Luca Damiano Movies
- 2000
Depending on one's personal perspective, Italy is either blessed or cursed with one of the busiest and most productive adult film industries in Europe, producing what are often regarded as among the best and most professional hardcore sex films in the world. Gladiatori: Reportage Sul Cinema Hard Italiano is a documentary that takes a non-judgmental look at the Italian porn business, featuring interviews with notable figures both before and behind the camera as they discuss the nature of the work and how they got involved in adult entertainment. The film also tags along for a film shoot in Hungary (where many producers stage their shoots, due to more lenient laws regarding pornography), and offers some explicit examples of the interview subjects enjoying their work. Directed by Maria Martinelli, Gladiatori: Reportage Sul Cinema Hard Italiano was screened at the 2000 Turin Film Festival and at several other European film fests. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Luca Damiano
- 1999
Delving into the uncharted territory of hardcore melodrama and three-hanky pornography, director Davide Ferrario recounts this tale of the life and death of an Italian X-rated icon. Nina (Elisabetta Cavallotti) is a middle-class woman who finds herself drawn to the adult film industry because she really, really likes sex and because she enjoys having men ogle her. Yet in spite of her daily rounds of athletic heterosexual coupling, she becomes romantically attached to Cristiana (Stefania Orsola Garello), an editor of a hardcore magazine. During a checkup, Nina learns that she has cancer and tries to continue to work in spite of ongoing chemotherapy treatment. Yet when word of her malady gets around, she soon learns that she is no longer in demand. The weight of Nina's illness proves to be too much, and she dumps Cristiana in favor of fellow cancer victim Flavio (Flavio Insinna). Ferrario punctuates this work with sketches of the porn biz including bored set technicians and sleazy producers who are into S&M. This film was screened at the 1999 Venice Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stefania Orsola Garello, Flavio Insinna, (more)
