Regina Orioli Movies
Two women on the run from the law soon find they have more than the cops to contend with in this feminist thriller from Italy. Eleonora (Mariella Valentini) learns that her daughter Lenni (Regina Orioli), a teenage runaway, is working at a run-down gas station in a small town, and decides to pay her a visit. Eleonora is quite surprised to discover that Lenni also happens to be involved in a lesbian relationship with Stella (Maya Sansa), a mechanic who runs the station. While glad to see her daughter, Eleonora makes no secret of her indignation, and after a heated argument Eleonora winds up dead. Lenni and Stella set out to find a safe place to hide the body, but, en route, they're trailed by three sexist toughs (Chiara Conti, Marco Quaglia, and Pietro Ragusa) whose childish taunting escalates into violence, forcing the women to fight fire with fire. As if they didn't have enough problems, Lenni and Stella must also contend with the spirit of Eleonora, who, even in death, will not keep her uncharitable opinions to herself. Benzina made its North American premier at the 2002 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maya Sansa, Regina Orioli, (more)
Parenthood stirs up a wealth of mixed emotions in this drama from Italy. Carlo (Stefano Accorsi) and Giulia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) are a couple in their late twenties who realize they've crossed the final threshold into adulthood when Giulia discovers she's going to have a baby. Even though Carlo has already settled down, he sees parenthood as the first step towards becoming the sort of middle-class suburbanite he's never respected, and he's not happy about it. Carlo's friends are also having mixed feelings about the onset of maturity: Adriano (Giorgio Pasotti) can't decide if he should go through with his marriage to Livia (Sabrina Impacciatore), Paolo (Claudio Santamaria) is trying to find a way out of going into business with his father, and Alberto (Marco Cocci) seems to be waging a one-man war against monogamy by seducing as many women as possible. Meanwhile, Giulia is having her own misgivings about parenthood, and her mother Anna (Stefania Sandrelli) is torn between happiness for her daughter and dread that she's now old enough to be a grandmother; Anna's malaise isn't eased by the lack of compassion shown by her husband (Luigi Diberti). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stefano Accorsi, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, (more)
- 1999
This Italian comedy opens by detailing the listless lives of a quartet of angry punks, all named Antonio, who live in the rural coastal town of Pescara in 1990. The focus changes, however, when one of them manages to go to Bologna to study at the local university. Books and college girls seem beyond him, so he drifts about the seedier corners of Amsterdam. A second Antonio joins him and the events of the Gulf War help to reshape the second Antonio's views, and he becomes both a conscientious objector and a protest leader. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Flavio Pistilli, Paolo Setta, (more)
- 1998
Carlo Verdone directed this Italian comedy in which the refers to a capercaillie, a European grouse distinctive for its chest-puffing vanity. The story opens in an Arab country where Islamic fundamentalists condemn Armando Feroci (Verdone) to death, followed by a flashback to 17 years earlier when the womanizing Feroci tooled about in his red convertible, tossing out lewd lines to women -- but eventually going too far by accosting a veiled Arab woman from a Red Cross missionary jeep. In Feroci's life of many misadventures, he is seen as a real estate agent getting his future wife (Ines Nobili) to purchase a condemned property; as an Elvis Presley fan claiming to be Elvis' biological son; as a quiz-show contestant; as a politician; and as an irresponsible parent. Filmed in Rome and the Tunisian desert. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carlo Verdone, Regina Orioli, (more)
- 1997
In this bittersweet coming-of-age comedy, seven-year-old Piero (Matteo Campus) lives in Livorno, a city along the coast of Tuscany, in a low-rent shantytown the locals call "Ovosodo" (which literally translates as "hard boiled eggs"). Piero is forced to grow up at an early age after the death of his mother, leaving his father to raise him and his mentally challenged brother on his own. As Piero turns 13 (now played by Malcolm Lunghi), his dad -- a second rate criminal with no gift for staying out of jail -- complicates matters by bringing his new (and pregnant) girlfriend Mara (Monica Brachini) to live with the family. Despite his difficult childhood, Piero is a bright boy, and he is encouraged to pursue greater educational opportunities by Giovanna (Nicoletta Braschi), a widow who teaches at his school. Piero gains a friend at his new school, Tommaso (Marco Cocci), a rich but troubled boy, and a few years, later the 18-year-old Piero (Edoardo Gabbriellini) finds love with a girl named Lisa, though sadly it's not destined to last. Ovosodo won the Special Jury Prize at the 1997 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edoardo Gabbriellini, Malcolm Lunghi, (more)
