Rossano Brazzi Movies
Bologna-born Rosanno Brazzi abandoned his law studies at San Marco University when his parents were killed by fascists. Becoming an actor, Brazzi rapidly rose to matinee-idol status after his film debut in 1939; but while making faces before the Mussolini-controlled cameras by day, he was tirelessly active in the Resistance by night. He made his first Hollywood film, Little Women, in 1949, but it was his multi-hued portrayal of the impotent Count Vincenzo Toriato-Faurini in The Barefoot Contessa (1954) that won him international stardom. He went on to play such suave Europeans as Renato di Rossi in Summertime (1955) and Emile DeBecque in South Pacific (1958), after which his film roles tended to become routine and repetitive. An occasional visitor to television after his first small-screen appearance on a 1960 episode of The June Allyson Show, Brazzi was a regular on the Harold Robbins-created series The Survivors (1969), playing Onassis clone Antaeus Riakos. Turning to directing in the mid-1960s (sometimes under the nom de film of Edward Ross), Brazzi's best-known effort in this capacity was the modest family-oriented film The Christmas That Almost Wasn't (1966). From 1940 to 1981, Rosanno Brazzi was the husband of actress Lidia Bartalini; after her death, he married another actress, Ilse Fischer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1942
Based on the book by Ayn Rand, this Italian film follows the struggles of a young Russian woman, Kira Argounova (Alida Valli), who must become involved with a member of the Soviet secret police, even though she is repulsed by everything he stands for. The relationship she has with this man provides her with the money she needs to support her ill lover (Rossano Brazzi). This movie was originally released as two separate films, Noi Vivi and Addio Kira, and is in Italian with English subtitles. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alida Valli, Rossano Brazzi, (more)
- 1942
This film is the first western ever made in Italy. It tells the tale of a young saloon dancer who inadvertently gets romantically involved with the man who killed her husband and framed her recent lover. She accepts his advances until she learns the truth. She then returns to her lover and discovers that he has been married all along. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1940
This troubled film version of the Puccini opera was begun by Jean Renoir while lecturing in Italy at the invitation of dictator Benito Mussolini. After only a few scenes had been shot, Italy entered WW II and Renoir had to flee, leaving his assistant Carl Koch to complete the film. The familiar plot takes place in the Rome of 1800, where opera diva Floria Tosca (Imperio Argentina) falls in love with a painter, Cavaradossi (Rossano Brazzi). The artist had previously helped Tosca's brother, Angelotti (Massimo Girotti) -- a resistance leader -- escape from the evil police chief Scarpia (Michel Simon). Scarpia arrests Cavaradossi, leading Tosca to decide to surrender herself to him in exchange for her beloved's freedom. Simon is outstanding as the nasty police chief, and Ubaldo Arata's black-and-white cinematography is nice to look at, but the film in general is a rather flat treatment of a compelling story. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Imperio Argentina, Michel Simon, (more)
