Toni Servillo Movies
- 2007
A handful of semi-professional musicians struggle to make a name for themselves in this nostalgic comedy-drama set in Italy in the mid-seventies. Faustino (Antimo Merolillo) is a would-be jazz guitarist who has just graduated from school and is looking for a gig, at least in part because he's trying to avoid the military draft. If he can get local promoter Raffaele (Ernesto Mahieux) to sign him to a contract, Faustino can tell the draft board that he's a professional supporting his widowed mother with his career in music, but getting Raffaele to make a deal is proving difficult. Faustino plays part time with a local band led by hard-drinking Mimmo Falasco (Toni Servillo), but when Augusto Riverberi (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), a once-famous bandleader looking to make a comeback, arrives in town, Raffaele pulls some strings and gets Faustino a job as Riverberi's assistant. In need of a singer, Faustino and Raffaele persuade Riverberi to hire a vocalist named Gerry Como (Peppe Servillo), and the first few dates of the tour go well as Riverberi entertains the crowds and juggles romances with Faustino's mother (Lina Sastri) and a lovely small-town hairdresser (Valeria Golino). But when Raffaele double-crosses Riverberi and runs off with the band's money, Faustino begins to wonder if he'll ever make good as a musician. Lascia Perdere, Johnny! (aka Don't Waste Your Time, Johnny!) was the first directorial credit for veteran actor Fabrizio Bentivoglio, who also co-stars as the bandleader Riverberi. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Antimo Merolillo, Ernesto Mahieux, (more)
- 2007
A brilliant detective from Southern Italy investigates the death of a young girl found drowned in a remote lake in the mountains of Friuli in director Andrea Molaioli's dramatic mystery. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toni Servillo, Nello Mascia, (more)
Five stories weave together to form director Matteo Garrone's Gomorra, a violent look at the cruel reality endured by the residents of the Province of Naples. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Salvatore Cantalupo, Gianfelice Imparato, (more)
- 1997
Five Italian directors -- Pappi Corsicato, Antonietta DeLillo, Antonio Capuano, Stefano Incerti, Mario Martone -- contributed a quintet of short films depicting life in Naples under the shadow of the volcano for this anthology film of comedy, drama, surrealism, and political commentary on the Italian left. Shown at the 1997 Venice Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Bonaiuto, Iaia Forte, (more)
Award-winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino (The Family Friend) writes and directs this cinematic portrait of seven-time Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti, whose controversial legacy peaked when he was tried for Mafia ties and subsequently acquitted. A leader with close ties to the Vatican, Andreotti was also tried and acquitted for the murder of an Italian journalist, and remains a senator for life. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto, (more)
The Festival Aix en Provence mounted this production of Gioachino Rossini's 1813 opera L'Italiana in Algeri, starring Marco Vinco, Christianne Stotijn and Maxim Mironov. Toni Servillo directs for the stage; the Arnold Schonberg Chorus and The Mahler Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Riccardo Frizza, lend added musical accompaniment. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christianne Stotijn, Maxim Mironov, (more)
- 2001
Two men learn firsthand about the cruel twists of fame and fortune in a drama from Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino. In the early '80s, Tony Pisapia (Toni Servillo) and his younger brother, Antonio (Andrea Renzi), have each risen to the peak of their chosen professions. Tony is a nightclub singer who after years of struggle has achieved nationwide fame, and Antonio is a soccer player who becomes a star after scoring the game-winning goal in the European championship match. However, a few years down the line both men are experiencing a sharp reversal of their good fortune. Tony has developed a devastating cocaine addiction, and after it's revealed he's become sexually involved with an underage girl, it doesn't seem likely that the public will ever forgive him. Meanwhile, a leg injury has put an end to Antonio's career as an athlete, and he finds himself starting from zero as he tries to launch a new career in coaching; he faces another personal crisis when his wife, frustrated by Antonio's career decline, leaves him. L'Uomo in Piu was loosely based on the true stories of two Italian celebrities, musician Franco Califano and football star Agostino Di Bartolomei. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toni Servillo, Andrea Renzi, (more)
- 2004
A man, whose life is going nowhere, learns he had an attractive younger woman admirer in this drama from Italy. Titta Di Girolamo (Toni Servillo) is a middle-aged former stockbroker who now makes his living as a minor functionary with the Mafia. A few times a week, Di Girolamo handles bank deposits of large sums of money brought to Italy from the United States. When he's not occupied with that, Di Girolamo's life is barren, with only his occasional heroin use adding drama to his days. Divorced and cut off from his former wife and children, Di Girolamo lives in a hotel, and spends much of his day killing time in their cocktail lounge as he watches barmaid Sofia (Olivia Magnani) at work. When Di Girolamo's more outgoing brother Valerio (Adriano Giannini) stops by for a visit, he goads Di Girolamo into making small talk with Sofia, and soon he makes the unexpected discovery that Sophia has long had an infatuation with him. Le Conseguenze Dell'Amore was screened in competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Toni Servillo, Olivia Magnani, (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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carlo Cecchi, Licia Maglietta, (more)
- 1998
Mario Martone (L'amore Molesto) wrote and directed this drama about the tragedy of war, beginning with acting exercises in a garage rehearsal area and then intercutting between the lives of Italian stage actors and scenes of their rehearsals on Seven Against Thebes. Director Leo (Andrea Renzi), in 1994, arranges to have his Italian company, as an act of solidarity, do a show in Sarajevo where theaters have remained open. With the support from actor Vittorio (Marco Baliani), Leo seeks a key to staging the Aeschylus play about a civil war and a city under siege. Theater in Sarajevo is shown in contrast to the mainstream theater in Naples with a lavish production of The Taming of the Shrew staged by pompous Franco Turco (Toni Servillo). Actress Luisella (Iaia Forte) leaves Leo's Greek drama for Turco's production. Even though the actors are going without pay to Seven Against Thebes, young talent Diego (Roberto De Francesco) and diva Sara Cataldi (Anna Bonaiuto) both turn away from Turco to work with Leo, while set designer (Sergio Tramonti) contributes to both. Outside the rehearsal space, Neapolitan life goes on with neighborhood disputes, drug deals, fights, a police round-up, and murder -- events drawing parallels with Sarajevo. Some street scenes are unstaged, adding a documentary authenticity. Martone spent several years on this project by filming the rehearsals of a Seven Against Thebes stage production he directed in 1995-96 (featuring the same cast). Martone wrote his screenplay around that material, and then he filmed in the infamous Spanish Quarter of Naples, shooting in 16mm with a blow-up to 35mm. Shown in the Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrea Renzi, Anna Bonaiuto, (more)
