Diego Abatantuono Movies

Italian director Pupi Avati contrasts his 2007 English-language thriller The Hideout with this sentimental, distinctively Italian comedy concerning a failed actor who can't help but obsess over his lackluster career. After the depressive thespian makes a half-hearted suicide attempt, his three daughters flock to be by his side and organize a surprise dinner party designed to set him up with a potential mate. Later, as dinner gets underway, the situation takes an unexpected turn. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Three aspiring moviemakers unexpectedly land a big break and their hometown comes out to celebrate in this warm comedy-drama. Gabriele (Paolo Briguglia), Nicola (Lele Nucera) and Marco (Lorenzo Di Ciaccia) are three young men growing up in Diamante, a small town in the Calabria region of Southern Italy where life moves at its own pace and not much happens. Gabriele, Nicola and Marco are serious film fans who have befriended the town's most famous citizen, Neri (Diego Abatantuono), a well known director waiting out a creative block who offers the boys advice on their dreams of working in the film industry. Gabriele has written a script based on the youthful experiences of his Aunt Caterina (Lucia Ragni), and he and his pals want to go to Rome in hopes of getting it made into a major motion picture. Neri is dubious, but introduces the boys to Francesco (Mimmo Calopresti), a friend and well-known actor who lives in the Eternal City. Francesco gets Gabriele, Nicola and Marco into a party thrown by an industry bigwig, and they're introduced to Amelie (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), Francesco's former wife who is currently Gerard Depardieu's significant other. In a remarkable stroke of luck, Amelie agrees to pass Gabriele's screenplay along to Depardieu, and the famed French actor agrees to appear in the film, guaranteeing the project a green light. Overjoyed, Gabriele, Nicola and Marco invite their new colleagues back to Diamante, where they want to shoot the picture, for a celebratory feast, and the stars get a close-up look at how the other half lives. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Directed by Marcello Cesena, Mari del Sud (Our Tropical Island) follows a dysfunctional family whose idea of concealing their bankruptcy from friends and family is hiding in the basement of their palatial home while they're presumed to be vacationing. The basement is a disgusting place to live; rat-infested and stocked only with pickled vegetables, trips to the supermarket and attempts to counter their meddling neighbors become full-scale commando operations. As the situation snowballs, the family is unwittingly pushed into a catharsis which will bring them together in a way they hadn't thought possible. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Popular Italian comedian Neri Parenti directs this sketch-based movie about Italy's famously obsessive soccer fans. In one segment, a doctor forbids his son to marry the daughter of a pilot because he supports a rival team. In another, a Milanese cabby installs a satellite dish in his taxi only to have it co-opted by pushy Roman fans. In yet another scene, a Neapolitan crook breaks into a house only to realize that it's the home of his favorite soccer star. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Matrimony is a drama about the complexity of relationships. On Christmas Eve, perfect housewife Giulia ($Francesca Neri is worried about a family heirloom which has cracked and rushes to the junk shop to get it repaired -- little anticipating her perfect marriage is about to fall to pieces as well. While everyone in Bologna is making last minute preparations, Giulia runs into her childhood sweetheart, Fausto Paolo Sassanelli. The meeting rekindles old feelings and Giulia realizes that to create the perfect marriage which everyone adores, she has sacrificed her own personality. While waiting to meet her parents at the station, she climbs into a departing train and disappears. The family slowly disintegrates, as if she were the binding element. Cristina Comencini, the daughter of well-known Italian director Luigi Comencini, has written several scripts for her father before launching her own film career in 1988. Matrimoni is also scripted by her, and based on an idea by her and Roberta Mazzoni. It is definitely a woman's film, which tries examine complex feelings of women caught between familial responsibility and individuality. Matrimoni was screened as part of the Panorama section of the 49th International Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

Writer-director Stefano Reali adapted his play Operations (staged in the UK by Alan Ayckbourn) for this comedy-drama. Unemployed medical grad Massimo (Valerio Mastandrea) is hired by medical authorities to uncover a scam. He poses as an injured soccer player and shares a hospital room with Luigi (Antonio Catania), confined to a wheelchair after four years of operations gone awry. Luigi is in cahoots with hospital staffers who charge fees to find hospital space for waiting-list patients who have cash. Massimo and Luigi become friends as Massimo slowly gets a handle on profiteering opportunities amid institutional bureaucracies. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

A computer virus endows Solo (Diego Abatantuono), the hero of a virtual reality game, with human consciousness, thereby creating all kinds of headaches for his creator Jimi (Christopher Lambert). The trouble begins in the futuristic metropolis of Northern Agglomerate three days before Christmas. With little time left, video-game designer Jimi has no choice but to give his newest game, "Nirvana," to his powerful bosses. Unfortunately, the virus strikes just before the deadline. At first Solo doesn't know he is a graphic image, but when he finds out, he fervently pleads with Jimi to destroy every existent copy of the game so that he will not have to live the same sequence of events over and over for eternity. Jimi, vulnerable after the mysterious and sudden disappearance of his lover Lisa (Emmanuelle Seigner), agrees to honor Solo's wishes, but is unable to simply erase the program because his every move, on and off the job, is monitored by a giant, Orwellian computer. He therefore takes off for the Arab quarter and enlists the aid of two hackers, Joystick (Sergio Rubini), an expert at sabotaging databases, and Naima (Stefania Rocca), a woman with the skills to destroy the prototype of the computer game. With the company's henchmen hot on their heels, the threesome set off on a colorful journey through real and virtual worlds to destroy Solo before it is too late. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this quirky comedy, a farmer living in a remote, primitive Mexican village finds a downed plane and assumes the fine, white powder inside is fertilizer. The tale begins as the villagers are celebrating a football victory with their star soccer player, Quintino, who scored the winning goal. The town leaders hold a meeting and then sternly instruct Quintino to go home and rest before the next big game. Unfortunately, when Quintino meets the coach's lovely daughter, he and she end up spending the entire night making mad love. The day of the big game arrives; because there is no lime available to mark the field boundaries, the villagers convince the cranky farmer, Don Alvaro, to donate some of his white fertilizer. The exhausted Quintino arrives and tries to play. He does terribly until he falls face first and gets a snootful of "fertilizer." Suddenly he is tremendously energetic and runs off to win the game. Later, he convinces Alvaro to show him where the plane went down. Real trouble ensues when the inept drug lord, the pilot, a petty drug dealer, and the federal police come to town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This biographical drama is an attempt to tell the story of the life of St. Joseph (Diego Abatantuono), the father-figure of the young Jesus' life, the long-suffering husband of the much younger Mary (Penelope Cruz). In this story, Joseph, a mature man, has courted any number of other women, but has not married any. Mary shows up back at his home village several months pregnant after he courted her some months before. Although he knows better, everyone in the village assumes he must have gotten her in that condition, and he marries her. This helps clear the air and his reputation. The poor carpenter is rather puzzled at Mary's insistence that he remain celibate, and eventually goes mad. No magical events appear onscreen, and the only mystery is how Mary managed to give birth to Jesus' younger brothers without the help of her husband. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide