Renato Salvatori Movies

After his son disappears, an Italian cheese manufacturer is threatened by political terrorists who will supposedly kill the son if he does not pay a large ransom. Unsure if they really have his son and if the son is still alive, he has to decide if he should or should not sell his business to afford the sum. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

In this Italian drama, Wilma, an aging dance hall girl, befriends La Cicada, a feisty, free-spirited woman who refuses to have sex for money. Together, they go traveling and on the rode take up with the handsome Hannibal, who dreams of opening up his own truck stop/gas station. The two women end up helping him achieve his dream. The place becomes a nightspot which they name La Cicada and turn into a big success. During this time, Wilma marries Hannibal, but Wilma begins worrying that her husband would rather have the young, sexy Cicada. The younger woman proves that he does not want her. When her lovely 18-year-old daughter comes to call, Wilma really gets worried because like her mother, the daughter has also become a whore. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial drama explores the troubled life of a young man and his troubling relationship with his parents. Joe (Matthew Barry) is the son of famous opera singer Caterina Silveri (Jill Clayburgh); while Joe believes that Caterina's husband Douglas Winter (Fred Gwynne) is his biological father, the truth is that he was sired by Caterina's former lover, who is now living in Italy and working as a schoolteacher. Joe is moody and rebellious and needs a strong father figure to guide him and keep him in line. But Douglas is ineffectual and emotionally weak, and when Joe witnesses Douglas committing suicide, it sends the young man over the edge. In hopes of boosting her singing career, which has fallen into a rut, Caterina decides to move to Italy, with Joe in tow; Joe falls in with a dangerous crowd and becomes addicted to heroin, while Caterina, hoping to lure her son back to a safer and more healthy lifestyle, tries to become closer to him, which leads to a flirtation with incest. Jill Clayburgh's performance earned her a 1980 Golden Globe nomination. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When Carrier (Jean Yanne), a dangerous paranoid schizophrenic, receives an inheritance, it lends fuel to his violent fantasies. He has a relationship by mail with Ambrose (Alain Delon), the one man who can stop him from killing a theater full of people. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

From 16th century Sicily to the streets of contemporary New York, the Mafia has transcended its humble roots to evolve into one of the most formidable crime organizations ever. Centuries ago, the dreaded Gramignanos family took control over Sicily by launching a vicious campaign of violence and corruption. These days, the objectives may have changed, but the tactics remain the same. Lee J. Cobb, Joseph Cotten, and Edward Albert are all featured in a five-part documentary spanning 400 years of death, deception, and secrecy. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Borniche (Alain Delon) has three difficult tasks before him: to keep a rein on police violence, to cut through bureaucratic red tape in order to do his job, and to find Buisson (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and put him behind bars. Based on a true story which takes place in 1947, Buisson is a psychopath who enjoys finding excuses for blowing people to oblivion while ostensibly just robbing them. In his deranged way, Buisson achieves some kind of harmony with Borniche and the police. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Political intrigues and infighting within the Italian Communist Party are the overriding themes of this drama. Emile (Gian Maria Volonte) has been sent to Turin by the Italian Communist Central Committee in Paris, ostensibly to find out which of the four Party representatives working in the Fiat is a spy. Previously, Emile had been ostracized because he had a too-heated argument with a member of the Party's Trotskyite faction. Restored to favor, he takes his assignment very seriously and has many searching interviews with each of the four. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Vittorio De Sica's A Brief Vacation (Una Breva Vacanza) stars Florinda Bolkan as a downtrodden working woman. Forced to support herself, her children, her physically incapacitated husband and her obtrusive brother and mother, Bolkan contracts tuberculosis. She is granted a brief vacation at a health spa, where a whole new world--and potential new life--is opened up to her. A Brief Vacation was scripted by the prolific Cesar Zavattini, who like De Sica had once been a guiding force in the Italian neorealist movement. Though not De Sica's final film, A Brief Vacation was the last of the director's work to be released in America. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Like most of Costa-Gavras' political thrillers, the French State of Siege is based on a true story. The incident dramatized herein is the kidnapping of a U.S. official somewhere in Latin America. The director's sympathies clearly lie with the kidnappers, especially since the official (played by Yves Montand), ostensibly an expert in traffic control, has been assigned as special advisor to the government's secret police, training these worthies in the art of the torturing of political prisoners. Uruguay was the country where this story actually took place; though no names are given, there's little doubting the identity of Costa-Gavras' fictional locale. Despite its up-to-date radicalism, State of Siege adheres to time-honored Hollywood formula, with ugly, vulgar bad guys vs. handsome, articulate good guys. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This action adventure is based on Jules Verne's The Light at the Edge of the World. It takes place in 1865 on the chilly tip of Argentina in a lighthouse set up to guide ships around the extremely dangerous and turbulent waters of Cape Horn. The lighthouse keeper (Fernando Rey) and his assistant go out to investigate when a strange sailing ship comes too near to the island the lighthouse is on. Denton (Kirk Douglas), the lighthouse keeper's North American apprentice, is left behind. For their pains, the lighthouse keeper and his assistant are killed, and Kongre (Yul Brynner), the ship's pirate captain, goes to the lighthouse and captures Denton. Kongre shuts down the real lighthouse and sets up a false one so that his pirates can prey on the busy ships that must pass nearby. Denton, set loose by his captors on a nearby island, eventually begins to fight back. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Z is one of the most politically insightful films ever made, exposing government hypocrisy and cover-up in the wake of a political assassination. Zei (Yves Montand) is a scientist who is scheduled to give a speech against the use of the atomic bomb. On the way to the event, he is attacked outside the auditorium by a group of right-wing extremists with political ties to the government as the police stand by and do nothing to intervene. He recovers long enough to make the speech but is later clubbed again and must undergo several surgeries, then dies during one of the procedures. A newspaper reporter finds a witness to the event and a judge willing to hear the case despite government protests. The ensuing trial reveals a government conspiracy, but the results of the trial are thrown out when a new government is formed by a military coup, which results in the intolerance that outlaws long hair, the Beatles, and any peaceful protests. Director Costa-Gavras used actual trial transcripts of the investigation into the May 22, 1963, assassination of Greek pacifist leader Gregoris Lambrakis, which proved a government conspiracy in his death. Yves Montand gives the best dramatic performance of his life, and Irene Papas stars as his wife, Helena. Z won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film of 1969, was 14th in terms of box-office success, and hit an international nerve in the age of social unrest, government cover-up, and political assassinations. All those involved worked on the film for a reduced rate with an option for royalties based on earnings at the theater window. The letter Z in the Greek alphabet means "he is alive." ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This satirical comedy illustrates that women are just as likely to succumb to the pleasures of the flesh as their male counterparts. Carol Baker enjoys a series of unashamed romantic romps with three different men. She tells her story to a homosexual male friend and a six-month-old cheetah when she is not enjoining the benefits of her harem. Her cozy arrangement is upset quickly when the men in her life get together and decide to take charge of their situation. Its slight nudity marked this film as an "exploitationer," but those seeking pornographic titillation will be disappointed, as the story is its main focus. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Renato Salvatori and Norma Benguell star in this crime drama. Ettore is a husband whose wife has left him for her lover. The wife returns to tell him their marriage is over, but the scheming husband talks her into loaning him her car. He meets her lover and murders the man, disposing of his possessions in a symbolic gesture to obliterate his memory. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide