Luisa de Santis Movies

Director Laura Muscardin weaves this deceptively simple slice of realism detailing the transformation of a young Islamic student in Senegal into one of the most successful fashion designers in Rome. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In writer/director Paolo Sorrentino's second feature, The Family Friend (L'Amico di Famiglia), Giacomo Rizzo stars as Geremia de Geremei, a sixtysomething tailor who lives with his mother in a disgusting and decrepit flat. Though wealthy from the money that he has culled via loan-sharking, Geremia is a thoroughly miserable wretch, driven into the throes of destruction by his own incredible selfishness and his obsessive infatuation with a beautiful local girl, Rosalba (Laura Chiatta), whom he meets when asked to assist with her wedding. Geremia agrees, but takes the bride off alone and pressures her into sex, little realizing that he's sowing the seeds of his own downfall. Meanwhile, a bidet supplier attempts to goad Geremia into giving him a massive loan -- an amount that Geremia could never possibly fork over. Throughout the film, Sorrentino packs in numerous surrealistic touches, from the sight of a nun buried up to her neck in sand (accompanied by an aural assault on the soundtrack) to a grotesque glimpse of Rizzo with a potato poultice around his head to the jarring sight of Geremia's village, built by Mussolini on an Italian swampland. In the process, Sorrentino manages to create his own distinct world and thoroughly unforgettable characters. He also pulls off an incredibly difficult feat, by enabling the audience to care about a markedly unpleasant central figure. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A family struggles to go on after a devastating loss in this deeply emotional drama from Italy. Giovanni (Nanni Moretti) is a psychiatrist with a successful practice in a small community near the ocean. Giovanni has a warm relationship with his wife Paola (Laura Morante), and they have a pair of well-adjusted teenage kids, Andrea (Giuseppe Sanfelice) and Irene (Jasmine Trinca). But the family's calm is shattered when Andrea is unexpectedly killed in an accident. Giovanni finds it impossible to continue with his work, and blames himself for the death, since he was planning to go jogging with Andrea that morning before he opted instead to take an emergency call from a client. Paola and Irene try to keep their emotions in check, but both find this all but impossible as they sink further into anger and grief. The appearance of an unexpected visitor, however, forces the family to confront their feelings about Andrea. Arianna (Sofia Vigliar) is a girl who had a summer romance with Andrea the year before, and has come to town to pay him a surprise visit, unaware of his recent death. Nanni Moretti directed and co-wrote this film, while also starring as Giovanni; it was his first dramatic feature in over a decade after devoting himself to documentaries and short films. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This Wertmuller sex comedy centers on a married couple who have found the magic gone from their physical relationship. The trouble begins when the wife, Ester, finds herself sexually attracted to her best friend Adele and one day tells her of the erotic dream she had in which she and Adele were reenacting the kissing scene from Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious. Soon a flirtation ensues that falls just short of an actual affair. Poor Oscar, Ester's sexist husband, is beside himself. Eventually doubts about his own manliness end up driving him totally nuts. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This bloody and comical look at the 1848 Italian revolution was director Dario Argento's only foray outside the horror-thriller genres. Adriano Celentano wanders Milan with a goofy baker and witnesses the growing corruption and horror that turns a just cause into senseless violence, rape, and mayhem. The script, co-written by Luigi Cozzi, isn't very funny -- the most amusing part of the film involves a squashed rat in a guy's mouth -- and proved to Argento that comedy was not his forte. Fans of the director will find it worthwhile, but the script is so insular that non-Italians are likely to find most of it uninvolving. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

In this psychological drama, Catherine (Julie Christie) is an attractive young woman living in Rome who is infatuated with a man named Gregory, whom she's never actually met. When her father informs her that he intends to remarry, Catherine is not interested in attending the wedding until she learns that Gregory will also be a guest. She flies to Geneva for the ceremony and imagines Gregory to be an athlete in an advertising poster she sees at the airport; she's lost in fantasies about him, even as her brother Daniel (John Hurt), with whom she once had an incestuous relationship, attempts to seduce her. While she misses meeting Gregory, she does run into the sports star from the poster (Michael Sarrazin); they soon repair to a hotel where they make love. However, Catherine discovers that his chiseled looks don't match his drab personality, and she soon leaves him behind. Before returning to Rome, Catherine makes a last attempt at finding Gregory, whom she's been told is also looking for her. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide