Alfredo Pea Movies
Frank Van Passel's adaptation of William Elsschot's novella Villa des Roses stars Julie Delpy. Delpy is a French maid who works at a home for the poor and unfortunate. She becomes pregnant, and is forced to risk a dangerous abortion. The director employed digital effects to help create the elaborate visual design of the film. Villa des Roses was screened at the Hollywood Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Delpy, Shaun Dingwall, (more)
- 1999
Max is a Sicilian living in Brussels who makes a living as a hairdresser. His flourishing business goes bankrupt when he gets hairdresser's eczema overnight. He loses his customers and his wife. What is more, he is in trouble with the law. At the police station, he encounters heavyweight Bobo who asks him for all his money. When Max refuses, Bobo gets the impression that he must be tough. In reality, he just wants to be left alone. In his good old days, Max never cared for anyone, so now there is no one he can turn to. Bobo, who spent all his life in foster homes and youth centers, seems to be the only one to care for him. Together they devise a plan to find some quick money. Bobo's idea is to rob a jewelry store. Max & Bobo, which was the audience favorite at the 1998 Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival, is impressively edited by the director himself, who can strike a good balance between humorous and dramatic elements. The acting by the two main leads carries the story convincingly. The film was also screened at the 1999 International Film Festival in Rotterdam. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alfredo Pea, Jan Hammenecker, (more)
- 1995
This Italian political thriller takes a look at a recent government scandal wherein everyone from politicos to chiefs of police to secret service people and financiers were involved in receiving kickbacks. Though the tale is fictionalized, many of its characters are based on real people, and as a result, co-producer Luciano Martino received several anonymous death threats before the film was released. The film centers on the efforts of a courageous cop, Carlo Tommasi, who works on the anti-Mafia squad. He is assigned to look into the bombing in downtown Milan that resulted in the deaths of five people. Although Ravida, the head of the secret service, quickly serves up a suspect, neither the state prosecutor Francesca Savona nor a straight-arrow minister believes that the suspect is guilty. While in prison, the suspect mysteriously dies. Soon more begin to die until Tommasi is able to find the perpetrator of it all, a former agent for Ravida. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1994
Black humor and inside political jokes characterize this eccentric Italian comedy. As a father and his teenaged daughter ride on a train, the father spins strange yarns about the other passengers. In the first, an citizen is distressed to find that upon awakening, he cannot inhale sufficient air. He is informed by workmen that his air supply is being curtailed because he hasn't paid his bill. The man frantically wades through a morass of bureaucracy to get his air turned on again. In the second story a man in a large market as he is being purchased by a comely redhead who chose him because he seemed tender. She takes him home for love, but he refuses. She returns him to the market claiming the manager sold her old merchandise. The final tale contains a message that only native Italians may truly appreciate. It describes a war between two families. Though neighbors, one is wealthy, and the other poor. As the feud reaches its climax, enhanced by footage of the Bosnian, Cuban, and Rwandan, conflicts, the film ends with the train passengers wandering within a burned out train. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ivano Marescotti, Silvia Cohen, (more)
- 1990
The tale of this movie is familiar enough, Sheherazade (Catherine Zeta-Jones) has been married to a ruler (Thierry Lhermitte) who wants many wives, but only one at a time. Consequently, as soon as he has bedded them, he has them put to death. In most retellings, the girl staves off this unfortunate conclusion by putting off the connubial event for a thousand and one nights, telling irresistable stories instead. In this one, she gets hold of a magic lamp and acquires a genie named Jimmy Genius (Gerard Jugnot) from the 20th century, who helps her escape and avoid recapture a thousand and one ways, by providing her with airplanes, cars, and other twentieth-century magical devices. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thierry Lhermitte, Catherine Zeta-Jones, (more)
- 1987
Fifteen strangers who have volunteered for an experiment in isolation are forced to deal with an even larger problem in this film from Italian director Giuliano Montaldo. A research group in Germany wants to study the effects of isolation in a nuclear shelter on human subjects and assembles a diverse group of people for the test. The strangers agree to stay in the shelter for 20 days, but are allowed to exit at any time. During their time in the shelter, the group experiences a wide range of social dynamics, but near the end of their stay in the shelter, it is learned that a real nuclear incident is underway and the test group will be forced to stay in their shelter indefinitely. Featured in the cast are Burt Lancaster, Ben Gazzara, and Kate Nelligan. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Kate Nelligan, (more)
- 1984
Set during World War II, The Assisi Underground deals with the efforts made by a handful of hardy European souls to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. Ben Cross plays a dynamic young Catholic priest who puts his own life on the line to save thousands of refugees from Nazi-occupied Italy. While the role of the Vatican in the war is still a matter of hot debate, there can be no denying that individuals like Cross existed: in fact, virtually every event depicted in this film is based on an actual event. Featured in the all-star cast are James Mason, Irene Papas, and Maximillian Schell. When originally released, Assissi Underground clocked in at 178 minutes, resulting in a well-intentioned but frankly boring wartime epic. The producers whittled the running time down to 118 minutes for its general release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Cross, James Mason, (more)
- 1980
Maledetti Vi Amero' is a bleak but also bitingly humorous look at what happened to Italy during the absence of one young rebel. Svitol (Flavio Bucci) has been hiding out in South America. Then one day he gives up on his life in exile and decides to head back home. Everything has changed. The radical left is now in business or shooting up drugs, and Svitol finds he has no "home" left. Terrorists seem to set the stage for near anarchy and nothing is as he had imagined. What can a former rebel do? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Flavio Bucci, Pasquale Zito, (more)
- 1974
- R
In this Italian sex comedy, everyone in a small provincial town sleeps with everyone else, except for Nico, the shy, hapless nephew of Don Carlo, an important landowner. When his beautiful blonde cousin is sent to the manor for the summer, she uses all her wiles to get him into bed before she has to return to her family. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Player, Hugh Griffith, (more)
