Alberto Moravia Movies

Director Mauro Bolognini and Goffredo Parise adapted a skillful Alberto Moravia story into this rather pedestrian drama. An eligible widow (Ingrid Thulin) vacations in Venice with her young son. When Thulin begins a tentative romance with friendly John Saxon, her resentful son runs away from home and gets into trouble, falling in with a gang of hooligans. The rest of the film is bland and predictable, as the harsh realities of street life teach the youngster some valuable lessons, most of which are hammered home with redundant narration. Plot mechanics aside, however, Aldo Tonti's rich cinematography still makes the film worthwhile for those who swoon at the sight of the Lido. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Contempt is the story of the end of a marriage. Camille (Brigitte Bardot) falls out of love with her husband Paul (Michel Piccoli) while he is rewriting the screenplay Odyssey by American producer Jeremiah Prokosch (Jack Palance). Just as the director of Prokosch's film, Fritz Lang, says that The Odyssey is the story of individuals confronting their situations in a real world, Le Mépris itself is an examination of the position of the filmmaker in the commercial cinema. Godard himself was facing this situation in the production of Le Mépris. Italian producer Carlo Ponti had given him the biggest budget of his career, and he found himself working with a star of Bardot's magnitude for the first time. ~ Louis Schwartz, All Movie Guide

This depressing three-part drama was financed by the Arts Bureau of the Organization for the Propagation of Islamic Thought. An impoverished couple worried about their daughter's future tries to find an adoptive home for their little girl, and a man with a history of mental instability tries to care for his aging mother. Part three concerns a pedlar who is witness to a gangland murder. He is constantly plagued by visions of the mob who are trying to kill him. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The idle lives of the rich or famous or both are depicted from an aloof and uninvolved perspective in this standard though uneven drama by director Francesco Maselli. Claudia Cardinale appears in one of her early screen roles as Fedora, a member of the elite and privileged in a provincial Italian town. The seedy underside of illicit affairs, quick flings, betrayals and deceptions, and other, similar pasttimes of the "in" circle slowly become apparent when a young outsider tries to gain acceptance into the exclusive group. As the plot weaves in and out of the various liaisons in a cool and remote manner, the motivation for wanting to take part in it all is hard to fathom. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This is a slow-paced, weighty story of love and lust shaded with overtones of incest and lesbianism that never materialize. Livia (Stefania Sandrelli) is a woman trying to regain the affections of her husband Alberto (Ben Cross), whose journalism career takes him away for months at a time -- on purpose. What she does not know is that he has an undeniable attraction for their daughter Monica (Amanda Sandrelli, Stefania's real life daughter). Livia's own sexual eccentricities lead her to hire young women to have sex with Alberto while she listens in hiding. When Monica wants to get into the act too, the real truth about her parentage is revealed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This drama examines the ethics of filmmaking as it chronicles the detached way in which a documentary maker exploits the misery of his subjects. It all begins with the seduction of another man's wife. He takes the woman to Bombay where he is filming opium addicts undergoing a rather extreme cure involving physical beatings. He then heads for Bali to chronicle the cruelty suffered deaf-mute prostitutes. Next, he goes to a Buddhist temple and tries to persuade a monk to light himself on fire. Back in India he cons a starving, deposed maharajah into eating bugs in exchange for canned food. The mistress is disgusted by the way her lover callously exploits and degrades these victims. She berates him, but still heads for war-torn Vietnam to catch some atrocities. The documentarist is excited when he learns the Viet Cong are planning to bomb a bar, and he hides his camera inside. The bomb goes off and most of the inhabitants are blown up. Later the delighted director retrieves the film. When he finds his lover dead inside the ruins, he orders his assistant to film his crying face. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An uneven mix of right-on situations and two-dimensional characters or worse, La Giornata Balorda is all the more interesting because it was banned in Italy -- not because of sexual or anti-religious content, but because of its depiction of Italian society. David (Jean Sorel) is a poverty-stricken young man who has impregnated the woman he loves and now wants to marry her. The baby has already been born when David sets out to "buy" a job. His uncle, not a model of propriety, gets him introduced to a slick operator who really does not want to hire David at all. But the future employer's mistress takes one look at David and lets her lover know he just has to give him a job. Meanwhile, David is still stuck with the problem of getting the money together to "buy" his job, and he solves that in a rather creative manner. This story of networking among the non-yuppy population did not sit well with the Italian censors. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The ever-growing popularity of Gina Lollobrigida was a decided box-office asset when the Italian La Provinciale was distributed to the U.S. as The Wayward Wife. Lollobrigida acquits herself quite nicely in the tensely dramatic role of a much-put-upon small-town girl named Cemma. Seduced by a lad who turns out to be a relative, Cemma is tossed out of her home. Seeking security, she impulsively marries bookish science professor Franco Vagnuzzi (Gabriele Ferzetti). Bored by her marriage, Cemma doesn't realize the true value of her loving husband until it's almost too late. The original 118-minute run time was reduced for U.S. release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the Alberto Moravia novel, Husbands and Lovers examines a modern couple's untraditional open marriage. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Director Pier Paolo Pasolini interviews a variety of Italians and asks them questions about love, marriage, infidelity, prostitution and homosexuality. Psychologist Cesare Musatti and writer Alberto Moravia offer their thoughts on the subject in this Italian documentary with English subtitles. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Often considered one of the first examples of Italian neorealism, Luchino Visconti's first film was this adaptation of James M. Cain's steamy novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, which would also be made twice in the U.S., first in 1946 with Lana Turner and John Garfield and then in 1981 with Jack Nicholson and Jessica Lange. Massimo Girotti stars as a drifter named Gino, who gets a job at a provincial inn. The handsome wanderer attempts to resist the advances of Giovanna (Clara Calamai), the estranged wife of nasty innkeeper Bragana (Juan de Landa), but he eventually gives in. Gino then allows her to talk him into killing Bragana to get the insurance money, with predictable results. Although the melodramatic story is a far cry from the post-war social statements of such later neorealist classics as Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945) and Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948), the movie began to feature some of neorealism's defining characteristics: above all, an emphasis on outdoor shooting and natural light and a relentless focus on the lives of the poor. Ossessione caused a sensation not just because of its lurid subject matter but also because Visconti's realist style makes you practically feel the heat and dirt and sweat of the film's environment. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Five romantic and funny vignettes comprise this Italian anthology that is set amidst the beauty and fun of the famed French coastline. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The original Italian title of The Barefoot Savage was Sensualita, an apt description of voluptuous leading-lady Eleanora Rossi-Drago. A newcomer to rural Italy, Rossi-Drago grows to dislike the tedium of working in the fields. She tries to seduce one of the owners of the farm where she works, and when the man tells her to get lost, she sets her sights on his brother. Only after she has married the brother does the farm owner realize that he's fallen in love with her. The tragedy that follows can best be described as operatic. Barefoot Savage was obviously inspired by the success of the 1949 Italian drama Bitter Rice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide