Mario Cotone Movies

Giuseppe Tornatore directed this grand-scale portrait of life and love over several decades in a small town in Sicily. The Torrenuovas are a family of peasant shepherds who have lived and worked in Bagheria though many generations. In the years before the rise of Mussolini, the family often found themselves working for Don Giacinto (Lollo Franco), a local tycoon who often used his power and position to take advantage of others. Young Peppino Torrenuova senses a profound injustice in the way Don Giacinto treats his elders, and as the years pass the young man becomes a passionate advocate for social change. Once he grows to be a man, Peppino (Francesco Scianna) falls in love with beautiful Mannina (Margareth Made) and they get married, starting a family of their own over the objections of Mannia's parents, who believe she can do better. As Peppino throws in his lot with the local Communist party and works to make life better for his fellow peasants, we see a number of important historical events through his eyes and watch the fortunes of his town and his family rise and fall. Featuring guest appearances by Monica Bellucci, Raoul Bova and Donatella Finocchiaro, Baaria was the opening night attraction at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Recalling François Girard's The Red Violin, Canone Inverso - Making Love is a multi-layered, multi-generational tale of music, fate, and passion. Based on the novel by Paolo Maurensig, the film opens in pre-WWII Europe, where Jeno, a half-Jewish boy, lives in relative poverty with his mother. His father, who abandoned his wife and son, left them with only a rare violin and a canone inverso, a traditional composition written for two instruments. During Jeno's (Hans Matheson) adolescence, his mother dies, and in the wake of her death, he is drawn to Sophie Levy (Melanie Thierry), a married, French Jewish pianist with whom he develops a close relationship. At Sophie's encouragement, Jeno applies for a scholarship to a music conservatory; there, he meets David Blau (Lee Williams), an aristocratic cad who becomes a great influence in Jeno's life. When Jeno is expelled from the school for being Jewish, David quits in protest and takes his friend back to his father's estate. It is at the estate that Jeno discovers a piece of music written by David's father that sparks a revelation about his family heritage -- and his connections to David and Sophie. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

Lew Grade is the executive producer of this British-German co-production, a romantic drama that gets underway in Las Vegas with several casino cameos (Robert Wagner, Roddy McDowall, Jill St. John, William Hootkins). Lymphoma leaves Vegas croupier Maggie (Maria Pitillo) only a few weeks to live, so she sets out to visit a weeping Madonna statue in Italy where she meets American pianist Mike (William McNamara) while hitchhiking to Trevino. Monsignore Calogero (Tom Conti) orders the church closed, and the statue is found to be a fake. As Mike and Maggie hope for a miracle, Mike departs to participate in a Naples piano competition. Watch for composer Lalo Schifrin conducting his own two piano concertos in the final scenes. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Gianni Amelio directed this powerful drama that focuses on the relationship between two brothers as their goals and ideals drift apart over the course of seven years, each of which is represented by a single day. Giovanni (Enrico Lo Verso), an uneducated laborer from Southern Italy, arrives in Turin, where his younger brother Pietro (Francesco Guiffrida) is studying to be a teacher. Giovanni sees the bright Pietro as his family's best hope for making their way out of poverty, and he goes to work to support his brother so that Pietro can focus on his studies. But as time goes on, Giovanni's simple dream of a better life proves to be different than Pietro's personal ambitions, and as the corruption of the city begins to sink its hooks into Pietro, their fates take a tragic and dangerous turn. Cosi Ridevano won the Golden Lion award at the 1998 Venice Film Festival, but despite enthusiastic reviews in Europe, the film did not receive an American release until 2001. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Gloria (Margherita Buy) is so taken by the repairman she spends a night with that she quits her job and attempts to get him to marry her, to no avail. She is something of a puzzle freak, and the mysteries of the Sphinx and the pyramids in Egypt intrigue her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A young man's infatuation for a beautiful older woman blooms amidst the outbreak of World War II in this bittersweet comedy-drama from Italy. Renato (Giuseppe Sulfaro) is a 13-year-old boy growing up in a small Sicilian community. Mussolini has risen to power and has declared war upon England and France, but Renato has other things on his mind -- mostly girls. While hanging out with his friends by the seashore, Renato spies Malèna (Monica Bellucci), the daughter of one of his schoolteachers, whose husband Nino (Gaetano Aronica) is fighting with Mussolini's army. Renato is immediately obsessed with Malèna and follows her like a lost puppy, spying on her whenever circumstances permit and imagining her as his co-star in elaborate erotic fantasies inspired by his favorite movies. Renato, however, is hardly the only man in town to be struck by Malèna's charms, and her beauty leads to resentment from the women of the community. Malèna's circumstances take a turn for the worst after her husband is reported to have died in combat, and she is forced to resort to prostitution to survive; she is brutally attacked by a pack of angry matrons and driven from town. Renato tries to keep track of her, and has some less than encouraging news to report when Nino turns out to be alive and finds his spouse is missing. Malèna was written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, best known for the art-house hit Nuovo Cinema Paradiso; Malèna was released in Europe at 106 minutes, while the American version was edited by ten minutes to tighten the pace and remove nudity and sexual material considered too strong for the U.S. marketplace. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This Italian film was released in 1995 and slowly made its way around the world; its English title is The Star Maker. Like the Oscar-winning Cinema Paradiso by the same writer-director, Guiseppe Tornatore, it's drenched in the filmmaker's love for cinema. In Sicily in the early 1950s, Joe Morelli (Sergio Castellitto) is a con man who travels by truck from village to village posing as a film company representative. For a fee, he offers the rubes screen tests, using passages from a script of Gone with the Wind and encouraging their hopes with lines such as "Success awaits you!" Morelli's camera brings out people's hidden sides, including a soldier's war trauma, a woman's protests at being accused of prostitution, and a policeman who recites poetry. Begging for a chance at the stardom Morelli purportedly offers, Beata (Tiziana Lodato) asks Morelli to take her with him. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Adapted by Lewis John Carlino from the speculative novel by Anne Edwards, Haunted Summer recounts one of the most tempestuous "menage a quatres" of the 19th century. During an Italian holiday in 1816, novelist Mary Godwin (Alice Krige) meets the man she is destined to marry, bisexual poet Percy Byshe Shelley (Eric Stoltz). In so doing, Mary finds herself in emotional conflict with Shelley's possessive mentor Dr. Polidori (Alex Winter) and his fellow poet and erstwhile lover, the tortured Lord Byron (Philip Anglim). The erotic adventures that follow make the Gothic goings-on in Mary Shelley's subsequent novel Frankenstein seem like a day at the beach, though it is suggested that Frankenstein might never have happened had it not been for Mary's fateful "Summer of '16." Also figuring into the proceedings is one Claire Claremont, played by Laura Dern, who arguably delivers the film's best performance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama, a tough, embittered pianist is angry because he never achieved the glory he felt he deserved. His life changes when he meets a young woman dying from leukemia. She helps him to feel more confident and then gets him a Paris booking. As his star begins to rise, she begins to die. She is on her deathbed the night before his big performance, and at first, the pianist refuses to leave her, but she pleads with him to go and so he does. Somehow, the woman musters the last of her strength and manages to make it backstage to hear him play. She happily dies listening to him play. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Bert (Robie Porter) and Taylor (Sam Waterston) are two Americans who set out for a tour of France and Italy by auto. They meet a pretty female hitchhiker named Marty (Charlotte Rampling) and agree to allow her to travel with them. They agree not to become romantically involved with Marty to insure there is no conflict. When Bert goes off with a French woman for a night of love and romance, Marty makes a move on Taylor. Keeping in mind the pact with his friend, he refuses to get involved with the woman. Bert eventually returns and forgets his promise to Taylor as he makes a pass at the willing, wanton woman. Soon Taylor is left behind to ponder his fate as the two lovers resume the proposed tour. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this sentimental, tragicomic drama, Matteo Scuro (Marcello Mastroianni) is an old widower living in Sicily. His five grown children have scattered all over Italy, and he has heard nothing but glowing reports from them about their lives and careers. One day he takes it into his head to visit these paragons who have fulfilled every one of his ambitions for them. Eventually he discovers that all his children have been lying to him for a very long time because they were afraid to disappoint their papa; their lives are shabby and very much on the edge, and one of them has long-since committed suicide (unbeknownst to him). This daunting truth provokes a heart attack in the old man, who still has a few lies yet to tell and hear, because he insists (as do his children) that "everything is fine." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide