Umberto Orsini Movies

Giuseppe Patroni Griffi's haunting meditation on loneliness is as cold as its wintry Capri setting, and a powerful experience. Umberto Orsini is an actor who visits the island and meets a brooding alcoholic teen (Dino Mele) and a woman (Françoise Prévost) trying to sell her house. All three are insecure and try to reach out to each other, but don't really know how to give or receive emotionally. Griffi's choice to not give his characters names suggests a desire to speak to universal themes of isolation and rejection. The film is more ambition than achievement, but is strikingly photographed by Ennio Guarnieri and evokes its landscape -- both physical and emotional -- quite well. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a highly principled ballet dancer loses her job and is unable to find another. In desperation she takes a job as a burlesque dancer. She becomes quite popular, but she refuses to bare her breasts. Later, after she has a tawdry affair, she faces the grim reality of what she has become and decides to go back to ballet. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This film has two segments exploring relationships subjected to sudden trauma. In the first, "Violence," a young wife is gang-raped while her husband is forced to watch. Afterwards, neither one even acknowledges what happened. In "Love," a wife is hospitalized after attempting suicide, and her husband flirts innocently with a pretty young nurse. When the wife dies, the husband is consumed with guilt over his perceived unfaithfulness. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

Set in Italy during WW I, this war drama centers on the off-beat relationship between a Bavarian general an a peasant girl after they both end up captured by a bungling Italian soldier. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this big-budget adaptation of Terry Southern's satiric sex farce (the sort of project that could get an immediate green light in the late 1960's and at practically no other time before or since), Ewa Aulin is Candy, a sweet young woman who doesn't seem entirely aware of the powerful sexual desire she brings out in men. While her father (John Astin) and mother (Elsa Martinelli) try to keep Candy in line, the task proves to be all but impossible, as she's seduced by a remarkable variety of men in her journeys, including a booze-addled poet (Richard Burton), a mystical guru who lives on a truck (Marlon Brando), a gardener from Mexico (Ringo Starr), a fanatical military man who refuses to leave his plane (Walter Matthau), a pair of uncomfortably high-strung doctors (John Huston and James Coburn) and even her own uncle (Astin, again). The Byrds and Steppenwolf contributed songs to the soundtrack; the screenplay was written by Buck Henry. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In 1969, The Damned (La caduta degli dei) was director Luchino Visconti's most controversial film to date. Set in the 1930s, the film zeroes in on a Krupp-like family of German munition manufacturers. The Essenbeck clan is headed by the Baron (Rene Kolldehoff), but daughter Sophie (Ingrid Thulin) wants her Nazi boyfriend to take over the business. Soon the Baron is dead and Bruckman (Dirk Bogarde) becomes company president. Son Martin (Helmut Berger) is the dope-addicted teenager who sleeps with his mother and drags her into her own dependence on drugs. Ever in pursuit of more millions to add to their already bulging coffers, the family plays along with the Nazis, descending into corruption, betrayal and murder all along the way. The film was originally released in the U.S. with an X rating. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On a spiritual quest, a British scholar (John Steiner) travels to the beautiful and exotic island of Bali with a photographer and his wife. The scholar has two native wives and a native boyfriend, a sculptor. The photographer has a native mistress, and encounters a missionary with a nymphomaniac daughter. Filled with spectacular photography, the film's focus remains on the characters' problems and the quirks and joys of cross-cultural encounters, developing the native characters in unusual depth. This may frustrate those hoping for a more sexually explicit treatment of the characters' romantic difficulties, as in director Liberatore's previous film, the famously pornographic Bora Bora. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Claude Sautet's romantic drama César et Rosalie (Cesar and Rosalie) stars Romy Schneider as Rosalie, a beautiful young woman happily married to successful businessman Cesar (Yves Montand). One day, Rosalie's former flame David (Sami Frey) appears and attempts to win her back. Cesar reacts with a jealous intensity never before seen by Rosalie, and because of that, she returns to David. She remains conflicted as to with whom she should be, but eventually, one of the men does something which resolves the situation. César et Rosalie contains one of the first screen appearances of French actress Isabelle Huppert. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Luchino Visconti (Count don Luchino Visconti di Modrone) was a film director, true, but he was also a nobleman and a grand patron of traditional European culture: opera, art, music, crafts and literature. These interests enliven many of his films, but few have been so inspired as the four-hour epic, Ludwig, about the castle-building "mad king" of Bavaria. This long film, made very near the end of Visconti's life, suffers greatly when shortened, as every moment is essential to the story. There are at least four different versions of the film (from just under three hours to over four hours in length); the uncut four-hour version is the most coherent, even though many might find it rather long. The disintegration of aristocratic individuals is a continuing theme of Visconti's, though Ludwig's is the most thorough decay he filmed. The last ruling king of Bavaria (1845-1886) is noted for many things besides his eccentricities: he sold Bavaria to Germany, ending the rule of the Bavarian monarchy; he built amazing castles all over his country (with the proceeds from the sale); and he was Richard Wagner's main sponsor. He was also a notorious recluse, conducting a lifelong platonic love affair with Empress Elizabeth of Austria, and finally succumbing to his adoration of handsome men in a series of outrageous affairs and orgies. His excesses eventually led to his being declared mentally incompetent and being held prisoner in his own castle. The film depicts this incredible life from his coronation at age 19 to his (unproved) assassination well over 20 years later. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This international exploitation feature is set in the 16th century and centers on a nun who faces moral degradation and corruption within the confines of her convent. She soon finds out the nunnery is run by a lesbian mother superior who engages in all kinds of graphically-presented taboo behavior. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide