Marisa Berenson Movies
Marisa Berenson was born to an aristocratic family: her grandfather was art historian/collector Bernard Berenson, her maternal grandmother was fashion designer Elsa Schiafarelli, her father was a Boston-based diplomat, and her stepmother was Marchessa Cicciapouti di Guilliano. Reportedly, Marisa made her on-camera debut in the 1961 film Some Like It Cool. She is better known for her later career as a top-drawer fashion model, gracing the covers of all the best international fashion magazines. Hired by filmmaker Luchino Visconti for a major role in Death in Venice (1971), Berenson proved she could act, and that she was not merely a wealthy dilettante. She was quite good as Jewish bride Natalie Landauer in Cabaret (1972), Lady Lyndon in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975), and, her lovely hair buzz-cut to the bone, as a cynical death-camp inmate in the made-for-TV Playing for Time (1980). She curtailed her filmmaking activities in the 1990s. Marisa Berenson's younger sister Berry Berenson was the wife of actor Anthony Perkins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on a novel by Thomas Mann, Death in Venice stars Dirk Bogarde as a German composer who is terrified that he has lost all vestiges of humanity. While visiting Venice, Bogarde falls in love with a beautiful young boy (Bjorn Andresen). The relationship is ruined by Bogarde's obsession with the boy's youth and physical perfection; the composer realizes that the child represents an ideal that he can never match. The character played by Dirk Bogarde is evidently intended to be Gustav Mahler, whose haunting music is featured on the film's soundtrack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dirk Bogarde, Bjorn Andresen, (more)
Originally a 1966 Broadway musical, this groundbreaking Bob Fosse musical was in turn based on Christopher Isherwood's Goodbye to Berlin, previously dramatized for stage and screen as I Am a Camera with Julie Harris as Sally Bowles. Fosse uses the decadent and vulgar cabaret as a mirror image of German society sliding toward the Nazis, and this intertwining of entertainment with social history marked a new step forward for the movie musical. Michael York plays a British writer who comes to Berlin in the early 1930s in hopes of becoming a teacher. He makes the acquaintance of flamboyant American entertainer Sally Bowles, played by Liza Minnelli. Sally works at the Kit Kat Klub, a George Grosz-like Berlin cabaret where each night the smirking, androgynous Master of Ceremonies (Joel Grey) introduces a jazz-driven "girlie show" to his debauched audience. Virtually all the film's musical numbers are staged within the confines of the Kit Kat Klub, and each song comments on the plot and on Germany's "progression" from hedonism to Hitlerism. Most of the Broadway score by John Kander and Fred Ebb was retained, with the welcome addition of "The Money Song." Although it lost Best Picture to The Godfather, Cabaret won eight Oscars, including awards to Minnelli, Grey, and Fosse. A heavily expurgated 88-minute version of Cabaret has been prepared for commercial TV presentations, regarded by many as dramatically inferior to the full cut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liza Minnelli, Michael York, (more)
With ornate imagery reminiscent of paintings from the story's 18th century period, Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's novel depicts the rise and fall of a sensitive rogue in the British aristocracy. Young Irishman Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal) leaves home to seek his fortune after apparently killing an English officer in a duel. Through a series of mishaps and accidents, Barry winds up fighting with the Prussian army in the Seven Years' War under the command of Capt. Potzdorf (Hardy Kruger); at war's end, Potzdorf enlists Barry to spy on a shady Chevalier (Patrick Magee). Instead, Barry joins up with the Irish Chevalier to flee Prussia and live as gamblers among Europe's elite. Wishing to climb even higher, Barry soon meets the beautiful Lady Lyndon (Marisa Berenson), marrying her for her fortune after her older titled husband dies. Her son Lord Bullingdon (Leon Vitali), however, despises the upstart Barry, and, regardless of how his mother may feel, sees to it that the re-named Barry Lyndon will never be able to stake his claim to the entrenched aristocracy. Coming after Kubrick's esteemed hits 2001 (1968) and A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon opened with high expectations and met with decidedly mixed responses to its restrained tone. Even with Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Director (and wins for Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes, and Adapted Score), Barry Lyndon was a box office failure, as mid-'70s audiences increasingly turned away from such narrative challenges as its epic length and muffled emotions. Since then, Barry Lyndon has gained in stature, taking its place among the formidable artistic achievements of Kubrick's career. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, (more)
In a way, the title of Some Like It Cool was a piquant comment on the career of star Tony Curtis, whose stardom had chilled since his 1959 appearance in Some Like It Hot. This time around, Curtis plays famed 18th-century lover Giacomo Casanova. The plot would have us believe that Casanova has suddenly turned impotent, and is deploying all manner of subterfuge to hide the fact. One of Casanova's stratagems is to hire a look-alike (also Curtis) to uphold his reputation between the sheets. The stellar supporting cast -- Marisa Berenson, Hugh Griffith, Britt Ekland et. al. -- seem far more embarrassed by their tawdry, topless surroundings than Curtis, who steamrolls his way through the film with the same dogged determination that he'd demonstrated in his "Yonda lies the castle of my fadduh" formative years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Marisa Berenson, (more)
- 1978
- PG
In this violent, low-budget adventure, a jewel thief hides his loot in the bottom of a Brazilian lake filled with hungry piranhas. Later his avaricious gang members try to retrieve the treasure but unfortunately tend to get graphically devoured each time one of them enters the water. Putting the rocks down there seemed like such a good idea at the time! ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Majors, Karen Black, (more)
- 1978
Marisa Berenson joins the Muppets for some song and dance; meanwhile, it looks as if Piggy and Kermit will finally tie the knot, and the Swedish Chef takes on wedding cake duties. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marisa Berenson
- 1980
The made-for-television Playing for Time debuted on September 30, 1980. Vanessa Redgrave stars as Fania Fenelon, a Jewish cabaret singer working in Paris at the time of the Nazi invasion. Shipped to the Auschwitz death camp in 1944, Fenelon is certain that she is as doomed as all the other prisoners. But SS camp matron Shirley Knight has other plans: she orders Fenelon and several other female inmates with musical ability to form themselves into a prisoner's orchestra. They are to perform for the benefit of those who are herded into the gas chambers--a "humane" means of easing the condemned into the next world. As much as she despises her work, Fenelon and her fellow musicians continue to play, lest they too be exterminated. The film raises several questions about courage, guilt and survival at any price, but the most controversial aspect was the casting of anti-Zionist Vanessa Redgrave as Fania Fenelon. Like many others, the real-life Fenelon (who died in 1988) was vehemently opposed to Redgrave's appearance in the film. Playing for Time won Emmy Awards for Redgrave, scriptwriter Arthur Miller, supporting actress Jane Alexander, and as Outstanding Dramatic Special. Redgrave's husband Tony Richardson was the original director, but he bowed out and was replaced by Joseph Sargent., who himself was replaced by Daniel Mann (the only one credited) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Alexander, (more)
In this biting comedy satirizing Hollywood cynicism from writer-director Blake Edwards, Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan) is a motion picture director whose career is on the skids. Having just completed a family musical that is sure to be a $30 million flop, Felix knows that his days are numbered and tries unsuccessfully to commit suicide. When he recovers, Felix suddenly has a brainstorm and hatches a scheme to buy the film back from his studio and lens new scenes that will turn it into a pornographic movie with big stars, a sure-fire box office winner. In order to pull it off, he'll need to convince his female lead and wife, Sally Miles (Julie Andrews, not coincidentally the director's real-life wife) to defy her wholesome, squeaky-clean public image by baring her breasts on film. S.O.B. (1981) was the final film of legendary actor William Holden. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Andrews, William Holden, (more)
- 1984
A misanthropic comedy by Gérard Lauzier, Tête Dans Le Sac satirizes the arrogance of a 50-year-old owner of a prosperous ad agency as he tries to join a swinging, twentysomething clique of fast-living friends. Romain (Guy Marchand) drives a Jaguar, lives in an opulent bachelor pad, and has a gorgeous mistress (Marisa Berenson) -- yet he is trying to seduce the 22-year-old Eva (Fanny Bastien). She, in turn, is really interested in Dany (Patrick Bruel), a young man whom Romain hires to work in his agency. While Romain is played for a fool by Eva and her friends among the cocaine crowd, Dany has his own plans for the future and they do not involve his foolish boss. Aside from a few stereotypical portrayals of the denizens of a wild nightlife, Lauzier succeeds at revving his cynicism into high gear as the young sharks swim around an unsuspecting Romain. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guy Marchand, Marisa Berenson, (more)
- 1984
- PG
Supposedly focusing on the life of Sigmund Freud by means of a fictional secret diary, this attempt at satirizing the man from his childhood through his first forays into psychoanalysis is weak on laughter, especially since it is difficult to tell whether a scene is serious or not. Freud (Bud Cort) is portrayed as being too nauseated by blood and physical anatomy to make it through medical school, and because he misunderstands what practicing medicine is all about, he accidentally starts psychoanalyzing his patients. His Ultimate Patient (Dick Shawn) provides him with the theories that would make him famous. Presented as a series of nearly disconnected vignettes, this story about the relationships between Freud and a nurse (Carol Kane), and his mother (Caroll Baker) and a doctor, are meant to be funny, but are not quite. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bud Cort, Carol Kane, (more)
- 1984
Meant to be an action-packed thriller about city gangs fighting for a piece of a lucrative drug shipment, this mindless, violent, stereotyped series of killings ruins credibility by its own excesses. A crooked, neo-Nazi police inspector supplies his gangland cohorts with weapons to slaughter the Vietnamese, black, and Arab gangs fighting for the upper hand in the drug trade. Before the final showdown, an undercover cop (Daniel Auteuil) tries to prevent the bloodshed and faces one defeat after another as his connections and informants are killed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Auteuil, Marisa Berenson, (more)
- 1985
- R
Also known as A Certain Desire, this French murder melodrama stars Sam Waterston and Marisa Berenson. Waterston plays Gerry Morrison, an Interpol agent assigned to solve the murder of a Bordeaux wine heiress. Jeanne Barnac Berenson is one of the suspects, who in the course of the investigation is revealed to be a lesbian, in love with the widowed Marlene Bell-Ferguson (Lauren Hutton). Pretty soon, Morrison has exposed virtually all the secrets of those closest to the murder victim. Indeed, with so much else going on, the solution of the mystery is almost an afterthought. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Waterston, Marisa Berenson, (more)
In this drama, a woman struggles to rise to the top of the fashion industry, but as she does, her past business sins come back to haunt her. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Collins, Timothy Dalton, (more)
- 1986
Jon Rothstein stars in this ABC Afterschool Special as a wimpy but artistically gifted teenager. Tired of being persecuted by school bullies, our hero creates a comic book about a master scientist who feels he is "doing mankind a favor" by eliminating the boy's real-life nemeses. In the process, the youthful artist learns that there are other ways besides brute strength to overcome one's problems. In the film's fantasy sequences, the scientist is played by Adolph Caesar of A Soldier's Story fame. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jon Rothstein, Eddie Castrodad, (more)
- 1987
Margherita (Carol Alt) is a wife and mother who decides to take a job as a fashion-show coordinator in this romantic drama. She discovers the tawdry truth of the inner workings of the Milan fashion industry and falls for the Italian heel Roberto (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), a move that nearly destroys her marriage. Renee Simonsen and Luca Barbareschi co-star with Marissa Berenson and Valentina Cortese in this vehicle that features beautiful fashion models in chic designer clothes. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renee Simonsen, Carol Alt, (more)
Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Ernest Hemingway (Stacy Keach) begins his family and career in Europe, survives combat and marriages, struggles with a ragingly out of control lifestyle, and returns to Idaho where, at age 61 and with his best writing behind him, takes his life. He leaves behind a legacy of great literature and a great legend. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stacy Keach, Josephine Chaplin, (more)
Something of a sleeper in its 1990 release, White Hunter, Black Heart is one of Clint Eastwood's most engaging films. It is based on Peter Vietel's novel about the location shoot of John Huston's immortal The African Queen. But the focus is never on Bogie and Hepburn. Egomaniacal director John Wilson (Eastwood) is far more interested in killing an elephant than in making a movie. His old friend and scriptwriter Pete Verrill (Jeff Fahey) and his producer, Paul Landers (George Dzundza), are on hand to try and talk him down from this pursuit. Eastwood's verbose, outlandish performance will be particularly remarkable to fans who tend to think of him as the soft-spoken tough guy. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Jeff Fahey, (more)
- 1990
- R
In this thriller a Chicago policeman grows suspicious after his daughter does not return from a modeling assignment on a Caribbean island. He flies out to find her and finds himself in some rather strange situations. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kris Kristofferson, Jeffrey Meek, (more)
- 1992
"Danse Diabolique" is the title of a "cursed" ballet, which has been performed only three times. On the first two occasions, the prima ballerina has died under mysterious circumstances--and the same thing happens to the unfortunate young lady who stars in the third performance. Suspecting that murder rather than superstition is the cause of these three deaths, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) investigates, at one point posing as a scatterbrained Southern matron in order to weed out some vital information about some significant roses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
In this adaptation of Hitchcock's 1946 classic, a CIA agent's cover is endangered by her sister-in-law who begins to suspect her true identity. This could be fatal as the agent married an arms-dealer to get information from him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Shea, Jenny Robertson, (more)
- 1992
Those looking for an intelligible filmed rendition of Anton Checkhov's famous play, The Cherry Orchard might be well advised to look elsewhere. This version had the curious distinction of receiving the universal and enthusiastic condemnation of critics attending its 1992 San Sebastian Film Festival screening. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Strasberg, Barbara de Rossi, (more)
