Laura Morante Movies

After his son disappears, an Italian cheese manufacturer is threatened by political terrorists who will supposedly kill the son if he does not pay a large ransom. Unsure if they really have his son and if the son is still alive, he has to decide if he should or should not sell his business to afford the sum. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

In this rich, complex drama, the threat of terrorism serves as a backdrop to an examination of dysfunctional family relationships. Fausto Rossi portrays neglected teenager Emilio, whose father Dario (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a university professor, introduces him to his student, Giulia (Laura Morante) and her lover, Sandro (Vanni Corbellini). Emilio loves photography, and sets about taking pictures of the pair, soon coming to believe that Giulia and his father are lovers. Because Dario and his son are respectful of each other's privacy to a fault, Emilio can't ask, so he starts to spy. When he finds Sandro dead in the street one day, the apparent victim of a Red Brigade terrorist shooting, Emilio decides to keep an even closer eye on his father. It is never completely confirmed whether Dario and Giulia were really having an affair or whether Dario was involved in terrorism, because these issues are not necessarily director Gianni Amelio's concern. Amelio is concerned with perception, and in this fascinating film he examines his young protagonist's multi-faceted interpretations of an elusive truth, revealing that such a thing may not even exist. This is a powerful, absorbing film for thoughtful viewers in search of a challenge. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

The comedic touches in Bianca and its setting at the "Marilyn Monroe High School" whose faculty need the services of the school's clinical psychologist, are at odds with the somber theme of a schizophrenic math teacher and a series of murders. That cinematic split personality leaves the film in limbo. The math teacher Michele (Nanni Moretti, also the director) is clearly neurotic, tries to "straighten out" the lives of his friends whether they like it or not, and is torn between his powerful attraction to the French teacher Bianca (Laura Morante) and his terror of intimacy -- between his need for a normal family life and his neuroses. When people start disappearing at the school, Michele becomes the number one suspect in the police investigation -- not a long stretch given his behavior. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this English-dubbed version of an Italian sci-fi film, a group of aliens lands on the planet in spirit form and take over the bodies of the recently dead. Trouble begins when a toddler tells his dad that he sees his deceased mother walking around every day. When the father investigates, he sees her too, and it soon becomes evident that there's a kind of epidemic of revived bodies going on. However, the aliens are not malevolent, and when their new bodies are gathered into one area by the worried authorities, they give them up. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This uneven drama concerns the efforts of an aspiring filmmaker to include an unwilling female in his production. Paul (Jean-Louis Trintignant) finds difficulty deciding on a location for his film and angrily throws out his script. Jean (Jacob Berger) is the film student who is sent by Paul to track down Dara (Laura Morante) and recruit her for the feature. All three end up in Brooklyn, where Dara's father believes Paul and Jean are only interested in having sex with his daughter. A must for fans of director Alain Tanner. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This unusual biographical drama explores a period in the life of Nobel Prize-winning Italian nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi, (1901-1954) who contributed to the U.S.'s Manhattan Project (which developed the nuclear bomb) after developing the first working nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago in 1942. As a celebrated professor at Rome University in the 1930's Ferm (Ennio Fantastichini) attracted many brilliant students. One of them was the highly gifted and very unstable young mathematitian Ettore Maiorana (Andrea Prodan). Ettore, estranged from his abusive family, was more or less adopted by Fermi and his wife, until Fermi unwittingly betrayed him by admitting to Ettore's mother that he was staying with him. At that point, Ettore, whose mathematical skills far exceeded Fermi's and which had contributed to his development of nuclear physics, began his swift descent into some sort of paranoid state. He began camping out in his family's abandoned estate and eventually disappeared from sight. To this day, no one knows whether he killed himself, was murdered, or successfully changed identities. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The young men in this Portuguese drama have one thing in common: they all have homosexual urges, and all have hidden or repressed them. When this was filmed in Portugal in the late 1980s this was shocking stuff. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Except for the millionaire film producer, who undoubtedly only gets what he deserves, in this bedroom comedy almost everyone else on a luxury cruise liner headed for Mykonos seems to be having a good time with someone new. Doria (Jeanne Moreau) is a famed but aging opera singer whose career is necessarily drawing to a close: she is the top-billed entertainer for the voyage. Olga (Désirée Nosbusch) is the film producer's latest nubile discovery, Eric (Daniel Mesguich) is a journalist with a way with words and a weird new wife, and Andreas (Anthony Delon) is a handsome young man who is "available." He's quite available, actually, since he's a gigolo, but he finds himself quite passionate about his newest client. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Bear witness to the rise of the most corrupt and ruthless ruler ever to preside over the Roman Empire as filmmaker Paul Marcus tells the tale of Nero's unlikely ascent to the throne, and his historical fall at the hands of his own vengeful kingdom. After murdering his sister's husband on grounds of conspiracy, the increasingly incoherent Caligula exiles his grieving sibling and sets into motion a devious plan that will one-day find her son Lucius presiding over all of Rome. Beset on all sides by tyranny and bloodlust, Lucius rises to power as Nero while facing the constant wrath of all who oppose his legacy. His paranoia soon reaching a fever pitch, Nero struggles to maintain power as his army, his people, and his own mother, ultimately turn against him. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide