Rina Morelli Movies

Based on a true story, this political thriller/drama explores the ordeal of Linda Murri (Catherine Deneuve), a 19th-century upper-class Italian woman who was caught in an unhappy marriage and who broke the code of behavior for aristocrats by taking a lower-class lover. After her husband was murdered, Murri stood trial for the murder. Her professor father's socialist opinions were clearly the reason for the harshness of the prosecution. The case was widely known throughout Italy at the time, and caused a national furor. Murri did not actually arrange to murder her boorish nobleman husband Count Bonmartini (Paolo Bonacelli); rather, she told her brother how unhappy she was and that she was afraid for her life. He acted on her complaint by taking the drastic step of murder. The trial resulted in her being given a long prison term, along with her brother (Giancarlo Giannini), her lover Carlo Secci (Ettore Manni) and her brother's assistants Pio and Rosa (Corrado Pani and Tina Aumont). The relentlessness of the prosecutor Giudice Stanzani (Marcel Bozzuffi) and the spinelessness of the family patriarch Augusto Murri (Fernando Rey), the professor with the unpopular opinions, are key dramatic features of this complex story. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Arguably Luchino Visconti's best film and certainly the most personal of his historical epics, The Leopard chronicles the fortunes of Prince Fabrizio Salina and his family during the unification of Italy in the 1860s. Based on the acclaimed novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, published posthumously in 1958 and subsequently translated into all European languages, the picture opens as Salina (Burt Lancaster) learns that Garibaldi's troops have embarked in Sicily. While the Prince sees the event as an obvious threat to his current social status, his opportunistic nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon) becomes an officer in Garibaldi's army and returns home a war hero. Tancredi starts courting the beautiful Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), a daughter of the town's newly appointed Mayor, Don Calogero Sedara (Paolo Stoppa). Though the Prince despises Don Calogero as an upstart who made a fortune on land speculation during the recent social upheaval, he reluctantly agrees to his nephew's marriage, understanding how much this alliance would mean for the impecunious Tancredi. Painfully realizing the aristocracy's obsolescence in the wake of the new class of bourgeoisie, the Prince later declines an offer from a governmental emissary to become a senator in the new Parliament in Turin. The closing section, an almost hour-long ball, is often cited as one of the most spectacular sequences in film history. Burt Lancaster is magnificent in the first of his patriarchal roles, and the rest of the cast, especially Delon and Cardinale, become almost perfect incarnations of the novel's characters. Filmed in glorious Techniscope and rich in period detail, the film is a remarkable cinematic achievement in all departments. The version that won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival ran 205 minutes. Inexplicably, the picture was subsequently distributed by 20th Century Fox in a poorly dubbed, 165-min. English-language version, using inferior color process. The restored Italian-language version, supervised by cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, appeared in 1990, though the longest print still ran only 187 minutes. ~ Yuri German, Rovi

Just after he made Alain Delon a star in the successful Plein Soleil (Purple Noon), director René Clement works with him again in this slightly long but entertaining satire set in Italy in the 1920s. Ulisse (Delon) is a naive young man out looking for a job after being released from the army. He drops the offer he gets from a group of fascists to go in with the Fossatis, a family of anarchists (unknown to him). Humor is supplied in the misadventures of Ulisse and a few others, such as two would-be explosive experts (Ugo Tognazzi and Aroldo Tieri). Thanks to the daughter (Barbara Lass) of the head honcho, there are a few romantic moments in store for Ulisse. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Directed by the comparatively unknown Mauro Bolognini, the Italian Bell' Antonio is distinguished by its screenplay, cowritten by directorial giant Pier Paolo Pasolini. Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale are happily married until she finds out he's impotent. It takes her a year to find this out, which ought to give an indication of how seriously we're supposed to take this film. Also risible is the fact that Mastrioanni bears the reputation of a fabulous lover, as do practically all the members of his family. Nonetheless, he stands by like a dummy when Cardinale's father forces her to annul the marriage and wed another. It's all nonsense, of course, but Pasolini and his collaborators weave their tale so persuasively that one forgives the film's utter lack of credibility. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Italian director Luchino Visconti dishes up his usual blend of elegance and decadence in Senso. The international cast includes French film star Alida Valli as a Italian countess married to a Venetian nobleman, and English leading man Farley Granger as an Austrian military officer. The two are swept up in the Austrian empire's evacuation of Italy in 1866. Valli and Granger fall in love, but Valli ultimately realizes that the officer is interested only in her wealth and prestige, whereupon she gives him over to a firing squad. Visconti had wanted Ingrid Bergman and Marlon Brando for his leads, but when Bergman's husband Roberto Rossellini would not permit her to appear in the film, Brando also bowed out. Originally running 166 minutes, Senso was released in a radically cut version in the US in 1968, titled Summer Hurricane; yet another recut version popped up in England as The Wanton Contessa. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Strange Deception combines a standard revenge tale with a postwar reenactment of the first four books of the New Testament. Freshly released from a Russian POW camp, Italian soldier Raf Vallone tries to discover who betrayed his brother to the Nazis. Alain Cuny is an enigmatic carpenter who has confessed to causing the brother's death. Cuny is slain by Vallone, whereupon it is revealed that the carpenter sacrificed himself on behalf of the real culprit, Phillipe Lemaire. Vallone catches up with Lemaire, but is unable to kill him, thanks to the Christlike example of Cuny. Originally titled Il Cristo Proibito (The Forbidden Christ, just so we don't miss the point), this film represented the movie directorial debut of novelist Curzio Malaparte, who also wrote the musical score. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The Italian Fedora was based on the Victorien Sardou play of the same name. Luisa Forida plays the title character, who falls in love neither wisely nor well with Russian painter Loris (Amedeo Nazzari). Osvaldo Valenti is seen as the irresponsible Count Vladimir, to whom Fedora has been promised in marriage. Though the story is a tragic one, audiences were so taken by the opulence of the production and the magnificence of Umberto Giordano's musical score that the impact of the unhappy ending was considerably softened. American critics were much taken by Fedora, noting that the film lacked the ponderous pretentious of most like-vintage European costume dramas. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Set in 13th-century Italy, The Iron Crown is the story of the rise and fall of a corrupt monarch. By defying the crown, a symbol of justice, the monarch is plagued with a series of horrifying visions predicting dire consequences. Arminio (Massimo Girotti), better known for his physique than his acting prowess at the time Iron Crown was filmed), plays the muscular do-gooder who helps topple the wicked ruler, (King Sedemondo (Gino Cervi), from his throne. In the tradition of Italian historical epics, the film is a bit too loud and too long. Made nine years before its 1949 American release, The Iron Crown was a first-prize winner at the Venice Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi