Nicola di Pinto Movies

This Italian comedy takes a sharp poke at the corruption inherent in Italy's political circles and big businesses. Ecological crime correspondent Giuseppe has just been divorced and now, since a major corporation has taken over the independent television station where he works, may be out of a job. To save money, he moves into the apartment of Riccardo, a carabiniere officer. Both of them end up entangled with the lovely Sandra, who works as the personal secretary to the politician who controls the country's biggest toxic waste operation, Nautilus. The politico Giulivi is a sly fox and Giuseppe's investigation into Nautilus reveals that it is Sandra, not Giulivi who has been named the president. But Sandra is a ditz, and swears that she knows nothing of her boss's illicit activities. She convinces the two roommates to help clear her name and to bring her an important computer disk that can prove everything. The two fellows indeed help her, but as soon as she gets that disk, she uses it to drain Giulivi's secret Swiss bank account. Now all three of them are pursued by the angry crook's henchmen. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The sweet sentimental gauze of director Giuseppe Tornatore's international hit Cinema Paradiso (1988) is nowhere to be found in this dark, Kafkaesque crime thriller that takes place, stage play-style, mostly in the confines of one room. Gerard Depardieu stars as Onoff, a famed author who has become a recluse in recent years, publishing nothing. Late one night he is picked up by police officers, who find him running across the French countryside in the rain, breathless and apparently suffering from short-term memory loss. A murder has been committed in the nearby woods, and suspecting Onoff's involvement, the authorities detain him at a leaky, dark command post to await the arrival of an inspector (Roman Polanski), ironically a fan of Onoff's work, who will interrogate his subject and try to arrive at the truth. Una Pura Formalita (1994) was produced simultaneously with Polanski's Death and the Maiden (1994), another film with a stage-bound quality featuring a long, stormy night's interrogation in a single room. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

In this sentimental, tragicomic drama, Matteo Scuro (Marcello Mastroianni) is an old widower living in Sicily. His five grown children have scattered all over Italy, and he has heard nothing but glowing reports from them about their lives and careers. One day he takes it into his head to visit these paragons who have fulfilled every one of his ambitions for them. Eventually he discovers that all his children have been lying to him for a very long time because they were afraid to disappoint their papa; their lives are shabby and very much on the edge, and one of them has long-since committed suicide (unbeknownst to him). This daunting truth provokes a heart attack in the old man, who still has a few lies yet to tell and hear, because he insists (as do his children) that "everything is fine." ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Teresa (Giulianna De Sio) is a nurse who works to support her lazy husband and her pompous mother-in-law in the hospital named after her famous father-in-law. She must raise $1,000 to save her beloved father. Teresa soon becomes involved in a series of comedic circumstances where she goes to the dog races, pushes dope, and is auctioned off as the grand prize at a bordello bingo game. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In 1978, Italian politics were thrown into turmoil when the Christian Democratic president Aldo Moro was executed. This gripping political drama is based on American journalist Robert Katz's non-fiction book Days of Wrath and documents the convoluted chain of events that lead to Moro's death. Moro was the first politico to bring his country's political factions together in 40 years. His ordeal begins shortly after he is elected. He is en route to church with his five body guards when they are ambushed by radical communist terrorists, the Red Brigade. They quickly execute the body guards and spirit Moro to a hidden "people's prison' where he is interrogated. Neither Moro's Christian Democrats nor the newly reinstated Communists will deal or in any way acknowledge the Red Brigade. They do however engage in a massive search for the missing Moro. But the search is poorly organized and ineffectual. Meanwhile Moro is allowed to send letters to the government. He suggests that the Vatican be called in to negotiate a prisoner exchange with the terrorists, but the Vatican refuses. Instead, they make a formal plea for Moro's unconditional freedom. The government does little or nothing to help the president and Moro realizes that the organization he helped create has abandoned him. In desperation, he becomes sharply critical of the government that continues to stall while the Red Brigade becomes increasingly frustrated and impatient. Eventually they decide to kill Moro and later stuff his body in a red Renault which they parked between the Christian Democrat and the Communist headquarters. The Moro Affair or Il Caso Moro as it was known in Italy, was extremely popular in it's native country, but it also sparked considerable controversy for as the case unfolds, nagging doubts and holes arise that infer that perhaps the government had more of a hand in the assassination than the Red Brigade. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Gradually picking up dramatic steam as it moves through its 2 1/2 hour running time, this gangster film is loosely based on the career of one of Naples' most sadistic crime bosses, Raffaele Cutolo. Here, the mobster (played by Ben Gazzara) is simply called "The Professor" and is first introduced in prison where he landed after murdering a stranger who was flirting with his sister. From prison he begins to move up the Camorra ladder when he recruits inmates to join him in bringing down the leading crime boss and has his sister pay off their families in return. Without ever leaving prison "The Professor" succeeds in replacing the ruling "don" but far from resting on his laurels he starts to wipe out his enemies and anyone whose loyalty might be in question. Still hampered by his incarceration, he finally escapes and joins forces with the Cosa Nostra and even begins to put major politicians in his pocket. It seems like nothing can stop him until a lone and much-benighted police chief (Leo Gullotta) enters the picture. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In scenes that can be read as fantasy, reality, or dreams - or somewhere in-between all three - the director and writer Nanni Moretti takes the viewers into his world: as a director fighting a flawed establishment, as an artist seeking a true expression of his visions, and as a neurotic, disturbed invidividual trying to cope. In many of the scenes, it is difficult to differentiate between the three, and may not matter in the long run because all three aspects are one person - Michele in the film, Moretti in real life. Lacing his scenes with witty asides about the film industry and its inhabitants, Moretti has Michele embattled with a crass, Neapolitan director making a musical about the 1968 student demonstrations. Michele gets into physical fights with his mother - and at the same time, has a creative block to finishing his film titled "Freud's Mother." The crazy characterization of Freud as a "momma's boy" in the film would have made anyone's mother run for psychotherapy. In the end, the viewer will have to put all the composite parts together to come to a conclusion about the meaning of this multi-level story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi