Andrea Occhipinti Movies

The backstage intrigue behind the creation of one of the world's great operas provides the story for this historical drama from director Carlos Saura. Lorenzo Da Ponte (Lorenzo Balducci) is a defrocked priest who, after a failed marriage and a spell running a brothel, has found himself in Vienna, where his gifts as a poet and friendship with Casanova (Tobias Moretti) have led to an introduction to composer Salieri (Ennio Fantastichini). Salieri has been commissioned by the Viennese court to write an opera and is in need of a lyricist. Da Ponte agrees to write the libretto for Salieri's latest project, but when the composer becomes disinterested, he passes the opera on to one of his associates, Mozart (Lino Guanciale). As Da Ponte juggles both serious and casual relationships with several women and Mozart struggles with his muse, their adventures become a reflection of the story Da Ponte and Mozart are setting to music. Io, Don Giovanni (aka I, Don Giovanni) was an official selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Italian director Salvatore Mereu (Three-Step Dance) steps behind the camera for a sophomore occasion - and unveils distinct influence by such predecessors as Ermanno Olmi and Francesco Rosi - with Sonetàula, a cinematic eclogue that unfolds on the landscape of Sardinia. Neophyte Francesco Falchetto stars as Zuanne, a Sardinian shepherd boy from the (apocryphal) village of Orgidas. As the picture opens in 1938, Zuanne is 13, growing up under the tutelage of father Egidio (Lazar Ristovski) and grandfather Cicerone (Serafino Spiggia), both of whom he adores. The father-son closeness is short-lived, however, for in time Egidio suffers incarceration for a murder he didn't commit and then gets shuttled off to the Abyssinian war, where he is promptly killed - leaving the orphaned Zuanne to come of age under the warm and kindly Cicerone. Eventually, a tragic and complex series of events involving a stolen sheep forces Zuanne to go on the lam as a refugee - and the boy's desire for a young woman in his village, Maddalena (Manuela Martelli) becomes both his only tie to the hamlet of his youth and the one element that pulls him back to Orgidas. As all of this occurs, the long-cherished agrarian lifestyle in Italy - with the peasants' strong ties to the landscape - firmly and abruptly ends for the first time in centuries. The narrative of Mereu's picture spans 15 years, wrapping in 1953. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Lars von Trier's black comedy The Boss of It All (Direktøren for Det Hele) concerns an IT company owner who -- in need of a figurehead to "hide behind" when confronted with employee problems -- invented the personage of a CEO during the startup period for his corporation. The scheme worked for a surprisingly long period, but when the time arrives to sell the business, massive problems arise -- for the prospective buyers insist on only negotiating with the CEO, in person. Thus, the owner further extends the ruse, by hiring a down-and-out actor to impersonate the chief officer. With Direktøren for Det Hele, von Trier uses a new means of filmmaking for this film: Automavision, whereby filming is done with an "automatic randomized camera" that selects the shots. It became a means for Von Trier to "clean up" his approach to directorial work and reconnect with his own love of filmmaking. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Musician Mario Tronco and filmmaker Agostino Ferrente are two friends who both live in Rome's Piazza Vittorio neighborhood, a multi-ethnic community which is largely populated by immigrants from all corners of the world. Piazza Vittorio is also home to a beautiful vintage theater, the Apollo, which was had been used for years as a concert hall. In 2001, due to waning attendance, the owners were considering selling the venue to entrepreneurs who wanted to turn it into a bingo parlor. Determined to prevent this from happening, Tronco and Ferrente started a community organization with an eye towards turning the Apollo into a multi-media performance space, and with this in mind they began assembling a musical ensemble, using talent from the neighborhood. The group eventually grew to thirty musicians, featuring musicians who embraced a variety of musical styles, ethnic instruments and approaches towards their instruments. The ensemble, L'Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, developed international acclaim for their eclectic music, and Agostino Ferrente documented their progress while making a film about the campaign to save the theater. L'Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio (aka The Orchestra of Piazza Vittorio) is a documentary, which explores the growth of a new musical creation while offering a look at the struggle to save the Apollo. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Written and directed by Paolo Genovese, Incantesimo Napoletano ("A Neopolitan Spell") is a fanciful tale of the horror felt by a fifth-generation Neopolitan couple whose first daughter's first words are in Milanese. By the time Assunta (Chiara Papa) is 10-years-old, she has rejected her mother's cooking in favor of traditional Milanese food, and hasn't adopted any Neopolitan slang. Desperate, Assunta's father (Gianni Aiello) sends her off to a Neopolitan slum, where the dialect is so thick that the residents have a reputation for not being able to understand one another. Things don't go as planned, however, and a 20-year-old Assunta (Serena Improta) not only comes back speaking Milanese exclusively, but is pregnant from one of many sexual encounters. The clashing father and daughter eventually come to terms with one another, as told in flashback through an 80-year-old Assunta's (Clelia Bernacchi) perspective. Incantesimo Napoletano also features Marina Confalone and Tonino Taiuti. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Italian filmmaker Giovanni Davide debuts with this subdued look at a relationship between Laura (Carolina Fresche) and Carlo (Denis Fasolo) who edge toward emotional maturity and toward moving in with each other. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Mario Martone (L'amore Molesto) wrote and directed this drama about the tragedy of war, beginning with acting exercises in a garage rehearsal area and then intercutting between the lives of Italian stage actors and scenes of their rehearsals on Seven Against Thebes. Director Leo (Andrea Renzi), in 1994, arranges to have his Italian company, as an act of solidarity, do a show in Sarajevo where theaters have remained open. With the support from actor Vittorio (Marco Baliani), Leo seeks a key to staging the Aeschylus play about a civil war and a city under siege. Theater in Sarajevo is shown in contrast to the mainstream theater in Naples with a lavish production of The Taming of the Shrew staged by pompous Franco Turco (Toni Servillo). Actress Luisella (Iaia Forte) leaves Leo's Greek drama for Turco's production. Even though the actors are going without pay to Seven Against Thebes, young talent Diego (Roberto De Francesco) and diva Sara Cataldi (Anna Bonaiuto) both turn away from Turco to work with Leo, while set designer (Sergio Tramonti) contributes to both. Outside the rehearsal space, Neapolitan life goes on with neighborhood disputes, drug deals, fights, a police round-up, and murder -- events drawing parallels with Sarajevo. Some street scenes are unstaged, adding a documentary authenticity. Martone spent several years on this project by filming the rehearsals of a Seven Against Thebes stage production he directed in 1995-96 (featuring the same cast). Martone wrote his screenplay around that material, and then he filmed in the infamous Spanish Quarter of Naples, shooting in 16mm with a blow-up to 35mm. Shown in the Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Based on a popular novel by Spanish author Antonio Gala, this romantic melodrama centers on the struggles on a Seville rancher's dissatisfied wife. Poor Palmira; her husband Willy has not slept with her in ages, her teenaged son is sexually confused, her sister a lesbian, and her daughter is seeing a man on the sly. Matters worsen when Palmira finds out that her husband is having an affair, that her daughter is pregnant with a hemophiliac child and her son has died in a motorcycle accident. If that weren't enough, she learns of his homosexuality shortly after the funeral from his bisexual best friend, the one with whom Palmira had a brief affair. Overwhelmed, Palmira leaves the family to search for herself and for her long-lost first love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A woman goes to investigate the apparent suicide of her mother and ends up having to face the grim reality of her past in this Italian psychological thriller. It all begins when Amalia, the sixty-something mother of Delia, is found dead on the beach. She had been on her way to Bologna to celebrate her daughter's birthday. Delia, wanting to know why her mother killed herself, journeys back to Naples to discover the truth. There she encounters her mother's supposed lover, Caserta, and his son, Antonio. She also sees her estranged father, who alienated himself from his family with his violent temper. As she continues to explore, she must face the fact that her relationship with her mother was as based on jealousy and disgust as it was with love. She then must face up to a terrible lie she told as a child, one that questioned her mother's fidelity and ruined the lives of everyone around her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Pope John Paul II, this reverent tale focuses on a pair of married Polish couples whose children meet decades later in North America. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Fifteen strangers who have volunteered for an experiment in isolation are forced to deal with an even larger problem in this film from Italian director Giuliano Montaldo. A research group in Germany wants to study the effects of isolation in a nuclear shelter on human subjects and assembles a diverse group of people for the test. The strangers agree to stay in the shelter for 20 days, but are allowed to exit at any time. During their time in the shelter, the group experiences a wide range of social dynamics, but near the end of their stay in the shelter, it is learned that a real nuclear incident is underway and the test group will be forced to stay in their shelter indefinitely. Featured in the cast are Burt Lancaster, Ben Gazzara, and Kate Nelligan. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide