Marcelo Mazzarella Movies

A sexy woman decides to find out what life is like for her less attractive sisters in this comedy from Chile. Amanda (Bárbara Mori) is a beautiful, intelligent, and talented woman who is trying to make a name for herself as an architect, but despite her seeming good fortune, Amanda is not happy with her life. Amanda's husband is chronically unfaithful to her, and her boss is by turns a bully and a weakling, and she begins to wonder if men disrespect her because of her good looks. Amanda puts this theory to the test when she leaves her husband and job behind and moves to a new town, where she takes the name Helene and disguises her face and figure with a padded suit, an ugly wig, dowdy makeup and crooked false teeth. Relying solely on her talent, Helene quickly gets a job at a small design firm whose boss Max (Jaime Azocar) is greatly impressed with her ideas for new buildings. One of Helene's new co-workers is Marcelo (Marcelo Mazarello), a shirt-chasing male chauvinist who initially pays no attention to the frumpy new employee. However, as they get to know one another, Marcelo finds he admires Helene's turn of mind and enjoys having a friendship with a woman for a change, though Amanda is appalled by his attitudes toward women -- so much that she hatches a plan to turn the tables on him by meeting him without her Helene disguise. Pretendiendo (aka Pretending) received its North American premiere at the 2006 Los Angeles Latino Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Smitten Italian schoolgirl Melissa (María Valverde) falls into a dangerous cycle of sexual experimentation after developing a crush on a handsome classmate (Primo Reggiani) who uses her for sex. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

One man's fight against organized crime proves to have devastating consequences for himself and his loved ones in this drama from Italy. As a young man, Placido Rizzotto (Marcello Mazzarella) saw his father imprisoned by police for a crime he didn't commit, and as a teenager he had to contend with the brutal excesses of Mussolini's soldiers while fighting in World War II. These events have left Placido with little taste for petty tyranny and with a desire to promote social justice. Upon his return home from the war, Placido becomes increasingly aware that organized crime has taken hold of his village, and he becomes angry and frustrated as he sees Mafia leaders controlling local politics and taking whatever land or property they want. Placido helps to form a trade union as a challenge to the Mafia's authority, and attempts to organize the villagers into a collective to grow crops in the fields taken by gangsters from the people. Lia (Gioia Spaziani), Placido's girlfriend, admires his bravery, but doesn't believe he's aware of the danger he's put himself in as she urges him to stop his crusade against the crime families. Placido, however, becomes all too aware of how badly Lo Sciancato (Vincenzo Albanese), a local crime kingpin, wants to hurt him when he sends a handful of his goons to brutally beat and gang-rape Lia. Placido Rizzotto was based on a true story and features newsreel footage of some of the real-life figures who appear as characters in this film. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

It's Christmas Eve in Buenos Aires and nothing seems to be going right. Some say that, for many, Christmas is the loneliest time of the year, and just as a hapless group of unsuspecting Argentineans feel they may have hit rock bottom, their lives begin to intersect in a way that may offer a glimmer of hope. As the holiday draws to a close, a failed comedian, a lonely doctor, a doubtful lover, and a desperate father attempt to struggle through their hardships while offering compassion and kindness to others during the holiday season. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

An ambitious project of Chile-born, Paris-based Raul Ruiz, this psychological drama brings to the screen the famous classic of Marcel Proust with fidelity to its interior monologues and streams of consciousness. Proust (Marcelo Mazzarella), on his deathbed in his small apartment on Rue Hamelin, is looking through old photos and remembering his life, as real characters intermingle with fictional ones from his novels. The period is 1914-18, when WWI is raging. Hidden in Paris, thanks to his asthma, Marcel Proust wanders into the night. He finds an aging courtesan in Café de la Paix, which is deserted by the curfew. Charlus, the seducer of young boys, is at the Palais des Felicites where he meets his lovers. Gilberte returns alone to Tansonville to evade the confiscation of her chateau by the Germans after the death of her husband at the front. Famous violinist Morel is hiding in a decrepit hotel. The demoralizing effects of war affect all the characters, hastening their decadence or transforming them into caricatures. In the whirlpool of the grotesque specter of war, Marcel finds refuge in his childhood memories to escape the atrocities around him. Death and decadence, the evanescence of human existence, and the relations between space and time are some of the main themes explored in this film, which reflects the works of Marcel Proust in every detail. Raul Ruiz has on his side a very good screenwriter, Gilles Taurand, and an impressive cast: Catherine Deneuve and John Malkovich, who have collaborated with Ruiz before, Emanuelle Béart, Vincent Pérez, Pascal Greggory, and the Italian man of theatre, Marcello Mazzarella. Shown in competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, Rovi