzo (Luca Argentero), a confident, surreally handsome, 30-year-old Italian man, and his live-in lover, the author Davide (Pierfrancesco Favino. They spend their non-working hours with a colorful clique that includes: bright, spunky cocaine addict Roberta (Ambra Angiolini); husband-and-wife (and parents) Antonio (Stefano Accorsi) and Angelica (Margherita Buy); caustic Neval (Serra Yilmaz) and her husband, a cop (Filippo Timi); Davide's former lover, the acid-tongued Sergio (Ennio Fantastichini); and a new arrival to the group, Paolo. After Ozpetek and Romoli take time and care to introduce the characters, an unforeseen crisis arises: Lorenzo is rushed to the hospital, and dies. In time, his distanced father (Luigi Diberti) turns up, accompanied by his second wife, Minnie (Lunetta Savino) and still grappling with the knowledge of his son's homosexuality. Meanwhile, Antonio and Angelica split, the latter devastated by the sudden discovery of her husband's infidelity with a florist (Isabella Ferrari). ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Italian helmer Silverio Constanzo's gentle, understated coming-of-age drama In Memoria di Me (AKA In Memory of Myself, 2006) follows a life-changing period in the spiritual journey of twentysomething Andrea (Christo Jivkov), a young man who undergoes a personal crisis and decides to withdraw from the world by entering a monastic order. As he begins his novitiate, however (a period in which the senior monks observe his every doing, to deem him genuinely called to the monastic life) Andrea's illusions and preconceptions about becoming a monk begin to shatter. Instead of the silence, prayer and introversion that he initially anticipated, Andrea instead runs headfirst into suspicion, surveillance and distrust - as the fellow brethren seem almost eager to find a flaw in him, that will disqualify him from ordination. And gradually, Andrea begins to question if this world is even suited for him. Filippo Timi, Marco Baliani, André Hennicke and Fausto Russo Alesi co-star. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi