Gianni Amelio Movies
Gianni Amelio began making movies as a childhood game. Today, he is an Academy Award nominee and the only director to win three Felix Awards for Best European Film. His unique directorial style is both passionate and austere, achieving vast emotion from the simplest of images and making him one of Europe's most gifted modern filmmakers.Amelio was born in the small Italian village of San Pietro Magisano, a province of Catanzaro, at the end of WWII. Before Amelio's second birthday, his 20-year-old father left his family and did not return for the next 17 years. The future director was raised by his grandmother, who brought him on weekly outings to the cinema. When Amelio told his grandmother that he wanted to be a filmmaker, she urged him to go on to higher education. Amelio spent two and a half years studying philosophy at a university in Sicily prior to dropping out. He thereafter moved to Rome and began assisting director Vittorio de Seta before leaving to work on spaghetti Westerns in Spain.
Amelio directed his first feature film, La Fine del Gioco (The End of the Game), in 1970. He helmed several more works throughout the decade, including 1975's Bertolucci Secondo il Cinema (The Cinema According to Bertolucci), a documentary about the making of Bertolucci's 1900. In 1982, he co-wrote and directed the political thriller Colpire al Cuore (Blow to the Heart), starring Jean-Louis Trintignant as a man accused of terrorism. The picture was Amelio's first feature to be widely screened in the United States and its success brought the director a host of other projects.
In 1989, Amelio co-wrote and directed Porte Aperte (Open Doors). The courtroom drama, starring Gian Maria Volonte, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Amelio quickly followed this international success with Il Ladro di Bambini (The Stolen Children) (1992), a celebrated tale about two abused children and a carabiniere (an Italian policeman) on a road trip through Italy. Il Ladro di Bambini was unanimously adored by critics and received the Grand Jury Prize at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival. The film also initiated Amelio's long-term working relationship with actor Enrico Lo Verso, who would go on to star in two more of the director's films.
Amelio's next feature, Lamerica, secured the Osello for Best Film at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. Its simple story of two Italian con men trying to scam the Albanian government proved to be a candid, striking depiction of post-Cold War Albania and its people. The film, which he also co-scripted, won accolades and Amelio won monikers, as critics began calling him "the new de Sica" and "the next Rossellini." Amelio triumphed again at the 1998 Venice Film Festival, winning the Golden Lion for his following feature, Così Ridevano (The Way We Laughed).
In 2000, the Italian environmentalist organization Legambiente commissioned Amelio to direct the documentary La Terra è Fatta Così. The film, which debuted on Italian television, chronicles the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated the Italian regions of Irpinia and Basilicata in November of 1980. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, Rovi
- 2010
A man whose life has been informed by two cultures is caught in between as they go to war in this drama from filmmaker Gianni Amelio. Jacques Cormery (Jacques Gamblin) is a middle-aged novelist who has spent most of his life in France, but was born in Algeria and spent his childhood there with his mother (Catherine Sola) and grandmother (Ulla Baugue). Grandmother was the uncontested ruler of the household and in 1924, as he entered his teens, Jacques was expected to quit school and go to work, but his teacher Mr. Bernard (Denis Podalydes) recognized his talent and arranged for him to attend a high school where he could study writing despite his family's misgivings. Jacques also struck up a friendship with an Arabic student (Djamel Said) that would have a powerful impact on his attitudes about race. Years later, in 1957, Jacques returns to Algeria to visit his mother as the nation is rebelling against French rule, leading to a tremendous anger and consternation in Europe. As Jacques finds himself caught his French heritage and Algerian education, he is reunited with his old friend (Abdelkarim Benhabboucha) and is enlisted to help with the case of his son (Hachemi Abdelmalek), an activist who has been sentenced to death for his ties to the revolution. Le Premier Homme (aka The First Man) was adapted from the final, uncompleted novel by Albert Camus; the manuscript was rescued from the wrecked car in which Camus died in 1960, and was finally published in 1994. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 2006
One man's work ethic and sense of personal responsibility sends him on a great journey in this drama from filmmaker Gianni Amelio. Vincenzo (Sergio Castellitto) has devoted most of his adult life to working in a steel mill, where he looks after the machines and sees that they're in good repair. One day, Vincenzo gets the news that the mill is going out of business and the equipment has been sold to a concern in China. While Vincenzo is upset about the loss of his job, before long something greater is weighing on his mind -- one of the machines sold to the Chinese has a defect that led to the death of Vincenzo's co-workers years before, and he's convinced if he doesn't do some preventative maintenance on the equipment, another worker could be killed. Determined to prevent a needless fatality, Vincenzo flies to China and sets out to find the faulty machine, with the help of Liu Hua (Tai Ling), a young woman serving as his interpreter. La Stella Che Non C'e (aka The Missing Star) was screened in competition as part of the 2006 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sergio Castellitto, Tai Ling, (more)
A man makes friends with his teenaged son for the first time in this emotional drama from Italy. Gianni (Kim Rossi Stuart) fathered a child with his wife, but she died in childbirth, and the baby was born with severe physical and mental handicaps. The boy, Paolo (Andrea Rossi), was raised by the late woman's family until he reached the age of 15, when Gianni decided he wanted to meet and spend time with his son. With Paolo scheduled for treatment with medical specialists in Germany, Gianni offers to pick up his son and travel with him to Berlin. At first, Gianni is taken aback by the extent of his son's disabilities, but he also sees the great warmth and charm that his son possesses, and over the course of their first few days together, Gianni begins to feel a real bond with Paolo for the first time. While in Berlin, Gianni makes friends with Nicole (Charlotte Rampling), a woman whose daughter faces many of the same challenges as Paolo, and through her he begins to appreciate the responsibilities and the rewards of caring for a handicapped child. La Chiavi di Casa (aka The Keys to the House) was screened in competition at the 2004 Venice Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kim Rossi Stuart, Charlotte Rampling, (more)
Gianni Amelio directed this powerful drama that focuses on the relationship between two brothers as their goals and ideals drift apart over the course of seven years, each of which is represented by a single day. Giovanni (Enrico Lo Verso), an uneducated laborer from Southern Italy, arrives in Turin, where his younger brother Pietro (Francesco Guiffrida) is studying to be a teacher. Giovanni sees the bright Pietro as his family's best hope for making their way out of poverty, and he goes to work to support his brother so that Pietro can focus on his studies. But as time goes on, Giovanni's simple dream of a better life proves to be different than Pietro's personal ambitions, and as the corruption of the city begins to sink its hooks into Pietro, their fates take a tragic and dangerous turn. Cosi Ridevano won the Golden Lion award at the 1998 Venice Film Festival, but despite enthusiastic reviews in Europe, the film did not receive an American release until 2001. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Enrico Lo Verso, Francesco Giuffrida, (more)
An opportunistic Italian swindler heads to Albania and finds himself involved with the life of an impoverished local in this somber political drama. Gino (Enrico Lo Verso) and his partner in crime Fiore (Michele Placido) come to Albania with a money-making scheme designed to capitalize on the surrounding political chaos. For the con to work, however, they need an easily exploitable native Albanian, and they recruit Spiro (Carmelo Di Mazzarelli). Easily confused and utterly impoverished, this elderly former political prisoner seems the perfect choice, until he unexpectedly disappears. Gino is assigned to find him, setting out on a journey that leads him to discover Spiro's tragic personal history and become intimately acquainted with the full extent of Albanian poverty. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Enrico Lo Verso, Michele Placido, (more)
- 1992
A self-described son of neorealism, director Gianni Amelio utilized non-professional actors, authentic locations, and unadorned filmmaking techniques to create this honest, uncompromising look at modern Italy and its faltering human relations. Il Ladro di Bambini (The Stolen Children) begins in Milan, where Sicilian siblings Rosetta (Valentina Scalici), 11, and Luciano (Giuseppe Ieracitano), nine, live with their destitute mother. The woman regularly prostitutes Rosetta and is arrested; her children are immediately made wards of the court. Carabiniere Antonio Criaco (Enrico Lo Verso) is assigned to escort them to a foster home in a mission that appears to be simple. Yet, years of abuse forbid the siblings to trust, obey, or even like Antonio. Rosetta is hostile and demanding; Luciano is sullen and remote. When the Catholic foster home will not accept the children on the grounds of Rosetta's past, Antonio independently decides to bring them south to a home in Sicily. The three begin on a road trip during which their relationship grows and Antonio -- the epitome of hope and grace -- attempts to give the children a normal, loving experience by temporarily stealing them from their uncertain future. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, Rovi
- Starring:
- Enrico Lo Verso, Valentina Scalici, (more)
- 1989
- R
Set during the Mussolini years, Open Doors stars Gian Maria Volonte as an old-line judge. Volonte tries to remain faithful to the letter of the law, despite the "improvements" made by the Fascists. His insistence upon justice over dogma results in government reprimands, and ultimately poses a threat to Volonte's well-being. The honesty vs. corruption theme transcends the film's period settings, resulting in an allegorical masterpiece that has significance in any country, any time. Open Doors was a nominee for the "best foreign picture" Academy Award. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gian Maria Volontè, Renato Carpentieri, (more)
- 1988
This unusual biographical drama explores a period in the life of Nobel Prize-winning Italian nuclear physicist Enrico Fermi, (1901-1954) who contributed to the U.S.'s Manhattan Project (which developed the nuclear bomb) after developing the first working nuclear reactor at the University of Chicago in 1942. As a celebrated professor at Rome University in the 1930's Ferm (Ennio Fantastichini) attracted many brilliant students. One of them was the highly gifted and very unstable young mathematitian Ettore Maiorana (Andrea Prodan). Ettore, estranged from his abusive family, was more or less adopted by Fermi and his wife, until Fermi unwittingly betrayed him by admitting to Ettore's mother that he was staying with him. At that point, Ettore, whose mathematical skills far exceeded Fermi's and which had contributed to his development of nuclear physics, began his swift descent into some sort of paranoid state. He began camping out in his family's abandoned estate and eventually disappeared from sight. To this day, no one knows whether he killed himself, was murdered, or successfully changed identities. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Andrea Prodan, Ennio Fantastichini, (more)
- 1982
In this rich, complex drama, the threat of terrorism serves as a backdrop to an examination of dysfunctional family relationships. Fausto Rossi portrays neglected teenager Emilio, whose father Dario (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a university professor, introduces him to his student, Giulia (Laura Morante) and her lover, Sandro (Vanni Corbellini). Emilio loves photography, and sets about taking pictures of the pair, soon coming to believe that Giulia and his father are lovers. Because Dario and his son are respectful of each other's privacy to a fault, Emilio can't ask, so he starts to spy. When he finds Sandro dead in the street one day, the apparent victim of a Red Brigade terrorist shooting, Emilio decides to keep an even closer eye on his father. It is never completely confirmed whether Dario and Giulia were really having an affair or whether Dario was involved in terrorism, because these issues are not necessarily director Gianni Amelio's concern. Amelio is concerned with perception, and in this fascinating film he examines his young protagonist's multi-faceted interpretations of an elusive truth, revealing that such a thing may not even exist. This is a powerful, absorbing film for thoughtful viewers in search of a challenge. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Louis Trintignant, Laura Morante, (more)
- 1979
This tragic story explores the situation of a little Italian peasant boy who is discovered by an Englishman to have unusual musical and mathematical gifts. Based on a book by Aldous Huxley, the boy is exploited by his neighbors, and his life is made miserable after the Englishman leaves. When his English patron discovers how things are, he returns to save the boy, but it is too late. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Steiner, Laura Betti, (more)
- 1978
An old townhouse has a room to let, and a young man moves into it. It was previously occupied by an actor, and it contains most of his belongings and memorabilia. Naturally, the new tenant is curious and explores all these things, including the man's movie stills. Among the possessions is a gun, and the boy finds that the actor killed himself with it. At some point in his review of the actor's life, he notices a beautiful woman in a building across the way from his room. Becoming obsessed with her, he stops going to work and seeing his girlfriend. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Federico Pacifici, Clara Colosimo, (more)
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