Massimo Girotti Movies

After several years of wartime austerity, the Italian film industry returned to spectacle with Fabiola. French actress Michele Morgan plays the title role, the daughter of a Roman aristocrat (Michel Simon) during the takeover by Emperor Constantine. As a reaction to Constantine's Christian conversion policy, many old-line Romans are persecuting the city's Christian community, killing the believers off before Constantine marches into town. Fabiola is loyal to her Christian-sympathizing father but is irresistibly drawn to a Roman gladiator (Henri Vidal). All works out for the best when it is revealed that the gladiator is secretly working on behalf of Constantine. Originally released in 1949 at a length of 183 minutes, the French/Italian co-production Fabiola was distributed to the U.S. two years later in a 96-minute version, retaining the action highlights but cutting the plot footage to incomprehensible ribbons. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Director Roberto Rossellini started this tragic drama in 1943, but was forced to abandon the project as wartime conditions in Italy became more desperate. He subsequently moved on to other efforts, and the film was completed in 1945 by director Marcello Pagliero; after some censorship interference, it was released the following year. Desiderio depicts Paola Previtali Elli Parvo), a young call girl, who sickens of her life in Milan after a friend of hers commits suicide. Feeling unworthy of her boyfriend Giovanni (Carlo Ninchi), she returns to her native village in the Abruzzi mountains. But there her father turns his back on her and she is blackmailed for sex by a former lover. When her brother-in-law Nando (Massimo Girotti) starts making advances on her, her sister Anna (Roswitha Schmidt) tells her to leave town. In despair, Paola takes her life by jumping off a bridge. 46/79 ~ Nicole Gagne, Rovi

Often considered one of the first examples of Italian neorealism, Luchino Visconti's first film was this adaptation of James M. Cain's steamy novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, which would also be made twice in the U.S., first in 1946 with Lana Turner and John Garfield and then in 1981 with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange. Massimo Girotti stars as a drifter named Gino, who gets a job at a provincial inn. The handsome wanderer attempts to resist the advances of Giovanna (Clara Calamai), the estranged wife of nasty innkeeper Bragana (Juan de Landa), but he eventually gives in. Gino then allows her to talk him into killing Bragana to get the insurance money, with predictable results. Although the melodramatic story is a far cry from the post-war social statements of such later neorealist classics as Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945) and Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948), the movie began to feature some of neorealism's defining characteristics: above all, an emphasis on outdoor shooting and natural light and a relentless focus on the lives of the poor. Ossessione caused a sensation not just because of its lurid subject matter but also because Visconti's realist style makes you practically feel the heat and dirt and sweat of the film's environment. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

This troubled film version of the Puccini opera was begun by Jean Renoir while lecturing in Italy at the invitation of dictator Benito Mussolini. After only a few scenes had been shot, Italy entered WW II and Renoir had to flee, leaving his assistant Carl Koch to complete the film. The familiar plot takes place in the Rome of 1800, where opera diva Floria Tosca (Imperio Argentina) falls in love with a painter, Cavaradossi (Rossano Brazzi). The artist had previously helped Tosca's brother, Angelotti (Massimo Girotti) -- a resistance leader -- escape from the evil police chief Scarpia (Michel Simon). Scarpia arrests Cavaradossi, leading Tosca to decide to surrender herself to him in exchange for her beloved's freedom. Simon is outstanding as the nasty police chief, and Ubaldo Arata's black-and-white cinematography is nice to look at, but the film in general is a rather flat treatment of a compelling story. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi