Anna Maria Clementelli Movies

Viewers familiar with the 1973 film with a very similar name will recognize many of the characters in this light comedy, which is set over twenty-five years in the future. In the earlier film, a saucy and gorgeous country girl was hired to keep house for a widower and his three sons and ran into difficulties when the middle son selected her as the object for his romantic obsessions. In this movie, the housekeeper has married her old employer, and the sons have moved away. However, the villa they live in is built atop an archaeologically interesting site, and she and her husband invite an archaeologist and his son to visit them to investigate it. Before long, she is receiving mash notes and flowers from the antiquarian's son, which she efficiently brushes aside. When evidences of romantic intent keep coming, she begins to wonder just who is sending them to her. It could be the boy, his handsome father, or even her own husband. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Leading man Gabriel Byrne adds a "Harlequin Romance" dash to the two-part, six-hour TV movie Christopher Columbus. Seeking out a swifter route to the lucrative Indies, Genoa-born Columbus begs King John of Portugal (Max Von Sydow) to finance a westbound expedition. Failing this, he turns to Spain's Queen Isabella (Faye Dunaway), who is entranced by Columbus' near-religious fervor. After the famous 1492 expedition, Columbus is bankrolled for future forays into the New World, which win him both adulation and vilification. Originally telecast May 19 and 20, 1985, Christopher Columbus was filmed on location in Spain, Malta and the Dominican Republic, making full use of a $15 million budget. It isn't an earth-shattering cinematic experience, but is lots more worthwhile (and less ponderous) than the brace of Columbus biopics inflicted upon movie audiences in 1992. Those concerned with political correctness should be satisfied with the film's second half, which explores the more sinister elements of chauvinistic colonization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The old Guy De Maupassant story The Devil would seem to be the springboard for the Italian-made Leap Into the Void. Michel Piccoli plays an Italian jurist whose sister Anouk Aimee is a bit "light in the belfry". Piccoli entreats Michele Placido to convince the awkward Aimee to kill herself. The results are unexpected, and fascinating. As with most of his work, director Marco Bellocchio uses the seemingly petty problems of his bourgeois characters as a mirror of what is going on in society at large. Leap Into the Void was originally released as Salto nel Vuoto; both Michel Piccoli and Anouk Aimee won Best Acting awards at the 1980 Cannes Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide