Romano Cardarelli Movies

The loves and lives of three sisters provides the basis of this melodrama. The eldest is intelligent and very aware of life's ticking clock. The middle sister lives on emotions, while the youngest is an idealistic, impassioned pre-med student. The story is loosely based on Chekhov's play Three Sisters. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The Mediterranean sea is the backdrop for this social drama from director Lina Wertmuller. While vacationing on a yacht, the wealthy capitalist Raffaella (Mariangela Melato) shouts out orders in between spouting off political opinions amongst her friends. She is especially confrontational to the deck hand and servant Gennarino (frequent Wertmuller leading man Giancarlo Giannini), by demanding that he appear more presentable. Gennarino grows increasingly frustrated by her demands and develops contempt for her independence. When it is nearing dark, Raffaella has Gennarino take her out in the dinghy for a swim. The two find themselves stranded after the motor seizes up and a current sends them drifting out to sea. Eventually finding land, they end up on an uninhabited island and their small boat deflates. Removed from the trappings of society, Gennarino and Rafaella engage in a passionate power struggle fueled by sexual tension and basic survival. Their desperation develops into a strange and cruel love affair that determines whether or not they want to be rescued. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Originally released in Italy as Film d'Amore e d'Anarchia, Lina Wertmuller's Love and Anarchy is set in the fascist-dominated Italy of the 1930s. Giancarlo Giannini plays an idealistic farmer swept up in an anti-fascist underground movement. His first task as a member is to assassinate Mussolini (talk about your initiation stunts!) While preparing to carry out his assignment, Giannini takes up residence in a whorehouse run by Mariangela Melato, another anti-Mussolinite. Giannini's resolve to carry out the assassination is weakened by his love for one of Melato's prostitutes, as well as his own essentially gentle nature. Love and Anarchy was the first of Wertmuller's films to gain a U.S. release. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Better known as Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion, this Oscar-winning political drama stars Gian Maria Volonte as the citizen of the title, an unnamed police inspector. The story finds the inspector calmly cutting his mistress' throat, then planting evidence that will clear him of accusation -- and attempting to evade arrest by virtue of his "clean" public image. Elio Petri's own anti-establishment stance was never more pronounced than in this film, where the truth is whatever the ruling class chooses to acknowledge. The original Italian title of Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion was Indagine su un Cittadino al di Sopra di Ogna Sospetto. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi