Delia Boccardo Movies

It is 1948, and Dado is a fifteen-year old boy who tries to avoid having to answer his stern schoolteacher's questions too often. He has much more interesting things to do - like trying to get somewhere with the countless girls who interest him. It doesn't matter that he accomplishes nothing, romantically. Life is good. His home is filled to overflowing with relatives, most of them peculiar in some way, and he feels little pressure or distress. This balmy lightly comic story is interspersed with the tale of a woman in the present (early 1990s) who, as a girl, was one of Dado's love-interests. Now things are considerably bleaker for the woman, and her recollections of the past are also screened. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

If this had been a western, the older gunfighter would have taught his younger rival a thing or two about the perils of a scandalous reputation before passing on the torch and (more than likely) dying tragically just as he is about to reform. Instead, in this film based on a novel celebrating the exploits of the legendary seducer Casanova, the younger competition is humbled by the fiftyish fugitive from justice because, in the art of seduction, experience is everything. In the story, Casanova (Alain Delon) is a fugitive from the wrath of the authorities of France and Italy, and he is being sheltered beneath the roof of an old friend, for whom he once did an important favor. The friend has an attractive niece, whose charms interest the almost elderly roué. However, he has two problems: his friend's wife is an old conquest who has been longing for him to show up and bed her for almost twenty years, and the niece is being courted by a handsome young soldier whose ambition is to outdo Casanova in the area of amorous adventures. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Gloria (Margherita Buy) is so taken by the repairman she spends a night with that she quits her job and attempts to get him to marry her, to no avail. She is something of a puzzle freak, and the mysteries of the Sphinx and the pyramids in Egypt intrigue her. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this picaresque period adventure comedy, the roguish almost-gentleman Paolo (Paolo Hendel) of 1832 Naples accompanies his younger friend, Duke Ottavio (David Riondino) to the southern part of Italy. At the time, Italy was a hodge-podge of tiny nations, dukedoms, and principalities which were often run by some other nation, such as France or the Austro-Hungarian emperor. Also sweeping the yet-to-be-unified nation was a revolutionary fervor for democracy and unification. At the same time, the forces of tradition were working very hard to suppress these ideas. These movements give rise to some of the dangers the two men face with grace and nonchalance, as they travel through the undeveloped (some might even say uncivilized) regions of Southern Italy. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

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

Nostalghia is Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky's enigmatic work about a writer (Oleg Yankovsky) who, trapped by his fame and an unhappy marriage, seeks out his cultural past in Italy. Here he meets Erland Josephson, a local pariah who declares that the world is coming to an end. The writer finds this prophecy curiously more alluring than the possibility of a dead-end future. Nostalghia won the Grand Prix de Creation and the International Critics Prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Social classes and different cultures collide as three disparate men try to court a wealthy young woman (Romy Schneider) in this French drama. One of them, an impoverished aristocrat marries her for her money. Though he is terribly cynical, he does, in some strange way, love her. She is also loved by a super-straight-arrow industrialist. The third lover is a fugitive Greek communist who has been trying to escape Johannes Metaxas' secret police. He and the protagonist are having an affair. Soon after the woman bears him a daughter, the communist is killed. WW II erupts and the woman vanishes. Years pass and the daughter grows up. She heads for Greece to learn more about her parents. There the woman's husband and the capitalist meet again and discuss their shared past. The cinematography of this sweeping romance, based on a novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, is particularly beautiful. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

On March 24, 1944, in the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome, one of the most infamous atrocities of World War II occurred -- the mass execution of 330 Italians in retaliation for the deaths of 33 Germans. The book Death in Rome contends that Pope Pius XII knew of the German plan but did nothing to stop it. In this film adaptation, Richard Burton plays Col. Herbert Kappler, a Nazi officer torn between his devotion to Hitler's cause and his love for Italy when he is ordered by his superior officer, Gen. Kurt Maelzer (Leo McKern), to see that this execution is carried out. Opposing the Germans and reacting against the silence of the Pope is Vatican priest Don Antonelli (Marcello Mastroianni), who chooses to die with the Italians rather than continue to act as a middleman between the German army and the Romans. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this offbeat crime adventure, a downhill ski instructor at an Alpine resort involves himself in a conspiracy to rob the bank that lies in the resort town nearby. The heist is a success until a dogged insurance investigator threatens to reveal their identities unless they give him the loot. They hand it over and then realize that he was a phony. The three decide to split up. The ski instructor boards a train and who should be on it but the bogus detective. It turns out that the two of them had been in cahoots all along. The instructor is played by Jean-Claude Killy, an Olympic Skiing champion and the detective is played by famous Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Sica. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Based on Harold Robbins' bestseller, The Adventurers stars Yugoslav heartthrob Bekim Fehmiu as Porfirio Rubirosa clone Dax Xenos. Having suffered mightily as a child in a fictional South American country due to the political activities of his parents, Xenos grows up to become a sleazy, sexually manipulative playboy. He romances middle-aged widow Olivia de Havilland, then dumps her after he's run through her fortune. He then takes up with heiress Candice Bergen, who bears his child. When the kid is killed and Xenos turns his back on her, Bergen finds solace in lesbianism. All the while, Xenos is fomenting revolutions aimed at toppling the Trujillo-like despot (Alan Badel) responsible for the death of his father. The Adventurers received a lot of magazine coverage due to a poolside nude scene and the "guess who this is supposed to be?" nature of the cast of characters. But it failed to establish Bekim Fehmiu as an international star. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This story of youthful rebellion is taken from the ancient Greek classic "Antigone." The setting is modern times and Britt Eklund plays Antigone in a fictitious land where reality is suspended. Haimon (Tomas Milian) goes against the wishes of his father and the prime minister by wanting to become an animal. Tiresias (Pierre Clementi) plays a Christ-like figure. The only resemblance between this version and the ancient tragedy is that the three principle characters are slated for an uncertain future among the living. The film was shown at the 1970 New York Film Festival. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

After returning from a spiritual quest in India, a photographer (Giancarlo Giannini) is haunted by thoughts of death. He goes off the deep end when his younger sister kills herself in this tragic story of obsession and mortality. Valeria Morriconi is the moody sibling who eventually finds she cannot cope with life. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide