Franco Merli Movies
- 1976
Down & Dirty was originally titled Brutti, sporchi e cativi in Italy. That translates literally to "dirty, nasty and bad", in reference to the lower-class characters and surroundings in this Ettore Scola film. Scola zeroes in on a particularly offensive Roman family. The stingy patriarch, Nino Manfredi, is personally wealthy but morally bankrupt, and his repulsive view of life trickles down to every member of his clan. Not content with corrupting his own flesh and blood, Manfredi spreads his philosophy throughout his village, where he functions as slumlord. By the time Manfredi's wife and sons begin plotting his murder, the audience is ready for a long, cold shower, with plenty of soap. A bleak film heavily laden with humor, Down & Dirty won Ettore Scola a Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nino Manfredi
- 1975
The final work of notorious Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini, this film updates the Marquis de Sade's most extreme novel to fascist Italy in the final days of WW II. Dispensing with the novel's meditations on sexual liberation and the search for truth, Pasolini presents four decadents who kidnap dozens of young men and women and subject them to the most hideous forms of torture and perversion in an isolated villa. Rape, murder, and a coprophagic banquet are only the beginning of the atrocities on display. Photographed by Tonino Delli Colli, the film also features a lavish score by Ennio Morricone. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paolo Bonacelli, Giorgio Cataldi, (more)
- 1974
This lush anthology of erotic tales was filmed in four countries (Iran, Nepal, Yemen, and Eritrea) over a period of more than two years. Completing the literary cycle begun by Pier Pasolini in Il Decamerone and I Racconti di Canterbury, this one is perhaps the most controversial of the lot, engendering reactions from admiration to dismissal. The connecting story deals with Mur el-Din (Franco Merli), a prince searching for his slave girl lover, Zumurrud (Ines Pellegrini), who has been kidnapped, only to disguise herself as a man, take a wife, and become ruler of a great city. Mur el-Din's quest carries him to the ends of his known world, where he listens to several stories of carnality and betrayal. The continuity and fluidity of the film depend entirely on the version screened, because several different cuts exist; producer Alberto Grimaldi insisted on a 130-minute release, whereas Pasolini and United Artists preferred the unexpurgated 155-minute version with its ten stories all intact. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ninetto Davoli, Franco Merli, (more)
