Lou Castel Movies

Considered one of the great lost classics of Italian neo-realism, this bleak drama was the debut feature of filmmaker Marco Bellocchio. Lou Castel stars as Alessandro, an epileptic from a large family of similarly afflicted siblings, headed up by a blind matriarch (Liliana Gerace). The only healthy member of the family is Alessandro's brother Augusto (Marino Mase), who wants to marry his girlfriend but refuses to saddle a bride with the enormous burden of helping to care for his ailing relatives. Sympathetic to Augusto's plight, Alessandro decides to murder the rest of the family so as to set his brother free and assure him of an inheritance. After hurling his mother into a ravine and drowning his little brother, Alessandro returns home to suffer a seizure. Long hailed by critics and historians as an unjustly ignored film, I Pugni in Tasca (1965) was one of 15 titles selected by New York's Museum of Modern Art for its "Second Act" retrospective of post-war Italian cinema in the spring of 2000. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

It is early in the 20th century, and an American traveler has come to Mexico at just the wrong time to continue living a peaceful life, for the Revolution has begun and he quickly finds himself in the thick of it. At first, he is right in the middle between government troops and the revolutionaries and bandidos as they attack a train. Later, he finds himself among the decidedly scruffy-looking revolutionaries and even finds some romantic interest in a hot-tempered girl who is among them. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Set in a Catholic boy's school, this wearisome tale concerns a group of obnoxious rich students and their pompous headmasters. The film tries hard to be an allegory of the anti-establishment social atmosphere of the early 1970s, evidently attempting to prove that Mankind is basically bestial by depicting all the characters as repulsive and self-serving. There's no highlight to speak of, though the scene in which the students stage a deliberately offensive amateur theatrical is perhaps the most watchable sequence. In the Name of the Father is a dreary exercise in heavy-handedness and repetition. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wim Wenders' The Scarlet Letter (German title: Der scharlachrote Buchstabe) may well be the most fascinating of the many screen versions of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 19th-century novel. Though the story is set in 17th-century Salem, Massachusetts, the film was lensed in Spain. Senta Berger is surprisingly well cast as Hester Prynne, whose sexual indiscretions have compelled her to wear the letter "A" (for adultery) on blouse--a symbol of shame to her neighbors, but a strange source of pride for Hester. Lou Castel plays the tortured Reverend Dimmesdale, the man who impregnated Hester but whom has been sworn to secrecy by the self-sacrificing heroine for the "good of the community." Hans Christian Blech portrays Hester's long-lost husband, whose reappearance sets the stage for the wrenching climax. Wenders' interpretation of the customs, behavior and inbred bigotry of the early American immigrants is eye-opening, as only an "outsider's" perception of what we take for granted can be. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Also known as Nada, The Nada Gang is a lesser effort from director Claude Chabrol. A group of European terrorists calling themselves the Nada kidnaps an American ambassador. Their hideout is besieged by a sadistic police official and his minions. Thanks to the official's eagerness to pull the trigger, everyone winds up dead, including the ambassador. The Nada Gang was based on a novel by Jean-Patrick Manchette. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This bizarre entry into the disaster film genre concerns a group of hapless passengers aboard a transcontinental luxury train who are infected with a viral plague by a group of terrorists. Burt Lancaster plays military man Mackenzie, who wants to send the train across a rickety bridge so all the passengers will die, with Mackenzie reasoning the tragedy will give the terrorist movement a bad name. Among the passengers on the train trying to build up antibodies are Jennifer Rispoli Chamberlain (Sophia Loren); Nicole (Ava Gardner), who is embroiled in an affair with a younger man named Robby Navarro (Martin Sheen); and Dr. Jonathan Chamberlain (Richard Harris), a physician who wants to save the passengers but ends up duking it out with the terrorists. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Michael is the younger son of a middle-class family, a strong-willed and free-thinking fellow, who is off in some distant country fighting for a revolutionary cause. Everyone in the family writes to him, describing the events of their lives, as they drift into a kind of conventionality which would perhaps have horrified them earlier. Only Michael's girlfriend Mara (Mariangela Melato), the mother of his child, retains her independence, even though it is through the help of Michael's increasingly conventional friends and family that she survives. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The endless philosophizing which often accompanies love between two college students is accurately recounted here, as are the erotic explorations of other students, including some lesbian and homosexual contacts. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

With Fred Williamson as director and star of Mr. Mean, is there any question as to the identity of the title character? Williamson plays a former Cosa Nostra henchman who seeks greener pastures. Hiring himself out as a hit man, he immediately lands a job. His mission: wipe out his old boss. Filmed in Italy, Mr. Mean certainly fulfills audience expectations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wim Wenders' mines Dennis Hopper's real-life experience as a painter and collector in this existential take on the American gangster film based on a Patricia Highsmith novel featuring the notoriously sociopathic Tom Ripley. Hopper stars as the eponymous American, currently a middleman selling the work of American painter Derwatt (Nicholas Ray), who has feigned his own death to increase the value of his paintings. While auctioning this work in Berlin, he meets art restorer Jonathan Zimmerman (Bruno Ganz), who he learns is suffering from an incurable blood disease. When a shady friend (Gerard Blain) requires Ripley to find a "clean" non-professional to do a contract hit in order to pay off a debt, even he is reluctant. But he quickly realizes that the physically vulnerable Jonathan would be perfect for the job, and tries to get him to accept by employing various subterfuges to persuade him that his condition is even worse than it is. For his part, Blain guarantees the restorer that his family will be financially secure for life, and a deal is struck. As usual, nothing works out quite as expected. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

Giovanni (Lou Castel) comes home after his brother's suicide to encounter the same family problems that have been around for years: his mother is a religious fanatic now obsessed with her son's errant spirit, his older brother has a cold and uncaring relationship with his children and his wife, and Giovanni's uncle who runs the wealthy family's house is always out to turn a profit for himself. When Giovanni goes to berate his dead brother's lover for not even coming to his funeral (his brother gave her an apartment and an income, and then she broke off with him because she did not love him), an unexpected attraction starts that builds in intensity as time goes on. Eventually, they start an emotionally-charged relationship that goes up and down like a roller coaster, their conflicts fueled in part by the ghost of the dead brother, by the fact that she is pregnant with his child, and by the difference in their economic status. As their relationship continues, it becomes a question of whether or not they will be able to overcome their differences -- a question that looms larger every day. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide