Lucia Ragni Movies
- 2007
Three aspiring moviemakers unexpectedly land a big break and their hometown comes out to celebrate in this warm comedy-drama. Gabriele (Paolo Briguglia), Nicola (Lele Nucera) and Marco (Lorenzo Di Ciaccia) are three young men growing up in Diamante, a small town in the Calabria region of Southern Italy where life moves at its own pace and not much happens. Gabriele, Nicola and Marco are serious film fans who have befriended the town's most famous citizen, Neri (Diego Abatantuono), a well known director waiting out a creative block who offers the boys advice on their dreams of working in the film industry. Gabriele has written a script based on the youthful experiences of his Aunt Caterina (Lucia Ragni), and he and his pals want to go to Rome in hopes of getting it made into a major motion picture. Neri is dubious, but introduces the boys to Francesco (Mimmo Calopresti), a friend and well-known actor who lives in the Eternal City. Francesco gets Gabriele, Nicola and Marco into a party thrown by an industry bigwig, and they're introduced to Amelie (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), Francesco's former wife who is currently Gerard Depardieu's significant other. In a remarkable stroke of luck, Amelie agrees to pass Gabriele's screenplay along to Depardieu, and the famed French actor agrees to appear in the film, guaranteeing the project a green light. Overjoyed, Gabriele, Nicola and Marco invite their new colleagues back to Diamante, where they want to shoot the picture, for a celebratory feast, and the stars get a close-up look at how the other half lives. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Diego Abatantuono, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, (more)
- 2006
In writer/director Paolo Sorrentino's second feature, The Family Friend (L'Amico di Famiglia), Giacomo Rizzo stars as Geremia de Geremei, a sixtysomething tailor who lives with his mother in a disgusting and decrepit flat. Though wealthy from the money that he has culled via loan-sharking, Geremia is a thoroughly miserable wretch, driven into the throes of destruction by his own incredible selfishness and his obsessive infatuation with a beautiful local girl, Rosalba (Laura Chiatta), whom he meets when asked to assist with her wedding. Geremia agrees, but takes the bride off alone and pressures her into sex, little realizing that he's sowing the seeds of his own downfall. Meanwhile, a bidet supplier attempts to goad Geremia into giving him a massive loan -- an amount that Geremia could never possibly fork over. Throughout the film, Sorrentino packs in numerous surrealistic touches, from the sight of a nun buried up to her neck in sand (accompanied by an aural assault on the soundtrack) to a grotesque glimpse of Rizzo with a potato poultice around his head to the jarring sight of Geremia's village, built by Mussolini on an Italian swampland. In the process, Sorrentino manages to create his own distinct world and thoroughly unforgettable characters. He also pulls off an incredibly difficult feat, by enabling the audience to care about a markedly unpleasant central figure. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Giacomo Rizzo, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, (more)
- 2003
In this physically and emotionally brutal drama, Matteo (Luigi Iacuzio) is a convict who landed in prison after a man was left to die by members of his gang. Given a 24-hour pass from prison, Matteo decides to revisit his old home town, where he discovers that most of his old buddies are either still on the wrong side of the law or have been victimized by others. The young women in the neighborhood have been subjected to the greatest indignities; the girl Matteo loves, Anna (Antonella Migliore), lost her virginity to a local boy, which so enraged her brother that he raped her as punishment, while his neighbor Rosa (Federica Bonavolonta) made the mistake of getting pregnant and is now trapped in a violent and loveless marriage. The worst fate awaited Michele (Francesco Pirozzi), who tried to save a friend from sexual assault, and was killed for her trouble by the would-be rapists. Amidst the chaos and violence of the neighborhood, Matteo tries to make sense of his life, the lives of those around him, and the often brutal family relationships which are tragically common. Pater Familias was screened in competition at the 2003 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Luigi Iacuzio, Federica Bonavolonta, (more)
- 2001
Italian filmmaker Antonio Capuano writes and directs the grueling gangster drama Luna Rossa (Red Moon). Aging Tony Cammarano (Italo Celoro) is the patriarch of an organized crime family, but his son Amerigo (Toni Servillo) runs most of his operations. Amerigo is a killer who invites his mistress, Rita (Lucia Ragni), to live in the family house. Meanwhile, his wife, Irene (Licia Maglietta), has an affair with mob henchman Egidio (Antonino Iuorio), who fancies the Cammarano's teenage daughter, Orsola (Antonia Truppo). This leaves Irene to eye her own son, Oreste (Domenico Balsamo), who has taken to self-mutilation. Luna Rossa won the Wella Prize at the 2001 Venice Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Carlo Cecchi, Licia Maglietta, (more)
- 1995
Poor Ivo is anything but a genius, an idiot savant with a phenomenal ability with numbers and abstract figures, yes, but definitely not a genius. An orphan since childhood, he has spent most of his life in an institution. By the time he is finally released, Ivo is a grown man. He returns to his home village and finds it empty. Still he decides to stay. Bored, he begins painting complex black and white puzzles all over the town. Circumstance eventually leads him to fall in love and end up living in a sort of communal half-way house. This gentle Italian comedy chronicles his exploits there. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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