Mario Cecchi Gori Movies

Comedian Antonio Albanese directed this comedy about the strained relationship between three brothers -- and also played all three of the siblings himself. A funeral in Sicily reunites three brothers who have not seen each other in years -- Alex, an arrogant photographer; Salvatore, a businessman who has forsaken his Sicilian heritage and become a chauvinist of Northern Italy; and Pacifico, a teacher who is so mild-mannered his family didn't even remember he existed until he showed up for the memorial service. Albanese also co-wrote the screenplay for La Fame e la Sete with Vincenzo Cerami, who received notice for his script for Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Usury is a serious problem in mid-'90s Italy, a country torn by the realities of a long-term economic recession and the people's desires for material prosperity. Unforutnately, with the closure of many Italian banks and the lack of available credit, these things are hard to come by legally, so many, especially businessmen, turn to loan sharks. According to surveys, over %65 of the nation's businesses have involvement with violent loan sharks who like their seafaring cousins will patiently circle the rickety financial lifeboats of their prey until the right moment and then rush in for the kill. This allegorical crime drama from Italian filmmaker Ricky Tognazzi chronicles the complex psychological relationship between one such loan shark and his prey, an old friend from college. Francesco (the intended victim) runs a failing construction company owned by his dying father-in-law who went deeply in debt trying to keep the firm afloat. Outwardly, Sergio is an upstanding financial advisor who knew Francesco a decade before when they were both wild college boys. Sergio learns of Francesco's plight via a helpful banker and as soon as the father-in-law dies sends Claudio (his thug) to visit the bereaved family. Saying he represents the wealthy Signora Sauro (Sergio's secret lover and accomplice) Claudio offers to make a substantial loan to Francisco who accepts. Soon Sergio is back in Francesco's life. He has set his sights on his old friend's beautiful wife Miriam and becomes obsessed with bedding her. At the same time Claudio, whom Francesco doesn't realize is in cahoots with Sergio, begins threatening him for the money. Fortunately Sergio is there to 'save' Francesco from what he doesn't realize is the inevitable destruction of his business. At least that was Sergio's plan. Unfortunately, as ruthless and shrewd as he is, he does not count on the inconsistency of his accomplices. He also underestimates his victims and that proves for him, a terrible mistake. The film is also known as Un Homme Honnete. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Unceremoniously dumped by her lover Roberto, bitter Marcella is determined to win him back at any cost. Such is the basis of this frothy Italian comedy. Roberto has since gone on a Tunisian vacation with his voluptuous new love Alessia. Meanwhile Marcella enacts an elaborate scheme to get him back. First she hires the devastatingly handsome, but dim rookie escort Francesco to accompany her to Tunisia. Neither Alessia and Francesco realize that Marcella and Roberto were once lovers and this creates even more problems. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Two disparate Italian families battle it out on a remote island during summer vacation in this barbed social comedy that sharply comments on the yawning chasm created by ideological and political differences between liberal-but-narrow-minded intellectual elitists and ultra-conservative, ignorant masses. The story's battleground is set upon the island of Ventotene and on either side are adjacent cabins. In one stays the intellectually arrogant Sandro Molino. He brings with him his girl friend Cecilia, her baby, and her father. Cecilia is constantly insecure about her relationship with Sandro while papa Mauro, a failed thespian, fights his ever-encroaching depression. The Molino camp and its many followers spend their days playing music, sipping wine, smoking hashish, grooving on nature and engaging in endless conversations until the prominent Roman gun merchant Ruggero Mazzalupi and his boisterous family show up and spoil everything. The riotous Mazzalupis are as vulgar as the Molinos are tragically hip. The real conflict begins when Sandro threatens to turn Ruggero in for abusing a Senegalese servant. Chaos between the clans erupt, but amidst the cafuffle, two teens still manage to fall in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Italian filmmaker Carlo Verdone both directed and starred in this lightweight comedy comprised of three segments, each dealing with the experiences of three grooms embarking upon disastrous honeymoons. In the first a very proper, fastidious and socially conscious doctor marries a nervous wreck of a girl who only married him because she was expected to; soon after their ceremony, he takes her to the tomb of his first wife where he proceeds to compare them. In the second, a vulgar boor and his tawdry wife embark upon their wedding night with the intent of breaking records for marathon and inventive lovemaking. In the third, an innocent, meek fellow does his best to please his bride who is disappointed by her new husband. Things go awry from the start when the cleric stretches out their ceremony to a nearly unbearable length. Later during their first night together, his gravely ill father's nurse quits and her sister tries to kill herself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Pier Paolo Pasolini was a beloved Italian filmmaker, poet and novelist whose murder in 1975 threw the whole nation into shock. This drama attempts to document the killing and the aftermath while exploring the true motives for the killing. The film opens as the police are in hot pursuit of a car racing along the waterfront of Ostia. At the end of the chase they end up arresting one Pino Pelosi, a male prostitute who confesses to bludgeoning the director to death and running him over with a car. The initial evidence goes along with Pelosi's story. Intermingled with the drama is actual police and press footage of the murder scene, the trial and other related events. As the court goes to trial, it soon becomes apparent that Pelosi is not telling the whole truth. Despite the findings of the media, the police and the lawyers seem to be in an inordinate hurry to close the case and dismiss it as yet another gay killing. Although the film avoids making elaborate postulations about the whole truth of the killing, it does not deny the fact that Pelosi did not act alone. Unfortunately, though Pelosi was imprisoned for his crime, he refused to reveal the identities of the others involved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

While it might be said that every bad man has some good in him, the reverse would also seem to be true. In this drama, drawn from several real-life events and based the novel by Andrea Carraro about them, a group of aimless boys take advantage of an unusual situation and wind up committing a heinous crime. While lounging with his new friend Pallesecche (Ricky Memphis), Raniero (Giampiero Lisarelli) and his friends hear that some of the guys are holding two female German tourists captive in the woods. They are invited to "join the fun," and in this movie, the boys do just that - arriving on the scene in plenty of time to participate in the rape of the two girls. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this remake of the 1983 Ardiente Paciencia by Antonio Skarmeta, the time and place have been changed to Italy in the 1950s, but the relationship between the Chilean Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda and Mario (Massimo Troisi), the postman who delivers his copious mail, is still the focus of attention. In this version of the story, scripted by a collective of Anna Pavignano, the director Michael Radford, Troisi himself, and a few others (based on Skarmeta's original story), Neruda is an aloof and slightly elitist figure who is seeking solitude on an island off the coast of Italy, taking a respite from political problems at home. Mario is a poet at heart and employs every measure he is capable of inventing to win his way into the affections and attention of the great author. As his efforts start to bear fruit and Neruda unbends and begins to share conversation and philosophy with Mario, the postman idolizes the poet all the more. Eventually, Neruda shares his leftist political philosophy as well -- and helps him win over the captivating Beatrice, the woman of Mario's dreams. When Neruda leaves, Mario enters into high gear as he prepares material for the next time he sees Neruda -- his ardor and patience, alluded to in the original title -- are essentially indestructible. (Massimo Troisi) was fated never to know that Il Postino would receive worldwide acclaim and be nominated for an Oscar for "Best Picture" in 1995 (the first foreign film nominated in that category since Ingmar Bergman's Cries and Whispers 22 years earlier). Suffering from a heart ailment and unable to work more than an hour or two on the filming of Il Postino each day, he died in his sleep at the age of 41, the day after shooting ended on the film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This feel-good movie, which offers American audiences spectacular views of Central European landscapes, uses gentle humor to tell the story of two common men who place themselves in an uncommon situation. Franco, a recently laid-off co-op stud farmer whose company jilted him out of his settlement money, returns to break into the main offices to look for proof that he was wronged. Instead he ends up stealing their prize bull Corinto with the thought of selling Corinto for a great profit in Hungary. Franco enlists the aid of his quiet friend Loris. Together the three set off on their obstacle-filled journey. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This Italian comedy, set in WW II, follows the road trip of a troupe of traveling boxers upon the roads of Tuscany. The story begins in August 1944 after Italy has been freed by the Allies. Dieci is a boxer living in Florence. He got his name (which means "Ten") because of his proclivity for being easily knocked out. Conditions in Florence are hard; Dieci decides to put together a travelling troupe to help make some money, and find food. Unfortunately no one in his troupe is a boxer. Followed by a lost dog, the group sets off in a broken down, brakeless bus. They are joined by an African-American army deserter and a Shaved Head woman who lost her hair after being caught consorting with a German. They are finally joined by Wilma who seeks revenge upon the partisan who did her wrong. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Mario (Diego Abatantuono) is a gentle soul living in a big Italian city. He works as a bank teller. When his bank is robbed for the umpteenth time, and he sees yet another policeman killed, he throws in the towel on city life, and attempts to get away from it all by fleeing to a small town in Mexico. In this comedy, instead of getting away from the complications of big city life by moving to a backwater, he finds himself even more deeply embroiled in them. Things come to a head when he cop-killer he saw in Italy also winds up in Mexico. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide