Valentina Cortese Movies

It is the 19th century in Italy, and Maria (Angela Bettis) has joined a convent in order to explore her strong feeling that she has a calling to become a nun. She has adapted to live at the convent quite nicely, and is relatively untroubled, but a cholera outbreak sends her back to be with her family for a while, near the steaming peak of Mount Etna. She enjoys her freedom to move around the countryside, and is wooed (unsuccessfully, it seems) by a charming young man named Nico, but returns to the convent when the danger is past. There, she is troubled by the thought that she truly loved Nico, and that her calling may not be as firm as she thought. When she learns that Nico has married her sister, she nearly goes mad with self-recrimination, but eventually weathers the storm. All the dialog in this Italian-made film by Franco Zeffirelli is in English. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Margherita (Carol Alt) is a wife and mother who decides to take a job as a fashion-show coordinator in this romantic drama. She discovers the tawdry truth of the inner workings of the Milan fashion industry and falls for the Italian heel Roberto (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), a move that nearly destroys her marriage. Renee Simonsen and Luca Barbareschi co-star with Marissa Berenson and Valentina Cortese in this vehicle that features beautiful fashion models in chic designer clothes. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Because director Franco Zeffirelli noted publicly that he intended to depict Jesus Christ as a human being rather than a religious icon, his expensive made-for-TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth fell victim to protestors long before its April 3, 1977, debut. Despite the pullout of several sponsors, Jesus of Nazareth was aired as scheduled, sweeping the ratings in the process. In avoiding the usual overproduced Hollywood approach to the Gospels, Zeffirelli offers one of the most sensitive and reverent portrayals of Jesus ever seen on film. In the title role, Robert Powell heads a huge international cast, which includes Olivia Hussey as Mary, Peter Ustinov as Herod the Great, Christopher Plummer as Herod Antipas, Michael York as John the Baptist, James Farentino as Simon Peter, Donald Pleasence as Melchior, James Earl Jones as Balthazar, Ian McShane as Judas, Anne Bancroft as Mary Magdalene, Rod Steiger as Pontius Pilate, James Mason as Joseph of Arimathea, Anthony Quinn as Caiaphas, Laurence Olivier as Nicodemus, Ernest Borgnine as the Centurion, and Claudia Cardinale as the Adulteress. Filmed in England, Tunisia, and Morocco, Jesus of Nazareth was scripted by Zeffirelli, Anthony Burgess, and Suso Cecchi D'Amico. It originally aired in two three-hour segments, telecast Palm and Easter Sunday of 1977 as part of NBC's Big Event anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Italian effort (spoken English is obviously dubbed) a dentist is seduced by his daughter and her girl friend. ~ All Movie Guide

In this gentle, tragic drama, Olivier (John McEnery) is a wealthy young man with a lively and attractive mother (Valentina Cortese), which is a pity, really, as he can't bear her, or the men she gets involved with. When he gets too upset with her escapades, he begins to break things, or runs off. Otherwise, he spends his time building a boat on the lawn with his friend David (Jean-Pierre Cassal), a poor fisherman whom he grew up with. Though hardly idyllic, the relative calm provided by their friendship is disrupted by Eleonor (Claude Jade), a cute and determined young woman who sets her sights on David. She wants to wean David from his friendship with Olivier and plays on David's long-dormant jealousy of Olivier's wealth and easy life. She also plays the flipside of the jealousy issue, claiming that Olivier has made passes at her. This film is in the French language. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This uneven sex comedy finds the antique dealer Julian (Alain Delon) living with his lover Agatha (Mireille Darc). The two allow each other to have romantic encounters that include Jane Davenport, Valentina Cortese, and Pascale De Boisson. Julian pushes Agatha into thrill seeking eroticism in fast cars and on galloping horses before Agatha seeks sexual excitement with more human elements. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a Neapolitan lad travels to Milan to attend his father's funeral. His father was a gigolo, and the young man decides to continue the family profession and begins looking for rich women to prey upon. He is successful, but then he finds himself caught in a bidding war between a wealthy steel heiress and an rich old homosexual. Though the homosexual wins, the gigolo decides to make it with the heiress. Time passes and he ends up falling for a beautiful woman. Unfortunately, he discovers that she is his half sister. He then remembers a bit of advice from one of his father's friends who said "It's better for a young man to attach himself to a rich homosexual." The young gigolo heeds that advice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A young writer goes to a summer resort in wintertime to be alone and contemplate his moral dilemma in this thrilling and suspenseful psychological drama. He goes to visit Tilde (Virna Lisi), a young woman with whom he had a brief sexual relationship. To his horror, the writer learns that she has been killed by having her throat slashed, and her body was thrown into the lake. He finds no one willing to talk about the crime, and he uncovers the medical examiner's report that lists the promiscuous victim as being a virgin. When the wife of the hotel-owner is found dead, the writer urges for an in-depth investigation of the unsolved crimes. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Friedrich Durrenmatt's misanthropic theatrical piece The Visit has never been totally successful in any production, not even in the original Broadway presentation starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. The film version keeps this failure record consistent. Ingrid Bergman plays a fabulously wealthy woman who returns to her impoverished home town. Years earlier, she had been driven from town in disgrace after sleeping with solid citizen Anthony Quinn. She now offers a deal to the city elders: Bergman will alleviate the city's financial difficulties--in exchange for Quinn's life. The original play ended with the lynching of the seducer; the film ends with Bergman halting the execution, proclaiming that by allowing Quinn to live, the townsfolk will be forced to feel the pangs of guilt over what they might have done for the rest of their lives. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Generally considered the first real giallo film, Mario Bava's stylish thriller stars Leticia Roman as Nora, who travels to Rome to visit her sick aunt. The aunt dies that night, and Nora ends up witnessing a murder. The police and kindly Dr. Bassi (John Saxon) don't believe her, since there is no body, so she goes to stay with her aunt's friends, the Cravens. Along the way, there are several more murders tied to a decade-long string of killings of victims chosen in alphabetical order by surname. The surprising ending is worth staying around for, as is an amusing supporting performance by Valentina Cortese. Bava would go on to further codify many of the giallo genre's conventions in Sei Donne per l'Assassino the following year. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

This engaging World War II drama is a joint American-Yugoslav effort and although set in a Yugoslav town, the actual incident on which the story is based happened in Rome. Broderick Crawford plays the married Doctor Bernardi, a member of the resistance movement. As a part of the movement's offensive, the doctor is asked to throw a bomb at a German officer. Tension builds as the medic spends some time getting ready to carry out the order, and then chaos is unleashed when he throws the bomb and thirty Germans are killed. In reprisal, the German forces round up three hundred people and threaten to execute them unless the unknown bomb-thrower gives himself up. The doctor is caught in a quandary when his partisan friends tell him to stay quiet and his conscience says to confess. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The Spanish/Italian Rocket From Calabuch is significant only as the last film of beloved character actor Edmund Gwenn. The 78-year-old star plays a retired atomic scientist who settles in a peaceful Spanish village. But he can't remain sedentary for long, and soon he's off and about developing a new kind of rocket. So much for his retirement, and so much for the peace and quiet in his village, which is soon overrun with reporters and spies. Rocket From Calabuch was originally released in Spain as simply Calabuch; the film didn't make it to the states until after Edmund Gwenn's death in 1959. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide