Biagio Barone Movies
- 2000
One man's fight against organized crime proves to have devastating consequences for himself and his loved ones in this drama from Italy. As a young man, Placido Rizzotto (Marcello Mazzarella) saw his father imprisoned by police for a crime he didn't commit, and as a teenager he had to contend with the brutal excesses of Mussolini's soldiers while fighting in World War II. These events have left Placido with little taste for petty tyranny and with a desire to promote social justice. Upon his return home from the war, Placido becomes increasingly aware that organized crime has taken hold of his village, and he becomes angry and frustrated as he sees Mafia leaders controlling local politics and taking whatever land or property they want. Placido helps to form a trade union as a challenge to the Mafia's authority, and attempts to organize the villagers into a collective to grow crops in the fields taken by gangsters from the people. Lia (Gioia Spaziani), Placido's girlfriend, admires his bravery, but doesn't believe he's aware of the danger he's put himself in as she urges him to stop his crusade against the crime families. Placido, however, becomes all too aware of how badly Lo Sciancato (Vincenzo Albanese), a local crime kingpin, wants to hurt him when he sends a handful of his goons to brutally beat and gang-rape Lia. Placido Rizzotto was based on a true story and features newsreel footage of some of the real-life figures who appear as characters in this film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marcelo Mazzarella, Carmelo Di Mazzarelli, (more)
In this film, Tolsoy's classic story Father Sergius is translated from 19th century Russia to 19th century Italy. As in the original story, Sergio (Julian Sands) is a nobleman and a military cadet who is posted in a position close to the (in this case Neapolitan) throne. He is about go through with an arranged marriage linking him with a higher-ranking noblewoman (Natassja Kinski) when he discovers that she has been the King's mistress. Disgusted, he renounces the world and becomes a churchman and a hermit. At his hermitage, he encounters a woman who considers any priest, especially an ascetic one, fair game. She attempts to seduce him and he nearly succumbs, narrowly avoiding that fate by chopping off a finger, in a scene harking back directly to the 1918 Russian silent classic Otets Sergey. Soon after that, he begins to acquire a reputation as a miracle worker. However, by now he has succumbed to his ever-present demon of sexual temptation in the form of a conniving young girl, and he knows he is not worthy of the adulation he is receiving. Devastated by his lapse, he leaves the hermitage and wanders around Italy as a homeless beggar. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julian Sands, Nastassja Kinski, (more)
Italy's fraternal filmmaking team of Paolo and Vittorio Taviani whip up another multistoried slice of life in Kaos. "Life," in this case, is seen from the peculiar perspective of author Luigi Pirandello, four of whose pieces are herein adapted. "The Other Son" finds Margarita Lozano making the best of her rocky relationship with her son, who was the product of a rape. "Moonstruck" (no relation to the Cher vehicle of the same name) deals with a newlywed woman who is adversely affected by the full moon. The comedy team of Franco and Ciccio star in "The Jar," a fable concerning a feudal landlord and a merry-prankster jar manufacturer. And in "Conversing with Mother," the Tavianis go their usual route of forcing their characters to face the present by confronting the past by having Pirandello himself (Omero Antonutti) converse with the ghost of his long-departed mother (Regina Bianchi). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Margarita Lozano, Claudio Bigagli, (more)
