Mario Pisu Movies
In this Italian sex comedy, a wealthy, widowed count has a heart attack and must have bed rest and no stress to recover. His avaricious relatives would rather see him dead. Knowing that he is a lusty fellow unable to resist a woman's charms, they hire a bombshell of a sexy nurse to meet his every need and cause a fatal coronary. Things don't go as planned when the nurse falls in love with her patient. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1975
This sex and science fiction comedy is based on the equation of sexual energy and energy in general. Electrical fixtures have run out of steam, but a love-making pair demonstrates that through the power of their orgasms alone they are able to generate electricity to operate first a light bulb, then a street lamp, then the entire hospital where they are being scientifically observed and ultimately all of society's gadgetry. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Agostina Belli
- 1973
In this French crime/action feature, Maury (Maurice Ronet) has been booted out of the police force for failing to understand which side of the toast his butter is on: he pursued the prosecution of an important police official's son who was involved in the drug trade. Even more important people in politics have their own private armies of mercenary soldiers, and when Maury is seen by them to be one of their sort, he goes along. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Ronet, Mario Adorf, (more)
- 1971
An Italian engineer who has been working in Sweden returns with his wife to his homeland for a short visit, and he is swiftly detained for some unspecified crime. He moves from horrid prison to even more horrid prison as he awaits trial. His sanity grows ever more shaky in the process, and he still has not learned what the charge is. After even more suffering, he eventually learns the charge against him, just as it is being dropped. This relentless indictment of the Italian prison system is leavened with some humorous moments. The film features comic actor Alberto Sordi, who won a "Best Actor" award for this role at the 1972 Berlin Film Festival. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1968
In this comedy, a casino owner in Barcelona absconds with a gangster's fortune and is chased to Monte Carlo where he impersonates a millionaire. While there he weds a wealthy American widow. When the gangster learns of the marriage, he and the thief's ex-mistress team up and head for Monte Carlo where they plan on winning back the mobster's missing fortune. Meanwhile the thief thinks about murdering his bride for her money. Unfortunately, the vengeful gangster does it first and frames her new husband for the death. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1966
A betrayed wife decides to teach her philandering husband a lesson in this riotous farce. Marta (Catherine Spaak) discovers that husband Franco (Nino Manfredi) has been stepping out with her own best friend (Maria Grazia Buccella), and gets revenge by inventing an imaginary lover. Franco takes the bait, leading to improbable but hilarious complications. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Juliet of the Spirits is a fantastical showcase for Federico Fellini's vibrant imagery, starring his wife, Giulietta Masina, as the titular leading character. Juliet is a wealthy housewife who constantly fears her husband, Giorgio (Mario Pisu), is cheating on her. While she yearns for a peaceful intimate evening on the night of their 15th anniversary, the egotistical Giorgio has forgotten about it and instead arrives home with his eccentric friends. After a trip to a séance, Juliet is haunted by images from the spirit world, including obsessions from her past involving religion and her late relatives. With her sisters and mother prying into her life, Juliet seems to be seeking an inner peace amidst all the sexual temptations surrounding her. She meets her neighbor, Suzy (Sandra Milo), a showy pleasure-seeker who lives in a sensual playhouse. It appears that all of Juliet's family, friends, and fantasies demand that she loosen up and embrace sexual freedom, yet she remains chaste and dowdy, lamenting over her unfaithful husband. The reasons for Juliet's repression are not clearly defined by the narrative, despite glimpses into her supposed imagination. Forced to endure the constant bombardment of sexually charged imaginings, the demure Juliet retreats on her own. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giulietta Masina, Mario Pisu, (more)
- 1965
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
- 1965
Louis De Funes once again stars as the cop in this situation comedy sequel to Le Gendarme De Saint Tropez. De Funes is unaware his daughter Nicole (Genevieve Grad) is a stowaway on his trip to the international police convention in New York City. He chases his daughter all over the core of the Big Apple in a series of situation comedy capers. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis de Funès, Michel Galabru, (more)
- 1963
The Organizer (I Compagni) takes a gritty, near-documentary approach to its subject matter: the exploitation of Italian laborers in the 19th century. Shorn of all his studio-imposed glamour, Marcello Mastrioanni plays a Genoan political refugee visiting a friend in Turin. Appalled by the horrible working conditions in the town's textile mill, Mastrioanni stays on to organize the workers in a strike. Though he is nearly killed several times, Mastrioanni survives to set an example for the workers, who rally together into a powerful union. The fact that Marcello Mastrioanni was bearded and bespectacled in the manner of a Bolshevist radical was enough for The Organizer to be condemned by certain extreme anti-Communist elements in Hollywood--to no avail, since the film was nominated for an American Oscar, and even given a commendation by the ultraconservative National Board of Review. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Renato Salvatori, (more)
Fresh off of the international success of La Dolce Vita, master director Federico Fellini moved into the realm of self-reflexive autobiography with what is widely believed to be his finest and most personal work. Marcello Mastroianni delivers a brilliant performance as Fellini's alter ego Guido Anselmi, a film director overwhelmed by the large-scale production he has undertaken. He finds himself harangued by producers, his wife, and his mistress while he struggles to find the inspiration to finish his film. The stress plunges Guido into an interior world where fantasy and memory impinge on reality. Fellini jumbles narrative logic by freely cutting from flashbacks to dream sequences to the present until it becomes impossible to pry them apart, creating both a psychological portrait of Guido's interior world and the surrealistic, circus-like exterior world that came to be known as "Felliniesque." 8 1/2 won an Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, as well as the grand prize at the Moscow Film Festival, and was one of the most influential and commercially successful European art movies of the 1960s, inspiring such later films as Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979), Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980), and even Lucio Fulci's Italian splatter film Un Gatto nel Cervello (1990). ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, (more)
- 1960
Set in the 1850s in Czar Alexander II's Russia, this routine costume drama and adventure film focuses on the strife between the Circassian Muslims, led by Shamil (Edmund Purdom) and Czar Alexander (Massimo Girotti). As a condition of an early truce, Shamil's young son Jamal (John Drew Barrymore) is sent to be raised and trained in the elite Imperial School of Cadets. The plan partially works, since Shamil grows to manhood enjoying the aristocratic life, but he is still drawn to his roots like iron filings to a magnet. His interior conflict is made all the worse when a princess, Tatiana (Georgia Moll), falls for him. At the same time, the exterior conflict between the Circassians and the Russians is heating up toward an explosive conclusion. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edmund Purdom, John Drew Barrymore, (more)
- 1953
Henry Vidon stars as Pope Pius X in the Italian Secret Conclave. The film traces the Pope's early life as a village priest, then follows him directly to the Vatican. The Papal installation, seldom seen before on film, is recreated on location at the Sistine Chapel, with several genuine cardinals in attendance. Dramatic conflict occurs when the Pope-to-be nearly refuses the honor, feeling himself unworthy. Also adding bite to the proceedings are the WW I scenes, detailing Pius X's efforts to put an end to the carnage. Secret Conclave ends with Pius X's death during Mass, a scene handled as tastefully as the rest of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Vidon, Tullio Carminatti, (more)
- 1946
Aldo Fabrizi is the star of -- and, artistically, the raison d'etre for -- the Italian Professor, My Son. Fabrizi plays Orazio, a humble porter working in a prestigious school. Orazio labors tirelessly day and night so that his son (Giorgio de Lullo) can attend the school. Once the son has matriculated into a professor, he turns his back on Orazio, who is now socially unacceptable. Despite the sobriety of the proceedings, the film is more satirical than sad. Filmed in 1945 as Mio Figlio Professore, Professor My Son was released in the U.S. in 1949. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aldo Fabrizi, Mario Soldati, (more)
- 1942
Based on the book by Ayn Rand, this Italian film follows the struggles of a young Russian woman, Kira Argounova (Alida Valli), who must become involved with a member of the Soviet secret police, even though she is repulsed by everything he stands for. The relationship she has with this man provides her with the money she needs to support her ill lover (Rossano Brazzi). This movie was originally released as two separate films, Noi Vivi and Addio Kira, and is in Italian with English subtitles. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alida Valli, Rossano Brazzi, (more)
- 1936
Based on fact, Passaporto Rosso (Red Passport) details the plight of a group of poor Italian immigrants who are hired as railroad workers in turn-of-the-century South America. In addition to facing poverty, deprivation, and prejudice, the immigrants are also bedeviled by a raging fever epidemic. Finally achieving a measure of prosperity, the Italians are forced to confront tragedy once more when their grown children march off to WWI. Though Isa Miranda is top-billed, she has very little to do in comparison with male lead Filippo Scelso. Passaporto Rosso was released in the U.S. as Destiny Unknown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Isa Miranda
