Dominique Darel Movies
- 1974
After several years of television work, Italian director Roberto Rossellini returned to the big screen with 1974's Anno Uno. The film recounts the life and career of postwar Italian Christian Democrat political leader Alcide de Gasperi (here played by Luigi Vannucchi). Gaspari gained considerable stature as politician and newpaper editor opposed Mussolini: he was imprisoned by the fascists, and after his release in 1929 spent many of his next years working quietly in the Vatican. During World War Two, already a man in his sixties, he was active in the Resistance movement. In this film, Gasperi's activities are traced from the moment of "Liberation" in 1945 to his death in 1954. He was the Italian Prime Minister in eight postwar governments from 1947 to 1953, and was a master consensus-builder. Despite his close ties to the Catholic Church, he worked hard to keep the Vatican from overly influencing postwar Italian politics. Most of the film's dialogue comes directly from public documents. Anno Uno might have gotten wider American play had Rossellini been able to realize his dream of casting Gregory Peck as Gasperi. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
The second of two horror films shot in a single production term and bearing the name of pop-art icon Andy Warhol (whose participation pretty much ended with the use of his name), this film is slightly superior to its higher-profile predecessor, Andy Warhol's Frankenstein. Direction is credited to Warhol factory filmmaker Paul Morrissey, though there still exists a very vocal camp who insist that the real credit should go to Italian director Antonio Margheriti. Euro-horror leading man Udo Kier assays the title role, playing the count as a pale, anemic-looking blood junkie with an overwrought accent. Finding the supply of "weer-gin" blood diminishing rapidly in Romania, Dracula is forced to seek a fix in a predominantly Catholic Italian province, where he is certain a few virgins still exist. He travels with his assistant (Arno Juerging) and his coffin-sealed sister to the decrepit, crumbling mansion of the financially-strapped Marquis DiFore (a tour-de-force performance from Bicycle Thief director Vittorio de Sica) who welcomes the affluent Count with open arms, hoping to marry off any one of his four daughters. Dracula clearly has other intentions for the girls... but his plans are rudely thwarted by beefy, socialist handyman Mario (Joe Dallesandro), who has been dutifully divesting the young maidens of their -- ahem -- virtue, thus tainting their blood and making it unsafe for vampiric consumption. Very unsafe, it turns out -- as we are treated to protracted scenes of the death-pale Count vomiting up gallons of blood. Rated "X" at the time of its release (and subsequently re-rated "R" ten years later), this outrageous catalogue of depravity features wildly campy performances, inane dialogue and an outrageous climax. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi
- Starring:
- Joe Dallesandro, Udo Kier, (more)
- 1973
- R
Il Grande Duello is the original title of this Italian/French/West German production. The titular duel pits hard-bitten gunslinger Clayton (Lee Van Cleef) against the equally gritty Saxon (Horst Frank). Before this takes place, however, Clayton champions the cause of Newland (Peter O'Brien) a young punk who'd been framed on a murder charge. One of the beauties of the spaghetti western genre is that there were seldom any clearly defined Good or Bad Guys. This helped to keep the audience guessing as to the ultimate outcome of the film, thereby increasing the entertainment value tenfold. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Based on a novel by Thomas Mann, Death in Venice stars Dirk Bogarde as a German composer who is terrified that he has lost all vestiges of humanity. While visiting Venice, Bogarde falls in love with a beautiful young boy (Bjorn Andresen). The relationship is ruined by Bogarde's obsession with the boy's youth and physical perfection; the composer realizes that the child represents an ideal that he can never match. The character played by Dirk Bogarde is evidently intended to be Gustav Mahler, whose haunting music is featured on the film's soundtrack. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Bjorn Andresen, (more)
