Roberto Bisacco Movies
- 1987
Filmed on location in Tunisia, the four-hour Italian TV production A Child Called Jesus mixes Scripture with Speculation. The film attempts to fill in the "missing years" of $Jesus, from ages 3 through 12. When King Herod (Hatteb Semlali) fearing that the Messiah has indeed been born, orders that all Hebrew male children under the age of three be slain, Joseph (Bekim Fehmu) moves his family near Egypt. Here, Jesus (Matteo Bellina), sensing His divinity, expresses a desire to return to Nazareth. Travelling homeward with His mother Mary (Carmen San Martin), Jesus flashes forward to events that will unfold in his adult life (Alessandro Gassman plays the grown Jesus in these scenes). Originally presented in two parts, A Child Called Jesus was syndicated to American TV stations during the last week of November in 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Set during World War II, The Assisi Underground deals with the efforts made by a handful of hardy European souls to rescue Jews from the Holocaust. Ben Cross plays a dynamic young Catholic priest who puts his own life on the line to save thousands of refugees from Nazi-occupied Italy. While the role of the Vatican in the war is still a matter of hot debate, there can be no denying that individuals like Cross existed: in fact, virtually every event depicted in this film is based on an actual event. Featured in the all-star cast are James Mason, Irene Papas, and Maximillian Schell. When originally released, Assissi Underground clocked in at 178 minutes, resulting in a well-intentioned but frankly boring wartime epic. The producers whittled the running time down to 118 minutes for its general release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Cross, James Mason, (more)
- 1984
In this made-for-television detective story set in the early 1930s, a missing Swedish millionaire is the target of a journalist who sets out to discover exactly what happened to the man and whether or not he is still alive. The biggest lead he has is the millionaire's attractive mistress, and the story takes off from there. Although the pace is slow and the ending no great surprise, the average TV-viewer would find this mystery entertaining by small-screen standards. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Erland Josephson, Brigitte Fossey, (more)
Renato (Ugo Tognazzi) and Albin (Michel Serrault), the internationally popular homosexual couple from La Cage Aux Folles, return in this sequel directed by Edouard Molinaro. In this go-round, Renato and Albin find themselves innocent victims of an espionage ring and become involved with killers when several corpses begin to turn up. They are sought for some missing microfilm and through a series of convoluted circumstances are forced to flee, hiding out with Renato's family on their farm. Once there, Albin becomes an object of lust for a group of lonely farmhands. Benny Luke and Michel Galabru also reprise their roles from the first film. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, (more)
- 1974
This film by French director Alain Resnais (Last Year in Marienbad) is loosely based on a true story from the 1930s about financier, con-man and swindler Stavisky who was arrested in 1934 for selling phony stock but was never brought to trial. While in jail, he continued to engage in doubtful monetary transactions. As the rumors that he was being protected by high-ranking members of the government of the French Third Republic were undoubtedly true, the scandal had a profoundly unsettling effect on the French nation, already suffering from poor government handling of the Depression, and this incident nearly brought down both the government and the Republic. Stavisky's death in prison (an apparent suicide) triggered widespread unrest and rioting. In the movie, when Stavisky (Jean-Paul Belmondo) goes to jail as a young con-man, his embarrassed father commits suicide. Ruining countless lives in his stellar career as a big-money swindler, including that of his nobleman friend Raoul (Charles Boyer), Stavisky is shown to be a pawn in a still bigger swindle, one which will destroy the Left and open the way to fascism. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, (more)
A group of extremely glamourous college coeds (Suzy Kendall among them) are being stalked by a hooded sex-killer whose weapon of choice is a hacksaw. Despite this perverse premise and an equally sick title (which translates as "The Bodies Show Signs of Carnal Violence"), this remains a rather dull exercise, representing the lower end of the Italian giallo thriller spectrum and lacking much of the violence common to films of the same genre, thus failing to keep its flimsy plot in motion. What gore was present in the Italian cut has been all but wiped out by the film's U.S. distributor. Released on video as Torso. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- R
In this Italian suspenser, a crooked detective begins investigating a situation on behalf of a friend and gets involved in murder, deception and double-cross. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Franco Nero, Florinda Bolkan, (more)
- 1970
- R
Here the director adapts his own novel about Mira (Romy Schneider), a firebrand of a woman, who moves from being a ferocious labor organizer to being the mistress of her town's factory owner (Ugo Tognazzi). Labor negotiations provide a background for their brief but devastating romantic affair. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
This story from Alexander Dumas is updated to modern times and tinged with graphic nudity and eroticism. Marguerite (Daniele Gaubert) is the tart who sleeps her way up the social ladder to help Armand Duval (Nino Castelnuevo), a commoner who happens to be her boyfriend. The original story has Camille dying from tuberculosis, but in this version she suffers from an unknown ailment. She takes a variety of drugs and becomes a walking zombie (when she can stand up) in this expertly photographed sexploitation feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniele Gaubert, Nino Castelnuovo, (more)
- 1969
- R
Two German spies and a woman physician (Suzy Kendall) are taken by submarine to Scotland where they enter the country at nightfall. Their mission is to assassinate the British Field Marshall Lord Kitchener. The woman's male companions are captured, but she escapes with the knowledge of what boat the Marshall is on. Boarding the submarine, the Germans make plans to bomb the boat with a series of strategically placed land mines. She travels from Russia to Germany to Britain and Spain as she double-crosses double agents in a cat-and-mouse game of espionage. A gruesome scene shows a German gas attack that peels off the flesh of the Allied soldiers as they writhe in agony. James Booth, Capucine, and Kenneth More also star in this World War I drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Suzy Kendall, James Booth, (more)
Director Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was touted at the time of its release (successfully, if the box-office receipts are any indication), as something of a "youth trip" movie. This is because Zeffirelli broke the long-standing tradition of casting over-aged, sometimes grey-haired players in the title roles. Seventeen-year-old Leonard Whiting plays Romeo, with 15-year-old Olivia Hussey as Juliet. The youthfulness and inexperience of the leading players works beautifully in the more passionate sequences (some of these breaking further ground by being played in the nude). Among the younger players are Michael York as Tybalt and John McEnery as Mercutio. The duel between Romeo and Tybalt starts out as a harmless, frat-boy exchange of insults, then escalates into tragedy before any of the participants are fully aware of what has happened. Photographed by Pasqualino DeSantis on various locations in Italy, Romeo and Juliet was one of the most profitable film adaptations of Shakespeare ever produced. Its most lasting legacy is its popular main theme music, composed by Nino Rota. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olivia Hussey, Leonard Whiting, (more)
A popular British comic strip series served as inspiration for this light-hearted espionage adventure, which if nothing else certainly shows the marks of its origins in the mid-1960s. A large departure for director Joseph Losey, better known for brooding interpretations of Harold Pinter works (The Servant, Accident), the film is emphatically bright and colorful, taking on at times a nearly psychedelic feel. The strangeness is emphasized by the unusual casting, including Italian star Monica Vitti in her first English-speaking role as the title character and Dirk Bogarde, playing against type as her arch-nemesis. Essentially everything is played for its camp value, including the rather convoluted, James Bond-like plot, which concerns the hijacking of a shipment of diamonds heading for the Middle East. Like its mod-era sets and costumes, this unusual, inconsistent effort is certainly intriguing and attractive, but might seem rather dated to some. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Monica Vitti, Terence Stamp, (more)
