Susanna Javicoli Movies
This muddled thriller reminiscent of Mil Gritos Tiene la Noche stars Joanna Pacula as a widow in peril. Pacula's bisexual husband Abe had a lover named Tim Bell, who apparently lost his mind when Abe died in a motorcycle accident. Being that Abe was an organ donor, Tim begins murdering the recipients in order to rebuild his dead lover. The gruesome murders include an incredibly bloody slashing of a baker, a woman's hand cut off with an axe, and a lifeguard emasculated in a public pool. The most startling scene has a cornea recipient murdered in front of a class of blind children, one of whom gets a gout of blood right in the face. The preposterous ending involves both split personality and the expected reappearance of the quite healthy Abe. Misteria is a long, dreary film which makes no sense whatsoever, and adds to its annoying qualities by blaring "Night on Bald Mountain" at high volume in every other scene. Most viewers should avoid this film like the plague, but some horror fans will enjoy it for the gory murders, a campy performance by cult favorite Giovanni Lombardo Radice as an epicene homosexual, and cameos by Gianni Garko and Erika Blanc. Luigi Kuveiller provided the slick cinematography. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- 1985
The patients in a cancer ward and their relationships are the focus of this drama that sounds like it should be at least a little dreary, but it is not. Among the patients is Anna (Anna Bonaiuto who has to juggle her personal life and her acting career and its demands with her stay in the hospital. She becomes attached to the elderly Enea (Enea Cesari, a patient from the countryside with more sense than anyone else Anna has met. She is also developing an interest in her doctor (Enrico Ghezzi, a young medico who has fought off cancer himself.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anna Bonaiuto, Enrico Ghezzi, (more)
- 1979
Bruno Martel Luc Merenda is an idealistic hero who questions the meaning of life in this confusing and sometimes hallucinatory erotic drama. After a night in jail, he is gang-raped by punk rockers in a garbage dump. He later saves an old man who believes he is Garibaldi Alberto Sorrentino and a woman he believes is Ophelia Susanna Javicoli. Bruno watches helplessly as she later jumps from a window. The feature recalls some of the more avant garde efforts of Italian cinema from the 1960s. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Luc Merenda, Adriana Asti, (more)
- 1978
This non-narrative, sketch-based film is a non-stop feast of antic and black humor. The sketches are framed within the context of a Roman student's school year, which is disrupted by political and amorous misadventures. The title Ecce Bombo means "Behold the Bumblebee" and spoofs both the ancient biblical phrase (in English, "behold the man") and the then-current wave of terrorism and bombings. This was director Nanni Moretti's first full-length feature, shot with a small but significant budget of $350,000 and featuring a large number of young previously unknown talents. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nanni Moretti, Luisa Rossi, (more)
- 1977
The endless philosophizing which often accompanies love between two college students is accurately recounted here, as are the erotic explorations of other students, including some lesbian and homosexual contacts. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lou Castel
A candy-colored nightmare from Italian terror maestro Dario Argento, Suspiria weaves a menacing tale of witchcraft as a fairy tale gone horribly awry. From the moment she arrives in Freiberg, Germany, to attend the prestigious Tans Academy, American ballet-dancer Suzy Banyon (Jessica Harper) senses that something horribly evil lurks within the walls of the age-old institution. Ill at ease as the result of her fellow student's peculiar behavior and increasingly terrified following a series of gruesome and spectacular murders, Suzy slowly begins to unravel the dark history of the academy. Convinced that the occult roots of the school and the horrific tale of its founding mother may hold an unthinkable secret, she begins a hallucinatory journey into the black heart of one of the most powerful witches ever known to exist. As Suzy edges ever closer to a secret that may hold the answers to all of her nightmares, the coven's grip on her soul begins to tighten until there is seemingly no escape. Will Suzy solve the mystery of the cursed academy before the fearsome Black Queen consumes her, or will she finally reveal the secret that has forever haunted the lavish corridors of the academy and bring an end to the Black Queen's terrifying reign? ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jessica Harper, Joan Bennett, (more)
- 1975
The son of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, Crown Prince Rudolf, is believed to have shot his female lover and himself in a tragic suicide pact in 1882 in Mayerling. Due to Imperial cover-ups, the full story may never be known. This story has been filmed several times, in French in 1935 and in English in 1968. Hungarian director Miklos Jancso recreates those events for his own purposes, continuing his favored theme of the rejection of paternal authority. In the film, which has very little dialog, Rudolf is a good-natured pan-sexual golden boy, who cavorts on his rural estate with a host of beautiful, aristocratic lovers and friends of both sexes. He refuses to leave his country idyll even though he has been ordered to by the Emperor, his father. Despite the fact that for a large part of the film, attractive young people go about unclothed and engaging in erotic encounters, the mood is one of melancholy rather than prurience. The Prince is a political liberal who wishes to arrange things so that the Emperor will arrest him, creating a public scandal which will provide a rallying point for the opposition. Instead, when the expected troops come, Rudolf's sensuous friends loyally ward off the Imperial officers, humiliating them in the process. The result is that the guests, the Prince and a hermaphrodite friend are killed by newly arrived Imperial reinforcements, and the now-familiar official story of murder and suicide is concocted for public consumption. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lajos Balazsovits, Pamela Villoresi, (more)
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