Iaia Forte
- 2007
Not to be confused with Kiumars Poorahmad's 2007 Iranian feature of the same title, Davide Marengo's Italian-language crime comedy Night Bus (2007) concerns a microchip with potentially damning evidence against a Polish magnate. An ex-secret service agent, Carlo Matera (Ennio Fantastichini), receives an enormous sum of cash from the fellow to bring the chip home, but it falls into the mitts of a cutthroat nightclub owner, Andrea (Ivan Franek). He is hustled, in turn, by the femme fatale at the story's center, Leila (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). She walks off with the dough, and must subsequently evade a host of seedy goons and thugs all clamoring for the funds, meanwhile attempting to use a gullible, gambling-addicted bus driver, Franz (Valerio Mastandrea), for a convenient, cross-country getaway. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Valerio Mastandrea, (more)
- 2006
Portuguese filmmaker Teresa Villaverde turns her attentions to the topic of human trafficking in modern-day Europe with this tale of an optimistic Russian émigré who is forced into prostitution after leaving St. Petersburg to seek out a better life in Germany. Sonia (Ana Moreira) is a dreamer in her early twenties who is looking to escape the bleak poverty of St. Petersburg in hopes of improving her unfortunate lot in life. Upon finding illegal work at a German car factory, it appears as if Sonia's luck may be taking a turn for the better. When the factory is supposedly raided by police looking for illegal workers and a fellow Russian implores the Sonia to hide in the trunk of a car, the panicked girl's once bright future begins to grow considerably dimmer. Subsequently smuggled across Europe, Sonia is used as a sex slave in Germany before being transported to Italy to serve as a human plaything for the simple minded son of a powerful millionaire. Now trapped in an opulent mansion prison with no one to turn to and no place to run, Sonia soon becomes obsessed with the prospect of escaping her outwardly lavish hell on Earth. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ana Moreira, Viktor Rakov, (more)
- 2001
The true natures of love, commitment, and reality are called into question in this offbeat drama. One night in bed, Tomas (Tomas Arana), a magician, begins telling a story to his wife Desire (Marit Nissen) about Emma (Iaia Forte) and Sal (Tommaso Ragno), a married couple whose love life has gone stale. In order to fire up their relationship, Emma and Sal begin playing an increasingly elaborate series of role-playing games, in which they assume different personas -- Sal saves Emma as she is tied to railroad tracks, or Emma must seduce another man to pull her husband out of debt. But the question soon arises -- are Emma and Sal real? And who really holds the power in their lives? Chimera also features Franco Nero as one of the participants in Emma and Sal's sexual fantasies. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iaia Forte, Tommaso Ragno, (more)
- 1999
This musical drama (most of the dialogue is sung) concerns a diverse group of people brought together in a city in Italy. Pina (Isabel Ruth) was born in Portugal but now lives in poor circumstances in Naples. Pina has two daughters, Rosa (Iaia Forte), who has been wearing a wedding dress since she was left stranded at the altar several years ago, and Caterina (Galatea Ranzi), who murdered a man who wronged her as he left the church following his wedding. Caterina winds up in prison alongside Maddalena (Anna Bonaiuto), a prostitute who witnessed the murder and was inspired to kill a man in her own life who had hurt her. The incidents from these women's lives are interspersed with another story, set in 1929 and filmed in black-and-white, about a man who shoots his wife in a movie theater and must run to avoid the police. Filmed on location in Naples, with non-professionals as extras, Appassionate was screened as part of the 1999 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Bonaiuto, Inês de Medeiros, (more)
- 1998
Mario Martone (L'amore Molesto) wrote and directed this drama about the tragedy of war, beginning with acting exercises in a garage rehearsal area and then intercutting between the lives of Italian stage actors and scenes of their rehearsals on Seven Against Thebes. Director Leo (Andrea Renzi), in 1994, arranges to have his Italian company, as an act of solidarity, do a show in Sarajevo where theaters have remained open. With the support from actor Vittorio (Marco Baliani), Leo seeks a key to staging the Aeschylus play about a civil war and a city under siege. Theater in Sarajevo is shown in contrast to the mainstream theater in Naples with a lavish production of The Taming of the Shrew staged by pompous Franco Turco (Toni Servillo). Actress Luisella (Iaia Forte) leaves Leo's Greek drama for Turco's production. Even though the actors are going without pay to Seven Against Thebes, young talent Diego (Roberto De Francesco) and diva Sara Cataldi (Anna Bonaiuto) both turn away from Turco to work with Leo, while set designer (Sergio Tramonti) contributes to both. Outside the rehearsal space, Neapolitan life goes on with neighborhood disputes, drug deals, fights, a police round-up, and murder -- events drawing parallels with Sarajevo. Some street scenes are unstaged, adding a documentary authenticity. Martone spent several years on this project by filming the rehearsals of a Seven Against Thebes stage production he directed in 1995-96 (featuring the same cast). Martone wrote his screenplay around that material, and then he filmed in the infamous Spanish Quarter of Naples, shooting in 16mm with a blow-up to 35mm. Shown in the Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrea Renzi, Anna Bonaiuto, (more)
- 1997
Elisabetta Lodoli made her feature directorial debut with this Italian drama, reminiscent of Michelangelo Antonioni's La Notte (1960). Successful biologist Elena (Luisa Passello) has a serious eating disorder. Elena and her husband Enrico (Emilio Bonucci), with their marriage collapsing, are staying at her late father's seaside villa when stewardess Ida (Iaia Forte), Elena's cousin, drops in for an extended visit. Despite their rivalry, Ida's unexpected visit could lead to a solution for Elena's eating problem. Shown at 1997 film festivals (Venice, Vancouver). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iaia Forte, Luisa Pasello, (more)
- 1997
Five Italian directors -- Pappi Corsicato, Antonietta DeLillo, Antonio Capuano, Stefano Incerti, Mario Martone -- contributed a quintet of short films depicting life in Naples under the shadow of the volcano for this anthology film of comedy, drama, surrealism, and political commentary on the Italian left. Shown at the 1997 Venice Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Bonaiuto, Iaia Forte, (more)
- 1996
The English title of this complex Italian film is apt. Featuring 65 main characters and 130 speaking parts (famous faces abound and many of the actors appeared gratis), and ranging in tone from tartly humorous to darkly tragic, it presents 30 interwoven slices from the lives of modern day Romans during a single day. The lone, silent figure of a lone jogger provides a sort of continuity between the vignettes. Beginning at sunset of the previous day, the jogger is seen warming up on his apartment terrace, looking for all the world as if he would like to jump. The rest of the stories seem to be randomly presented. Stories include the robbery of a Chinese restaurant that causes a birthday celebrant to die of fright, two different newlyweds who find themselves attracted to each other, an opportunistic mechanic's plan to capitalize on the death of a rival, a sneaky, sadistic meter maid and others. One uniting feature of the stories is their underlying bitter assessment of modern humanity. People are seen as selfish and basically cruel, still the stories move quickly and the balance between humor and drama, affection and cynicism, and shallowness and complexity is carefully maintained. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
In this off-beat and lively Italian comedy fantasy, a schoolteacher cursed with being the town Goody Two Shoes proves that she too has a darker side after a visit to a travelling carnival. The tale begins in the present during a ceremony designed to honor the courage of one who saved a schoolyard when an old WW II bomb detonated. The situation leading to the tragedy unfolds via flashback and centers on the life of Luna, the long-suffering teacher who suffers from practical jokers, overbearing superiors, and her constantly complaining father. Her life changes when the carnival comes to town and she goes to visit a conjurer who frees her shadow via a magic lantern. Luna's shadow proves to be her opposite and is as mischievous and sexy as Luna is repressed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
A run of bad luck coupled with devastating pride marks the beginning of a once-successful businessman's inexorable downward slide that lands him in the subterranean bowels of the "Hotel Paura." This downbeat drama chronicles his descent. Carlo Ruggeri had a happy marriage and a good career as an executive until the day his company merged with another and he lost his job. His wife Liliana is at first supportive, but then the lease on their apartment expires and because Carlo is unemployed, the landlord refuses to renew it. With nowhere left to go, Carlo, Liliana and their son Paolo end up in welfare housing. Carlo is deeply embarrassed and refuses to ask his friends and family for help. Any that is offered, he promptly refuses, along with a couple of jobs that he deems unsuitable. Eventually Liliana looses her patience, takes Paolo and moves in with her family. No longer eligible for the government-sponsored housing, Carlo is forced into the street where he becomes a beggar. Some small salvation comes when he hooks up with the kindly Lucia, a street dweller who takes him to an abandoned subway station they call the Hotel Paura. Surrounded by the most intense poverty he has ever known, Carlo makes some profound self-discoveries. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
This dramatic retrospective from Marco Ferreri eulogizes the passing of cinema as a culturally vital art form. While not all will agree with Ferreri's thesis that cinema for the masses is a lost art and has become an elitist endeavor, the director, using a combination of archival documentary footage, wide-ranging snippets from old and new films, and reenactments, makes some compelling arguments. One of his chief theses is that the decline of cinema was marked by the loss of the great movie houses where people from all walks gathered to form a unique, transitory microcosm of society that abided, if only briefly, by different rules from those in the "real" world outside. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doriana Bianchi, Eric Berger, (more)
- 1995
A funky, more than slightly askew love affair between a hooker and a homosexual provides the core of this erotic Italian romantic comedy. Angela is the hooker who, along with a few cronies, provides customers with outdoor love. Adamo, is a platinum blonde Adonis who has just dumped his latest lover. Adamo has returned to his hometown to attend his mother's funeral. Deciding to stay for a while, he gets a menial job dumping rotten bananas. He is driving his truck one day when he sees Angela doing her job in some roadside business. He feels an instant rapport with her and soon regularly attends her al fresco trysts as a surreptitious spectator. Angela is happy to know that Adamo watches and goes about servicing her johns with extra vigor. Though the two never become physically involved, a genuine love develops between them. For Angela, who is surrounded by emotionally damaged people, Adamo represents a new-found hope that she will someday find true happiness. But it all changes when Adamo accidentally kills someone and gets arrested. Though she could save him, Angela stays away. Still she is grateful for their brief time together and her new vision of the great possibilities around her create far-reaching, positive effects for her and the other girls. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincenzo Peluso, Iaia Forte, (more)
- 1994
This experimental Italian film, by Tonino De Bernardi, offers the intellectual audience a heady, abstract ride set to the music of Bellini, Schubert, and Mozart. It is divided into 15 highly symbolic mini-chapters. The one thread of continuity running through is that the characters are trying to find a relationship with higher powers, the mysterious, or other people. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iaia Forte, Anna Bonaiuto, (more)
- 1993
This high-energy three part comedy has a strong undercurrent of melancholy, as it shows three different women coping with difficult situations which are usually sexual in origin, even if the moment of romance is long past. In the first tale, Aurora (Iaia Forte) has gotten used to a cozy, wealthy life, but begins to see that world destroyed when her husband is caught in bed (offscreen) with his secretary. Later, he flees the country to avoid getting arrested for something else he has done. Aurora no longer has the trappings of wealth, and returns to her modest beginnings to try and revive her live. There, she attempts to rekindle an old romance, with unsatisfying results. In the second episode, Carmela (Cristina Donadio) is just welcoming her wayward son back to their slum home after he has spent a stint in "reform" school. Some reform! Not only has he just confessed to her that he's gay, but he has become a heroin addict. It doesn't seem like it can get any worse when his real father shows up on the scene, and certain unlikely facts are quickly clarified. Finally, Libera (Iaia Forte) works at a newsstand outside of Naples as the sole breadwinner for her family. She is tired of her husband lounging in their house when he is not out tomcatting around with prostitutes, and decides to do something about it. Her solution to the problem is novel: she secretly has him filmed in bed with the women, and is marketing the tapes of these encounter at her newsstand. As a consequence, she quickly becomes rich, but she is no happier than she was before. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Iaia Forte, Ninni Bruschetta, (more)
