Fabrizio Castellani Movies
The cool and mannered sociopath Tom Ripley returns to the big screen in director Liliana Cavani's 2002 crime thriller Ripley's Game, adapted from the 1974 novel by Patricia Highsmith. Living a life of luxury as an art dealer in northern Italy with his musician wife Luisa (Chiara Caselli), Ripley (John Malkovich) attends a party thrown by Jonathan Trevanny (Dougray Scott) and overhears the host making critical comments about Ripley's fashion sense. Enraged, Ripley immediately plots his retaliation for this slight, which comes via a reunion with his former business partner Reeves (Ray Winstone). Reeves seeks out Ripley's help in finding an unrecognized assassin to kill a Russian gangster, and Ripley suggests he talk to Trevanny -- whom Ripley knows has recently been diagnosed with leukemia and is also desperately strapped for cash. Trevanny reluctantly accepts the offer, in order to insure his family's security -- but is pressured into a repeat performance, which draws the ire of Ripley. The situation quickly spirals out of control to the point of drawing the attention -- and anger -- of the Russian mob, forcing Ripley to intervene. But the master criminal also develops a respect for his unwitting victim, forming an unlikely friendship under the most dire of circumstances. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Malkovich, Dougray Scott, (more)
- 2001
The insidious emergence of state-sanctioned anti-Semitism in Fascist Italy sets the stage for this historical drama. In 1938, Umberto (Diego Abatantuono) is a tailor who is beginning to lose business to Leone (Sergio Castellito), a haberdasher whose shop is next door to Umberto's. Leone offers stock much like Umberto's and at lower prices, which has brought plenty of customers into his store, causing Umberto no small amount of annoyance. Umberto's ire is hardly soothed by the fact that his teenage son Paolo (Elio Germano) is dating Leone's daughter, Susanna (Gioia Spaziani), or that the two men's younger sons, Pietruccio (Walter Dragonetti) and Lele (Simone Ascani), are best friends. The rivalry between the two shopkeepers eventually leads to a heated public argument, in which Umberto refers to Leone's Jewish faith in a derogatory manner. A policeman overhears this, and Leone, who had previously been quiet about his Jewish heritage, soon finds himself having to deal with the sanctions being levied against Jewish citizens. As Umberto sees his neighbor slowly stripped of his property, his rights, and his dignity, his anger turns to sympathy and to a wish that he could do something to help a man not so different from himself. Concorrenza Sleale was directed by Ettore Scola, who previously examined Italy during Mussolini's rule in Una Giornata Speciale. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diego Abatantuono, Sergio Castellitto, (more)
- 2000
Recalling François Girard's The Red Violin, Canone Inverso - Making Love is a multi-layered, multi-generational tale of music, fate, and passion. Based on the novel by Paolo Maurensig, the film opens in pre-WWII Europe, where Jeno, a half-Jewish boy, lives in relative poverty with his mother. His father, who abandoned his wife and son, left them with only a rare violin and a canone inverso, a traditional composition written for two instruments. During Jeno's (Hans Matheson) adolescence, his mother dies, and in the wake of her death, he is drawn to Sophie Levy (Melanie Thierry), a married, French Jewish pianist with whom he develops a close relationship. At Sophie's encouragement, Jeno applies for a scholarship to a music conservatory; there, he meets David Blau (Lee Williams), an aristocratic cad who becomes a great influence in Jeno's life. When Jeno is expelled from the school for being Jewish, David quits in protest and takes his friend back to his father's estate. It is at the estate that Jeno discovers a piece of music written by David's father that sparks a revelation about his family heritage -- and his connections to David and Sophie. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gabriel Byrne, Domiziana Giordano, (more)
- 1999
Italian director Roberto Faenza creates this complex psychological drama about love and tragedy in the cultural minefield of the Middle East. Thirteen years ago, Asya (Juliet Aubrey) and Adam (Ciaran Hinds) witnessed the violent death of their three-year old son in London. Though the couple eventually moved to Tel Aviv, Asya never fully recovered from the misfortune, growing emotionally distanced from her husband and teenaged daughter Dafi (Clara Bryant). When young Frenchman Gabriel (Stuart Bunce) appears, however, Asya comes to believe that the youth is her dead child. Though Adam is simply happy that his wife is laughing again, the bond between Gabriel and Asya soon starts to navigate that disquieting gray area between parental love and carnal passion. Then, just as suddenly as he appears, he mysteriously disappears in his grandmother's old Morris, driving the utterly distraught Asya to search the ends of Israel for him. Meanwhile, Dafi falls for gentle Palestinian mechanic Na'im (Erick Vazquez), though their young love is tested by cultural misunderstandings and prejudice. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ciarán Hinds, Juliet Aubrey, (more)
Popular Italian comedian Leonardo Pieraccioni shfts gears to take on the traditions of the American Western in this family-focused drama. In Il Mio West, Pieraccioni plays Doc, a physician in a small town in the American West. Doc is a peaceful man opposed to hunting, ecological waste and eating meat; he heals the community's ills and lends a voice of reason when personal differences threaten to become violent. The community's peace is shattered when Doc's father, Johnny Lowen (Harvey Keitel) comes home, 20 years after he abandoned his family. As one might expect, Doc has issues with his father, and it doesn't help that Dad was a famous gunslinger whose presence attracts Jack Sikora (David Bowie), an vicious outlaw who has sworn to kill Johnny. Il Mio West was filmmed on location in the Tuscan mountains; in the original Italian language version, Keitel's voice was dubbed by Giancarlo Giannini. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leonardo Pieraccioni, Harvey Keitel, (more)
- 1998
Lew Grade is the executive producer of this British-German co-production, a romantic drama that gets underway in Las Vegas with several casino cameos (Robert Wagner, Roddy McDowall, Jill St. John, William Hootkins). Lymphoma leaves Vegas croupier Maggie (Maria Pitillo) only a few weeks to live, so she sets out to visit a weeping Madonna statue in Italy where she meets American pianist Mike (William McNamara) while hitchhiking to Trevino. Monsignore Calogero (Tom Conti) orders the church closed, and the statue is found to be a fake. As Mike and Maggie hope for a miracle, Mike departs to participate in a Naples piano competition. Watch for composer Lalo Schifrin conducting his own two piano concertos in the final scenes. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William McNamara, Maria Pitillo, (more)
- 1985
Leading man Gabriel Byrne adds a "Harlequin Romance" dash to the two-part, six-hour TV movie Christopher Columbus. Seeking out a swifter route to the lucrative Indies, Genoa-born Columbus begs King John of Portugal (Max Von Sydow) to finance a westbound expedition. Failing this, he turns to Spain's Queen Isabella (Faye Dunaway), who is entranced by Columbus' near-religious fervor. After the famous 1492 expedition, Columbus is bankrolled for future forays into the New World, which win him both adulation and vilification. Originally telecast May 19 and 20, 1985, Christopher Columbus was filmed on location in Spain, Malta and the Dominican Republic, making full use of a $15 million budget. It isn't an earth-shattering cinematic experience, but is lots more worthwhile (and less ponderous) than the brace of Columbus biopics inflicted upon movie audiences in 1992. Those concerned with political correctness should be satisfied with the film's second half, which explores the more sinister elements of chauvinistic colonization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This frightening horror-thriller stars Giancarlo Giannini as Inspector Tellini, chasing a killer whose victims are paralyzed with a poisoned acupuncture needle, forcing them to watch helplessly as their stomachs are ripped open with a sharp knife. This method duplicates the habits of the black wasp in slaying tarantulas, explaining the title. Much of the film is spent on a wild goose chase involving Silvano Tranquilli, the husband of the first victim (Barbara Bouchet). All of the suspects soon turn up dead and Giannini turns his attention to an upscale health spa, frequented by each victim, which is a front for blackmail and cocaine smuggling. The mystery itself is fairly obvious, but director Paolo Cavara includes a good deal of action and Ennio Morricone's score is effectively chilling. Among the cast are such genre favorites as Annabella Incontrera, Stefania Sandrelli, Claudine Auger, Rossella Falk, and Giancarlo Priete, and --as in many Italian thrillers of the period -- voyeurism is the primary motif. Barbara Bach and Carla Mancini appear briefly. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1971
- PG
Television veteran Fielder Cook brings a TV-like intimacy to his direction of Eagle in a Cage. This underrated film stars Kenneth Haigh as Napoleon Bonaparte, in his years of exile on St. Helena. The story is told from the point of view of the island's governor (John Gielgud), a former schoolteacher who finds greatness thrust upon him upon becoming Napoleon's jailer. By necessity, the emphasis is on conversation rather than action, but it holds the ear throughout. Eagle in a Cage is one of a handful of theatrical films released by the American broadcasting firm of Group W. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
