Claudio Bisio Movies

Italian director Fausto Brizzi's romantic comedy Ex draws from an ensemble framework and an all-star European cast, including Claudio Bisio, Nancy Brilli, Cristiana Capotondi and Cecile Castel, to meditate on the various situations engendered by the presence of former lovers - from the instances in which affection and devotion have regressed into hatred, to the cases where friendship blossoms from a prior romance, to the instances where love lingers on indefinitely. From instance to instance and one onscreen relationship to another, the film meditates on the myriad of ways in which old romantic partners can shape our lives. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Italian chemist turned author Primo Levi was interred at Auschwitz during WW II until 1945. Following his release, he returned to his native Turin and penned the wrenching autobiographical account of life in the concentration camp If This Is a Man. In 1962, he wrote a companion book, The Truce, a chronicle of his hellish nine-month journey from the camp to Turin. Both books are crucial entries in the history of the Holocaust. This careful adaptation of the second book took filmmaker Francesco Rosi 10 years to make. Levi's trek begins when shortly after the Germans leave, four Russian horsemen ride up and tear down the gates of Auschwitz. Levi is quickly aboard one of the first outbound trucks. Over the next few months, he goes to many different countries, and along the way he meets and is befriended by assorted fellow travelers. Through them, his appreciation of life and freedom slowly returns, but with it also comes a deep rage and an abiding guilt at having survived, a guilt that may have led Levi to suicide in 1987. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A computer virus endows Solo (Diego Abatantuono), the hero of a virtual reality game, with human consciousness, thereby creating all kinds of headaches for his creator Jimi (Christopher Lambert). The trouble begins in the futuristic metropolis of Northern Agglomerate three days before Christmas. With little time left, video-game designer Jimi has no choice but to give his newest game, "Nirvana," to his powerful bosses. Unfortunately, the virus strikes just before the deadline. At first Solo doesn't know he is a graphic image, but when he finds out, he fervently pleads with Jimi to destroy every existent copy of the game so that he will not have to live the same sequence of events over and over for eternity. Jimi, vulnerable after the mysterious and sudden disappearance of his lover Lisa (Emmanuelle Seigner), agrees to honor Solo's wishes, but is unable to simply erase the program because his every move, on and off the job, is monitored by a giant, Orwellian computer. He therefore takes off for the Arab quarter and enlists the aid of two hackers, Joystick (Sergio Rubini), an expert at sabotaging databases, and Naima (Stefania Rocca), a woman with the skills to destroy the prototype of the computer game. With the company's henchmen hot on their heels, the threesome set off on a colorful journey through real and virtual worlds to destroy Solo before it is too late. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Mario (Diego Abatantuono) is a gentle soul living in a big Italian city. He works as a bank teller. When his bank is robbed for the umpteenth time, and he sees yet another policeman killed, he throws in the towel on city life, and attempts to get away from it all by fleeing to a small town in Mexico. In this comedy, instead of getting away from the complications of big city life by moving to a backwater, he finds himself even more deeply embroiled in them. Things come to a head when he cop-killer he saw in Italy also winds up in Mexico. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Marco (Claudio Bigagli) is an insurance adjuster who must travel all over Tuscany in order to investigate and settle claims put through by his firm's various branches. This brings in a tidy sum of money, and he has every reason to expect that he will continue to prosper in his work. He manages quite successfully to organize every event in his own life, but he can't manage the lives of others. His tidy and reasonably satisfying world comes unglued when his mother's extramarital affair causes dissension between her and his father. The tidiness of his life is also undone when his former girlfriend actually gets married, and his current girlfriend dumps him. Soon he is irritated even by his work, and then the real hysteria sets in. The only thing he can think to do is to opt out of having such a tidy, predictable, yuppiefied life, and this is what he does. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Dario (Diego Abatantuono) is a lively, loyal friend, and a good trouper who can recover cheerfully from even the worst onstage disasters. He needs to be, because he is constantly onstage with his best friend Federico (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), who is a barely adequate actor. In everyday life, Federico somewhat timid and unassertive. It's too bad that Dario is having an affair with Federico's wife, but in every other regard, Dario works hard to look after his friend while they are on tour together, playing shows in one small town after another. When Federico discovers the ruse, at first he is hurt, but in the end, both men have become disgusted with Federico's wife's inability to choose between them. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

After her boyfriend leaves her for another woman, the drama student in this film discovers some dark, forbidding areas to her sensual inner needs while in class. Later, she engages in a couple of odd, disjointed sexual encounters. Before long, however, she has formed a tentative liaison with a biker, but the memory of her past relationships prevents her from being wholehearted about it. The same situation applies to the biker, who has been burned more than a few times. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide