Tonino Delli Colli Movies

Four different takes on the meaning of love comprise this Italian anthology. "Love and Language," the first tale, centers on the difficulties of a Sicilian immigrant who is unable to master proper Italian. the second tale "Love and Life" centers on a jealous and unhappy wife who becomes so desperate to be free of her constantly philandering husband she takes on a lover of her own. When that doesn't work, she hires a gorgeous maid in hopes of finally getting proof that he is cheating. Unfortunately, things don't turn out quite the way she'd planned. In the third episode, "Love and Art" a nearly exhausted screenwriter hires a secretary to help manage his typing. She's a pretty lass and this makes his insecure wife crazy until he fires the female and hires a male secretary. Unfortunately, he too wants to write for the movies and soon begins making significant improvement to his boss's work making him a big success. The first screenwriter is so happy about this that he doesn't mind when his secretary begins having an affair with his wife. "Love and Death," the final episode centers on the love affair between a middle-aged widower and the grieving young widow he meets at the cemetery. Unfortuantely for his bank statement, the young, impoverished beauty isn't as bereaved as she seems. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Tony (Tony Anthony) is an American living in Italy who works, when he has to, by doing stunts for Italian filmmakers. Most of the time, he entertains himself by romancing the girls, especially tourists. In this romantic tragedy, Tony simultaneously charms Lisa (Luciana Paluzzi) and Ann (Rosemary Dexter), American tourists, and they travel together around the scenic spots of Italy. He finds himself in the uncomfortable position of falling in love with both of them and then tries to leave. The girls will have none of that, however, as the two have agreed to share him, and they continue onward as amicably as before. This Italian romantic tragedy has dubbed English dialogue. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Frustrated desire motivates the Sicilian newlyweds in this improbable sex comedy when they are discovered to be brother and sister just before their marriage can be consummated. They receive this news in a very unwelcome telegram, and spend much of the rest of the film trying to alleviate their frustration by various stratagems. Some of them are fairly innocent, such as novel-reading and pious works; others include seriously considering the option of incest. They have a number of embarrassing sexual encounters outside their relationship, but are saved from even more demeaning situations when a second telegram informs them that the first was definitely a mistake. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The business of death provides the framework for this black comedy about a mortician's assistant who wants to marry an executioner's daughter. Her father really wants to change professions, but cannot, as he will lose his new government-sponsored apartment. The young man is persuaded to take over the job, but he swears he will quit before he must kill someone. Unfortunately, an execution is scheduled shortly before the beginning of a major carnival, a time when many executions are halted. The bride and groom travel there, hoping the victim will be pardoned, but he is not and the groom must fulfill his duty. Although he swears he will never do another, his face tells another story, and the old executioner knows that many more state-sanctioned deaths will follow. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This three-part Italian comedy with several pretty females is another in a long series of gang-directed efforts. Director Masimo Franciosa adds a surrealistic touch to "The Shower," the story of a dedicated husband who takes a liking to extramarital affairs. "The World Belongs To The Rich" is directed by Mino Guerrini and concerns an office worker who is tricked by his co-workers into believing he has won the lottery and become a millionaire. Guiliano Montaldo directs "The Swedish Wife" in which a husband (Renato Salvatori) shocks his traditional Italian family by returning from his honeymoon with an unconventional Swedish beauty. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Just when life was deep into a well-hewn rut for Nino Conti (Marcello Mastroianni) and the socialite he married, he runs into an old, impoverished charwoman (Romy Schneider) on a bus. She later gets in touch with him by telephone and lets him know that she is the very same Anna he had loved two decades earlier. Ghosts of the past start to haunt Nino in more ways than one, as he remembers the times he shared with Anna. In flashbacks to those years, the film wends its way to the final conjuncture of past and present phantoms -- poking fun at upper-class society along the way. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Sonia (Sylva Koscina) is quite a woman, if not perhaps the "Female Three Times" of the title. The captain of a Soviet female basketball team, Sonia joins her teammates on a goodwill visit to Rome. Here she is captivated by the sights, sounds and sensual pleasures of the Eternal City. When Sonia falls for a handsome Roman, it takes a veritable battalion of Russian commissars to bring her back to the Glorious Motherland. Unfortunaetly for the Soviet cause, the commissars, in true Ninotchka fashion, likewise succumb to the allure of Rome. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Federico Fellini gently lampoons the world of small-time show business in Ginger and Fred. Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni star as Amelia Bonetti and Pippo Botticella, a onetime celebrity song-and-dance team. Having risen to fame with a dancing act where they recreated the acts of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire (hoping to become the Fred and Ginger of Italy), Amelia and Pippo parted company to pursue their separate lives. Neither one was particularly successful in other fields of endeavor, so when after many years Amelia is offered a guest-star gig on a TV variety show, she jumps at the chance. She also seeks out her former partner, Pippo, who may have looked like Astaire in his younger days, but now....The overall good cheer of the film was dampened when the real Ginger Rogers sued the distributors of Ginger and Fred for "defamation of character." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Falling somewhere in-between a documentary and a droll drama (more like an enactment of reality, with a wink), this film by TV director Ugo Gregoretti looks in on a variety of social and ethnic situations throughout Italy. Sexual morés are contrasted, from the quaintly out-of-date courtship in Sicily to the sometimes uncomfortably explicit sexual references in the conversations of the youth at the opposite end of the country. Aside from these manners and morals, there is an examination of what happens when mechanized tools of production begin to take away from the human element at factories and in other industrial venues. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide