Valentina Chico Movies
- 1999
In a film reminiscent of Federico Fellini's 8 1/2, Claudio Del Punta directs this portrait of a young artist. The film opens with painter Vera (Cristina Moglia) piling through her wardrobe, looking for the perfect dress for her gallery opening. As she plucks out one article of clothing after another, she reminisces about her childhood and old flames. Meanwhile, her current friends, played by Vincenzo Peluso and Valentina Chico, help her out. Feminine, Singular was screened at the 1999 AFI/L.A. Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cristina Moglia, Daniele Quinn, (more)
- 1996
The complicated travails of several generations of Italian women provide the basis for this drama that is based on a novel by Susanna Tamaro. It begins with the peaceful death of Olga, the elderly family matriarch. Marta, her granddaughter returns from the US to attend the funeral and once in Olga's villa in Trieste, begins reading her grandmother's diary. Olga's story unfolds via flashback. As a young woman, Oldga had to marry Antonio a man she didn't love. Later she became passionately involved with a handsome doctor at the local spa. He impregnates her and shortly thereafter dies in a terrible car wreck. The result of their love is Illaria, who grows up to be terribly neurotic. She bears Marta and then she too dies in an automobile accident, leaving Marta to be raised by Olga. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virna Lisi, Margherita Buy, (more)
- 1994
Noted Austrian actor Klaus-Maria Brandauer stepped into the director's chair for this drama about the rise of fascism in Europe, based on a story by Thomas Mann. In the 1920s, Bernhard Fuhrmann (Julian Sands), a German author and outspoken leftist, takes his family to Torre di Venere, a resort community in Italy, where they are not welcomed warmly by all of the residents, especially after an incident in which Fuhrmann's daughter is caught swimming nude by the seashore. While several of the guests at the hotel where the Fuhrmanns are staying voice their opposition to the family's presence, the concierge defends their right to stay there -- until she is killed and replaced by a member of the local fascist brigade. As the village is enveloped in chaos, a magician named Cipola (Brandauer) appears, who has a profound effect on the lives of those around him. Mario und der Zauberer was shown in competition at the 1994 Moscow Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julian Sands, Anna Galiena, (more)
