Wolfgang Hillinger Movies
The Decameron was the first of director Pier Paolo Pasolini's "trilogy of life." The film, based on the sexually supercharged tales of Boccaccio, is a patchwork of many of Pasolini's favorite themes. Pasolini himself plays the role of an aspiring fresco painter who is advised that his completed work will never be as satisfying as his dream of that work. The film is followed by Pasolini's The Canterbury Tales and The Arabian Nights. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
In 1969, The Damned (La caduta degli dei) was director Luchino Visconti's most controversial film to date. Set in the 1930s, the film zeroes in on a Krupp-like family of German munition manufacturers. The Essenbeck clan is headed by the Baron (Rene Kolldehoff), but daughter Sophie (Ingrid Thulin) wants her Nazi boyfriend to take over the business. Soon the Baron is dead and Bruckman (Dirk Bogarde) becomes company president. Son Martin (Helmut Berger) is the dope-addicted teenager who sleeps with his mother and drags her into her own dependence on drugs. Ever in pursuit of more millions to add to their already bulging coffers, the family plays along with the Nazis, descending into corruption, betrayal and murder all along the way. The film was originally released in the U.S. with an X rating. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, (more)
- 1969
- PG
This is an English-dubbed version of the Spanish and Italian-made 1967crime action feature, also released with the name The Narco Men. It stars Tom Tryon, who shortly after this period left acting completely and went on to become a quite successful novelist. Harry Bell (Tryon) is an Interpol agent who has been framed and sent to prison. On his release, he finds work with a gangster who is desperate to recover some stolen heroin. If he fails to find the drugs, he will be killed. Along the way, Harry seeks to find the woman who framed him. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
Federico Fellini makes his most decadent, undisciplined work in this free adaptation of Petronius' famous farcical chronicle of ancient Roman life. The film opens with Encolpio (Martin Potter) vying with his friend Ascilto (Hiram Keller) for the affections of a young effeminate lad named Gitone (Max Born). When the youth chooses his rival or him, Encolpio begins a journey that has him encountering Romans of every stripe and color. He drops in on an orgy thrown by Trimalchio (Mario Romagnoli), a wealth-loving ex-slave who has spurned his wife in favor of a pleasures of a young boy; he toils on a slave galley, fighting off the advances of Lichas (Alain Cuny) -- the ship's burly wall-eyed captain; he steals an albino hermaphrodite demi-god who is reputed to be able to tell the future; and fails to summon the enthusiasm to make love to a whore-priestess. Along the way, we witness a parade of prostitutes in ancient Rome's pleasure quarters; watch performance by Vernacchio (Fanfulla), an actor whose on-stage specialties include farting and public amputation; and the wonton devouring of a human corpse for financial gain. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, (more)
Diabolik (John Phillip Law) is the criminal mastermind who has just pulled off a huge heist. He spends most of his free time with his girlfriend, Eva (Marisa Mell), in fond embrace. The police minister (Terry-Thomas) is approached by Valmont (Adolfo Celi), a master criminal who proposes to use his underworld connections to catch Diabolik for the police. In between their gratuitous lovemaking, he and the exotic Eva are chased by police and the mob in this plodding crime drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell, (more)
This Dino De Laurentiis-produced re-creation of the decisive Italian military operation top-bills Robert Mitchum as a battle-weary war correspondent. Robert Ryan and Arthur Kennedy play generals, Peter Falk is the lovable Brooklynese corporal, and Earl Holliman is the country-boy sergeant. Anzio was based on the book by Wynford Vaughan Thomas. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Peter Falk, (more)
- 1967
Playwright Christopher Isherwood and co-writer/director Tony Richardson adapted the novel by Marguerite Duras into this romantic drama. Jeanne Moreau plays Anna, a Frenchwoman of means who experienced fleeting true love with a sailor many years before. In the interim, her husband killed himself and left Anna his vast fortune, and now she is sailing from port to seedy port, searching the world over in vain for her long-lost sailor. In the meantime, Alan (Ian Bannen), a young Englishman, argues with his girlfriend Sheila (Vanessa Redgrave), and leaves her. Alan encounters Anna and, intrigued, joins her on her heartbreaking quest, which takes them aboard Anna's sailboat to Africa and Greece. As Alan begins to realize that he's falling in love with his traveling companion, they meet Louis de Mozambique (Orson Welles), who joins them on their mission but suggests that Anna's elusive sailor may never have existed anywhere other than in her mind. Nevertheless, Anna and a smitten Alan continue their pursuit. Richardson and Isherwood had collaborated previously on the more successful, darkly satirical The Loved One (1965), adapted from the novel by Evelyn Waugh and considered a cult classic. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jeanne Moreau, Ian Bannen, (more)
A popular British comic strip series served as inspiration for this light-hearted espionage adventure, which if nothing else certainly shows the marks of its origins in the mid-1960s. A large departure for director Joseph Losey, better known for brooding interpretations of Harold Pinter works (The Servant, Accident), the film is emphatically bright and colorful, taking on at times a nearly psychedelic feel. The strangeness is emphasized by the unusual casting, including Italian star Monica Vitti in her first English-speaking role as the title character and Dirk Bogarde, playing against type as her arch-nemesis. Essentially everything is played for its camp value, including the rather convoluted, James Bond-like plot, which concerns the hijacking of a shipment of diamonds heading for the Middle East. Like its mod-era sets and costumes, this unusual, inconsistent effort is certainly intriguing and attractive, but might seem rather dated to some. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp, (more)
- 1966
In this James Bond knock-off from the 1960s, a veteran US Secret Service agent must thwart the covert conspiracy's of an enemy spy network that threatens the world's safety. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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