Giancarlo Giannini Movies

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

This wickedly funny Italian comedy centers upon a lascivious, fun-loving old uncle who hands out blood-test certificates to potential lovers to prove that he is "clean" and wreaks all sorts of havoc when he must temporarily stay with his wealthy but emotionally constipated nephew. At first the nephew is appalled by his uncle's lust for wild-living, but in time he becomes utterly fascinated by the old man. Soon the previously staid young man finds himself drawn into his uncle's crazy life-style and begins learning the value of living life to the fullest. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The omnibus film New York Stories is the product of three powerhouse filmmakers. The film is divided into three stories, each exploring a different aspect of life in the Big Apple. Life Lessons, directed by Martin Scorcese, is a Dostoevsky-like tale of the rarefied Art World, with Nick Nolte as a self-indulgent abstractionist who loves Rosanna Arquette, but can't bring himself to lie to her about her negligible artistic talents. Life Without Zoe, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is more than a little reminiscent of Kay Thompson's Eloise stories, with 12-year-old Zoe (Heather McComb) running amok at the Sherry-Netherland hotel while her parents are embarked upon a world-girdling vacation. The last and is Woody Allen's Oedipus Wrecks, wherein a schnooky lawyer (guess who?) inadvertently "creates" the Jewish Mother From Hell: thanks to a misguided magic trick, Allen's mama (the incomparable Mae Questel) becomes a huge spectral vision on the New York skyline, telling everyone within earshot about her son's inadequacies. The cinematographer lineup on New York Stories includes Nestor Almendros, Vittorio Storaro and Sven Nykvist. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Giancarlo Giannini plays a lawyer who now collects debts for his partner (Philippe Leotard) in this crime drama. He drops a woman off at a hospital before meeting with the teenage crime kingpin Molleco (Francois Negret). The two proceed to tear apart a hotel called the Snack Bar Budapest to force out the owners. Giannini accidently kills one of Molleco's punks and starts another wave of gang violence. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In one popular Spanish-English dictionary, "picaro" is defined as "roguish; scheming, tricky; low, vile; mischievous," and when used as a noun it refers to a rogue, a schemer. Yet the word also harkens to the kinds of novels (picaresque) that came out of Spain in the 17th century, including Don Quixote, stories that recounted the wanderings of vagabonds of one kind or another. This film by the esteemed director Mario Monicelli is set in the 17th century and concerns the picaresque adventures of two amusing "picaros." Lazarillo and Guzman (Enrico Montesano and Giancarlo Giannini) first met when they were slaves rowing on a prison-galley ship, and they strike up a friendship based on their having endured similarly horrific childhoods. While escaping from the slave ship during a mutiny (they chose the wrong side) they narrowly escape drowning and are separated. Guzman becomes an impoverished Baron's (Vittorio Gassman) personal servant and puts his thieving ways to good use in that capacity, while Lazarillo joins an acting troupe. When they meet again, they immediately decide to pull off a con-job they call "the cannoli trick." ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This is an Italian comedy about a runaway, incognito Pope who makes his way to a village for a temporary stay and tries to bring a few good works to fruition while there. After Pope Leo XIV gets locked out of the Vatican garden one day, he opts for taking off on a small escape from official and bureaucratic burdens. Since he is not in his robes, who's to know? He heads for a remote village in the south of Italy that has no priest. He finds shelter with a former hooker and her mute daughter and then sets to work overcoming the local thugs and repairing a broken aqueduct. Meanwhile, back at the Vatican, the Cardinals are wringing their hands, trying to hide the fact that His Holiness has taken a powder. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Writer-director Richard Brooks' final film features a weak script and poor acting but high energy direction in a tale of compulsive gambling in Las Vegas. Ryan O'Neal stars as Taggart, a sports reporter obsessed with gambling. As Taggart gets deeper and deeper into debt, he compounds his problems with assorted loansharks and gambling operators. Taggart has already lost his wife because of his compulsive gambling, but he takes up with big-timer Charley (Giancarlo Giannini), hoping to make a killing and settle the score. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The Neapolitan Mafia is one of the players in this comedy thriller about how one man in particular manages to scrape up some cash in Naples at the expense of organized crime. Salvatore (Giancarlo Giannini) sets up shop in a local hospital each day to help patients and visitors find their way around. On one of his normal days, a woman named Lucella Picone (Lina Sastri) asks him to find out if her husband is in the hospital morgue -- he burnt himself to death in court to protest the abominable working conditions at his factory. Suspecting that there is something strange in this request, Salvatore cribs Picone's journal and soon deciphers the ciphers -- she is actually an "insurance" collector for the mob. Deciding to take a little advantage of his good fortune, Salvatore starts making the rounds for Picone, letting everyone know that "Picone sent me." Even he knows his good fortune cannot last forever and it does not take long for Picone to catch on to his scheme -- but how can she retrieve her journal and stop him? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Inspired a song that was extremely popular with the German soldiers during WW II, this fictional story begins in 1938 while Wilkie Bunterberg (Hanna Schygulla), a third-tier cabaret singer, performs in a Zurich nightclub. It is her boyfriend, a Swiss Jew who also turns out to be a resistance fighter who pens her the famous song Lili Marleen. She sings it in Germany and it becomes a hit with the German troops. As a result, Hitler himself invites her to perform for him. This does not set well with the songwriter's powerful who, upon learning that Marleen has become a famed singer in Germany, seek to have her barred from Switzerland. This does not stop the songwriter from loving her though and desperate to see her one last time, he sneaks into Berlin for a tryst. Unfortuantely he is arrested and she gets blacklisted. They do not see each other again until after the war. By this time, their lives have changed considerably. This is not considered among the best of Fassbinder's best films. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this political drama, the critically acclaimed Russian director Grigori Chukhrai -- who also wrote the script -- focuses on the nature of political persecution through his hero Antonio (Giancarlo Giannini), a taxi driver in the capital of a dictatorship. Running alongside the political theme is a love story between Antonio and María, a waitress in a local café. Antonio was booted out of the military for refusing to fire on a boat carrying women and children during the Angola civil war. His main objective now is to stay aloof and uninvolved -- until he meets María. She has him take a man to the airport one day, and Antonio soon realizes that this fellow is a revolutionary working to oust the dictator. The ride he gave the man is the excuse the Secret Police need to pick up Antonio, and they put him in prison where they abuse him, trying to find out about his passenger. But he truly does not know anything, and he would never implicate María. The other prisoners at first turn against him but change their attitude when they discover he plans an escape, and soon everyone is about to make a break for freedom. Chukhrai's first film, The Forty-First won a special prize at Cannes in 1957, Ballad of a Soldier was also a 1960 winner at Cannes, and Clear Skies a winner in the 1961 Venice competition. Although La Vita è Bella indirectly involves the war themes of these preceding movies, it is not really in their same category. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

A presumptuous American actress falls for a handsome Italian banker before embarking on the misadventure of a lifetime in this comedy of errors starring Goldie Hawn and Giancarlo Giannini. Anita (Hawn) is an American actress vacationing in Rome. When the free-spirited screen star sets her sights on a friendly banker named Guido (Giannini) who's currently en route to visit his ailing father, she agrees to join him on his trip without realizing that her handsome traveling companion is a married man. In the days that follow Anita and Guido will form a special bond as their journey together leads them from one comic disaster to the next. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Based on a novel by Gabriele d'Annunzio, The Innocent (L'Innocente) is set amongst the aristocracy of 19th-century Italy. Wealthy Tullio (Giancarlo Giannini) thinks nothing of squiring his mistress (Jennifer O'Neill) in full view of his friends and the public. But when Giannini's cast-off wife (Laura Antonelli) begins an affair with a young novelist (based, it is said, on author d'Annunzio), it is too much for the philandering aristocrat. Outside of Erich von Stroheim, few directors were as masterful at combining lavishness with depravity as Luchino Visconti. The Innocent turned out to be Visconti's last film; he died in 1976, shortly before the picture's premiere. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi