Giovanni Stabilini Movies

Two men with virtually nothing in common strike up the closest of friendships but must deal with the impending shadow of mortality, in this gentle comedy-drama from cause-célèbre Italian director Francesca Archibugi. Successful screenwriter Alberto (Antonio Albanese) checks himself into the hospital complaining of chest pains; meanwhile, affluent garage owner Angelo (Kim Rossi Stuart suffers from a massive heart attack and winds up in the same room next to Alberto, where he makes a series of courageous but unsuccessful attempts to rebound and feels his condition deteriorating. In-between Alberto's visitations from various movie industry friends (established via a series of cameos) and Angelo's chats with pregnant wife Rossana (Micaela Ramazzotti), the patients become acquainted, and before long they mutually regress to goofy, teenage behavior and begin swapping confidences. Angelo develops a deep-seated level of respect and admiration for Alberto - enough that he begins to perceive the writer as someone who can provide for Rosanna and the kids after his own death - and Alberto, who has seldom been close to anyone, develops a real sense of what friendship means for the first time in his life. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Left-wing and right-wing agendas go head-to-head in Diverso da Chi?, Umberto Carteni's satirical skewering of contemporary Italian politics. Luca Argentero stars as Piero, an openly homosexual gay rights activist, running as the more progressive candidate in the mayoral election of Udine, Italy. At the other end of the spectrum stands the bigoted right-wing candidate, who builds physical walls á la Padua around his community to keep foreigners and drug dealers confined to their various neighborhoods, and his candidate for vice-mayor, pro-family values champion Adele (Claudia Gerini). In an odd twist, Piero temporarily sets his political loyalties and gayness aside and sleeps with the gorgeous Adele, betraying his male partner, Remo (Filippo Negro) in the process. This has a positive effect on Adele, who starts to reexamine her political convictions as a result, but Piero grows horrified by his own actions and runs away; meanwhile, Remo proposes that they form a family with two fathers, and the upcoming mayoral race continues to beckon. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A case of serendipity extends itself over many years in Italian director Silvio Muccino's bittersweet romantic drama Parlami d'amore (Let's Talk About Love). Aitana Sanchez-Gijon stars as Nicole, a quadragenarian housewife in a supremely dysfunctional marriage, and Silvio Muccino is Sasha, the twenty-year-old son of a drug-addicted mother and father; the pair meet when their cars crash one fateful evening and they accidentally injure a dog in the process. Taking the canine to a veterinary hospital, the two strangers sense a latent attraction to one another and swap phone numbers but (for unspoken reasons) refrain from calling each other for a lengthy period of time. In that interim, Sasha becomes unwisely attracted to a low-class girl with barrel-bottom standards; unacquainted with the young woman, Nicole offers Sasha advice that helps him win the girl's heart. In time, however, the new girlfriend drags Sasha into heavy gambling and unsavory company, and Sasha and Nicole subsequently begin to realize just how perfect the two of them are for one another. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

One man's work ethic and sense of personal responsibility sends him on a great journey in this drama from filmmaker Gianni Amelio. Vincenzo (Sergio Castellitto) has devoted most of his adult life to working in a steel mill, where he looks after the machines and sees that they're in good repair. One day, Vincenzo gets the news that the mill is going out of business and the equipment has been sold to a concern in China. While Vincenzo is upset about the loss of his job, before long something greater is weighing on his mind -- one of the machines sold to the Chinese has a defect that led to the death of Vincenzo's co-workers years before, and he's convinced if he doesn't do some preventative maintenance on the equipment, another worker could be killed. Determined to prevent a needless fatality, Vincenzo flies to China and sets out to find the faulty machine, with the help of Liu Hua (Tai Ling), a young woman serving as his interpreter. La Stella Che Non C'e (aka The Missing Star) was screened in competition as part of the 2006 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Giancarlo De Cataldo's best-selling tale about three lifelong friends effectively take control of organized crime in modern-day Rome comes to the screen in this sweeping crime drama from director Michele Placido. Libanese (Pierfrancesco Favino) is the cold-hearted leader of a juvenile delinquent trio that also includes undyingly loyal Freddo (Kim Rossi Stuart) and power-hungry Dandi (Claudio Santamaria). After kidnapping and casually murdering a baron (Franco Interlenghi), the scheming friends soon form the shady alliances with the local gangsters, corrupt cops, and secret service members that will allow them the opportunity to effectively corner the market on heroin sales. Meanwhile, determined Inspector Sciloja (Stefano Accorsi), who has made it his goal to bring Libanese and his cronies to justice, stealthily manages to trace back the marked ransom money from the baron's kidnapping to Dandi's girlfriend Patrizia (Anna Mouglalis) - an alluring call girl whom the inspector soon finds himself falling for. But Inspector Sciloja isn't the only one to fall under the spell of a female who seems strangely out of his reach. On the other side of the law, Freddo becomes enamored by the decidedly pure Roberta (Jasmine Trinca), whose attempts to educate the smitten thug in the beauty of the Italian Masters seem to be made in vain. In projecting a fictionalized tale of murderous criminality against the larger backdrop of Italy's turbulent social history during the waning decades of the 20th Century, director Placido strives to craft a film that is not only entertaining, but historically relevant as well. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Dark shadows from a woman's past come back to haunt her in this drama from writer and director Cristina Comencini. Sabina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) would seem to have a charmed life -- she has a successful career as a voice actress, a loving and supportive relationship with her boyfriend, Franco (Alessio Boni), and a pair of close friends she can confide in, Maria (Angela Finocchiaro) and Emilia (Stefania Rocca). But Sabina's contented existence is shattered when she inadvertently dredges up a long-dormant memory of how during her childhood she was sexually abused by her father. Confused and ashamed, Sabina finds it impossible to talk about her memories with Franco and her friends, but the terrible images refuse to go away. Seeking closure, Sabina travels to the United States to talk to the one person who may have a true insight to her problems, her brother, Daniele (Luigi Lo Cascio). Originally released in Italy as La Bestia nel Cuore, Don't Tell premiered at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Writer/director Paolo Virzì and co-writer Francesco Bruni follow up their sly fish-out-of-water comedy My Name Is Tanino with another comedy in a similar vein, Caterina in the Big City. Giancarlo (Sergio Castellitto) is delighted when he has an opportunity to leave his provincial teaching job and drag his wife Agata (Margherita Buy) and 12-year old daughter Caterina (newcomer Alice Teghil) back to his old neighborhood in Rome. Caterina is a sweet, naïve, and pretty girl, and on her first day of school, she finds herself mocked as a hick. Her classmates are the sons and daughters of Rome's elite. Margherita's (Carolina Iaquaniello) parents are prominent intellectuals, and she leads a faction of bohemian socialist kids, while Daniella's father is a political heavyweight, and her preppy clique dresses in designer duds and espouses right-wing politics. Poor Caterina finds the two opposing factions battling over her allegiance, but every time she makes a new friend, her father fouls things up. Giancarlo, who is also an aspiring novelist, spends his evenings at home ranting about the elites and their devious, cliquish ways, but every time he's in the presence of an important person, he desperately tries to ingratiate himself and get his talents noticed. Meanwhile, he's drifting into depression and isolating himself from his wife and daughter. Caterina in the Big City was shown at New York City's Walter Reade Theater in 2004 as part of a Sergio Castellitto retrospective presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Enzo Monteleone's World War II drama El Alamein: The Line of Fire is concerned with the life of Italian soldiers. Lieutenant Fiore (Emilio Solfrizzi) leads a group of soldiers stationed in Egypt. The troops, including Sargent Rizzo (Pierfrancesco Favino) and newbie Serra (Paolo Briguglia), are constantly under attack from the British. Eventually the commands from the military hierarchy become indecipherable, and the madness and horror of war overtake the men. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Directed by Marcello Cesena, Mari del Sud (Our Tropical Island) follows a dysfunctional family whose idea of concealing their bankruptcy from friends and family is hiding in the basement of their palatial home while they're presumed to be vacationing. The basement is a disgusting place to live; rat-infested and stocked only with pickled vegetables, trips to the supermarket and attempts to counter their meddling neighbors become full-scale commando operations. As the situation snowballs, the family is unwittingly pushed into a catharsis which will bring them together in a way they hadn't thought possible. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide