Eleonora Giorgi Movies

Millionaire Volpone (Paolo Villaggio) recruits his new butler Mosca (Enrico Montesano) to fool three heirs to the family fortune in this engaging comedy. Gathering around the deathbed, the potential heirs compete for favors of Volpone. One man offers the keys to his Maserati, a married friend offers his beautiful wife and the local mayor (Eleanora Giorgi) for a final night of passion, and another signs over his luxury yacht, hoping it will be returned by Volpone after his death. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Declared "my most personal film" by Italy's premier horror director Dario Argento, this production marked the director's return to the eerie thematic territory he pioneered in 1977 with the horror classic Suspiria. Much like that film, Phenomena conforms to the logic of nightmares. Jennifer Connelly stars as Jennifer Corvino, the daughter of an American film star, who enrolls in a prestigious Swiss boarding school under the tutelage of the prudish Mrs. Bruckner (played by frequent Argento collaborator and former beau Daria Nicolodi). Possessing a unique telepathic gift, Jennifer is capable of communicating with insects on an instinctive level, often while sleepwalking. This trait soon brands her a "freak" among her snooty classmates but makes her a valuable asset to entomologist Dr. MacGregor (Donald Pleasence), who is currently employing the innate forensic skills of insects to aid police in tracking a serial killer targeting the boarders at Jennifer's school. As Jennifer's tiny friends (including the corpse-hunting Sarcophagus Fly) guide her closer to the murderer's lair, everything from MacGregor's revenge-driven pet chimpanzee to Bruckner's monstrously disfigured son figure into the mix, providing not one but three shocking endings. Shot in English and re-dubbed for various European markets, this graphic thriller was released in drastically edited form as Creepers in the U.S. and England; Argento's original cut runs 110 minutes. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Four popular Italian comedians (Adriano Celentano, Carlo Verdone, Enrico Montesano, and Diego Abantantuono), at the time this film was shot, play characters who either work in or visit a large hotel. Each comedian reprises some of the roles or attitudes that made him famous in a series of connected vignettes. Unfortunately, the supposedly comic treatment of women and one black bellhop carry enough outmoded gender and racial stereotypes to offend more than a few viewers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A situation that once (believe it or not) served as the premise for a Dick Van Dyke Show is taken several steps farther in the Italian Nudo di Donna. Nino Manfredi plays a prudish husband who is appalled to discover that his wife once posed nude for a painting. His shock is intensified when word gets around that the artist's model was a prostitute. The rest of the film consists of Manfredi's hilariously frantic efforts to get to the bottom of things (as it were). Nude di Donna was released in the US with the cumbersome title Portrait of a Woman, Nude. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A combination of alchemy, architecture, and horror, director Dario Argento's Inferno is a pulsing thriller filled with murder and supernatural mayhem. The peculiar proceedings are set into motion in both New York and Rome when two young women, Sara (Eleonora Giorgi) and Rose (Irene Miracle), find a book called The Three Mothers, a tome of alchemy written by an architect named Varelli. According to the book, Varelli built a trio of resting places for the Three Mothers, an evil trio whose identities remain at the core of the film's mystery. Rose's brother and Sara's boyfriend is Mark (Leigh McCloskey), a music student in Rome who jets to New York after Sara is murdered and Rose disappears. He follows up Rose's research on The Three Mothers and, with the help of his sister's neighbor, Elise (Daria Nicolodi), comes to the realization that the building they are in is one of Varelli's. Along the way, Mark encounters a variety of quirky characters including Elise's butler (Leopoldo Mastelloni), the building's maid (Alida Valli), a cat-hating bookseller named Kazanian (Sacha Pitoeff), and the infirm Professor Arnold (Feodor Chaliapin) and his nurse (Veronica Lazar). After a series of murders and a revelation that the butler and the maid have been plotting to steal Elise's jewels, Mark discovers a secret series of passages within the building. They lead him to its core where he finds the wheelchair-bound Professor Arnold, who explains that he is really the architect Varelli. After a violent struggle, the dying old man confesses to Mark that he is merely a servant to the Mothers. The building begins to burn out of control, but before Mark can escape, he discovers the shocking identity of the Three Mothers. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide

Guido (Italian pop-music superstar Adriano Celentano) is a millionaire who has made his fortune by inventing an unbreakable glass. He has everything he wants except for casual sex from a woman who knows nothing of his wealth. While riding the subway, his Rolex watch is lifted by the beautiful felonious female Tilli (Eleanora Giorgi). Guido falls for Tilli and spends the rest of his time trying to keep his identity a secret from her and her larcenous family. Celentano plays the role with slapstick flair reminiscent of Jerry Lewis and the smooth deportment of Cary Grant. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Based on the story by Mikhail Bulgakov, this Italian film tells the story of Preobrazhensky (Max Von Sydow), a surgeon, who is a professor of medicine in Moscow. Because he occupies a "big" 5-room apartment, after the Russian revolution is thoroughly in place, he is visited by the housing committee, who feels that he should share this spaciousness with several others. In an experiment he implants a dog with the heart and brain of a tramp. The dog gradually transforms into a man (Cochi Ponzoni), but still has some doggy attitudes: for instance, in the original story he chooses to call himself Sharikov (in the film he is called Bobikov). Since Sharik is a common Russian dog name, just as "Rex" might be in the West, it is clear where the man-dog's sympathies lie. Bobikov becomes associated with the local Party officialdom, and begins to terrorize the professor and his assistant, Dr. Bormental (Mario Adorf). After he becomes a member of the housing committee, he wangles a room in the professor's apartment. And after becoming a member of a state committee to deal with stray animals, Bobikov refuses to allow dogs to be killed, only cats. Bulgakov's works were very hard to find in Russia. After perestroika people began reading them for the first time, and were amazed to discover how daringly he criticized the emerging Soviet system. This Italian production is perhaps not the most successful realization of the story: a Russian TV version was made in 1987. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this Italian effort (spoken English is obviously dubbed) a dentist is seduced by his daughter and her girl friend. ~ All Movie Guide

This international exploitation feature is set in the 16th century and centers on a nun who faces moral degradation and corruption within the confines of her convent. She soon finds out the nunnery is run by a lesbian mother superior who engages in all kinds of graphically-presented taboo behavior. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide