Elisa Mainardi Movies
- 1993
Matteo (Vincenzo Salemme) is a very devoted teacher. He spends most of his free time during the school year taking care of his invalid father, but during the summer holidays he occasionally tutors students. This year, he has two students to bring up to speed in physics: Elsa (Carlotta Natou), a confident girl of the '90s, and Giulio (Arturo Paglia), a shy, soft-spoken boy. At the end of the holidays, after many weeks of intense tutoring, Matteo treats his charges to an overnight trip to the sea. Whatever he may possess in the way of good sense should prevent him from acting on his attraction to Elsa, but he is not able to accomplish this perfectly. Giulio is also attracted to the girl, and, while they are on their jaunt together, this puts the two men in competition with each other. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincenzo Salemme, Carlotta Natoli, (more)
This evocative look at a 1914 ocean voyage to scatter the ashes of a world-famous opera singer (Janet Suzman) is by turns charming, funny, and bizarre. Among the ship's passengers are aristocrats, politicians, singers, and a rhinoceros. Their episodic interactions form the core of the film, with complications (including a group of refugee Serbs boarding the vessel) carefully orchestrated by screenwriters Federico Fellini and Tonino Guerra to highlight the decay of European society prior to World War I. The ship sails on an artificial ocean against an artificial sky, crafted by art director Dante Ferretti in the studios of Cinecitta, with a result that is both disconcerting and oddly comforting. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Freddie Jones, Barbara Jefford, (more)
- 1982
- R
Sergio (Carlo Verdone) and Nadia (Eleonora Giorgi) are door-to-door sales reps for a recording company that features the popular Italian singer Lucio Dalla. Nadia is attractive and interested in a bigger and better life for herself. Sergio is well-fed and undistinguished, and together they make a most unlikely romantic pair. Still, the romantic sparks ignite for awhile, and then they separate, leaving Sergio determined to capture Nadia's heart. His method for winning over the fair lady is an ancient one -- he does so by pretending to be super-rich. That leads him up more than one blind alley, creating a maze of incidents that can only be resolved in a final series of twists at the end. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eleonora Giorgi, Carlo Verdone, (more)
Fellini's Roma is a virtually plotless autobiographical tribute to Rome, Italy, featuring narration by Fellini himself and a mixture of real-life footage and fictional set pieces. It flows from episode to episode, beginning with the director's early years arriving in Rome in 1931 during the time of Mussolini. Played by Stefano Mayore as a child, he visits the city with classmates and becomes infatuated. Played by Peter Gonzales at age 18, the young Fellini moves in to a tenement building and explores the wild characters living in neighborhood. The events that follow switch between the past and contemporary times, including a story line that involves a 1970s film crew making a movie about Rome. He also incorporates segments of Roman history and problems in the government, including an improvised speech from Gore Vidal. Throughout this journey there are visits to an outdoor restaurant, a movie theater, a music hall, and a brothel. In one famously surreal segment, groups of clergymen gather together for a Catholic fashion show spectacle. After a visit to a street festival and some on-camera interviews, the film concludes with shots of motorcycles driving by the Colosseum. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Britta Barnes, Federico Fellini, (more)
Federico Fellini makes his most decadent, undisciplined work in this free adaptation of Petronius' famous farcical chronicle of ancient Roman life. The film opens with Encolpio (Martin Potter) vying with his friend Ascilto (Hiram Keller) for the affections of a young effeminate lad named Gitone (Max Born). When the youth chooses his rival or him, Encolpio begins a journey that has him encountering Romans of every stripe and color. He drops in on an orgy thrown by Trimalchio (Mario Romagnoli), a wealth-loving ex-slave who has spurned his wife in favor of a pleasures of a young boy; he toils on a slave galley, fighting off the advances of Lichas (Alain Cuny) -- the ship's burly wall-eyed captain; he steals an albino hermaphrodite demi-god who is reputed to be able to tell the future; and fails to summon the enthusiasm to make love to a whore-priestess. Along the way, we witness a parade of prostitutes in ancient Rome's pleasure quarters; watch performance by Vernacchio (Fanfulla), an actor whose on-stage specialties include farting and public amputation; and the wonton devouring of a human corpse for financial gain. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Potter, Hiram Keller, (more)
