Marco Ferreri Movies
Savage, grotesque, funny, original, disturbing. All can be used to describe the social satires of Italian filmmaker Marco Ferreri. After having assisted on numerous Italian productions in the '50s, Ferreri began directing and co-scripting films in Spain in 1958. In Italy he made a reputation for offbeat and acidic satires of contemporary life, with such early-'60s films as L'Ape Regina/The Conjugal Bed and La Donna Scimmia/The Ape Woman (1963). After the tour-de-force of Dillinger E Morto/Dillinger is Dead in 1969, his work turned even more savage, most notably his '70s films La Grande Bouffe (1973), a Swiftian account of four men eating themselves to death; La Derniere Femme/The Last Woman (1976), a shocking exploration of changing sexual roles starring Gerard Depardieu; and Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981), a bizarre adaptation of the memoirs of Charles Bukowski. In 1992, Ferreri's La Casa del Sorriso/House of Smiles, a tale of romance and sexual liaisons in an old folks home, won the Golden Bear for best picture at the 1991 Berlin Film Festival. Throughout his career, Ferreri believed that the cinema was the one place where people from all of life's walk could be equal and so made movies for the masses. Near the end of his life, Ferreri was deeply troubled by the death of the grand old movie houses and by the trend to make artier films for more elite audiences. He expressed his views in his final film, Nitrato D'Argento (1996), a retrospective of cinema that made compelling arguments for his case. Ferreri died of heart failure in a Paris hospital on May 9, 1997. He was 69. ~ Rovi
- 1960
This was one of the first feature-length films for director Marco Ferreri, known for his interest in the grotesque, macabre, and darkly satirical side of life. In this black comedy, an elderly old man who lives with his mean-spirited, insensitive family, enjoys a happier side of life with an invalid friend of his who gets around on a special, adapted motorbike. After seeing that similarly impaired people are using the same conveyances, the man develops a yearning for one of the special bikes himself. But when he goes to his family with his wish, they all respond in the negative -- and none too kindly. His solution is murderous, though definitely lucrative. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jose Isbert, José Luis Lopez Vasquez, (more)
- 1961
This anthology is comprised of eight vignettes that deals with love Italian style. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
In this crime comedy with heavy neorealist influence, Antonio (Alberto Sordi) is a Sicilian auto plant worker who has almost completely forsaken his southern Italian roots by marrying a fair-haired girl from the north and conceiving two children with her. As the movie opens, Antonio prepares to round up the family and take them on a vacation to his native town of Calamo, Sicily. Before he leaves, however, his boss summons him in and asks him to pass along a little gift to Don Vincenzo, a mob boss in Calamo. Antonio agrees to the plan, tentatively at first, but as the family gets closer and closer to the isle of Antonio's childhood, and shares lodging with Antonio's eccentric family, Sicilian pride and enthusiasm well up inside of this family patriarch, and he is,ultimately confronted with a request to carry out a hit for Vincenzo. Dino DeLaurentiis produced and Alberto Lattuada directed. Though the film was long forgotten, it received a U.S. theatrical release by Rialto in 2007 and netted absolutely stunning reviews. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alberto Sordi, Ugo Attanasio, (more)
- 1963
Like The Elephant Man, The Ape Woman (original Italian title: La Donna Scimmia) is based on the real-life exploitation of a deformed human being. Ugo Tognazzi stars as a charming ne'er-do-well who happens upon young Annie Girardot, who outside of the fact that she is covered with hair from head to foot is a normal woman with normal desires and dreams. Tognazzi inveigles her into the European carnival sideshow circuit as "The Ape Woman", securing her cooperation by making love to her. She dies in childbirth; though overcome by grief, Tognazzi has not lost his cheapjack showman's touch, and he mummifies the bodies of both mother and daughter and continues to tour with them! The Ape Woman was inspired by the true story of 19th century Mexican "freak" Julia Pastrana, whose career was also covered in brief fashion by a half-hour episode of TV's Alfred Hitchcock Presents. While the original Italian version of The Ape Woman retains the cynical, faithful-to-the-facts denouement, the French version substitutes a happy ending in which the woman and her baby survive. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ugo Tognazzi, Annie Girardot, (more)
- 1963
In this Italian sex comedy, a middle-aged car dealer marries a young girl and gets more than he bargained for. She is obsessed with getting pregnant pronto. To this end, she keeps him in bed all the time. The poor man simply cannot keep up with her demands. He even tries a series of hormone shots. Finally his flagging spirits get the best of him and he goes to the coast to rest. Unfortunately, she shows up. Their love making is so violent that he has a heart attack. While safely recovering in the hospital he finds out that she is at last pregnant. Now that she has what she wanted, she totally ignores him. Nothing could make him happier and he ends up spending his last days in a maid's quarters enjoying the peace and solitude. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marina Vlady, Ugo Tognazzi, (more)
- 1964
The Italians continue their penchant for gang-directed features in this sexploitation comedy. Part one is entitled "Cocaine On Sunday" in which a husband (Nino Manfredi) and wife (Annamaria Ferrero) start snorting the stuff after the friend who owned the bottle is arrested. In part two, Ugo Tognazzi plays a professor who feels he is becoming too much like his elderly maiden aunts. In the final episode, a businesswoman agrees to meet a street musician, but he is frustrated when she is delayed by her vocational priorities. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nino Manfredi, Anna Maria Ferrero, (more)
- 1965
Marcello Mastroianni portrays the handsome lover Casanova pitted against a thoroughly modern woman. This is a legendary hero often depicted in movies, but this time he is portrayed with a slightly different problem - the only time he's "in the mood" is when he feels that he is in danger. His job as NATO officer offers plenty of opportunity for his sexual arousal problems to be assuaged. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Michele Mercier, (more)
- 1965
Marcello Mastroianni stars in this film which combines much of the 1965 release Paranoia with new footage. A police inspector is told of the bizarre behavior of a pistol-packing papa who shoots blanks at his wife to keep her intimidated. He inserts a real bullet every so often just to let her know she should pay attention. Another story has Mastroianni as a man who tries to sell his blonde wife to a wealthy sheik with a large harem. His wife has her own ideas and sells her husband instead as an addition to a male harem. He is condemned to servitude as the beautiful blonde steps into a luxury car and leaves him in the desert. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Pamela Tiffin, (more)
- 1967
In this unusual offbeat black comedy directed by Ugo Tognazzi, Giuseppe (Tognazzi) is a middle-aged industrialist obsessed with gadgets. When his nose starts to whistle uncontrollably, he checks into a clinic to resolve the problem. What begins as a minor affliction worsens, and Giuseppe is placed on a different floor as his ailments multiply. The sicker he gets, the higher he goes up in the floors of the clinic, until he is near death's door. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ugo Tognazzi, Tina Louise, (more)
- 1968
Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) is a Milan industrialist who is constantly testing balloons to see how much air one can take before busting. His principle romantic interest in this feature is played by Catherine Spaak. The majority of the film seems to come from previous efforts from 1964 and 1965 which additional footage was added to, to insure an 85-minute full-length movie. A new soundtrack has been added as well. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Spaak, (more)
- 1968
This satirical comedy illustrates that women are just as likely to succumb to the pleasures of the flesh as their male counterparts. Carol Baker enjoys a series of unashamed romantic romps with three different men. She tells her story to a homosexual male friend and a six-month-old cheetah when she is not enjoining the benefits of her harem. Her cozy arrangement is upset quickly when the men in her life get together and decide to take charge of their situation. Its slight nudity marked this film as an "exploitationer," but those seeking pornographic titillation will be disappointed, as the story is its main focus. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
This offbeat combination of reality and fantasy finds Glauco (Michel Piccoli) returning home from his job as an industrial engineer to find his wife (Anita Pallenberg) in bed with a headache. Deciding to fix dinner for himself, he reads from a gourmet cookbook as he watches television, or listens to the radio. He runs across an old .45 caliber handgun and he cleans the weapon between attending to his culinary creation. He later goes to bed, but rises when he is restless and goes to make love with the maid (Annie Girardot), after which he examines the newly painted revolver. After shooting his wife to death, he imagines he is driven to the ocean where he swims out to a boat bound for Tahiti and takes a job as a cook. The title is a reference to the notorious American gangster who could shoot his way out of any place but the police line in front of Chicago's Biograph Theater. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Anita Pallenberg, (more)
- 1969
Noted French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard makes another foray into Marxist film in this poorly-wrought attempt at a political film. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gian Maria Volontè, Anne Wiazemsky, (more)
Julian (Jean-Pierre Leaud) is the son of German industrialist Klotz (Alberto Lionello) who seeks to go into business with the former Nazi Herdhitze (Ugo Tognazzi). Herdhitze had spent most of World War II collecting human skulls for experiments with brain matter. As a protest, Julian refuses to marry his fiancé from a pre-arranged marriage, and he becomes romantically involved with pigs. Part two finds a man driven to cannibalism by hunger while wandering Mount Etna. He scavenges the mountainside looking for any kind of sustenance. In both cases, humans revert to animal behavior when they are removed from the spectrum of social rules and opinions. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pierre Clémenti, Jean-Pierre Léaud, (more)
- 1970
Set in a post-apocalyptic future, this Italian sci-fi thriller presents a dim view of humanity. Following the devastation of WW III, very few people are left and there is a big push to procreate. The dark tale begins on a decimated sea shore settlement were a young couple appears. The male wants his woman to have a child, but she, not wanting to bring life to such a terrible place, refuses to submit to his advances. When a different woman comes along and agrees to have his baby, the fellow promptly sleeps with her. The new woman, wanting to insure her status tries to kill the first woman. She ends up being killed and served for dinner by the first woman. Alone once more, the man continues his fruitless pleas to have babies with the recalcitrant woman until frustration forces him to take desperate measures. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marco Margine, Anne Wiazemsky, (more)
- 1971
This tiresome comedy features pop singer Enzo Jannacci as Amedeo, a country rube who comes to Vatican City seeking a personal audience with the Pope. Detailing Amedeo's battle with officious Vatican bureaucrats and bungling attempts to catch the Pope off-guard, the film rarely rises to the level of director Marco Ferreri's more subversive farces and resembles nothing more than a 1970s Neapolitan-style Pauly Shore vehicle. Italian film buffs will still appreciate the cast, which includes Ugo Tognazzi and Michel Piccoli of La Cage aux Folles as well as Claudia Cardinale, Vittorio Gassman, and Alain Cuny. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- 1971
A particular highlight of this symbolic Italian drama is that it marks the return of Lucia Bose to film. She retired from film when she married the famed Spanish bullfighter Dominguin in the 1950s. Socialite Danielo is a higher-up in the television world but is repulsed both by high society and the media. In his dreams, he is Gulliver in Lilliputia, and the Lilliputians torture him in various ways. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1972
This dark offbeat comedy features Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve. Mastroianni plays Giorgio, who lives on a island somewhere off the Mediterranean coast of France. He lives there with his dog, and the remains of an old German World War II airbase. He earns his living drawing cartoons. Liza (Deneuve) swims to the island from a rich man's yacht, and the yacht's crew confirm the end of her relationship with the owner by bringing her luggage to the island. She and Giorgio meet and become involved. She is jealous of his relationship with the dog and kills her rival while assuming its duties: wearing a collar, fetching sticks, etc. A great deal more happens in this movie, all of it symbolic. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- 1973
- NC17
Subversive Italian satirist Marco Ferreri directed and co-wrote (with Rafael Azcona) this grotesquely amusing French black comedy about four men who grow sick of life, and so meet at a remote villa with the goal of literally eating themselves to death. The quartet comes from various walks of life -- a pilot (Marcello Mastroianni), a chef (Ugo Tognazzi), a television host (Michel Piccoli), and a judge (Philippe Noiret) -- but all are successful men with excessive appetites for life's pleasures (food is used as mere metaphor here, as graphic as that metaphor becomes). ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Marcello Mastroianni, (more)
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