Paolo Stoppa Movies

The real Marquis of Grillo lived in the early 18th century, but, for this take-off on the marquis' life, director Mario Monicelli) has changed the time period to the early 19th century when a lot more was going on in Rome. The marquis (Alberto Sordi) amuses himself by throwing red-hot coins to beggars, occasionally walling up the store entrance of an offending merchant and installing a urinal there instead, and generally making witty and broad comments on the life going on around him. His existence suddenly gets a lot more interesting when he discovers his physical (unrelated) twin in a Roman tavern (also Alberto Sordi) - a drunkard who works transporting coal when he is sober. As a joke, the marquis takes the passed-out drunk to his mansion and puts him in his bed -- fully intent on convincing the drunk and everyone else that this man is the real marquis. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The absurdist comedy of Maruizio Nichetti dominates this fluffy story about "moon men" who interfere with television reception in Milan and get everyone who comes in any kind of contact with them to abandon their dull, dreary routines and start doing a lively Scottish jig -- dancing for the pleasure of it. As this "contagion" spreads, media executives try their best to contain it and get people back to doing what they are supposed to be doing. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This farce features Jodi Foster, Catherine Deneuve, and Ugo Tognazzi. Tersina (Foster) is a pregnant teen whose parents want her married, pronto. Cerquette (Tognazzi) is an insurance man who wears a chastity belt to keep him from ravishing the two women he desires. A pair of bachelors liven up the action (Michele Placido and Luigi Proietti) which is not easy. Except for the introductory scenes, all of the action takes place in the dressinig (and undressing) room of a beach house. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Les Charlots romp onto the screen again in this French comedy, which has the comic musicians serving as soldiers who actively support a peasant family who are resisting forced eviction by the army. Among other conflicts they have with their long-suffering sergeant is that he thinks their hair is much too long. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In Sergio Leone's epic Western, shot partly in Monument Valley, a revenge story becomes an epic contemplation of the Western past. To get his hands on prime railroad land in Sweetwater, crippled railroad baron Morton (Gabriele Ferzetti) hires killers, led by blue-eyed sadist Frank (Henry Fonda), who wipe out property owner Brett McBain (Frank Wolff) and his family. McBain's newly arrived bride, Jill (Claudia Cardinale), however, inherits it instead. Both outlaw Cheyenne (Jason Robards) and lethally mysterious Harmonica (Charles Bronson) take it upon themselves to look after Jill and thwart Frank's plans to seize her land. As alliances and betrayals mutate, it soon becomes clear that Harmonica wants to get Frank for another reason -- it has "something to do with death." As in his "Dollars" trilogy, Leone transforms the standard Western plot through the visual impact of widescreen landscapes and the figures therein. At its full length, Once Upon a Time in the West is Leone's operatic masterwork, worthy of its legend-making title. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

When Catherine Spaak's husband dies, she discovers a hitherto hidden room on their estate. The room is surrounded by mirrors and curious sexual devices; when Spaak takes a peek at hubby's diary, she learns he was carrying on a secret life that made Sacher-Masoch and Krafft-Ebbing look like pikers. Deciding that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, Spaak begins to conduct her own kinky sex life. Doctor Jean-Louis Trintigant, who sincerely loves Spaak, tries to deflect her from whips, boots and handcuffs, but before long he too succumbs to the seductions of aberrant behavior. Libertine was originally released in Italy as La Matriarca. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Following up 1964's Academy Award nominated L'Homme de Rio, French filmmaker Philippe de Broca wrote and directed this big-screen adaptation of André Couteaux's novel Un monsieur de compagnie. Jean-Pierre Cassel stars as Antoine, a young man who holds the philosophy "Laziness is the mother of all virtue" close to his heart and spends many dreamy days fishing with his wealthy grandfather. But when he has a prophetic dream that the old man will die impoverished, Antoine is motivated to change his life and try to earn his own money. Also starring Catherine Deneuve and Jean-Pierre Marielle, Un monsieur de compagnie was released in the United States in 1966 under the title Male Companion. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

A high-class costume drama with a substantive historical basis, Becket is the true story of the friendship between King Henry II (Peter O'Toole) and Thomas à Becket (Richard Burton), a royal courtier and confidant whom Henry appoints as Archbishop of Canterbury. As Becket takes his duties with the Church seriously, he finds himself increasingly at odds with the King, who finally orders the death of his once-close companion when he continues to defy the throne. Burton is very good and O'Toole is even better: both men were nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, while Edward Anhalt's screenplay, based on the stageplay by Jean Anouilh, won for Best Adapted Screenplay. The basic theme of separation of church and state still reverberates today, while the top-notch production values ensure Becket's place as one of Britain's better historical epics. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Arguably Luchino Visconti's best film and certainly the most personal of his historical epics, The Leopard chronicles the fortunes of Prince Fabrizio Salina and his family during the unification of Italy in the 1860s. Based on the acclaimed novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, published posthumously in 1958 and subsequently translated into all European languages, the picture opens as Salina (Burt Lancaster) learns that Garibaldi's troops have embarked in Sicily. While the Prince sees the event as an obvious threat to his current social status, his opportunistic nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon) becomes an officer in Garibaldi's army and returns home a war hero. Tancredi starts courting the beautiful Angelica (Claudia Cardinale), a daughter of the town's newly appointed Mayor, Don Calogero Sedara (Paolo Stoppa). Though the Prince despises Don Calogero as an upstart who made a fortune on land speculation during the recent social upheaval, he reluctantly agrees to his nephew's marriage, understanding how much this alliance would mean for the impecunious Tancredi. Painfully realizing the aristocracy's obsolescence in the wake of the new class of bourgeoisie, the Prince later declines an offer from a governmental emissary to become a senator in the new Parliament in Turin. The closing section, an almost hour-long ball, is often cited as one of the most spectacular sequences in film history. Burt Lancaster is magnificent in the first of his patriarchal roles, and the rest of the cast, especially Delon and Cardinale, become almost perfect incarnations of the novel's characters. Filmed in glorious Techniscope and rich in period detail, the film is a remarkable cinematic achievement in all departments. The version that won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival ran 205 minutes. Inexplicably, the picture was subsequently distributed by 20th Century Fox in a poorly dubbed, 165-min. English-language version, using inferior color process. The restored Italian-language version, supervised by cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, appeared in 1990, though the longest print still ran only 187 minutes. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide

An uneven mix of right-on situations and two-dimensional characters or worse, La Giornata Balorda is all the more interesting because it was banned in Italy -- not because of sexual or anti-religious content, but because of its depiction of Italian society. David (Jean Sorel) is a poverty-stricken young man who has impregnated the woman he loves and now wants to marry her. The baby has already been born when David sets out to "buy" a job. His uncle, not a model of propriety, gets him introduced to a slick operator who really does not want to hire David at all. But the future employer's mistress takes one look at David and lets her lover know he just has to give him a job. Meanwhile, David is still stuck with the problem of getting the money together to "buy" his job, and he solves that in a rather creative manner. This story of networking among the non-yuppy population did not sit well with the Italian censors. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

La Menace is not the most suspenseful or convincing crime drama, though its story has potential. Josepha (Marie-Jose Nat) is only eighteen and longs for the companionship of a group of her peers who dabble in activities on the shady side of a legal dividing line. In order to get the semi-delinquent group to accept her, Josepha runs to the police with a tall tale about the local druggist, Savary (Robert Hossein). The police are looking for a sex murderer, and Josepha insists Savary is their man. What she does not know, however, can do her considerable damage. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The 1800s sees the emergence of a hero-statesman Italian who works to unify his country. ~ All Movie Guide