Agostina Belli Movies

When tough-minded slum dweller Claudio Scanna Claudio Amendola is drafted into the Italian Army for his obligatory one-year tour of service, he hardly expects to have to serve the entire year on latrine duty. However, that's just what happens in this exposé of injustices of the draft system. Claudio has inadvertently humiliated his lieutenant, a petty and small-minded man who cannot abide the knowledge that Claudio is definitely a better man than he is. Before the year is out, though, they will have a definitive confrontation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Based on Heinrich Von Kleist's novel, "The Foundling," Strana Passione twists and turns through the death of one son, adoption of another, and the latter's ultimately tragic relationship with his adoptive parents. While out in his carriage with his young son, Piachi (Fernando Rey) picks up Nicolò, an orphaned street urchin, and takes him to a clinic where Piachi's son catches a virulent sickness plaguing the town, eventually succumbing to the illness. Piachi is grief-stricken and reaches out to Nicolò, deciding to adopt him into the family and raise him as though he were his own son. The once-impoverished orphan is multi-talented but not necessarily virtuous, and after reaching manhood, he marries an appropriate woman for his station in life but chases after the gorgeous mistress of a local bishop. The next woman he pursues is Elvira (Brigitte Fossey), his own adopted mother, using a ruse because he looks just like a man she loved long ago. His scheme unbalances what is left of the woman's delicate emotional health, and she loses touch with reality as she retreats into her own world. Before Piachi can retaliate, Nicolò uses his legal rights to evict Piachi and his ailing wife from their own home -- a violent and extreme action that pushes Piachi over the edge -- and seals the fate of Nicolò and of Piachi himself. Throughout this complicated tale of moral turpitude, Nicolò has no visible motivation for his actions, which leaves a hollow core and no depth at the heart of the story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

American and Venezuelan foreigners try to steal coveted seeds from a rubber-tree plantation in this action-adventure saga. They battle crocodiles, Indian attacks, slave revolts, and a director who insisted on putting disco music to a 19th-century setting. The two heroes are hidden by a concubine who seeks vengeance against her cruel plantation owner. A rape scene appears to have been added merely for exploitation value. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Marcello Mastroianni plays the downtrodden Bruno Baldassare, a murder-squad investigator in Rome who gets no respect from his peers, who give him the least interesting cases. His bumbling aide, Cantalamessa, gets even less respect. While a lightning strike could have caused the deaths of two people, the circumstances of their deaths arouse his suspicions. In this satirical detective comedy, among the suspects he must question are the victim's widow, Princess Dell'Orso (Ursula Andress) and a seedy screenwriter named Harry Hellman (Peter Ustinov). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

An ambitious musical adaptation of Michel Déon's best-selling novel, Un Taxi Mauve is set in Ireland during a time in which the nation announced it would no longer demand income taxes of artists, bringing a steady stream of creative bohemians to the Emerald Isle. Novelist Philippe (Philippe Noiret) is a French novelist recently relocated to Ireland, where makes friends with Jerry (Edward Albert), an American expatriate who left his home after the death of his girlfriend. Philippe and Jerry become chummy with Taubelman (Peter Ustinov), who is looking after Anne, a beautiful young woman who cannot speak. Jerry becomes infatuated with Anne, while Philippe tries to win the heart of Sharon (Charlotte Rampling), Jerry's sister. Fred Astaire also appears as Dr. Scully, an American physician who has come to Ireland to live out his final years.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

During the five years he was in prison, Alfredo's (Johnny Dorelli) wife Adelina (Agostina Belli) and son have gone to live with a stable, non-criminal man -- a taxi driver. Now that Alfredo is out, he wants her again. After a series of failed attempts even to meet with her, she finally meets up with him as he attends his dying mother. Despite his past betrayals, his vast charm and the numerous examples of his devotion to her warm Adelina's heart to him again, and she begins a series of secret "liaisons" with her own husband. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This sci-fi sex comedy is set in the year 2037 and centers upon a group of scientists busily working to develop a new non-polluting, efficient, and just-plain-fun way to generate electricity by harnessing the energy produced by some of the world's greatest lovers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When Carolina (Anicee Alvina), the daughter of wealthy banker Georges de Saxe (Philippe Noiret), is reported kidnapped, it is upsetting to him even though he knows it isn't true. The kidnappers have taken the wrong person. The banker hires Frantz (Jean-Louis Trintignant) a disheveled, seedy detective to find his daughter and hide her safely away. She soon finds herself in a fantasyland whorehouse, where all kinds of extreme perversions are routinely practiced. There, a near-double of her father whips and then seduces her. Eventually, she and the private eye escape or leave, having extorted the kidnapping money from the girl's father. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The luridly titled Italian/French/German thriller Blood in the Streets went into production under the more restrained cognomen The Revolver. Oliver Reed plays a prison official whose wife is kidnapped. The price for her return is the release of incarcerated criminal Fabio Testi. When it becomes obvious that Testi's former cohorts plan to murder him once he's set free, Reed and Testi team up to foil the baddies. Blood in the Streets poses as an anti-gun tract, but its plot is still resolved by Oliver Reed wielding a weapon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Before Al Pacino ever picked up a blind man's cane in the 1992 production of Scent of A Woman, Vittorio Gassman played a blind army captain in the 1974 Italian film Profumo di Donna, based on a novel by Giovanni Arpino. The earlier film unquestionably inspired the later one, though they differ significantly. The Captain, accompanied by Ciccio (Alessandro Momo), who has been assigned to him by the army, is on his way from Turin to Naples to meet with an army compatriot who was also disfigured in the same military incident. Unknown to his aide, the Captain means to fulfill a suicide pact there. While they journey, the captain asks Ciccio to help him spot beautiful women. Unsatisfied with the boy's descriptions, he uses his nose instead, claiming that he can smell a beautiful woman. The dashing blind military man enjoys considerable success with women. During their journey, he carries with him a picture of his beloved Sara (Agostina Belli), whom he could not bear to have see him disfigured and helpless. The suicide pact is eventually thwarted, Sara enters the picture, and the boy Ciccio does some much-needed growing up. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Bluebeard is the retelling of the now familiar story of a wealthy aristocrat who marries and murders and marries again. Baron Von Sepper (Richard Burton), the BlueBeard of the story, meets and marries Anne (Joey Heatherton) who becomes suspicious of Von Sepper when she finds evidence of his murders shortly after their wedding. Van Sepper then, in graphic detail, tells Anne the stories of his former wives' lives and deaths. The movie, directed with ham-handed archness by Edward Dmytryk, attempts to tell the story as a black comedy. Despite an array of beautiful women, including (Virna Lisi), (Nathalie Delon) and (Raquel Welch), nothing can distract from the abysmal performances of Burton and Heatherton. The film has some nice costumes and is beautifully photographed by cinematographer Gabor Pogany, but all the humor is unintentional and the actors, particularly Richard Burton all seem to wish they were elsewhere. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide