Mauro Bolognini Movies

Liv Ullmann plays real-life Jewish dissident and astronomer Ida Nudel in this historical biography. Ida is denied papers to emigrate after her lover Yuli (Daniel Olbrychski) is release from a labor camp. When Yuli and Ida's sister Elena (Aurore Clement) receive their papers, Ida rides with them on a train bound for Vienna and jumps off before she crosses the border. Arrested for protesting in Moscow in 1980, Ida is sent to an all-male prison where she is in constant danger of assault. After being transferred to a woman's camp, Ida returns to Moscow to find that her apartment is occupied, Yuli has married, and she is banished from the city she loves. Ida wanders from village to village until she recalls her story to an American reporter. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In the original story of Camille by Alexandre Dumas, Jr. La Dame aux Camelias, a beautiful Parisian courtesan, Marguerite Gautier, (called "Camille" because of her love for camelias) is supported by a series of aristocratic lovers, but does not fall in love until she meets Armand Duval. Armand's father lets it be known that Camille would ruin Armand because of her "low" past, and she leaves to save his reputation, saying she does not love him anymore. She soon contracts tuberculosis, and Armand hears that she is dying. He rushes to her side, finds out she has loved him all along, and she dies knowing he has always loved her. The True Story of Camille uses the ploy of Alexandre Dumas, Jr. doing his version of "Camille" at the turn of the 20th century, as a means of introducing a flashback to the "real" story behind the "real" Camille, Alphonsine Plessis. In the film, Alphonsine (Isabelle Huppert) - a country girl - was sold by her father to a wealthy neighbor, which starts her off on a round of living in expansive palaces and keeping company with wealthy aristocrats and eventually, Alexandre Dumas, Jr. himself. But that trajectory did not happen all at once. Alphonsine first survives, barely, as a seamstress in Paris. Then she becomes a prostitute, after which a Count Peregaunts (Bruno Ganz) marries her, then more or less disappears, leaving her to become a high-class courtesan. As she makes her way from one handsome, aristocratic client to the next, a noble protector, Count Stechelberg (Fernando Rey) keeps her out of harm's way. By the time she and Dumas meet, she has become infected with tuberculosis - and she has created the inspiration for Dumas' story of Camille. Her father comes along at this point, however, ready to trounce Dumas for romanticizing his daughter's wretched life - the same father that sold her off in the first place. If the viewer can remember that the characters of Marguerite Gautier (Carla Fracci) and Armand Duval from Dumas' story of Camille have been given their "real" personas as Alphonsine Plessis and Dumas in this film, then the story within a story make more sense. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

After her father (Adolfo Celi) is exiled to an island off the coast of Italy for his anti-Mussolini politics, Libera (Claudia Cardinale) is increasingly incensed by the fascist government of Italy and makes a number of bold and very personal gestures against it. At first, these only result in her husband's losing his jobs, but they are finally exiled to the same island that her father was sent to. There she develops a passion for Sandro (Bekim Fehmiu), another internee, but is restrained from having an affair by her strong sense of values. After World War II breaks out, the resistance to fascism becomes much more organized and more active. Libera joins them on a number of actions, usually when these coincide with her more personal vendetta against the Brown-shirts. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

The love-hate relationship between a poet and his mistress provides the basis for this metaphorical drama. The trouble seems to come from the fact that the two have very different approaches to their relationship. The poet is interested in a more traditional romance while his hot-blooded lover would rather spend all their time having sex. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Italian title for That Splendid November is Un Belissima Novembre, but it might as well have been "Belissima Gina". That's because the film's main attraction is Gina Lollobrigida, whose well-proportioned chassis diverts the audience's attention from the turgid plot. The story concerns a large Sicilian family whose patriarch is an advocate of self control. The hypocrisy of this stance is illustrated in a number of scenes involving sex, gluttony and greed. Adapted from a novel by Ercole Patti, That Splendid November was released in the US in 1971, three years after it made the European theatrical rounds. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this anthology, six French filmmakers each contributed a vignette, offering their take on the history of prostitution. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Maddalena (Catherine Spaak) masquerades as a heroic male named Teodoro and joins the army to gain insight on men in this costumed comedy satire. She falls for an officer (Tomas Milian) but he is naturally unable to act on his impulses because he believes she is a man. Other men also make passes at her in hopes she is really the man she claims to be. The situation allows for plenty of sight gags and situation comedy from the battlefield to the bedroom. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Four different facets of love Italian-style provide the basis of this episodic film. The vignettes are "The Phone," about a woman so busy talking on the phone that she fails to notice that her husband is having sex with a neighbor; "Treatise on Eugenics," the chronicle of a Swedish girl's search for the perfect sire; "The Soup," about a wife's attempts to get rid of her husband's corpse; and "Monsignor Cupid," which follows the attempts of a concierge to seduce a handsome young man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Alberto Sordi co-stars with Silvia Mangano in this Dino DeLaurentiis comedy production gang-directed by Tinto Brass, Mauro Bolognini, and Luigi Comenichi. The sketches primarily deal with the endearing battles between husbands and wives, giving Sordi the chance to mug for the camera in the comic fashion that made him famous. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The young son of a wealthy industrialist eschews the material pleasures of life and decides to enter the priesthood. His father wishes his son to follow in his footsteps and recruits his young girlfriend to help change his mind. The girl seduces the inexperienced lad, and he quickly falls prey to the material and sexual pleasures of the flesh. Father and son argue over the boy's future as the son agonizes about his fall into hedonism. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide