Armando Trovajoli Movies
- 1979
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
- Starring:
- Ugo Tognazzi, Vittorio Gassman, (more)
- 1979
"Thou shalt not kill" is the fifth of the ten commandments handed down to Moses on Mount Sinai. In this movie, Bernhard and Leo Redder (Helmut Berger and Peter Hooten), who have grown up in an abusive family, escape into the streets at the earliest opportunity. In the Germany of the 1920s, especially in the Ruhr valley, the people they wind up hanging out with are members of radical political groups, especially the Nazi Stahlhelm and Freikorps organizations. They become involved in Nazi excursions and become wanted men for their involvement in robberies and murder. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helmut Berger, Peter Hooten, (more)
- 1978
The Italian artist Ligabue grew up as a withdrawn child in Switzerland, speaking a hodge-podge of Italian and German. On his return to Italy, he takes up residence by the banks of the Po river, but his uncouth speech and his near-mad behavior cause him to be shunned and ridiculed. In the movie, he is portrayed as a child-like figure who is encouraged by a local sculptor to paint on canvas. Even when he is beginning to gain some recognition as a painter, Ligabue (Flavio Bucci) still behaves like a wild, untamed woodland creature. This film is an adaptation of an Italian television series based on a book by Cesare Zavattini exploring the life of the artist and his works. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Flavio Bucci, Giuseppe Pambieri, (more)
- 1978
- R
This Italian black comedy is comprised of nine short stories all related to the theme that most men are selfish cads. At the 1978 Oscars, the film was nominated for Best Foreign film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1977
In this drama, Temistocle Orimbelli (Ugo Tognazzi) is a middle-aged man with a profound appreciation for womankind -- an appreciation that does not extend to Cleofe (Garbiella Giacobbe) his dried up old shrew of a wife. He is much taken with the charms of his sister-in-law Matilde (Ornella Muti), who is a widow. The attraction appears mutual, but he has first to overcome the obstacle of wifely suspicion in order to consummate the union. Eventually, he is able to appear at his boat at the same time as the lovely Matilde, and what had begun as a simple assignation turns into a complex tragedy. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ugo Tognazzi, Ornella Muti, (more)
- 1977
A comeback film of sorts for director Marco Vicario, Mogliamante stars Laura Antonelli as the wife of political activist Marcello Mastrioanni. When her husband has to go into hiding from the authorities, Laura consoles herself by going through his private papers. Curiously, discovering the length and breadth of Mastrioanni's activities-including his extramarital affairs--sparks a sexual reawakening in his wife. More curious is the personality change undergone by Laura: formerly meek and subservient, she literally "becomes" her firebrand husband in his absence. As for Mastrioanni, once his role in life has been usurped, he is reduced to little more than a sidelines observer. This diverting domestic drama was also issued under the titles Wifemistress and Lover, Wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laura Antonelli, Marcello Mastroianni, (more)
The film is set during the late 1930s: the occasion is the first meeting between Mussolini and Hitler. Left alone in her tenement home when her fascist husband runs off to attend the historic event, Sophia Loren strikes up a friendship with her homosexual neighbor Mastroianni. As the day segues into night, Loreon and Mastroianni develop a very special relationship that will radically alter both of their outlooks on life. Beyond the "sensational" aspect of virile Marcello Mastoianni playing a gay character, A Special Day garnered a great deal of American attention when the stars promoted the film on the very first installment of PBS's Dick Cavett Show (that's the one in which Mastroianni might have said the F-word). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, (more)
- 1977
Italian actor/director Nino Manfredi gives an award-calibre performance in In the Name of the Pope-King. He plays a magistrate in a small region under the realm of Papal rule. Manfredi faces the legal battle of his life when his own son is accused of being a terrorist. Justice, mercy, and love become oil-and-water elements in this wrenching drama. Originally titled In Nome del Papa Re, the film was released in the US nearly nine years after its 1977 European debut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nino Manfredi, Danilo Mattei, (more)
- 1976
Down & Dirty was originally titled Brutti, sporchi e cativi in Italy. That translates literally to "dirty, nasty and bad", in reference to the lower-class characters and surroundings in this Ettore Scola film. Scola zeroes in on a particularly offensive Roman family. The stingy patriarch, Nino Manfredi, is personally wealthy but morally bankrupt, and his repulsive view of life trickles down to every member of his clan. Not content with corrupting his own flesh and blood, Manfredi spreads his philosophy throughout his village, where he functions as slumlord. By the time Manfredi's wife and sons begin plotting his murder, the audience is ready for a long, cold shower, with plenty of soap. A bleak film heavily laden with humor, Down & Dirty won Ettore Scola a Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nino Manfredi
- 1976
- R
In this violent actioner, a misanthropic Ottawa police captain searches for the person who poisoned his little sister, who was attending the university in Montreal. So desperate is he for vengeance that he casts protocol to the winds and begins using his own brutal methods to find the killer. Soon he discovers that his "innocent" kid sister was involved in the theft of a valuable string of pearls and that she had been hanging around an appalling assortment of creeps and weirdos. The story was originally titled Blazing Magnum. The new title has nothing to do with the film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Whitman, Carole Laure, (more)
- 1976
- R
In this drama an Italian lawyer comes back home to a real surprise concealed in his closet. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1975
The title of the Italian At Last, At Last refers to sex. In fact, virtually every line of dialogue in this domestic comedy has an erotic tinge. The plot concerns a newlywed couple's attempt to cure the husband's impotence. You guessed it: "outside specialists" are brought into arouse hubby's libido. Carroll Baker, Edwige French, Renzo Montagnani and Ray Lovelock star. Originally titled La Moglie Vergine, the film has also been released as The Virgin Wife and You've Got to Have Heart. Though At Last, at Last couldn't get it up on American TV screens, it stood firm and proud on cable television, where it premiered in 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
The English-language title for the Italian L'Anatra All'arancia was Duck in Orange Sauce. Though Ugo (Ugo Tognazzi) is comfortably married to Lisa (Monica Vitti), he nonetheless takes up with pretty (and fetchingly underdressed) American Patty (Barbara Bouchet). In retalitaiton, Lisa begins an affair with French count Jean Claude (John Richardson), arousing Ugo's jealousy. At his request, the four members of this romantic quadrangle repair to a summer house to come to a "civilized understanding"--which erupts into something out of the Keystone Kops. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Monica Vitti, Ugo Tognazzi, (more)
- 1975
Stefania Sandrelli, a bit player in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, stars in the deliberately Felliniesque comedy We All Loved Each Other So Much. Sandrelli plays the longtime object of three friends' affections. The film traces the interrelationships of those friends-Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi and Satta Flores-over a period of thirty years, beginning with their involvement in the wartime Resistance. In addition to freely quoting from La Dolce Vita, director Ettore Scola also calculatedly evokes memories of Fellini's I Vitteloni. As a bonus, the film offers affectionate homages to several other neorealist filmmakers, including Rossellini and de Sica. We All Loved Each Other So Much was originally released as C'erevamo tanto amati. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nino Manfredi, Vittorio Gassman, (more)
- 1974
An older woman and a much younger man explore their attraction and the differences between them in this romance, based on the novel by Carlo Bernari and set in the pre-World War II period. Among the obstacles they must face is the disapproval of the society around them. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Before Al Pacino ever picked up a blind man's cane in the 1992 production of Scent of A Woman, Vittorio Gassman played a blind army captain in the 1974 Italian film Profumo di Donna, based on a novel by Giovanni Arpino. The earlier film unquestionably inspired the later one, though they differ significantly. The Captain, accompanied by Ciccio (Alessandro Momo), who has been assigned to him by the army, is on his way from Turin to Naples to meet with an army compatriot who was also disfigured in the same military incident. Unknown to his aide, the Captain means to fulfill a suicide pact there. While they journey, the captain asks Ciccio to help him spot beautiful women. Unsatisfied with the boy's descriptions, he uses his nose instead, claiming that he can smell a beautiful woman. The dashing blind military man enjoys considerable success with women. During their journey, he carries with him a picture of his beloved Sara (Agostina Belli), whom he could not bear to have see him disfigured and helpless. The suicide pact is eventually thwarted, Sara enters the picture, and the boy Ciccio does some much-needed growing up. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vittorio Gassman, Alessandro Momo, (more)
- 1973
This Italian feature caters to a self-congratulatory stereotype of male virility which many an Italian male might fantasize as being true for himself. Paolo is from the lower ranks of the Sicilian nobility, and he shares his grandfather's penchant for beautiful women. Indeed, he proved his readiness for bedroom sports at age 10, when he beat his grandfather to the bed of a lovely young new house servant. As a grownup, Paolo (Giancarlo Giannini) now lives in Rome and cuts a wide swath through the female population of that town. Though the depiction of his succession of conquests is repetitive, one of the film's highlights is the great beauty of the numerous women he has encounters with. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1973
An obsession with fame leads to life in prison for the window-washer in this Italian farce/satire. Biagio Solise (Giancarlo Giannini) loves working on the windows of the skyscrapers high above Milan but feels overwhelmed on the ground by the tumult and pressure of the crowded streets. He makes some surplus money working as an extra at the La Scala opera house. When a famous diva is murdered, he decides that he wants to be the one who is convicted for the crime; it will make him famous. Though he is innocent of the crime, his frantic improvisations lay a trail for the police that eventually leads to his imprisonment. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1973
How Funny Can Sex Be? is an eight-episode anthology film about love, sex and marriage in contemporary, mid-'70s Italy. Some of the segments--particularly those featuring Laura Antonelli and Giancarlo Giannini--are fun, but just as many fall flat. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1972
This film marks the final performance of the notable French film star Pierre Brasseur, who died not long after the film was shot. One of his better-known films is Children of Paradise. In this film, an Italian industrialist (Alberto Sordi) who has made his fortune using some shady tactics, unwittingly becomes the victim and entertainment for four retired jurists. These four men (Pierre Brasseur, Michel Simon, Charles Vanel and Claude Dauphin), though retired, make it a practice to keep their legal skills sharp. Whenever a suitable villain stumbles across their path, they conduct a trial with all the trimmings. It is a form of play, but these virtuoso lawyers are quite serious about it. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1972
- R
This Italian action film focuses on a crook, framed as a drug kingpin, whose wife is killed by the mob as a result. He must take matters into his own hands to have revenge. Manhunt was also re-titled The Italian Connection to steal thunder from its French counterpart. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Strode, Cyril Cusack, (more)
- 1971
Since the Italian Homo Eroticus was released to the US as Man of the Year, this video version is available under both titles. Lando Buzzanca plays the servant to dazzling socialite Rosanna Podesta. His duties go far beyond carrying tea on a silver tray. Fact is, Rosanna is what you might call insatiatable. Pretty soon, Buzzanca is wondering where his next reserve of energy will be coming from. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
This comedy takes sharp aim at the hypocritical behavior of supposedly celibate Roman Catholic clergy. Keeping to the middle ground, neither too "holy" nor too critical, it was a hit in native Italy. Don Clemente (Lando Buzzanca) has done too good a job as a priest in his rural parish and is promoted to a wealthy parish in Rome. Along with the new job come new temptations, most prominent of which is the desire to embrace the problems of Silvia, a beautiful young prostitute with a yen for married life (Rossana Podesta). Their relationship develops until he must choose between his calling and marrying Silvia. As he is growing accustomed to life in the city, he gains insight into his romantic temptations by observing how his peers and superiors in the church respond to theirs. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
In this Italian film set in the U.S., Marcello Mastrioanni stars as sweet-natured Sicilian immigrant Rocco, a former boxing champion. In the story, he comes to Chicago with a friend to see a boxing match. After the match, his friend leaves him alone in the town, and Rocco grows more and more frustrated at the cold and aloof city dwellers he meets. He finally finds people he can talk to among the city's homeless and derelicts. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
