Rina Franchetti Movies

In one of the most widely seen and acclaimed European movies of the 1960s, Federico Fellini featured Marcello Mastrioanni as gossip columnist Marcello Rubini. Having left his dreary provincial existence behind, Marcello wanders through an ultra-modern, ultra-sophisticated, ultra-decadent Rome. He yearns to write seriously, but his inconsequential newspaper pieces bring in more money, and he's too lazy to argue with this setup. He attaches himself to a bored socialite (Anouk Aimée), whose search for thrills brings them in contact with a bisexual prostitute. The next day, Marcello juggles a personal tragedy (the attempted suicide of his mistress (Yvonne Furneaux)) with the demands of his profession (an interview with none-too-deep film star Anita Ekberg). Throughout his adventures, Marcello's dreams, fantasies, and nightmares are mirrored by the hedonism around him. With a shrug, he concludes that, while his lifestyle is shallow and ultimately pointless, there's nothing he can do to change it and so he might as well enjoy it. Fellini's hallucinatory, circus-like depictions of modern life first earned the adjective "Felliniesque" in this celebrated movie, which also traded on the idea of Rome as a hotbed of sex and decadence. A huge worldwide success, La Dolce Vita won several awards, including a New York Film Critics CIrcle award for Best Foreign Film and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although primarily known for gruesome 1980s horror films like L'Aldila and Lo Squartatore di New York, it took cult Italian director Lucio Fulci until this bloody spaghetti Western -- his 17th film -- before he began exploring the dark recesses of insanity and Sadean bloodshed which marked his later work. Bolstered by a commanding star turn from 24-year old Franco Nero, fresh from another Western success in the same year's Django, this dark, violent story -- which many fans consider the first "true" Lucio Fulci film -- begins with a man's murder at the hands of the insane Jason "Junior" Scott (Nino Castelnuovo) and the credits appearing over his victim's blood washing downriver. The rest of the film deals with the efforts of young prospector Tom Corbett (Nero) to avenge the death of his father...or the person whom he believes to be his father, for the familial relations in this film are as twisted as Fulci's violent imagery. At times, the film presages the hallucinatory atmosphere of L'Aldila, with Corbett returning to his family farm only to find it destroyed, and wandering the barren, windswept wreckage amidst a group of foraging pigs. George Hilton turns in a fine performance as Corbett's orphan half-brother, Jeff, an alcoholic whose years of dissolution have curbed neither his gunslinging talents nor his thirst for revenge, and the supporting cast does well by Fernando di Leo's somber script. Giuseppe Addobbati co-stars with Tom Felleghy, Salvatore Borgese, and Lynn Shayne. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

In this Italian film, part melodrama and part social/political commentary, two factory workers living in Northern Italy form a romantic connection. The woman, torn between the freedoms of the North and her traditional Sicilian values, slowly allows herself to love, then marry, her co-worker. Soon after her wedding, she dies as a result of industrial pollution from her job. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Rocco Mortelliti takes the blame for directing and starring in this insipid drama. Adelmo is the impoverished village idiot who lives with his equally addle-brained mother (Rina Franchetti). She recites prayers when she is not eating his food or beating him. Paola (Francesca Topi) is the pretty female physician who takes an interest in Adelmo because he resembles her late sweetheart. Her attention to the unfortunate Adelmo makes him the target of her jealous suitors -- including the town's lecherous Mayor (Vincenzo De Angelis). The humiliated and emotionally damaged Adelmo hides in the woods for three days before becoming a raving lunatic bent on violent vengeance to his tormenters. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide