Omero Antonutti Movies
Antonutti is an Italian character actor. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1946
In this drama, Mary (Ava Gardner) returns to her small town after she becomes a success in the city. Meeting up with her old love, Kenny (George Raft), she discovers that he is still the unambitious, lazy man he was when she left, and she begins an affair with nightclub owner Lew Lentz (Tom Conway). When a jealous rivalry arises between Lew and Kenny, the results could be deadly. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, Ava Gardner, (more)
- 1976
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
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Jacqueline Bisset, (more)
Based on an autobiographical book by Gavino Ledda, Padre Padrone is filmed in Sardinian, a regional Italian dialect. The film concentrates on a young, barely literate shepherd boy, who lives under the thumb of his tyrannical peasant father. Rescued from his family--and his isolated lifestyle--when called for military service, the boy eventually emerges as a brilliant scholar. Filmmakers Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani have always displayed an uncanny knack for perfectly capturing the manners, mores and thought processes of Southern Italy's working poor. Though the protagonist's father is clearly the villain of the piece, the Tavianis endeavor to understand and explain his point-of-view and the traditional values that have compelled him to treat his son so harshly. Filmed in a stark, straightforward fashion Padre Padrone went on to become the first film ever to win both the Golden Palm and the International Critics' Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti, Marcella Michelangeli, (more)
- 1980
A tragic series of historical incidents is effectively and compellingly revealed in this ugly story about avarice and power struggles in the world of arms sales and politics. The setting is Barcelona at the end of World War I, and the Spanish weapons manufacturer Savolta (Omero Anonutti) is having trouble with union discontent. While he is trying to sell weapons to the French, one of his company representatives is secretly selling to the Germans. An accountant discovers the deals with Germany, tips off a journalist, and he goes to Savolta to blackmail him into accepting the unions' demands. The result is a bloodbath, as hired thugs kill off all the protagonists and even some of their families while the cheating representative assumes control of the company and the unions are broken. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1980
Director Theodoros Anghelopulos has created a clever vehicle for conveying the substance of this award-winning political drama. He uses the acting techniques of Greek tragedy, such as formal posturing and long-held camera shots, as well as symbolism right out of classical Greek plays, to put across his parallel to Alexander the Great. This new Alexander is a "bandit" who escapes from prison in 1900 and starts fighting the government. He kidnaps some British aristocrats to hold them as ransom against amnesty for himself and his men. When he returns with his hostages to his native village, he and the local ruling schoolteacher have a go-around on how the town is to be run. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti, Grigoris Evangelatos, (more)
- 1981
Living a well-to-do life in the Italian sector of Switzerland, Alfredo (Omero Antonutti) longs for a return to the environment of his childhood, and to that end, takes his family off to visit his native mountain village every weekend. While they are not so happy about that arrangement -- after all, his present home in the city is the childhood environment of his own two youngsters -- Alfredo seems to feel that his roots matter more than anything else, possibly more than staying with his job in the city. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti, Francesca de Sapio, (more)
- 1982
Marshall McLuhan's statement that the "media is the message" might well be amended by this film to say the "media creates the message." When two prisoners escape from jail and hole up in the apartment of a well-off yet middle-class family -- now held hostage -- the more forward of the two escapees calls the local television station, requesting that they broadcast his demand for a plane to get himself and his cohort out of the country. Once this concession to the power of the televised media is given, the rest follows logically behind. In essence, the television director brings his crew in to film the entire hostage crisis, but hardly satisfied with real-life drama as it unfolds, he proceeds to "direct" the drama for the camera crew, at one point even handing a gun back to the crook so his film coverage will not be interrupted. When a doctor (the apartment owner) removes a bullet from a guard whom the convicts brought with them, the director has him put the bullet back in so it can be filmed as it is taken out -- the world of "instant replay" taking on a reality that overcomes all logic. Needless to say, even when the convicts manage to escape from the building, the television crew is the first to catch up with them, recording every movement "live." ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franco Nero, Gabriele Ferzetti, (more)
- 1982
The internationally renowned string quartet had been performing together for most of their adult lives when their lead violinist suddenly died, leaving the remaining three confused about their lives and careers. Up till then, all they had known were the rigors of constant practice and traveling. Music was everything, and they never took the time to sample Life's other pleasures. The trio decide to split up, but then a young violinist shows up and convinces them to reform the group and let him take over. He is one of the most talented players they have ever heard and the quartet once again makes sweet music. But as good as he is on stage, the youth is a wild man off stage who freely smokes dope, sleeps with fans, and parties whenever he can. Seeing that his private life has not affected the brilliance of his playing and even suspecting that it may even improve his playing, the three old players are thrown into personal tail spins as they look back at their own austere life choices. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Héctor Alterio, Omero Antonutti, (more)
This lavish, 10-hour European miniseries plots the life and times of the famous composer Giuseppe Verdi. Filmed on-location, the series also provides stellar interpretations of Verdi's work by Maria Callas and Luciano Pavarotti. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ronald Pickup, Carla Fracci, (more)
- 1982
- R
- Add The Night of the Shooting Stars to QueueAdd The Night of the Shooting Stars to top of Queue
In Tuscan lore, the evening of August 10th is la notte di san lorenzo (the night of the shooting stars). Each of these stars is believed to grant one wish. In this celebrated film by Italy's Taviani brothers, a woman asks for the words to tell her son about that same night during the last days of World War II. The Nazis occupied Italy and the fascists had mined her small Tuscan village of San Martino. Skeptical of the fascists' promise that all peasants will be safe in San Martino's cathedral, a group of villagers opt to leave and search for the Italian partisans and advancing American forces. Among those to depart is the woman, then only six years old. La Notte di San Lorenzo is the story of the villagers' remarkable exodus, the fate of those left behind, and the partisan struggle against fascism -- lyrically intertwined with their thoughts, loves, fears, and memories, as well as the fantasies of a young girl experiencing the tragedy she perceives to be her greatest adventure. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti, Margarita Lozano, (more)
- 1983
In this tragic story that has an unrealized potential to tug at the emotions, a woman in mourning for her two sons lost in World War I is the only one in her village determined to financially support a war memorial. The village poor have too little money, and the richer are tight-fisted. She has given a whole 15 years of savings -- yet the good priest, for whom she works as a maid, is not enthusiastic about her action because he is worried that the memorial will not remind the villagers of past horrors and suffering but disguise the human cost of war in rhetoric. As the memorial's advocates begin to sustain the day, flashbacks show how the woman's youngest son shot his captain, deserted the army, and came to die of fever while in his mother's care. The priest helped her as much as possible, yet he feels compelled to tell the authorities that her son was a deserter. Whether or not the woman's secret (and the location of the son's grave is kept a secret as well) will remain with her will depend on the villagers' reactions to the inauguration of the war memorial and the fascists who seem to be gaining in ascendancy ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Papas, Omero Antonutti, (more)
- 1983
El Sur (The South) is the story of Estrella (Iciar Bollain), a little girl from Southern Spain who has been uprooted to the North. Estrella maintains a sentimentalized attachment to the region of her birth, an attachment manifested in her love for her father (Omero Antonutti). The girl's rose-colored memories are shattered when she learns that her beloved dad once carried on affair with a Southern woman-and that the flames of passion still smolder within him. This Spanish/Argentinian coproduction was filmed on location in Madrid, Navarre, Vittoria, and Zamora. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti, Sonsoles Aranguren, (more)
Italy's fraternal filmmaking team of Paolo and Vittorio Taviani whip up another multistoried slice of life in Kaos. "Life," in this case, is seen from the peculiar perspective of author Luigi Pirandello, four of whose pieces are herein adapted. "The Other Son" finds Margarita Lozano making the best of her rocky relationship with her son, who was the product of a rape. "Moonstruck" (no relation to the Cher vehicle of the same name) deals with a newlywed woman who is adversely affected by the full moon. The comedy team of Franco and Ciccio star in "The Jar," a fable concerning a feudal landlord and a merry-prankster jar manufacturer. And in "Conversing with Mother," the Tavianis go their usual route of forcing their characters to face the present by confronting the past by having Pirandello himself (Omero Antonutti) converse with the ghost of his long-departed mother (Regina Bianchi). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margarita Lozano, Claudio Bigagli, (more)
- 1985
The Basque country lies around the Gulf of Biscay, and one of its cities, Bilboa, is the setting for this turgid story of political intrigue. The Basque separatist movement has always been a point of contention in Spanish politics and provides the shady backdrop for this story about Lucas (Omero Antonutti), a Basque newspaper reporter who comes home after a long period in Argentina only to land in the middle of a conflict. He is badly beaten up but continues on to get a job with a newspaper unafraid of reporting on the factions that are a part of the Basque political scene. His lack of temerity, if not discretion, is certain to get him into even more trouble. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti, Silvia Munt, (more)
- 1987
- PG13
The always innovative Taviani Brothers pay homage to another unique filmmaker, D. W. Griffith, in Good Morning, Babylon. Vincent Spano and Joaquim de Almeida star as Nicola and Andrea Bonnano, the latest in a long line of Tuscany-born cathedral builders. Emigrating to America, the brothers settle in Los Angeles in 1915, even as director Griffith (Charles Dance) is preparing his epic production Intolerance. The boys are hired to help construct the massive sets for the film's Babylonian sequence (hence the title), for no other reason than the fact that Griffith is impressed by Italian craftsmanship. As the film progresses, Nicola and Andrea assimilate to their new surroundings, even launching a romance with a pair of pretty movie extras. On the verge of continuing the family tradition, the boys' ambitions are cut short by events well beyond their control. Still, their past artistic accomplishments, like those of their forebears, survive the ages -- but only on the ethereal silver screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent Spano, Joaquim de Almeida, (more)
- 1988
Aguirre (Omero Antonutti) leads 300 Spanish soldiers and 300 natives in his search for the legendary land of El Dorado in Peru during the year 1560. The expedition is attacked by hostile jungle tribes before mutiny breaks out among the soldiers. The unit is forced to kill and eat their horses to survive, but the leaders of the expedition are also targeted for assassination. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Davide (Daniel Ezralow) is a young psychiatrist who is tormented by his own dreams in this psychological drama. Maddalena (Beatrice Dalle) is a beautiful but disturbed mental patient who resembles a woman Davide dreamed was burned at the stake after being convicted of witchcraft. Davide soon has trouble dividing fantasy and reality when he falls for Maddalena. A well-orchestrated dance scene and simulated orgy with clothed participants are the big production numbers. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Ezralow
- 1989
With three of his companions in a fatal gas-station robbery drowned while evading a police roadblock, the surviving young thug has no reason to turn himself in to the police, since they don't know about his existence. At least, that's the way his rescuer Bruno (Bruno Ganz) sees it. Besides, Bruno needs such an overly enterprising fellow to help him pull off a really big heist that he's been planning for a long time. It takes some doing, but the boy and his girlfriend are recruited by the older man, who has been keeping a low profile by working as a gardener. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruno Ganz, Giovanni Guidelli, (more)
- 1990
Guerilla wars against the major powers have been a factor in Central American politics for a long time. This biographical drama is based on the life of Nicaragua's prototypical 20th century guerilla, Augusto C. Sandino (born as Augusto Nicolás Calderón Sandino). His name and life were the inspiration for the anti-U.S. forces in that country fifty years after his death: they called themselves the Sandanistas. It is helpful to remember, and this movie demonstrates, that the U.S. military has been actively involved with the domestic politics of Nicaragua many times in this century, most notably during the 1912 invasion which resulted in over twenty continuous years of U.S. military intervention. In the story, Sandino loves two women: his wife, who remains at home, and his warlike mistress, a guerilla who accompanies him into the jungle. He has a tendency (common at the time) of wanting to trust politicians. As a result, he was betrayed by Anastasio Somoza in 1933, and vanished from sight. Somoza soon became the sole ruler of Nicaragua (from 1936 to 1956). The free-thinking rebel, who renamed himself Augusto César Sandino in the late 1920s, identified strongly with the indios or indigenous people of the region, and proposed a political agenda under which the countries of the Central America would unite against European exploitation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kris Kristofferson, Dean Stockwell, (more)
- 1991
This detective drama explores the labyrinthine byways of the Sicilian and Italian mind when confronted with ancient family secrets and treasures in the course of a murder investigation. In the story, an eminent diplomat returns unexpectedly to his remote villa near a small Sicilian town to hunt for some correspondence between his family members and the famous Italian historical figures, Pirandello and Garibaldi. While there, he calls the police, but before they can get around to seeing him, he has been killed. After that, every step they make towards solving his murder leads them deeper into complications. The two feuding policemen on the case (Ricky Tognazzi and Ennio Fantastichinni) are forced to call on a professor Gian Maria Volontè) for help in unraveling the tangled threads from the past which connect to the murder. This intricate whodunit is based on a celebrated novella by Leonardo Sciascia). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gian Maria Volontè, Ennio Fantastichini, (more)
- 1992
For Astarlos, living in Madrid at the time of the troubled rule of Isabel the Second in 1868, fencing is not an outmoded method of personal combat, but it is a way of life. It teaches lessons about comportment, attention, responsiveness to others, and taking responsibility for one's own life. Further, it is an aristocratic art, and the heart of aristocratic sentiment (no matter what one's station of life at birth) is to take responsibility for those who are less fortunate than oneself. Noblesse oblige. In this drama, the fencing master seeks to remain true to his values during a turbulent time which imperils his student's lives. One student is a beautiful and mysterious young woman, another is a handsome lad of aristocratic birth. Among the outsiders impinging on their lives are a police inspector and a passionate revolutionary. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti, Assumpta Serna, (more)
Omero Antonutti is divorced, and has a grown son who a young, upwardly-mobile professional person (yuppie) and an ex-wife who regularly sharpens her tongue on him. These developments have only served to sharpen the cynicism he naturally has as a private investigator, constantly exposed as he is to the shabbiest human behavior. However, when a beautiful and obviously wealthy woman asks him to track down her second boyfriend on behalf of herself and her first boyfriend, his interest is aroused. The absent boyfriend is a professional model from Greece who is also a painter. The woman believes he may have disappeared somewhere in Barcelona. His investigation exposes the P.I. to a world of sexual and other eccentricities which even he had never imagined existed anywhere, much less in his hometown. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti, Eusebio Poncela, (more)
- 1993
Antonio (Santiago Alonso) has been puzzled by a number of events which happened over a short period of time during a summer vacation outside of Madrid a decade earlier. They all concerned the family and household of a man he only knew as "the Nazi." With some persistence in pestering his family, a lot of memory work (seen as flashbacks in the film) and some plain old footwork, he pieces together the events of that time and finally comes to understand what really happened. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti, Joaquim de Almeida, (more)
The performer known as Farinelli, born Carlo Broschi (and played in this film by Stefano Dionisi), was famous in the 18th century as the world's greatest castrato, a male singer whose testicles were removed in childhood so that he would retain the high, clear voice of a child while gaining the control and power of an adult vocalist. A strikingly gifted singer with a range of more than three octaves, Farinelli was given little choice but to sacrifice his manhood in exchange for his art, and as his career was founded on the surgery that would dramatically restrict his off-stage life, his art was in turn hemmed in by his family. Carlo's father declared early on that he should only sing the songs of his brother Riccardo (Enrico LoVerso), and while Farinelli's fame gives Riccardo's career a needed boost, the mediocrity of Riccardo's compositions holds Farinelli back. When the singer is given the opportunity to work with the great composer Handel (Jeroen Krabbe), his brother's jealously and Farinelli's own poorly chosen career alliances stand in his way. The brothers' often contentious partnership also extends to the bedroom; while Farinelli's performances set women on fire, he's physically incapable of satisfying them sexually, so he provides the foreplay in a bizarre game of seduction and then turns his conquests over to his brother. Farinelli il Castrato received a Golden Globe award as Best Foreign Language Film of 1994 and an Academy Award nomination in the same category. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stefano Dionisi, Enrico Lo Verso, (more)
- 1994
- Add Genesis: The Creation and The Flood to QueueAdd Genesis: The Creation and The Flood to top of Queue
In this movie, filmed in the Moroccan desert and utilizing a cast of native Bedouins, stories are taken verbatim from the Bible and re-enacted on the screen. This film was originally the first episode in a 20 part adaptation of Bible stories made for Italian television. In the film, nomads gather around a desert campfire to listen to their sage tell biblical stories of the creation and the flood to his curious grandson. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Omero Antonutti
