Aurelio De Laurentiis Movies

Director Giovanni Veronesi interweaves four tales of family tragedy, ill-fated love affairs, eternal passion, and fleeting relationships in a humorous, romantic, and moving look at the lasting effect of love and the human condition. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Italian filmmaker Neri Parenti directs the gross-out Christmas comedy Natale Sul Nilo, which is one in a series of madcap holiday movies. Captain Enrico Ombroni (Massimo Boldi) doesn't want his teenage daughter Lorella (Lucrezia Piaggio) to be a TV showgirl on the popular program They'll Be Famous, so he takes her on a vacation cruise to the Nile. Also on board is the captain's lieutenant Saltalaquaglia (Biagio Izzo) and attorney Fabio Ciulla (Christian De Sico). While in Cairo, Fabio is seduced by his son's fianceé (Nuria De La Furente), much to the dismay of his wife, Gianna (Mabel Lozano). Fabio and Ombroni get stranded in the desert and are subsequently rescued by sleazy Oscar (Enzo Salvi) and his entourage of TV showgirls. Natale Sul Nilo was a success at the Italian box office. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

In this comedy about time travel and family misunderstandings, Paolo (Ricky Tognazzi) is not getting along with his son Marco (Gabriele Mainetti) and decides the boy needs to better understand his point of view. So the two jump back in time 30 years, where Marco can see for himself just what Paolo was going through as a teenager. Despite many misadventures, Marco gains a new respect for his father and the experience brings them closer together. Il Cielo In Una Stanza features an appropriate soundtrack loaded with Italian pop hits of the 1960s. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This Italian comedy takes an affectionate look at a motley group of free-lance photographers desperate to grab a good shot of a celebrity, with a host of Italian TV personalities appearing as themselves. "The Potato" (Roberto Brunetti) is a would-be paparazzo who lives with his uncle (Christian De Sica) and two other aspiring cameramen, "King" (Diego Abatantuono) and "Ciro 3000" (Nino D'Angelo). They join forces with the remarkably inept "Mr. Bean" (Massimo Boldi, and no relation to Rowan Atkinson's better-known character of the same name) in hopes of getting the kind of pictures that will make their reputation. The stalked celebrities in Paparazzi include Brigitte Nielsen, who with characteristic aggressiveness threatens one of the shutterbugs with a large pair of scissors. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Claudio Fragasso directed this Italian thriller in which a former French secret service agent (top Israeli male model Raz Degan) recruits newlyweds to become assassins. After Carla (Laura Morante), married to Domenico (Thomas Kretschmann), kills several people, neighbor Dario (TV-star Raoul Bova) recognizes her, taps the couple's phone, and secretly videotapes their crimes. When Dario's wife Luciana (Francesca Schiavo) helps him collect evidence on the killer couple, the excitement jolts their sex life up a few notches. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

In a northern Italian province, townspeople prepare for the wedding of wealthy, balding businessman Edgardo (Dario Cantarelli) and beautiful Francesca (Ines Sastre), pressured into marriage by her family. Angelo (Diego Abantantuono), who went to America when he was young, returns with a fortune. When Francesca sees him, she realizes she can't marry Edgardo. She flees the altar, is talked into returning, secretly says her vows as though marrying the stranger, and then later reveals this secret to him, saying, "You came to save me." Angelo tells her the facts behind his wealth; he was a failure in America, inheriting his fortune from his dying brother. Shown at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival, this film was a Golden Globe nominee and Italy's submission to the 1998 Academy Awards. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

This Italian comic fantasy about time travel begins with Ascanio (Christian de Sica), an Italian nobleman, and Walter (Massimo Boldi) a film executive, also Italian, on a deluxe tour of Universal Studios. They sit down side-by-side and are hooked into a virtual reality machine by its inventor, Professor Mortimer (Dean Jones). When something goes wrong, they find themselves hopping around in time, again and again narrowly escaping death. Their first travel takes them to prehistoric times. Then they find themselves in Renaissance Florence under the watchful eye of Lorenzo de Medici, who is highly amused by Ascanio's soccer moves. Narrowly escaping the Inquisition, they jump centuries in time to Venice in the time of Casanova, where their efforts at a romantic liaison with some of Casanova's women are thwarted. In one of the film's highlights, Ascanio jumps into his own past, and attempts to change his personal future. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Franco Melis is utterly humiliated at being reduced to performing stand-up comedy before young unappreciative audiences who do not realize that he was once a great and highly respected star, and, desperate for a chance to reclaim his lost fame, he jumps at the opportunity to appear in a low-budget independent art film. It is being specially made for exhibition at the Venice Film festival. This Italian comedy chronicles the struggle of Melis, one that grows even more difficult in the face of a press that is more interested in the juicy details of his personal life than in his new movie. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A funky, more than slightly askew love affair between a hooker and a homosexual provides the core of this erotic Italian romantic comedy. Angela is the hooker who, along with a few cronies, provides customers with outdoor love. Adamo, is a platinum blonde Adonis who has just dumped his latest lover. Adamo has returned to his hometown to attend his mother's funeral. Deciding to stay for a while, he gets a menial job dumping rotten bananas. He is driving his truck one day when he sees Angela doing her job in some roadside business. He feels an instant rapport with her and soon regularly attends her al fresco trysts as a surreptitious spectator. Angela is happy to know that Adamo watches and goes about servicing her johns with extra vigor. Though the two never become physically involved, a genuine love develops between them. For Angela, who is surrounded by emotionally damaged people, Adamo represents a new-found hope that she will someday find true happiness. But it all changes when Adamo accidentally kills someone and gets arrested. Though she could save him, Angela stays away. Still she is grateful for their brief time together and her new vision of the great possibilities around her create far-reaching, positive effects for her and the other girls. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The lives of four middle-aged gay men are chronicled in this bittersweet Italian drama. The men are the cynical Dado, who tries to come to grips with his expanding waistline, receding hairline and the thought of spending the rest of his life alone; the catty Tony, a shirt designer who is still too bonded in a complex relationship with his overbearing mother, Sandro, a film producer who only recently came out of the closet after years of feigning heterosexuality, and Vittorio, a heartbroken architect trying to cope with the fact that his beloved went out and married a woman. Their stories are told as brief vignettes and chronicle a six-month period. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi