Remo Remotti Movies

A young man finds that places as well as people can change with the years in this drama from Italy. Tobia (Federico Galante) is a young boy from a wealthy family who is fascinated with the Caffe Quattro Palme, a small, beautifully appointed cafe that caters to a small but loyal clientele of aging individualists. Tobia senses there's something special about the place, and he spends much of his time there, getting to know Giuseppe (Roberto Citran), the head waiter. A decade later, Tobia (now played by (Nicola Russo) still hangs out at the cafe, and he's made the acquaintance of another regular, a lovely young woman named Annetta (Candice Hugo). But with the passage of time, the cafe's old regulars have begun to drift away, and a crowd of young bohemians and vagrants begins to take over, changing the character of the place and leaving Tobia to wonder if he can still call it his own. Tobia Al Caffe was shown in competition at the 2000 Taormina Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this dark Italian drama, two children born and baptized on the same day in the northern provinces grow up to be lovers trying to find a place in a world with no apparent future. They also try to resolve issues with their families. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this combined live-action and cartoon feature, Maurizio works with his brother at a movie-dubbing studio they own. His specialty is cartoon sound effects, and he travels all over Milan to capture special sounds on his tape recorder. While out and about, he encounters a delightfully kinky "social assistant" who is a kind of platonic love object for men with specialized sexual fixations. Maurizio is attracted to her, but after spending some time with her, he is shocked to see his hands turn into gloved cartoon hands that are outside his control. As the film continues, he is gradually transformed until he is all cartoon and can consummate his odd relationship. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This humorous and peculiarly Italian movie is unlikely to have been released outside that country, largely because of the intricacies of its political references. Writer/producer/director/lead actor Nanni Moretti has filmed a semi-autobiographical story which combines the action in a rousing water polo championship game (the film's name, Palombella Rossa, refers to a water polo move) with the efforts of the team's amnesiac star player (Moretti) to remember his past. In particular, he wants to remember why he is a communist. As the story unfolds, references to well over 20 years of Italian communist history and infighting emerge. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Alex (Kari Vaananen) is a Finnish cabbie working in Berlin with plenty of problems in this comedy with film noir touches. With two dead men and a suitcase filled with hundred dollar bills, he has difficulty disposing of the bodies. He is chased by the top crime boss (Samuel Fuller) and his crony (Eddie Constantine). Alex's wife is allergic to the money, so the cabbie endures more than he can handle trying to rid himself of the cash and the corpses. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This is a compelling drama about a young woman caught between two cultures. Olga (Marie Colbin) was born and raised in a German-speaking village in the north of Italy. Braving the censure of her somewhat backward and conservative relatives and friends, she marries an Italian from the south and moves out of the village. Though she has taken a big a step away from home, she refuses to speak Italian to her husband or anyone else, sticking with her native German. But on returning home for the funeral of her father she is treated with disdain by her former friends. She cannot adapt completely to her new life, but is now a stranger to her old life as well. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The comedic touches in Bianca and its setting at the "Marilyn Monroe High School" whose faculty need the services of the school's clinical psychologist, are at odds with the somber theme of a schizophrenic math teacher and a series of murders. That cinematic split personality leaves the film in limbo. The math teacher Michele (Nanni Moretti, also the director) is clearly neurotic, tries to "straighten out" the lives of his friends whether they like it or not, and is torn between his powerful attraction to the French teacher Bianca (Laura Morante) and his terror of intimacy -- between his need for a normal family life and his neuroses. When people start disappearing at the school, Michele becomes the number one suspect in the police investigation -- not a long stretch given his behavior. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The time is the late 1920s, and Angelo (Massimo Ranieri) and Tonino (Paolo Ricci) are two brothers traveling around the country in a rattle-trap truck, showing moving pictures to any group of people willing to pay. When they arrive in the region of Emilia-Romagna, Angelo strikes up a relationship with a wealthy marchesa connected to the fascist movement. Tonino, on the other hand, starts to follow the rebellious Giovanni (William Berger), locked up for his anti-fascist stance, and the farmers who have joined in the anti-fascist forces. As the rebels are either murdered or put in prison, Tonino becomes more and more commited to their cause - especially after Giovanni is killed. When a silent movie on the condemned and dying Christ is shown on the brothers' screen, Tonino stops the action to project some slides he has taken that show who murdered Giovanni - in an action that calls for his brother and the rest of the bystanders to finally make a decision on where to place their loyalties. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In the original story of Camille by Alexandre Dumas, Jr. La Dame aux Camelias, a beautiful Parisian courtesan, Marguerite Gautier, (called "Camille" because of her love for camelias) is supported by a series of aristocratic lovers, but does not fall in love until she meets Armand Duval. Armand's father lets it be known that Camille would ruin Armand because of her "low" past, and she leaves to save his reputation, saying she does not love him anymore. She soon contracts tuberculosis, and Armand hears that she is dying. He rushes to her side, finds out she has loved him all along, and she dies knowing he has always loved her. The True Story of Camille uses the ploy of Alexandre Dumas, Jr. doing his version of "Camille" at the turn of the 20th century, as a means of introducing a flashback to the "real" story behind the "real" Camille, Alphonsine Plessis. In the film, Alphonsine (Isabelle Huppert) - a country girl - was sold by her father to a wealthy neighbor, which starts her off on a round of living in expansive palaces and keeping company with wealthy aristocrats and eventually, Alexandre Dumas, Jr. himself. But that trajectory did not happen all at once. Alphonsine first survives, barely, as a seamstress in Paris. Then she becomes a prostitute, after which a Count Peregaunts (Bruno Ganz) marries her, then more or less disappears, leaving her to become a high-class courtesan. As she makes her way from one handsome, aristocratic client to the next, a noble protector, Count Stechelberg (Fernando Rey) keeps her out of harm's way. By the time she and Dumas meet, she has become infected with tuberculosis - and she has created the inspiration for Dumas' story of Camille. Her father comes along at this point, however, ready to trounce Dumas for romanticizing his daughter's wretched life - the same father that sold her off in the first place. If the viewer can remember that the characters of Marguerite Gautier (Carla Fracci) and Armand Duval from Dumas' story of Camille have been given their "real" personas as Alphonsine Plessis and Dumas in this film, then the story within a story make more sense. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The Italian "directing siblings" Paolo and Vittorio Taviani were responsible for this intriguing slice of working-class life. Saverio Marconi plays Giovanni, a Milan youth who heads to poverty-plagued Tuscany to sell some property. Giovanni falls in with several smalltown "rebels", including clerk Eugenia (Isabelle Rosselini in her film debut) and activist Enzo (Michele Placido). A romantic triangle ensues, followed by grandiose dreams of establishing a Utopian youth society--until Reality makes a wake-up call. The Tavianis had originally wanted to film The Meadow with amateur actors, but ultimately gave up trying to coax workable performances from these novices and went with professionals. The film was released in Italy as Il Prato. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A reporter whose story is the aftermath of the "Arab-Israeli War" has run across a videotape while in the Sinai. The tape shows a man, held captive in a room, being shot and dying there. The reporter attempts to find the room, but cannot find any leads. Nonetheless, he continues his search, and mysterious, mystical things happen along the way. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide