Paolo Rossi Movies

In 2003, the first episode of Italian comedian Sabina Guzzanti's satirical comedy program, RAIot, aired on RAI3. Guzzanti mocked Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with a startlingly effective impersonation (she is an attractive woman; he is not), and ridiculed the corruption and passivity of the Italian political system, left and right, that has enabled Berlusconi to gain so much power over Italy's broadcast media. Almost immediately, Berlusconi's media company filed a massive defamation suit against RAI. The suit would later be declared frivolous by a judge, but RAI, apparently knowing on which side its bread is buttered, used it as an excuse to cancel the troublesome program before another episode could air. RAI execs who had previously lauded Guzzanti's comedic skills and expressed excitement about the program now seemed to think of her as a menace. Politicians and pundits (from the right and the left) offered Guzzanti odd definitions of satire, including the notion that it "should make politicians appear more human," in order to demonstrate that what Guzzanti was doing was not satire, which would presumably be protected by Italy's free speech laws, but an inappropriate political diatribe. Guzzanti responded by making this documentary, Viva Zapatero!, in which she examines the current state of the Italian media, and the frightening degree to which it is controlled by Berlusconi, interviewing both her opponents and Italian journalists and entertainers whose careers have suffered due to perceived slights against the prime minister. She also speaks with satirists and journalists from other parts of the world, who express shock and revulsion at the extent to which dissent has been stifled on Italy's airwaves. Viva Zapatero! had its New York premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

In this broad comedy from Italy, five buddies -- the owner of a cafe (Carlo Buccirosso), his best friend (Emilio Solfrizzi), a mama's boy schoolteacher (Gennaro Nunziante), a one-time professional soccer player (Claudio Amendola), and a bus driver (Alessandro Di Carlo) -- buy lottery tickets as a group, assuming that the more tickets they buy, the better their chances of winning, with the group sharing the prize if they hit the number. However, when their lucky day finally arrives and they have the right number for a $43 million jackpot, it's discovered that someone has pocketed the winning ticket and plans to keep the money for himself. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The English title of this complex Italian film is apt. Featuring 65 main characters and 130 speaking parts (famous faces abound and many of the actors appeared gratis), and ranging in tone from tartly humorous to darkly tragic, it presents 30 interwoven slices from the lives of modern day Romans during a single day. The lone, silent figure of a lone jogger provides a sort of continuity between the vignettes. Beginning at sunset of the previous day, the jogger is seen warming up on his apartment terrace, looking for all the world as if he would like to jump. The rest of the stories seem to be randomly presented. Stories include the robbery of a Chinese restaurant that causes a birthday celebrant to die of fright, two different newlyweds who find themselves attracted to each other, an opportunistic mechanic's plan to capitalize on the death of a rival, a sneaky, sadistic meter maid and others. One uniting feature of the stories is their underlying bitter assessment of modern humanity. People are seen as selfish and basically cruel, still the stories move quickly and the balance between humor and drama, affection and cynicism, and shallowness and complexity is carefully maintained. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this light drama, the lives of a disparate group of people struggling with fairly laughable situations come together during a total eclipse of the sun in 1961. All the people involved live in a single apartment building in Rome. One family has gathered together in preparation for a funeral: they are not so much in mourning for the dead person as they are greedy for whatever they might have inherited. Another family has gathered to celebrate the wedding of a young lady with a man she finds dull but dependable, rather than wedding her flighty but passionate boyfriend. Nearby a man who has had his eyes operated on to restore his vision is waiting for the bandages to be removed to find out if the operation was successful. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This comedy connects three unrelated stories of gamblers as they seek their fortunes in the casinos of Monte Carlo. When Furio (Christian De Sica) wins big but has his money stolen, he is forced to spend the night with an unappealing millionairess. Gino (Massimo Boldi) and his brother are fleeced by the fortune-hunting female Silvia (Florence Guerin). Oscar (Ezio Greggio) is a predatory gambler who find himself devoured by a French card shark. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Ferroccio Ferri (Paolo Rossi) is a quiz-show champion who is an expert on camels in this offbeat comedy. He is eligible for the upcoming show that will award a sizeable sum of money to the grand-prize winner. Camillo (Diego Abatantuono) is the manager of a second-rate traveling troupe who recruits Ferri to ride a camel for a promotional tour of the Po Valley. Sabina Guzzanti plays a notoriously bad singer in Camillo's troupe with comedic flair. Ferri loses on the quiz show and meets the beautiful Anna (Giulio Boschi) on the train ride back home. Anna talks Ferri into posing as her lover so she can dump her fiancee in front of her mother (Laura Betti) and father (Giancarno Sbragia). ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi