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
Marcello Mastroianni stars in this French farce, an absurd "western" set in Paris, with Mastroianni as the incurably vain General George Armstrong Custer. Richard Nixon is the American president, but everyone is costumed appropriately for the previous century. Buffalo Bill (Michel Piccoli), the famous scout, is here portrayed as a limp-wristed bungler. Ugo Tognazzi plays one of Custer's Native American opponents; he runs a curio shop selling Native artifacts made in sweatshops by white women. The climactic battle is held in a large construction excavation where Les Halles market used to be. The language the two sides use to justify their conflict is lifted from that used in the then-current Vietnam War. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, (more)
- 1976
This otherwise straightforward movie that chronicles the conflict between a man's romantic urges and the feminist ideal and a custody battle over the man's young son has a cataclysmic ending which is not for the fainthearted. In the story, Gerard (Gerard Depardieu) is an engineer who has just been left by his wife (Zouzou) for feminist reasons and has custody of his nine-month old son, whom he cares for deeply. When his next romance with Valerie (Ornella Muti), his son's daycare worker, threatens that custody, he responds by emasculating himself with a knife. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Ornella Muti, (more)
Lafayette (Gerard Depardieu), a young-ish misfit Frenchman and Nocello (Marcello Mastroianni), an older misfit Italian, live in a run-down section of New York City and are friends. Lafayette works for Flaxman (James Coco), an excitable antiquarian who owns and runs something called the "Roman Museum," by means of which he upholds the standards of a former age. Lafayette also works for a women's lib group, which one day decides to "rape" him to see how the shoe fits on the other foot. Rather than being much bothered, Lafayette starts a liaison with the woman who actually had sex with him. In this rambling tale, these men are shown to have great difficulty enduring intense emotions, and the situations that arise force them to confront this difficulty repeatedly. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Marcello Mastroianni, (more)
- 1979
Roberto Benigni and Dominique Laffin co-star in this symbolic social drama about a well-meaning teacher and his young pre-school class. Although his unconventional techniques enthrall his young students, his methods stir controversy among the more traditionally minded parents and school administrators. A trip to a nearby factory enlightens the kids but draws criticism from the parent's of the children who work there. The concerned teacher is questioned by police when he helps a young five-year-old fiddle player who runs away from home. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Dominique Laffin, (more)
- 1981
Ben Gazzara delivers a gutsy, four-barreled performance as skid-row poet and storyteller Charles Bukowski (rechristened Charles Serking onscreen) in Tales of Ordinary Madness, blackly comic Italian director Marco Ferreri's adaptation of Bukowski's roman à clef Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions and General Tales of Ordinary Madness. Half soused, with a 2 a.m. shadow and street urchin rags, Serking waltzes through the scummiest neighborhoods of the City of Angels, indulging in booze, poetry, and copulation, and lounging in flophouses and on grimy public buses. His bedmates are a midget, a string of seedy whores, and various earthy L.A. denizens, played by Susan Tyrell, Ornella Muti, and others; he eventually falls for a prostitute who can express her affection only via self-mutilation. Ferreri lets Bukowski's ribald humor flow throughout and exposes the dark erotic currents at the heart of the author's narratives. Laced with perverse, shocking imagery, this unbridled celebration of life's dark underbelly has been praised by critics such as The New Yorker's Pauline Kael and Playboy's Bruce Williamson for its "genuine audacity and risktaking." ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ben Gazzara, Ornella Muti, (more)
- 1983
This sometimes confusing erotic drama about the incestuous relationship of a mother and daughter is based on the autobiography of Italian theater actress Piera Degli Esposti though it focuses more on her mother Eugenia (Hanna Schygulla). The liberated Eugenia and her spaced-out, husband (Marcello Mastroianni) -- a professor -- live in a small provincial Italian town, where Eugenia is noticed as she zooms around on her bicycle and chats up strangers at the train station. While still no more than a grown child, Piera -- in tight dresses -- goes with her mother for a threesome when she engages in sexual relations with other men and subsequently suffers both from poor health and the lack of a normal home. The shadow of the future already clouds the household when Eugenia is committed again and again to the psychiatric clinic. By the time Piera has become an adult, both of her parents are in separate mental hospitals -- and both (even the father) are still sexually eccentric, to say the least. (Hanna Schygulla) won the "Best Actress" award at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival for her portrayal of Eugenia. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Hanna Schygulla, Isabelle Huppert, (more)
- 1984
In this improbable, ponderous story about a couple who do not want to have children of their own, and a pregnant, single woman who needs a home for awhile, the relationship between the three protagonists is strange, at the very least. After Anna (Hanna Schygulla) and Gordon (Niels Arestrup) invite the expecting Malvina (Ornella Muti) to live with them, Anna becomes neurotically jealous and attempts suicide but is thwarted and in the end decides she really wants to be there for the baby when he/she comes into the world. Rather than trying to get rid of Malvina and the baby, both Gordon and Anna are in agreement on keeping it. When Gordon is accidentally killed, Malvina and Anna are left to plan for the future (now the best of friends), though it turns out the baby is destined to have only one mother after all. The confusion in the relationships of the main characters in this film is at times buried by clichés on the joys of motherhood and metaphors that overtake and bury the story. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ornella Muti, Hanna Schygulla, (more)
- 1986
In another indictment of the flaws of our so-called civilization, this satire from the late director (Marco Ferreri) features (Christopher Lambert) as Michel, a miserable man who has failed at love and finds solace in a mechanical key holder. Michel has just been dumped by Barbara (Anemone) because he has not been able to get her pregnant. He is feeling pretty low when he finds a key holder with blue eyes and big red lips that responds to the sound of a whistle with "I Love You." Michel tacks this gadget up on his TV set and whistles away. He seems happy with this fool-proof declaration of love until one day, the key holder responds to the neighbor's whistle and Michel goes berserk. After all, if your key ring can't be faithful, what's the world coming to? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anémone, Eddy Mitchell, (more)
- 1987
Survey of the history of Italian cinema, featuring clips from such classics as "Open City," "8-1/2," and "Seven Beauties," and interviews with illustrious stars and filmmakers, including Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Toto, Monica Vitti, Anna Magnani, Vittorio DeSica, Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Roberto Rossellini. ~ Nicole Gagne, Rovi
- 1988
A European humanitarian organization tries to bring relief to the famine-stricken Sahel region of North Africa in this satirical comedy. The convoy of five trucks is victimized by rebel guerillas and marauding tribes and is soon lost in the desert. When two party members try to leave, they end up being eaten by cannibals, and the Africans end up being irritated that the relief aid does more harm than good. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Maruschka Detmers, Michele Placido, (more)
- 1990
- R
In the hippie era, the motto used to be "never trust anyone over 30." In this geriatric romance, the motto might be amended to read "never trust anyone under 60." Still sprightly and interested in life though they are in their 70s, the two lovers in this film are confined in an unsympathetic "rest home" by their relatives and are only able to meet rarely in a camper loaned to them by some black immigrant workers. When the staff at the home get wind of their affair, they take vigorous action to try and "calm them down" simply to reassert their deadening control over them. Eventually the two of them end their romance, but the woman escapes the rest home and finds freedom in the company of the immigrants. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ingrid Thulin, Dado Ruspoli, (more)
- 1991
- R
Paolo is a divorced father of two who earns his living as a nightclub entertainer. One night, he meets Francesca, a strangely attractive woman, and after some rather peculiar talk about her having had sex with an Indian guru, they head off for his beach house for an assignation. Francesca uses some special secrets taught to her by her guru to turn him into a paralyzed sex-slave. All he can do is talk, while his body is out of his control and his penis remains continually erect. He seems to accept the situation, although it becomes pretty awkward when his children come over for a visit. After that, things take a darker turn. Viewers who saw this film at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival considered it self-indulgent, and too much like Ferrari's earlier La Dernière Femme (1976). ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sergio Castellitto, Francesca Dellera, (more)
- 1993
In this stylish and offbeat black comedy, Benito ( Jerry Calà) keeps a diary of his sexual fantasies and cravings. As a result of his on-again, off-again relationship with the beautiful and insatiable Luigia (Sabrina Ferilli), his thoughts along these lines have grown increasingly bizarre. For his own part, he is driven to pick up and bed women at almost every opportunity. As the fantasies recorded in his diary consume more and more of his life, and grow darker and darker, his ordinary waking life becomes flatter and duller, until he disappears altogether. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jerry Calà, Sabrina Ferilli, (more)
- 1995
This French biopic offers a dramatized profile of the notoriously earthy 16th-century French doctor, humanist and satirist, Francois Rabelais. It was filmed in the region of Lire where the author once lived. At the story's core is a tremendous outdoor banquet, for 500 people, in celebration of the author's 500th birthday. As they dine, scenes that evoke images from his works are depicted, including a giant puppet representing Gargantua, and a tribe of mud-caked men bursting out of a field of sunflowers. The diners are urged to revel until they die, and dinner conversation runs the gamut of earthy topics. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1996
This dramatic retrospective from Marco Ferreri eulogizes the passing of cinema as a culturally vital art form. While not all will agree with Ferreri's thesis that cinema for the masses is a lost art and has become an elitist endeavor, the director, using a combination of archival documentary footage, wide-ranging snippets from old and new films, and reenactments, makes some compelling arguments. One of his chief theses is that the decline of cinema was marked by the loss of the great movie houses where people from all walks gathered to form a unique, transitory microcosm of society that abided, if only briefly, by different rules from those in the "real" world outside. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Doriana Bianchi, Eric Berger, (more)
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