Alberto Grimaldi Movies

The violent rise of gangland power in New York City at a time of massive political corruption and the city's evolution into a cultural melting pot set the stage for this lavish historical epic, which director Martin Scorsese finally brought to the screen almost 30 years after he first began to plan the project. In 1846, as waves of Irish immigrants poured into the New York neighborhood of Five Points, a number of citizens of British and Dutch heritage who were born in the United States began making an open display of their resentment toward the new arrivals. William Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), better known as "Bill the Butcher" for his deadly skill with a knife, bands his fellow "Native Americans" into a gang to take on the Irish immigrants; the immigrants in turn form a gang of their own, "The Dead Rabbits," organized by Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson). After an especially bloody clash between the Natives and the Rabbits leaves Vallon dead, his son goes missing; the boy ends up in a brutal reform school before returning to the Five Points in 1862 as Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio). Now a strapping adult who has learned how to fight, Amsterdam has come to seek vengeance against Bill the Butcher, whose underworld control of the Five Points through violence and intimidation dovetails with the open corruption of New York politician "Boss" Tweed (Jim Broadbent). Amsterdam gradually penetrates Bill the Butcher's inner circle, and he soon becomes his trusted assistant. Amsterdam also finds himself falling for Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz), a beautiful but street-smart thief who was once involved with Bill. Amsterdam is learning a great deal from Bill, but before he can turn the tables on the man who killed his father, Amsterdam's true identity is exposed, even though he has concealed it from nearly everyone, including Jenny. Gangs Of New York was the first film in two years from actor Leonardo DiCaprio; ironically, it was at one time scheduled to open on the same day as Catch Me if You Can, the Steven Spielberg project that DiCaprio began filming immediately after Gangs wrapped. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Fellini's Casanova is played by Donald Sutherland. The film takes great pains to debunk the myth of the Great Lover by presenting him as an ordinary human being swept up in extraordinary circumstances. This Casanova breezes through his various political and amorous adventures with an air of bored detachment, allowing the audience to "fill in the blanks" regarding motivations and emotions. Though the film's plotline hop-scotches all over Europe, Fellini lensed the picture entirely within the lavish confines of Rome's Cinecitta Studios. Danilo Donati won an Oscar for costume design, while Nino Rota (of Godfather fame) should have won for his musical score. A sumptuous visual treat, Fellini's Casanova is something of a chocolate Easter Bunny: delicious going down, but hollow on the inside. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The final work of notorious Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, this film updates the Marquis de Sade's most extreme novel to fascist Italy in the final days of WW II. Dispensing with the novel's meditations on sexual liberation and the search for truth, Pasolini presents four decadents who kidnap dozens of young men and women and subject them to the most hideous forms of torture and perversion in an isolated villa. Rape, murder, and a coprophagic banquet are only the beginning of the atrocities on display. Photographed by Tonino Delli Colli, the film also features a lavish score by Ennio Morricone. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

In Bernardo Bertolucci's art-house classic, Marlon Brando delivers one of his characteristically idiosyncratic performances as Paul, a middle-aged American in "emotional exile" who comes to Paris when his estranged wife commits suicide. Chancing to meet young Frenchwoman Jeanne (Maria Schneider), Paul enters into a sadomasochistic, carnal relationship with her, indirectly attacking the hypocrisy all around him through his raw, outrageous sexual behavior. Paul also hopes to purge himself of his own feelings of guilt, brilliantly (and profanely) articulated in a largely ad-libbed monologue at his wife's coffin. If the sexual content in Last Tango is uncomfortably explicit (once seen, the infamous "butter scene" is never forgotten), the combination of Brando's acting, Bertolucci's direction, Vittorio Storaro's cinematography, and Gato Barbieri's music is unbeatable, creating one of the classic European art movies of the 1970s, albeit one that is not for all viewers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dale Wasserman's long-running Broadway smash comes to the screen in this musical based on Miguel de Cervantes' classic satire Don Quixote de la Mancha. Cervantes (Peter O'Toole) is arrested and put in prison by the soldiers of the Spanish Inquisition after staging a comic performance which mocked the Spanish government. Cervantes' fellow inmates are eager to divvy up his belongings, but the author is desperate to save a manuscript of his latest work; in order to win the prisoners over, he stages, with their assistance, his latest comedy about the delusional knight Don Quixote (O'Toole). Don Quixote, with the help of his loyal manservant Sancho Panza (James Coco), is determined to battle evil, though he most often finds himself combating windmills. Don Quixote encounters the beautiful virgin Dulcinea -- personified by a jailed prostitute, Aldonza (Sophia Loren) -- and is certain he has found the love of his life. However, tragedy befalls Don Quixote when a band of savages rape Dulcinea as he sleeps, and he must decide where his greatest loyalty lies when his niece Antonia (Julie Gregg) arrives, asking Quixote to please return home to his family. In a move which was widely criticized at the time of the film's release, Peter O'Toole's singing voice was dubbed for most of his musical numbers, while Sophia Loren did all of her own vocal tracks. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Italian director Pier Pasolini tells four of the Chaucer tales in this graphic and satirical picture that chronicles the 14th-century's social, sexual, and religious standards in England. In Pasolini's Trilogy of Life, this second entry follows The Decameron and precedes The Arabian Nights. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

The Decameron was the first of director Pier Paolo Pasolini's "trilogy of life." The film, based on the sexually supercharged tales of Boccaccio, is a patchwork of many of Pasolini's favorite themes. Pasolini himself plays the role of an aspiring fresco painter who is advised that his completed work will never be as satisfying as his dream of that work. The film is followed by Pasolini's The Canterbury Tales and The Arabian Nights. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Spaghetti Western fans used to the likes of Django and The Good, The Bad and the Ugly might be taken by surprise when watching Sabata. True, the film does star spaghetti Western star Lee Van Cleef as the tight-lipped hero of the title, but it has a very different feel from the genre's traditional, Sergio Leone-derived style. Director/co-writer Gianfranco Parolini (alias Frank Kramer) takes things in a direction that seems to fall halfway between The Wild Wild West TV series and a James Bond movie; the film is packed with colorful characters, exotic weapons, and the action scenes that mix wild stunts with pyrotechnics. Parolini appropriately gives the film a light touch, playing up the colorful and humorous aspects while delivering the action. The end result is a little too long for this sort of light material, causing it to drag a bit in the middle, but it is too good-natured and entertaining to dislike. In short, Sabata is likely to make fun viewing for Euro-cult fans and anyone interested in an offbeat Western. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide

Leonardo (Franco Nero) is a painter who retreats to a house in the country to regain his lost inspiration. He is plagued by the presence of an erotic apparition. The gorgeous ghost soon moves the painter to the point he wishes to carry on a relationship with her. Leonardo is several bristles shy of a brush as he sinks deeper into insanity. When his fiancé arrives for a visit, she is murdered and chopped into little pieces by the troubled artist. Vanessa Redgrave and Gabriella Grimaldi also star in this story of madness and horror. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Released in Europe as Histoires Extraordinaires and Tre Passi Nel Delirio, this is a portmanteau picture, comprised of three supernatural playlets based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. "Metzengerstein," directed by Roger Vadim, stars the director's then-wife Jane Fonda as a medieval woman prone to acts of vengeance. Her brother Peter Fonda is somewhat perversely cast as her cousin, for whom she holds incestuous yearnings. When he gives her the cold shoulder, she spitefully sets fire to his stable of horses. He is himself killed in the blaze, but it seems that he has been reincarnated as a horse. In "William Wilson," directed by Louis Malle, a sadistic Austrian officer (Alain Delon) commits various S&M misdeeds upon a variety of victims, including a woman (Brigitte Bardot) with whom he plays cards. The officer himself comes to grief when he finds that the Church will not allow him to say an act of contrition. And "Never Bet Your Head," directed by Federico Fellini, updates the Poe original by casting Terence Stamp as a self-indulgent movie star. Driving drunk one evening, the actor literally bets his head that he can escape a potentially fatal accident. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a Neapolitan lad travels to Milan to attend his father's funeral. His father was a gigolo, and the young man decides to continue the family profession and begins looking for rich women to prey upon. He is successful, but then he finds himself caught in a bidding war between a wealthy steel heiress and an rich old homosexual. Though the homosexual wins, the gigolo decides to make it with the heiress. Time passes and he ends up falling for a beautiful woman. Unfortunately, he discovers that she is his half sister. He then remembers a bit of advice from one of his father's friends who said "It's better for a young man to attach himself to a rich homosexual." The young gigolo heeds that advice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This Italian western contains subtle political undertones as it chronicles the exploits of a tubercular history professor who journeys to the American Southwest to recuperate. There he becomes fascinated by an outlaw who befriends him. The intelligent prof uses his brains to assist the outlaw. Violence ensues until the prof kills the outlaw who has been oppressing and taking advantage of him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide