Pina Cei Movies

Oci Ciornie was an international co-production tailored for Marcello Mastroianni. It received good reviews in Italy and France, and Mastroianni was awarded "Best Actor" at the Cannes Film Festival. However, some in Russia felt that director Mikhalkov (who previously received wide acclaim for another Chekhov adaptation, (An Unfinished Piece for the Player Piano) tried too hard to cater to foreign tastes rather than to convey Chekhov's mood. So this film conveys more of a foreign idea what Chekhov is about rather than a Russian one. In the story, Romano (Marcello Mastroianni) is living the life of a "kept" man in that he is the penniless husband of a rich aristocratic woman who supports him. Whenever life at home becomes too difficult for him, he goes off to some spa or other for a "rest cure." In addition to resting, the clownish fellow flirts shamelessly with the women he finds at these resorts. During one of his restorative excursions, he meets a shy Russian woman named Anna, whom he is much taken with. When she leaves to return to her life at home, he resolves to follow her and woo her there. With a great deal of buffoonery and ingenuity (such as pretending to be a manufacturer of a special kind of glass), he gets a visa to travel into Russia. There, he finds her unhappily married to a minor official, and before he leaves for Europe he promises to return and marry her. When he gets back home, he finds that his aristocratic wife is experiencing a genuine crisis (her family has lost its money), and he soon forgets about Anna and his promises to her. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In an irreverent send up of politicians and feminists and others, director and co-writer Lina Wertmuller has a Minister of the Interior locked inside his impermeable luxury car with only his broken computer to keep him company. Unfortunately, this accident happens at the villa of a conservative party deputy (Ugo Tognazzi) whose wildly eccentric wife Maria Teresa (Piera Degli Espositi) is in a panic about hiding her lover (Enzo Jannacci) in the basement -- he is an escaped terrorist. While the authorities arrive to make one futile effort after another to get the Minister out of his car, the Minister's assistant deadpans his way through the household chaos, and the granny is busy smoking pot. Out of the entire crew, the conservative deputy is limned with sympathy and the flighty, witless feminist is not -- a state of affairs bound to raise the shackles of some viewers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

After an impoverished mother of three takes in a father and son as boarders, she finds them both panting after her in this Italian feature (with English subtitles). ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi