Ivano Marescotti Movies

The title of Carlo Mazzacurati's tense and moody small-town drama La Giusta Distanza (AKA The Right Distance, 2007) refers to a writer's need to maintain an appropriate amount of professional "distance" from his or her subject; the journalist in question here is Giovanni (neophyte Giovanni Capovilla), a late adolescent with a flair for journalistic correspondence. As the story opens, Giovanni attaches himself to a big city paper and agrees to cover events that transpire in his Po River Valley hamlet. Meanwhile, the arrival in town of fetching teacher Mara (Valentina Lodovini) turns more than a few heads, including Giovanni's and that of Hassan, a local immigrant mechanic from Tunisia. Mara herself just happens to be single, but finds a dearth of acceptable suitors in the community, except for Guido, a bus driver; problem is, he's already romantically involved with another. Mara then finds Hassan spying through her window one night; she manages to overlook this, however, and then - on an ill-advised note - begins a romance with the mechanic, without recognizing the extent of what she's getting herself into. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

An ambitious attempt to wed the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table with known historical facts of the era, this action adventure drama begins with the fall of the Roman Empire in 450 A.D. as Roman armies flee the British Isles. Arthur (Clive Owen), a heroic knight and devoted Christian, is torn between his desire to travel to Rome to serve his faith and his loyalty to the land of his birth. As England falls into lawlessness, Arthur throws in his lot with a band of knights who hope to restore order to their fair and pleasant land and hopes to win freedom for his comrades, among them Lancelot (Ioan Gruffudd), Galahad (Hugh Dancy), Tristan (Mads Mikkelsen), Gawain (Joel Edgerton), Bors (Ray Winstone), and Dagonet (Ray Stevenson). In time, Arthur and his men join forces with Merlin (Stephen Dillane), a shaman whose band of renegade knights were often pitched in battle against Roman forces. Forming a united front as loyal Englishmen against the invading Saxon armies, Arthur, Merlin, and the brave and beautiful Guinevere (Keira Knightley) are determined to unite a sovereign Britain under one army and one king. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Directed by Aldo Baglio, La Leggenda di Al, John e Jack (The Legend of Al, John and Jack) follows a trio of klutzy mobsters fumbling through the Italian crime underworld in the late '50s. The film begins at a drive-in movie where Al (Aldo Baglio), John (Giovanni Storti), and Jack (Giacomo Poretti) have rewired a car speaker in hopes of catching incriminating evidence on a fellow gangster's plans. Things go awry, however, when Al gets short-term amnesia from an inadvertent electrical shock. His compatriots take it upon themselves to re-inform him of his role in the accidental murder of one of their boss' old friends. In order to avoid death themselves, the three inept mobsters must concoct a plan to earn his forgiveness and prove their loyalty. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

An attorney's reckless personal life catches up with him -- or does it? -- in this whodunit. Valerio Grau (Lino Capolicchio) is a successful lawyer with a secret. For the past ten years, he's been having an affair with Lauretta (Angela Molina), who is also an attorney and also married. One day, Valerio suddenly dies after drinking a cup of poisoned coffee, and Lauretta's husband (Giancarlo Monticelli), a judge, immediately becomes a suspect. Pani (Ivano Marescotti), the city attorney assigned to the case, thinks the judge is the most likely culprit, and hires Piero (Carlo Cecchi), a detective struggling to work past a career embarrassment, to find out what he can about the judge. Piero is assigned to work alongside an assistant magistrate (Rinaldo Rocco) who once worked with Valerio and shares Pani's suspicions, but Piero isn't so certain, and he discovers that Lauretta was not the only "other woman" in Valerio's life. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

After the Oscar-winning The English Patient, writer/director Anthony Minghella attempted another tricky literary adaptation with The Talented Mr. Ripley, which features heartthrob Matt Damon cast against type as a psychopathic bisexual murderer. Tom Ripley (Damon) is a bright and charismatic sociopath who makes his way in mid-'50s New York City as a men's room attendant and sometimes pianist, though his real skill is in impersonating other people, forging handwriting, and running second-rate scams. After being mistaken for a Princeton student, Tom meets the shipping tycoon father of Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law), who has traveled to the coast of Italy, where he's living a carefree life with his father's money and his beautiful girlfriend, Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow). Dickie's father will pay Ripley 1,000 dollars plus his expenses if he can persuade Dickie to return to America. As Ripley and Dickie become friends, Tom finds himself both attracted to Dickie and envious of his life of pleasure. In time, he decides that he would rather be Dickie Greenleaf than Tom Ripley, so rather than go back to his life of poverty, Ripley impulsively murders Dickie and assumes his identity. The Talented Mr. Ripley was based on the first of a series of novels featuring Tom Ripley written by Patricia Highsmith; the story was previously filmed in 1960 as Purple Noon, with Alain Delon as Ripley. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The English title of this complex Italian film is apt. Featuring 65 main characters and 130 speaking parts (famous faces abound and many of the actors appeared gratis), and ranging in tone from tartly humorous to darkly tragic, it presents 30 interwoven slices from the lives of modern day Romans during a single day. The lone, silent figure of a lone jogger provides a sort of continuity between the vignettes. Beginning at sunset of the previous day, the jogger is seen warming up on his apartment terrace, looking for all the world as if he would like to jump. The rest of the stories seem to be randomly presented. Stories include the robbery of a Chinese restaurant that causes a birthday celebrant to die of fright, two different newlyweds who find themselves attracted to each other, an opportunistic mechanic's plan to capitalize on the death of a rival, a sneaky, sadistic meter maid and others. One uniting feature of the stories is their underlying bitter assessment of modern humanity. People are seen as selfish and basically cruel, still the stories move quickly and the balance between humor and drama, affection and cynicism, and shallowness and complexity is carefully maintained. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this arty Italian drama, lonely people look for love but never seem to find it. Set in Milan, the bittersweet story offers excerpts from the lives of three disparate people who have only their loneliness in common. Luca is a busy dentist who seldom sees Francesca his wife. When the two do manage to get together, they usually quarrel. He feels increasingly isolated until he receives a strange sexy call on his answering machine from an unknown woman who wants to meet him. Anna lives by herself and so does not mind doing a favor for her brother and taking in an aspiring French model. At first Anna and her new roomie Simona get along well, but then Simona executes a social gaffe that drives a permanent wedge between them. Caterina is in her '40s. Feeling restless, she decides to take a new job at a bookstore. She does not tell her husband. Once at work, her primary duty is to care for the owner's elderly and senile mother, something that brings Caterina a strange sense of comfort. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Taken from a best-selling Italian novel that achieved cult status amongst the country's youth, Jack Frusciante Left the Band (the title name refers to an early member of the American alternative rock band The Red Hot Chili Peppers who left after the group became successful) follows the typically tumultuous first-love of a young college boy attending university in Bologna. When not studying, bright, handsome Alex plays punk rock in a band with his rollicking chums until he falls in love with the introverted but sensitive Aidi. She cares for him too, but is afraid of commitment so that when things get too heavy she brushes him off by reminding him that she is slated to spend a year studying in the US. Alex consoles himself by spending time with the self-destructive Martino while Aidi glumly hangs out with her shallow girl friends. Time passes and eventually the young lovers reestablish communications. At last finding true closeness, their relationship is torn apart when Martino kills himself. It is only then that Alex is able to accept Aidi's impending departure. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Grossly mistaken identity provides the impetus in this Italian farce. Loris is an anti-social fellow with a high sex drive. During a party he is pointed towards an "easy mark." Unfortunately he approaches the wrong woman. When he discovers his mistakes, he nervously apologizes for the attempted liberties. A run-away chain-saw becomes involved and the frightened woman ends up filing a police report. Her report leads police boss Frustalupi that he has finally found the crazed sex killer the "Mozart of vice" whom Frustalupi has hunted for the last 12 years. Situations go from bad to worse as the police begin surveillance upon Loris whose every action becomes misconstrued by them. Things get even stickier when they put policewoman Jessica on the case as undercover bait. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Noted Austrian actor Klaus-Maria Brandauer stepped into the director's chair for this drama about the rise of fascism in Europe, based on a story by Thomas Mann. In the 1920s, Bernhard Fuhrmann (Julian Sands), a German author and outspoken leftist, takes his family to Torre di Venere, a resort community in Italy, where they are not welcomed warmly by all of the residents, especially after an incident in which Fuhrmann's daughter is caught swimming nude by the seashore. While several of the guests at the hotel where the Fuhrmanns are staying voice their opposition to the family's presence, the concierge defends their right to stay there -- until she is killed and replaced by a member of the local fascist brigade. As the village is enveloped in chaos, a magician named Cipola (Brandauer) appears, who has a profound effect on the lives of those around him. Mario und der Zauberer was shown in competition at the 1994 Moscow Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide