Francesco Paolantoni Movies
- 2000
Cristina Comencini follows up her critically acclaimed 1998 opus Marriage (a funny though sensitive look at marriage in modern life) with this star-crossed comedy. Mafioso Michele Verrio (Michele Placido) has both a wife (Angelica Ippolito) and a long-suffering mistress, Lunetta (Lunetta Savino). Years ago, Verrio's henchmen bombed the car of Lunetta's muckraking brother Sergio (Francesco Paolantoni) after one of his scoops painted a rather negative portrait of the aging mobster. The incident prompted Sergio to go into hiding up north, leaving behind his child Sabina (Eleonora Sergio) and his wife Mara (Laura Morante). Mara eventually got remarried to Emilio (Emilio Solfrizzi), a car salesman, while Sabina went off to study in an American university -- only to return pregnant and engaged to Verrio's son Giovanni (Marco Morandi). Soon the two families that were once sworn enemies now have to try to get along. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Laura Morante, Francesco Paolantoni, (more)
- 1999
Dominated by a cast of newcomers, this comedy of errors from director Paolo Virzi aims for both laughter and poignance. Three factory workers who lose their jobs when their employer closes shop decide to join forces and open an ostrich ranch, in hopes that ostrich meat will find favor on Italian dinner tables. Elsewhere, Mario, a restaurateur, is suicidally depressed over the collapse of both his business and his marriage. Renato, leader of the ostrich ranchers, discovers his sister is romantically involved with a government councilor, also named Mario, who could approve state financing that would keep their business afloat. Renato dumps every penny he has into an elaborate party in hopes of impressing the councilor, but when he goes to the train station, he picks up the restaurant owner instead, who is so dazed by pills and exhaust fumes that he's not sure where he is. Italian television comic Massimo Gambacciani makes his film debut here, one of only two experienced actors in the cast. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Francesco Paolantoni, Massimo Gambacciani, (more)
- 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, Rovi
- 1995
A woman goes to investigate the apparent suicide of her mother and ends up having to face the grim reality of her past in this Italian psychological thriller. It all begins when Amalia, the sixty-something mother of Delia, is found dead on the beach. She had been on her way to Bologna to celebrate her daughter's birthday. Delia, wanting to know why her mother killed herself, journeys back to Naples to discover the truth. There she encounters her mother's supposed lover, Caserta, and his son, Antonio. She also sees her estranged father, who alienated himself from his family with his violent temper. As she continues to explore, she must face the fact that her relationship with her mother was as based on jealousy and disgust as it was with love. She then must face up to a terrible lie she told as a child, one that questioned her mother's fidelity and ruined the lives of everyone around her. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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