Age Movies

Veteran actors Alberto Sordi and Bernard Blier play the earthy Battistini and shabby but elegant Mondardini, two older men abandoned by their families during the vacation months who decide to vacation together on the famed beaches of Cote d'Azur. The two bicker, quarrel and make up while they pursue various amorous dreams with the lovely women they encounter. Battistini runs into the man who stole his wife from him (Vittorio Caprioli) and is offered a chance to take her back. His own fortune depleted by his incessant pursuit of women, Mondardini begins a relationship with the ruined gambler Germaine (Andrea Ferreol). Misfortunes of all kinds appear ready to derail these two bon-vivants' good times, but they always manage to shrug them off and enjoy themselves. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In an irreverent send up of politicians and feminists and others, director and co-writer Lina Wertmuller has a Minister of the Interior locked inside his impermeable luxury car with only his broken computer to keep him company. Unfortunately, this accident happens at the villa of a conservative party deputy (Ugo Tognazzi) whose wildly eccentric wife Maria Teresa (Piera Degli Espositi) is in a panic about hiding her lover (Enzo Jannacci) in the basement -- he is an escaped terrorist. While the authorities arrive to make one futile effort after another to get the Minister out of his car, the Minister's assistant deadpans his way through the household chaos, and the granny is busy smoking pot. Out of the entire crew, the conservative deputy is limned with sympathy and the flighty, witless feminist is not -- a state of affairs bound to raise the shackles of some viewers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A situation that once (believe it or not) served as the premise for a Dick Van Dyke Show is taken several steps farther in the Italian Nudo di Donna. Nino Manfredi plays a prudish husband who is appalled to discover that his wife once posed nude for a painting. His shock is intensified when word gets around that the artist's model was a prostitute. The rest of the film consists of Manfredi's hilariously frantic efforts to get to the bottom of things (as it were). Nude di Donna was released in the US with the cumbersome title Portrait of a Woman, Nude. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Perhaps a little over-ambitious for the casual audience unfamiliar with the Italian world of entertainment and politics, La Terrazza involves a total of eight main protagonists and how they have changed or are changing. All eight are sitting on a terrace talking, while flashbacks and flashforwards fill in their past, present, and future relationships. Enrico (Jean-Louis Tritignant) is a burnt-out screenwriter, Amedeo (Ugo Tognazzi) is a self-made producer, Mario (Vittorio Gassman) is a communist member of parliament who is having an affair with the married Giovanna (Stefania Sandrelli) and is otherwise having a hard time trying to tow the tough, virtuous line the party demands. Giovanna, as well as the other women on the terrace, have all the spirit of people looking forward to the future while the men have been there and found it wanting. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Marcello Mastroianni plays the downtrodden Bruno Baldassare, a murder-squad investigator in Rome who gets no respect from his peers, who give him the least interesting cases. His bumbling aide, Cantalamessa, gets even less respect. While a lightning strike could have caused the deaths of two people, the circumstances of their deaths arouse his suspicions. In this satirical detective comedy, among the suspects he must question are the victim's widow, Princess Dell'Orso (Ursula Andress) and a seedy screenwriter named Harry Hellman (Peter Ustinov). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this Italian mystery, a detective journeys into the rarified world of the idle rich to look into a puzzling murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Northern Italian Giulio (Ugo Tognazzi) thought himself very broad-minded about things like marital fidelity until he married a much younger woman (Ornella Muti). Now he suffers the beginning pangs of jealousy when he and his wife become friends with young Giovanni (Michele Placido), a Sicilian who is assigned in his duties as a policeman to live in the north. Giulio's jealousy grows full-sized as the movie continues. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This Italian social satire/farce is directed by Vittorio Gassman, who also co-stars in it. Country-boy Agostino (Paolo Villaggio), abandoned as an infant by his city-dweller parents, decides to travel to Rome to find his parents. He is aided in his quest by Armando (Vittorio Gassman), a folk-magician who uses sawdust in his act. Along the way, he discovers that city-folk aren't very nice, but he opts to stay in town anyway. Armando, having seen and judged the worth of city dwellers and city life, chooses to return to the countryside. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This is an episodic Italian comedy, which follows the Quixotic adventures of the gentle and extremely naive character, Brancaleone (Vittorio Gassman). Set in the middle ages, we first see Brancaleone on a quest for the Holy Grail. As his adventures proceed, he picks up an entourage including a dwarf, an endangered witch, and a masochist who emits cries of delight when Brancaleone kicks him. The film pokes gentle fun at the Papacy, and the main portion of the story features the clueless knight's involvement in a conflict between rival Popes Clement and Gregory. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The Pizza Triangle is a freewheeling satire of Italian mores, hilarious despite its outwardly morbid plotline. The murder of flower girl Monica Vitti triggers a long flashback involving Vitti, middle-aged Communist bricklayer Marcello Mastrioanni, and young pizza chef Giancarlo Giannini. The married Mastrioanni falls in love with Vitti, but Giannini gets in the way. A fight results, after which the girl is hospitalized. Declaring a truce, the three lovers move in together, allowing Vitti tie to decide whom she loves best. The subsequent discord nearly results in the girl's suicide; she moves out and takes up with butcher Hercules Cortes, but returns to Gianinni when he attempts suicide. The now unemployed and unmarried Mastrioanni shows up, and when Vitti refuses again to commit herself to any one man, another fight results--this time ending in Vitti's death. Also released as A Drama of Jealousy and Jealousy Italian Style, The Pizza Triangle was originally shown in Italy as Dramma della Gelosia--Tutti i Particolari in Cronaca. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A romance between a young woman factory worker and a barber is stopped when her parents raise protests over her relationship with the man. When rumors of the romance run rampant in the small town, she leaves for Rome. She takes a job as an assistant to a deaf-mute tailor and eventually accepts his proposal of marriage. The barber attempts suicide and is hospitalized. His depression is cured when he wins the lottery and he travels to Rome to reclaim his old love. They rekindle their romance and plan the demise of her husband by planting a bomb in the stove. The explosion miraculously restores the hearing and speech of the intended victim. The miracle prompts the husband to enter a monastery and help those with the disabilities that he himself overcame in the explosion. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide