Milena Vukotic Movies

Turkish-born director Ferzan Ozpetek's meditative, character-driven ensemble drama Saturno Contro (a French-Italian-Turkish co-production, from a script co-authored by Ozpetek and Gianni Romoli) studies the interrelationships of a tightly-knit group of gay and straight friends, in the period surrounding the premature death of one young man and the split of a married hetero couple. At the story's center are Lorenzo (Luca Argentero), a confident, surreally handsome, 30-year-old Italian man, and his live-in lover, the author Davide (Pierfrancesco Favino. They spend their non-working hours with a colorful clique that includes: bright, spunky cocaine addict Roberta (Ambra Angiolini); husband-and-wife (and parents) Antonio (Stefano Accorsi) and Angelica (Margherita Buy); caustic Neval (Serra Yilmaz) and her husband, a cop (Filippo Timi); Davide's former lover, the acid-tongued Sergio (Ennio Fantastichini); and a new arrival to the group, Paolo. After Ozpetek and Romoli take time and care to introduce the characters, an unforeseen crisis arises: Lorenzo is rushed to the hospital, and dies. In time, his distanced father (Luigi Diberti) turns up, accompanied by his second wife, Minnie (Lunetta Savino) and still grappling with the knowledge of his son's homosexuality. Meanwhile, Antonio and Angelica split, the latter devastated by the sudden discovery of her husband's infidelity with a florist (Isabella Ferrari). ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

One of Oscar Wilde's most popular plays is given a new screen interpretation in this period comedy. In New York in the early '30s, Mrs. Erlynne (Helen Hunt) is a widow who lives comfortably through the largesse of several married men, and when she runs out of wealthy suitors in Manhattan, she decides to find greener pastures among the wealthy elite of Italy's Amalfi coast. Mrs. Erlynne sets her sights on Robert Windermere (Mark Umbers), a wealthy Englishman who is married to the young, innocent and very beautiful Meg (Scarlett Johansson). Mrs. Erlynne gingerly tries to separate Robert from his wife and his money, fueling suspicions within Amalfi society as well as the audience that they are involved. Humiliated and ready to beat him at his own game, Meg begins to consider the advances of the handsome Lord Darlington (Stephen Campbell Moore), one of her husband's close friends. In the midst of all the attempted infidelity, the genially eccentric Tuppy (Tom Wilkinson) struggles to win Mrs. Erlynne's hand, while only one of the interconnected parties know that she carries a shocking secret. A Good Woman was based on Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan, with its title drawn from that show's subtitle, "A Play About a Good Woman." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The tenth installment of the popular Fantozzi series about a hapless bureaucrat, this film features the title character getting cloned by multinational corporations looking for the ultimate salaried milquetoast. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Ugo Fantozzi (Paolo Villagio) is a retired accountant who is stunningly ugly, and his ability to suffer having even the most innocent situations turn into unqualified disasters has made his name an Italian byword for a really luckless sad-sack. This is the seventh of the popular comedies depicting his adventures, and by rights should be the last. In it, he goes on a skiing weekend and finally gets his mitts on Signorina Silvani, the hard-bitten but sexy woman who tantalized him all during his working life. The story continues, showing the demise of his fellow office workers and then his own, but when he winds up in a Buddhist heaven instead of a Catholic one (typical sour luck, that) it begins to look as though he might get more chances to go through the whole darn thing again and again... ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

This 1991 Italian period drama is not to be confused with the 1990 Australian vampire film with the same English-language title, Wicked. The entire story, a genuine psychological detective tale, concerns the attempt by a young doctor (Julian Sands) working early in the 20th century in a Swiss clinic to uncover the root cause for the persistent mental breakdown of a young woman (Giuliana De Sio) who has recently suffered the death of her daughter. Despite the resistance of the clinic's administration to his use of Freudian methods, the doctor begins his analysis at the clinic but finds that he must travel to Italy to interview the woman's family and friends in order to get at the ultimate cause. A version of this film capably dubbed into English was released at the same time as its Italian-language version. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Set in Vienna, Austria before World War I, an industrialist grows weary of his cold-hearted wife. He seeks vengeance in a dual with the young officer who desires her affections. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

This undistinguished comedy in two acts features Lino Banfi as Altomare, the owner of an appliance store, who is obsessed with superstition, spells, and amulets to fight the "evil eye" that bedevils him, and Gaspare (Johnny Dorelli) a charlatan magician who through serendipity, encounters a real witch and is the happy recipient of her magic powers. Gaspare can retain those powers only on the condition that he bring her a pistachio ice cream when she asks for it. But even magic cannot do much for Altomare or Gaspare as long as they do not pay attention to the very practical, mundane matters in their lives. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Director Carlo Lizzani left behind his typically political interests in favor of pure sex and violence in this convoluted thriller. A married woman selling the title carpet, which a Persian legend holds to be yellow only to highlight the color of blood, is visited by an older man while her husband is out. What follows is a labyrinthine tangle of incestuous urges, poisonings, psychosexual sadism, drug abuse, and torture. Despite having been filmed for television, this bizarre film -- based on a play by Aldo Selleri -- is quite graphic. Perverse sexual situations and knifepoint torture abound, while at one point a syringe is stabbed into an eyelid in close-up. Erland Josephson, Beatrice Romand, Vittorio Mezzogiorno, and Milena Vukotic lead the talented cast. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

An ambitious priest discovers that honoring the Ten Commandments isn't as easy as he imagined in this drama. Father John Flaherty (Christopher Reeve) is a Catholic priest who was ordained during World War II, and soon found himself forced to fight enemy forces while serving as a chaplain in the Army. As his life and career in the church moves on, Flaherty finds himself frequently torn between his duty and devotion to the church and his ambitions, appetites, and the notion that the ends can justify the means. Flaherty eventually rises through the church hirarchy to win an appointment at the Vatican, where he helps to manage the church's finances. When the Vatican's books reveals a major cash flow crisis, Flaherty suggests a rather unusual plan to Cardinal Santoni (Fernando Rey) -- buy hard-to-find American goods at a discount, and then sell them at a profit to mafia kingpins, who will then sell them on the black market at premium prices. As Flaherty and Santoni debate the ethics of this scheme, Flaherty meets and finds himself becoming attracted to Clara (Genevieve Bujold), a postulant nun. Posing as an American businessman, Flaherty romances and seduces Clara, until she discovers his secret. Monsignor also stars Jason Miller, Robert Prosky, and Joe Patoliano. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The stage comedian Carlo Verdone directed and stars as the three main characters -- Furio, Mimmo, and Pasquale -- in this classic Italian comedy. All three men are driving back to their hometowns to vote on election day, and each has a different story and a different though easily recognizable personality type. Furio drives his wife nuts with his unceasing chatter -- in a switch of gender stereotypes -- and is obsessed with perfection. When his car gets a flat, he dashes off to phone the Automobile Club for help, but then finds that in his brief absence his tire has already been changed by a generous motorist. Perfectionist to the letter, he takes off the good tire and replaces it with the flat one so the Automobile Club will get the flat they expect. Mimmo is a Mama's boy from Trastevere who rides along with his oversized Grandmama, and the third character, Pasquale, suffers from socialization never succeeded in taking firm hold. As he re-enters Italy, driving back from Munich where he now lives, parts of his car get stolen one by one. The moral seems to be that Italy is filled with all types of people, from those who will replace your tire to those who walk off with it. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi