Carlo Cecchi Movies
Francois Girard's adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's novel Silk stars Michael Pitt as a young Frenchman who travels to Japan at the request of a wealthy silkworm magnate who asks him to smuggle back some new worms. The mission succeeds, and this allows the man to live in great comfort with his wife (Keira Knightley). After a few years, they are unable to conceive a child, a situation that leads to the man taking on a lover during his subsequent visits to Japan. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Pitt, Keira Knightley, (more)
- 2006
A fugitive from justice discovers he has to leave his principles behind to come out of the underground in this drama from Italy. Giorgio (Alessio Boni) was a member of a radical left-wing group who was forced to flee the country when a bomb he planted unexpectedly killed an innocent party. After living in Central America for several years, Giorgio has decided to return to Italy and turn himself in. Giorgio is enrolled in a program where he is "rehabilitated" by cooperating with the police, staring by getting the goods on Anedda (Michele Placido), a corrupt cop. However, before long Giorgio's actions start to seem more like blackmail than justice, as a demands payments from the owner of a topless bar and persuading a married woman, Flora (Isabella Ferrari), to sleep with him until her husband makes good on a long-standing debt. However, temptation becomes too much for Giorgio when Anedda offers to bring him in on a robbery he's been planning; Giorgio's share of the loot looks to be enough to keep him afloat for years, but his new criminal lifestyle is more than he knows how to handle. Arrivederci Amore (aka The Goodbye Kiss) was adapted from a novel by Massimo Carlotto. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alessio Boni, Michele Placido, (more)
- 2001
An attorney's reckless personal life catches up with him -- or does it? -- in this whodunit. Valerio Grau (Lino Capolicchio) is a successful lawyer with a secret. For the past ten years, he's been having an affair with Lauretta (Angela Molina), who is also an attorney and also married. One day, Valerio suddenly dies after drinking a cup of poisoned coffee, and Lauretta's husband (Giancarlo Monticelli), a judge, immediately becomes a suspect. Pani (Ivano Marescotti), the city attorney assigned to the case, thinks the judge is the most likely culprit, and hires Piero (Carlo Cecchi), a detective struggling to work past a career embarrassment, to find out what he can about the judge. Piero is assigned to work alongside an assistant magistrate (Rinaldo Rocco) who once worked with Valerio and shares Pani's suspicions, but Piero isn't so certain, and he discovers that Lauretta was not the only "other woman" in Valerio's life. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carlo Cecchi, Ángela Molina, (more)
- 2001
Italian filmmaker Antonio Capuano writes and directs the grueling gangster drama Luna Rossa (Red Moon). Aging Tony Cammarano (Italo Celoro) is the patriarch of an organized crime family, but his son Amerigo (Toni Servillo) runs most of his operations. Amerigo is a killer who invites his mistress, Rita (Lucia Ragni), to live in the family house. Meanwhile, his wife, Irene (Licia Maglietta), has an affair with mob henchman Egidio (Antonino Iuorio), who fancies the Cammarano's teenage daughter, Orsola (Antonia Truppo). This leaves Irene to eye her own son, Oreste (Domenico Balsamo), who has taken to self-mutilation. Luna Rossa won the Wella Prize at the 2001 Venice Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carlo Cecchi, Licia Maglietta, (more)
- 1999
This musical drama (most of the dialogue is sung) concerns a diverse group of people brought together in a city in Italy. Pina (Isabel Ruth) was born in Portugal but now lives in poor circumstances in Naples. Pina has two daughters, Rosa (Iaia Forte), who has been wearing a wedding dress since she was left stranded at the altar several years ago, and Caterina (Galatea Ranzi), who murdered a man who wronged her as he left the church following his wedding. Caterina winds up in prison alongside Maddalena (Anna Bonaiuto), a prostitute who witnessed the murder and was inspired to kill a man in her own life who had hurt her. The incidents from these women's lives are interspersed with another story, set in 1929 and filmed in black-and-white, about a man who shoots his wife in a movie theater and must run to avoid the police. Filmed on location in Naples, with non-professionals as extras, Appassionate was screened as part of the 1999 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Bonaiuto, Inês de Medeiros, (more)
Francois Girard directed this drama tracing the history of a musical instrument through five countries and three centuries. In 1681, to keep the spirit of his wife alive, an Italian paints the violin with a red varnish made from her blood. It is later found in the Austrian Alps when a prodigy gives a performance in the court of Vienna in 1792. Taken by gypsies, the instrument is acquired by a Dionysian composer. After a journey by boat to China in 1966, it is hidden during the Cultural Revolution. In contemporary Canada, it is spotted at an auction house by a violin expert (Samuel L. Jackson) who becomes obsessed with it. Scripted by Girard and Don McKellar. Filmed on a $10 million budget in Montreal, China, Italy, Austria, and Oxford. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Samuel L. Jackson, Don McKellar, (more)
Tired of his troubled marriage and his profession, an overly tense Italian businessman's life changes dramatically after he learns that an aunt has left him property in Istanbul. Francesco Alessandro Gassman(the son of internationally renowned actor Vittorio Gassman) arrives to the Turkish city hoping that he can take care of the matter swiftly and return to Italy. He is surprised to discover that the property is actually one of the last traditional hamams (old-fashioned bath houses) in Turkey. The lawyer in charge of the inheritance seems to dawdle and this frustrates Francesco who is not used to the slow pace of the neighborhood where the bath is located. But then the family that has been running the Turkish bath for his aunt, takes him in and Francesco gradually rediscovers a long-missing sense of family as he accustoms himself to Turkish culture. Matters become complicated though when the couple's daughter Fusun falls for Francesco, who discovers himself increasingly and disconcertingly interested in her darkly handsome brother Mehmet. The Italian decides to remain in Istanbul for a while to help restore the baths. The situation comes to a head when Francesco's wife arrives to make an announcement. The ensuing conflicts cause Francesco great upheaval, but they also lead him to grow in unexpected ways. Having spent two decades in Italy, Turkish-born filmmaker Ferzan Ozpetek brings a sense of realism in observing the cultural differences between Francesco and his adopted family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alessandro Gassman, Francesca D'Aloja, (more)
- 1996
Set in 18th-century Italy and is somewhat based on the true story of priest Achille Ropa Sanuti, who was persecuted by the Church for dabbling in the black arts, The Arcane Enchanter is a surprisingly old-fashioned, highly atmospheric horror film. Young priest in training, Giacomo commits a minor sin in seminary school and is forced to flee from vengeful church authorities. It is a spooky old woman who offers him deliverance by sending him to become the newest secretary to the enigmatic Arcane Enchanter, a strange fellow who has been banished to a lonely tower deep in the wilderness. Giacomo's predecessor Nerio was apparently involved with Satan and recently died. The Enchanter, while not a devil worshipper, also dabbles in wizardry, something that Giacomo gradually comes to accept. Both the Enchanter and his new scribe are forced to team up when the evil Nerio's ghost rises up to threaten their souls. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This beautiful if ponderous soufflé of a film from director Bernardo Bertolucci serves more as an Italian travelogue than a drama. Liv Tyler stars as Lucy Harmon, an American teenager arriving in the lush Tuscan countryside to visit family friends residing there. Lucy visited four years earlier and exchanged a kiss with a handsome boy with whom she hopes to become reacquainted. Lucy's mother has committed suicide since then, and the teenager also hopes to discover the identity of her father, whom her mother hinted was a resident of the villa. Once she arrives, Lucy meets a variety of eccentric visitors, including a dying gay playwright (Jeremy Irons), a sculptor (Donal McCann), an entertainment lawyer (D.W. Moffet), and several others. Lucy has decided to lose her virginity and becomes an object of intense interest to the men of the household, but the suitor she finally selects is not the initial object of her affection. Stealing Beauty boasted an intriguing parallel between actress Tyler's role and her real life. The daughter of a famed rock and roll star, she was brought up believing that her father was someone else, a fact that Bertolucci may have had in mind when writing the story. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liv Tyler, Sinéad Cusack, (more)
In this beautifully mounted historical drama, Angelo Pardi (Olivier Martinez), an Italian soldier, is fleeing his country in 1832. After the fall of Napoleon, Austria is swooping down on Italy to take control of the nation, and like many patriots, Pardi is hoping to escape to France and fight for their freedom abroad rather than submit to Austrian rule. However, as Pardi discovers upon arival, an epidemic of cholera is sweeping the land, leaving death in its wake and causing most people to be fearful of strangers, who may well be infected. As he tries to outrun a trio of mercenaries who have been hired to take him back to Italy, he finds himself accused by a group of villagers of infecting their water supply. Trying to escape would-be captors on all sides and searching for refuge in a rainstorm, Pardi finds a house and takes shelter inside. Unknown to Pardi, Pauline (Juliette Binoche), the lady of the house, is at home, but to his pleasant surprise, she welcomes him cordially rather than sending him away. It seems that Pauline's husband is missing, and as she desperately wants to find him and Pardi needs to escape to friendlier circumstances, they travel together through the French countryside, hoping to avoid both the disease and the tragedy travelling in its wake. Reportedly the most expensive French production ever made at the time of its release, Le Hussard Sur Le Toit (released in the United States as The Horseman on the Roof) was nominated for ten Cesar Awards (the French Oscar); it won two, for Best Cinematography and Best Sound. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olivier Martinez, Juliette Binoche, (more)
- 1993
On his way home from work one evening, Bernardo (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), a lawyer, witnesses a young man falling to his death out of a window high above him. He is disturbed by this more than one might usually be, because the window was in his own apartment, and he soon finds out that his wife was there when the young man leapt to his death. It is only natural, then, that he is driven to investigate the circumstances that lead to this situation. In this detective thriller, he and the policeman Carlo Plane (Massimo Wertmuller) independently struggle to make sense out of this bizarre event, which appears to be connected in some fashion to one of Bernardo's current cases. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Valérie Kaprisky, (more)
Thriller about a new prosecuting magistrate in Sicily, who replaces his assassinated predecessor only to find himself the new target of corrupt killers within the government. Score by Ennio Morricone. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudio Amendola, Enrico Lo Verso, (more)
Steve McQueen is ideally cast as a champion race car driver, participating in the famed 24-hour race headquartered in Le Mans, France. Though dedicated to Going for the Gold, McQueen finds time to romance widowed Elga Andersen. The dramatic angle to this plot wrinkle is that McQueen may well have been responsible for the death of Andersen's husband during a previous car pile-up. Director John Sturges, who'd previously helmed Steve McQueen's legendary motorcycle chase scenes in The Great Escape, was originally slated to direct Le Mans, but withdrew from the project; it was then taken over by Lee H. Katzin of The Phynx. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve McQueen, Siegfried Rauch, (more)
- 1969
Most of this film consists of a dialogue between the members of an idealistic group of Marxist rebels who plan to wage war against the Establishment. Ironically, the determined rebels seem to have no clue why they are fighting against the unnamed European country. The viewer is left to assume they are fighting for a worthy cause, though the fact is, the rebels may only be rebelling because it is fashionable to be against the existing power structures. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philippe Leroy, Carlo Cecchi, (more)
- 1968
A student who is involved in non-violent protest changes when he sees a picture of a Viet Cong soldier being executed by a South Vietnamese policeman. Vowing he would never kill as a soldier, he has no trouble with his conscience when he kills as a civilian. He kills a communist professor and a famous architect and throws some Molotov cocktails into a student demonstration when the police arrive. When a television reporter doubts the student is the murderer, the reporter becomes the next victim of the student, who has been driven to participate in the violence he has found so objectionable in the past. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carlo Cecchi, Pier Paolo Capponi, (more)
