Gherardo Pagliei Movies

Bille August's inspirational docudrama Goodbye Bafana begins in 1968, with South Africa buried neck-deep in the horrors of apartheid and Nelson Mandela (Dennis Haysbert) -- then an underground leader of the African National Congress -- imprisoned on Robben Island for sedition. As the story opens, the native African population of the country -- 25,000,000 in number -- buckles beneath the crippling weight of the racist white minority, who control the Nationalist Party Government. The film follows the spiritual and psychological journey of James Gregory (Joseph Fiennes), a Caucasian Afrikaner who came of age on a farm in the Transkei and initially views all blacks as subhuman. Gregory also speaks Mandela's native language of Xhosa with perfect fluency, which makes him an ideal candidate to serve as warden of the Robben Island Prison and eavesdrop on Mandela and his inmates. What he fails to anticipate is the most unlikely and special of friendships (one of history's greatest) that burgeons between himself and Mandela -- and helps him evolve from a narrow-minded bigot with limited self-awareness to a sensitive, humane critic of social injustice with a heightened awareness of mankind's ill treatment of one another and a genuine level of love for his fellow man. As the friendship between Gregory and Mandela grows and matures, it symbolizes Africa's transition from the oppressiveness of Apartheid to the freedom of multi-racial democracy. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Iconoclastic director Peter Greenaway begins his most ambitious project to date with this feature, the first in a proposed series of films, television programs, and multimedia projects that examine the contents of 92 suitcases, each revealed by title character Tulse Henry Purcel Luper. Broken into three sections spanning 1928 to 1940, The Tulse Luper Suitcases: Part One follows our young hero from age 10, when he is reprimanded by his father for scrawling some graffiti on a wall in his desolate South Wales neighborhood. Years later, Tulse (JJ Field) is a desert explorer who winds up being further punished by the aptly-named dominatrix Passion Hockmeister (Caroline Dhavernas). Finally, in the film's last section, Tulse is in Antwerp at the start of World War II, where he ends up being imprisoned by Nazis. Told in a fractured, non-narrative style, The Tulse Luper Suitcases also incorporates many inter-titles, superimposed images, an ever-present narrator presented in a picture-within-picture format, intentionally fake-looking sets, and many, many references to other Greenaway films and characters. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

Directed, written, and edited by Gyorgy Dobray, Szerelem Utolso Verig ("Love Till Last Blood") is the third in a series of movies following con-artist Hero Fuge (Attila Berencsi). Currently living with a beautiful singer/dancer named Nina (Juli Molnar), Hero (erencsi) tries to juggle the responsibilities of a parent (he has a daughter from a one-night-stand) and his criminal lifestyle. He finds himself in a bind, however, when his "business" trip to Szeged is interupted by a meeting with a former girlfriend (Marianna Szilagyi), who's back in the country to visit her husband--a police officer looking for criminal activity in none other than Szeged. Szerelem Utolso Verig also features Ivan Kamaras and Joli Jaszai. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Several star-crossed couples experience both the thrills and the disappointment of romance over the course of one evening in this romantic comedy. Reporter Marcello (Giancarlo Giannini) has a brief encounter with Irene (Marie Trintignant) while waiting for a train. A young woman who has lost her sight (Silvia De Santis) finds herself falling for the voice of a ship's captain (Yari Gugilucci) she hears over a radio broadcast. Egle (Ornella Muti), a massage therapist who is soon to be married, finds herself pursuing one last fling with Gabriele (James Thierree) -- though the odds are not in her favor, since he happens to be gay. Elena (Isabelle Pasco) is a young woman with a child who wants to abandon her husband. And Carla (Marina Confalone) wonders if she has any future at all with her lover -- who is married to someone else. Una Lunga Lunga Lunga Notte D'Amore was directed by veteran filmmaker Luciano Emmer, who was 83 when the film opened in Europe in the spring of 2001. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Inspired by a real-life event, Italian director Roberta Torre's Sud Side Story offers its own farcical version of the Romeo and Juliet story: this time, Romeo is Romea (Forstine Ehobor), a beautiful Nigerian girl, Juliet is Toni Giulietto (Roberto Rondelli), and Verona has been replaced by the slums of Palermo, Sicily. Romea is a prostitute who has been smuggled into Italy to work for her "manager" until she can pay off her huge bondage fee. When she and her fellow prostitutes move into a seedy neighborhood, their presence causes a scandal among its residents, particularly the three fat and obstreperous aunts of Toni Giulietto. Toni, who works as a rock singer and Elvis imitator, falls in love with Romea, creating further scandal among his neighbors as well as among Romea's friends. Both sides are up in arms and consult various voodoo doctors for magic potions that might put an end to the love affair. As Sicilian culture collides with its African counterpart, the clash between the two groups highlights the inherent difficulties of integration. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

No linking device is used in this Italian anthology film in which five untitled episodes offer a portrait of life in Rome: A businessman sees a prostitute before going home to his wife; a film-extra goes to a movie theater to see himself but falls asleep before his 15 seconds of fame; a farmhand turns the tables on an East European bully; after a tryst, a woman foresees the death of her lover; and a hitman finds the mob is checking up on him. Shown at the 1997 Locarno Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Though he is near death, blind Rene, an elderly Italian-French intellectual, continues to make his annual conference abroad accompanied by his self-centered loyal, beautiful assistant Sibilla who may or may not be his lover. Rene's domineering mother strongly disapproves of Sibilla and his continual galavanting, but Rene disregards her and goes anyway. While in Spain, Sibilla falls for a handsome young toreador who also captures the interest of Rene, though it is hard to say whether his feelings for the bullfighter are fatherly or more romantic. It is also unclear as to whether Sibilla and the bullfighter are lovers either. Thus an enigmatic romantic triangle forms until Rene and Sibilla suddenly decide to wed. The character of Rene seems to be closely patterned after Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide