Cesare Zavattini Movies

In almost a one-man tour-de-force, Cesare Zavattini wrote, directed, and acted (as Antonio, an 80-year-old man locked up in a mental institution) in this witty, sharply-paced send-up of the hypocrisies of the world. When people seem to be as brain-dead as Antonio suspects, then extreme action is needed to bring them around -- and so he escapes from his confinement to bring his message to a slightly deaf world. He shouts anti-Christian slogans in the Catacombs that once protected Christian lives, and he climbs up on a balcony made famous by Mussolini and does his own haranguing -- asking people to spit up all the meaningless old words they continually use and create new, accurate, and liberating words. At one point, Antonio has a discussion with the Pope in which they both agree that violence and killing have got to be stopped -- but neither the Pope nor the "madman" seem to be able to come up with a shared solution. One of Antonio's methods -- to freeze-frame the violence shown on television and therefore, "stop" it -- just does not seem to have the effect he desires. If the Pope and television cannot stop society's worst problems, then the situation has really gotten out of hand. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Set in a rural area of France in the 19th century, this simple tale tells the story of a servant girl whose life seems marked by grand tragedy, but whose heart is simple and uncomplicated enough not only to endure, but even to attain serenity in the face of her manifold frustrations. Her only friend, to whom she pours out all her troubles, is an old parrot. When the parrot dies, she reverently has it stuffed and continues telling it her woes. This drama is based on a story by Gustave Flaubert. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The first Italian feature film shot in Moscow was directed by the renowned Vittorio De Sica and produced by Carlo Ponti. Sophia Loren stars as Giovanna, an Italian woman who marries Antonio (Marcello Mastroianni) 12 days before the outbreak of WWII. Antonio has no desire to fight in the conflict, and he fakes insanity to try to avoid the draft, but officials see through the charade. Antonio is sent to the Russian front, where the soldiers are plagued by freezing temperatures and short supplies of rations. He is found half-dead in the cold by a Russian peasant girl, Mascia (Lyudmila Savelyeva). She takes him in, and eventually, they marry. Giovanna waits in vain for word on the fate of her husband, who is officially declared missing in action. She goes to Russia to try to find him, searching records and cemeteries. Finally, she discovers first his new wife, then him, and reluctantly decides not to fight the situation. Returning home to Italy, she marries an older factory worker, Ettore (Germano Longo), and they have a son (who is played by the real-life son of Ponti and Loren). But Antonio still longs for Giovanna, and he returns to Italy to discuss a reconciliation with her. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Vittorio De Sica directs the 1967 episodic sex comedy Sette Volte Donna (Woman Times Seven), consisting of seven short stories each starring Shirley MacLaine. In "Funeral Possession," she plays opposite Peter Sellers as a widow at her husband's funeral. In "Amateur Night," she's a wife who's driven to prostitiution to get revenge on her adulterous husband (Rossano Brazzi). In "Two Against One," she plays an interpreter who gets naked and reads T.S. Eliot to an Italian (Vittorio Gassman) and a Scot (Clinton Greyn). In "The Super Simone," she's a houswife who acts insane to get the attention of her author husband (Lex Barker). In "At the Opera," she's a rich woman determined to get a specific dress. In "The Suicides," she forges a suicide pact with lover Alan Arkin. In "Snow," Michael Caine is hired to spy on her. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

A beautiful free-lance photographer meets and falls in love with a French medical student at a fancy ball and becomes pregnant after their passionate tryst. Now the formerly free-wheeling student finds himself facing a difficult situation. He decides that the woman should abort the child, and so to raise enough cash he sleeps with a wealthy older woman. Unfortunately, the photographer balks and as the story ends, the viewer is left to ponder the couple's ultimate choice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The "doll"in this Italian seriocomedy is played by Virna Lisi. Craving attention, Virna claims that she has been robbed and assaulted. Thanks to this artifice, she becomes a celebrity, and then a high-priced model. Her chickens come home to roost when three innocent men are arrested and charged for the non-existent robbery and rape. Virna is all for keeping her mouth shut, but her resolve is weakened by Haya Harareet, the wife of one of the accused. Doll That Took the Town was originally released as La Donna Del Giorno. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Vittorio De Sica's version of a play by Jean-Paul Sartre stars Frederic March as Albrecht von Gerlach, the owner of one of Germany's biggest industrial firms. Albrecht calls for his son Werner (Robert Wagner), a lawyer who is married to an actress, Johanna (Sophia Loren). The aging Albrecht wants Werner to take over the family business, but Werner is not interested, as he knows that the company helped to build the Nazi war machine that caused the deaths of millions of people. Werner, however, was not first in the line of succession; his older brother Franz (Maximilian Schell) was running the company for his father during the war, and as a result he was cited for war crimes and executed. Or so everyone believes. In fact, Franz was able to escape the gallows, and he lives in the basement of the family's Altona estate, watched over by his sister Leni (Francoise Prevost). Franz has gone mad, and he believes Leni when she tells him that Germany never recovered from its defeat in the war and that poverty has layed waste to the nation. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An early melodrama from director Damiano Damiani, this overheated coming-of-age story concerns a neglected teenager (Vanni De Maigret) living on an island in the Bay of Naples. Arturo's widowed father (Reginald Kernan) shows up one day with an attractive new wife (Kay Meersman), and leaves them together when he goes off on one of his frequent trips. Alone with his beautiful stepmother and his nascent desires, Arturo falls deeply in love. As viewers of Damiani's overwrought Amityville II: The Possession can probably guess, Elsa Morante's bittersweet romantic novel is left by the wayside in favor of almost comical heavy-breathing and repressed sexuality. Damiani's heavy-handed direction makes such similar films as Luna and Spanking the Monkey look relatively restrained by comparison, and only a relatively restrained performance by Meersman keeps the film from degenerating into abject farce. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Released in the US by 20th Century-Fox, Boccaccio '70 is a compendium of short subjects directed by three of Italy's top filmmakers. Each story is written in the style of the famed Italian essayist Boccaccio, albeit told in contemporary terms. First up is "The Raffle", written by Cesare Zavattini and directed by Vittorio De Sica: Sophia Loren (wife of Boccaccio '70 producer Carlo Ponti) plays the sexy operator of a shooting gallery, who offers herself as first prize to the best shot. In "The Job", written by Suso Cecchi D'Amico and directed by Luchino Visconti, Romy Schneider carries a torch for her philandering boss Tomas Milian. The final segment is "The Temptation of Dr. Antonio", directed by Federico Fellini and scripted by Fellini, Ennio Flaiano and Tullio Pinelli; in this one, Anita Ekberg is an image on a poster who comes to life for the benefit of a drooling middle-aged professor (Peppino De Filippo). A fourth episode, "Renzo and Luciana", directed by Mario Monicelli, was cut from U.S. release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This conventional post-nuclear holocaust drama from Yugoslav director Veljko Bulajic seems to be at cross purposes. On the one hand, its anti-war sentiments are clear, as well as its realistic scenarios of destruction, and on the other hand, the director and scripter Cesar Zavatini have turned the story into a satire. At the center of focus is a young couple who were getting married when the atomic bombs changed the face of the planet, and through the couple's own dilemma the greater picture is glimpsed. Assisting Eva Krizevska, Anton Vrdoljak, Zlatko Madunic, and other actors is President Marshal Tito's army. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Normally, an actor or actress in a foreign-language film was not the ideal candidate for an Academy Award, inasmuch as his or her English-language "performance" was often dubbed in by an anonymous third party. Such was not the case of Sophia Loren in Two Women (La Ciociara), who did her own English dubbing. Adapted by director Vittorio De Sica and Cesare Zavattini from the novel by Alberto Moravia, Two Women is the semi-neorealist account of widow Cesira (Loren) and her teenaged daughter, Rosetta (Eleanora Brown), as they struggle to survive in war-ravaged Italy. A conventional romantic triangle between mother, daughter, and Michele (Jean-Paul Belmondo), is barely under way when the war rears its ugly head once more. Seeking shelter in a bombed-out church, Cesira and Rosetta are attacked and raped -- a horrifying sequence, capped by a freeze-frame close-up of Rosetta, her face a taut mask of terror (this image was enough to prompt a virulent "anti-smut" editorial in The Saturday Evening Post). Once they've recovered from this appalling experience, mother and daughter are offered a ride back to Rome by friendly truck driver Florindo (Renato Salvatori). Though Cesira had hoped to keep her daughter from compromising herself as a means of survival, she is crushed to discover that Rosetta has given herself to the truck driver in exchange for a pair of stockings. When Cesira and Rosetta finally reconcile, it is a grievous occasion, mourning the death of their mutual love, Michele. A last-minute replacement for Anna Magnani, Sophia Loren brought hitherto untapped depths of emotion to her performance in Two Women; she later stated that she was utilizing "sensory recall," dredging up memories of her own wartime experiences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Amore e Chiacchere (Love and Chatter) was cooked up by ubiquitious Italian scenarist Cesare Zavattini. Vittorio De Sica stars as the pompous windbag of a town mayor, whose efforts to keep his constinuents happy are designed primarily to keep him in office. De Sica finds himself in a pickle when his son (Geronimo Meynier) falls in love with Carla Gravina, daughter of the town streetcleaner. Though the mayor strongly disapproves of the marriage, he dare not make his objections public, lest he lose the votes of the "common people." At the same time, De Sica is obliged to curry favor with a wealthy industrialist who wants to build on the property currently occupied by an old-folk's home. A neat little satire of political chicanery, Amore e Chiacchere remains suprisingly timely even after four decades. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide