Tony Sperandeo Movies

Director Stefano Incerti draws inspiration from the true life tale of Sicilian mob whistleblower Leonardo Vitale for this tale of a man consumed by guild and determined to reveal the inner workings of the world's most powerful organized crime network. Soon after Vitale (David Coco) is muscled into lending a group of thugs his car, he is arrested on suspicion of taking part in a kidnapping plot. Though he attempts to tell the authorities what really happened, it quickly becomes obvious what a mistake he's made when he receives a dire warning from the inside to stop talking. While Vitale's well connected Uncle Titta (Tony Sperandeo) does his best to protect his frightened nephew, Vitale remains convinced that the only way to clear his name is to come clean to the authorities about his shady past. While the public at large thinks Vitale's bizarre claims are nothing more than the ravings of a madman, the mob knows the truth and views his reckless chatter as a direct threat. In a desperate bid to make it appear that Vitale is indeed insane, Uncle Titta and Vitale's mother Rosalia (Anna Bonaiuto) have him locked away in a mental institution. At first it seems as if their plan was a success, but when Vitale later emerges and runs directly to magistrate Angelo Saitta (Tony Palazzo) it quickly becomes apparent that all will not end well for the man struggling to clear his clouded conscience. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Maurizio Sciarra made his feature directorial debut with this Sicilian love story amid the tensions of Italy's fascist period. The romantic drama is adapted from Domnico Campanas' novel about an aristocratic anti-fascist, the Marquis of Acquafurata (Giancarlo Giannini). The nobleman secretly leaves Paris and returns to his ancestral home in southern Sicily. Posing as his own butler, he plans to sell his palazzo and its antiques, while also offering aid to local anti-fascists in a rescue of the artist Modigliani from his prison on the island of Lampedusa. When he gives his townhouse to a country family as a move to keep it from the fascists, he comes in contact with young peasant girl Rosalia (Tiziana Lodato), and a romance develops. Shown at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

A 20-year-old Eastern European girl impetuously ditches the rest of her tour group to embark upon a new life in Italy. Though she writes friends and family glowing accounts of her fabulous and successful adventures in her adopted home, the truth is much more tragic. Intelligently and poignantly drawn, this drama offers a portrait of Vesna's life. Shortly after leaving the tour, Vesna finds herself broke and without a plan so she hangs out in a local coffee bar where she meets a businessman who takes her home. Needing cash, she asks him to pay her for the sexual services he desires. He agrees, but struck by moral confusion, Vesna refuses the money then changes her mind again. So begins her descent into prostitution. Later she ends up in Rimni, a glittering tourist resort where she numbly pursues her new profession in earnest. She does not like turning tricks, but her irresistible craving for money drives her. A former runner, she still finds herself on the fast track to nowhere until she meets the kindly Antonio, a construction worker and kindred spirit who becomes a client and one day saves her life after the still innocent girl inadvertently involves herself with organized criminals. She encounters more tragedy when her passport is stolen. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

An elite team of plainclothes policeman are assigned to see that a murderous Mafia stoolie and his family make it safely from their Palermo home to the courts in Milan, where he plans to testify, in this Italian thriller. The man they escort is Mafia-attorney Leofonte, who recently had another informer killed for mentioning his name to the police. Now it is his turn to sing, hence the heavy guard consisting of three experienced cops, two female officers and two rookies. They must also insure that his wife and children are protected from retaliation. Unfortunately, despite the caution of the police, things do not go as planned and two of them plus the lawyer's family are slain. Now the lawyer and the others travel in fear that they too will be killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This Italian heist-comedy movie is a revision of Mario Monicelli's 1958 film Big Deal on Madonna Street. This version is set in modern Milan. TV technicians Fabio and Enzo have been unable to find decent jobs. They decide to crack a safe at a Tony Milan jewelry store instead. To help them they enlist a beautiful but unsophisticated young woman to get the layout of the store. To help them find underground access to the store, they get help from a sewage worker. Finally to disarm the store alarms, they find an obese trapeze artist. A clever hotelier is also involved. Will they succeed? ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In the 1950s, a big stir was made by a book (and its corresponding movie) called The Ugly American. Its subject was the grievous damage done to local cultures by well-meaning but essentially clueless (and frequently arrogant) representatives of the U.S. Since then, the phenomenon of cultural damage cause by arrogant tourists and visitors has been demonstrated to be something everyone is capable of. In this thoughtful, comic drama, the subject is Italians overseas. In this film, Malindi Kenya is the playground of rich Italians. In this story, Alessandro Benini (Corso Salani) has come to this resort in the African nation to claim an inheritance from his father, a man he barely knew. When he arrives on the scene, he is shocked to be put immediately under arrest; rather than leaving him property as he had supposed, his father left him a mountain of local debts. He is taken under the wing of Fulvio Colombo (Diego Abatantuono), a man with shady local connections and an even shadier past. Along the way, Alessandro learns a thing or two about violence, colonialism, and nature, before he safely returns home to Italy. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Forever Mary was based on Aurelio Grimaldi's novel Mery Per Siempre, which was also the original Italian title of this powerfully gripping film. Michele Placido plays an idealistic teacher who goes to work at the Rosapina School, a hellhole boy's reformatory. Though almost overwhelmed by the hopelessness and pessimism surrounding him, Placido tries to introduce his classroom of habitual troublemakers to the glories of poetry and history. Some of the more intelligent students begin responding, but the system in which they are trapped is a crushing, debilitating one. Nearly defeated, Placido is about to ask for a transfer, but changes his mind upon realizing that he has come closer to reaching his charges than any of his predecessors. Offering no easy answers, and populated with some of most realistically pathetic hard-case types you're likely to see in a film of this nature, Forever Mary somehow ends on an inspiring (or at least hopeful) note. Filmed in 1989, Forever Mary received an American release three years later. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi