Pasquale Festa Campanile Movies

In this Italian comedy set in the 16th-century, a prince and a princess marry. Trouble ensues when a rumor that they have not consummated their marriage is circulated. The prince's father is most concerned, as a virgin marriage means he will have no heirs. He insists that the marriage be annulled. He then requires his son to marry another, but his current wife's family will not agree to the annulment until the prince proves he is a capable lover. The prince refuses to cooperate until his father threatens to cut him off financially. The prince then is paired with a virgin, and eventually passes his test. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this Italian sex comedy, a middle-aged car dealer marries a young girl and gets more than he bargained for. She is obsessed with getting pregnant pronto. To this end, she keeps him in bed all the time. The poor man simply cannot keep up with her demands. He even tries a series of hormone shots. Finally his flagging spirits get the best of him and he goes to the coast to rest. Unfortunately, she shows up. Their love making is so violent that he has a heart attack. While safely recovering in the hospital he finds out that she is at last pregnant. Now that she has what she wanted, she totally ignores him. Nothing could make him happier and he ends up spending his last days in a maid's quarters enjoying the peace and solitude. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Like his more famous loin-clothed tree-swinging, yodeling counterpart, Bingo Bongo was raised in the jungle by apes. This Italian comedy follows his lively adventures after he is captured, caged and sent back to civilization. There he begins working with a pretty anthropologist who teaches him all he needs to know about speaking, eating correctly and falling in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The director of an Italian milk company, Alberto, lost his beautiful American wife after he caught her having a shower with the plumber. He is fixated on women's breasts, but so is his psychiatrist, who calls his obsession a nostalgia for the mother's breast. One of his psychiatrist's other patients is a woman who found her cellist husband playing musical sex games with the family maid. In a protracted series of meetings, the two patients grow acquainted, and love grows up between them. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The title of this Italian slice-of-life drama translates to Young Husbands. The husbands in question rather casually enter into marriage, never intending true fidelity to their spouses. When they realize that they're committed for life, our immature heroes return to their home town for one last fling. In the course of their final hours of bachelorhood, they come to the sobering conclusion that their carefree youth is not only past, it's already long past. Somewhat reminiscent of Fellini's I Vitelloni, Giovani Mariti boasts excellent performances from all concerned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Il Cocco di Mamma translates to "Mamma's Boy," a more than adequate description of protagonist Maurizio Arena. On the verge of achieving success as a prizefighter, Arena loses because he's afraid his face will be permanently damaged. Branded a coward by his friends and family, our hero is finally able to find inner reserves of strength through the love of a good woman (Inge Schoener). No longer frightened of facial disfigurement, Arena at last emerges victorious. The story is nothing special, but the handling of the material, combined with the film's realistic depiction of life in working-class Rome, is first rate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director and co-writer Luigi Zampa, best known for his earlier works as a satirist of favorite targets like bureaucratic labyrinths, takes a stab at the complicity of society and family in the criminal acts of a few individuals. The stage is set by a somewhat dysfunctional family with its sad history told in a series of flashbacks. Emilia Bonelli (Ana Mariscal) is an overly ambitious and driven woman. This dominant personality trait has its effects on her henpecked husband Luigi (Francois Perier), and her daughter Carla (Jacqueline Sassard). Circumstances ultimately lead to the courtroom and an aloof judge in the persona of Andrea Morandi (Jose Suarez). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this amusing look at the petty deceits of everyday life, Marcello Mastroianni shines as wealthy antique dealer Nello Poletti, a man with every comfort money can buy. One day, however, Poletti is falsely accused of murdering his former mistress (Micheline Presle), who set him up in a life of luxury only to be cast aside in favor of a younger woman (Cristina Gajoni). The evidence seems overwhelming, and Poletti is sent to jail, where he reflects on his shameful life of deceit in pursuit of wealth. Overcome by guilt, Poletti decides to confess, only to discover that the real killer -- a spurned lover -- has already been apprehended. Once he is off the hook, Poletti returns to his original pattern of fast cars and fast women, even jokingly referring to himself as "The Assassin," and proving that he has learned absolutely nothing from his ordeal. The story is fairly predictable, but is never less than entertaining, thanks to a clever screenplay by director Elio Petri, Tonino Guerra, Pasquale Festa Campanile, and Massimo Franciosa. Petri (making his directorial debut) gets the most out of his talented cast, particularly Mastroianni, and there are some nice supporting turns by veteran character actors Salvo Randone, Andrea Checchi, and Enrico Maria Salerno. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

One of Italy's most beautiful sex symbols, Gina Lollobrigida, stars as the flirtatious Ippolita in this routine comedy about sex and the jealous husband. Ippolita leaves her life as a vaudeville actress to marry Luca (Enrico Mario Salerno), who runs a gas station. She helps him out but has a weakness for flirting with his customers, the male customers at least. Although she remains faithful to her husband she still takes great liberties. For example, she has no qualms about going off to visit Venice with a man who comes to take her away for a brief sojourn in the city of canals. And her clothes tend to reveal more than they hide. So after Ippolita comes back from enjoying a night out dancing, trouble brews when she discovers her husband in bed with her best friend. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Set in Italy during WW I, this war drama centers on the off-beat relationship between a Bavarian general an a peasant girl after they both end up captured by a bungling Italian soldier. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This gripping, Oscar-nominated war drama is set in the fall of 1943 during the Nazi occupation of Italy when all the Neapolitan males from five to sixty are forced to work in slave camps. Tired of the cruelty and oppression, the people rise up and launch such a violent melee that they frighten the German invaders out of their city. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The literal translation of this Italian title is "He's My Husband, I'll Kill Him When I Please." A young woman is married to a man in his 70s. To make sure his wife is taken care of after his death, the husband tries to arrange her marriage to a friend of his. When the young bride discovers this, she plans to hasten his imminent demise. She takes up with a beatnik and goes about planning her husband's murder as if she were merely making out a grocery list of needed items at a convenience store. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide