Giancarlo Giannini Movies

Several star-crossed couples experience both the thrills and the disappointment of romance over the course of one evening in this romantic comedy. Reporter Marcello (Giancarlo Giannini) has a brief encounter with Irene (Marie Trintignant) while waiting for a train. A young woman who has lost her sight (Silvia De Santis) finds herself falling for the voice of a ship's captain (Yari Gugilucci) she hears over a radio broadcast. Egle (Ornella Muti), a massage therapist who is soon to be married, finds herself pursuing one last fling with Gabriele (James Thierree) -- though the odds are not in her favor, since he happens to be gay. Elena (Isabelle Pasco) is a young woman with a child who wants to abandon her husband. And Carla (Marina Confalone) wonders if she has any future at all with her lover -- who is married to someone else. Una Lunga Lunga Lunga Notte D'Amore was directed by veteran filmmaker Luciano Emmer, who was 83 when the film opened in Europe in the spring of 2001. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Nae Caranfil directs this playful movie about the two years that young French author Stendhal gallivanted about the Italian countryside. Stendhal (Francois Cluzet), then still known simply as Henri Beyle, is living the life of a gentleman-wanderer, looking for a direction in his life. He spends a few nights at the estate of Count Nencini (Giancarlo Giannini) as he waits for the army to dispatch with a brigand lair. He learns that the melancholy Count is secretly supporting the bandit, which soon embroils the young writer in a web of intrigue. Meanwhile, he finds himself profoundly attracted to young widow Giuseppina (Isabella Ferrari). ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

In this coming-of-age drama, a teenage boy's world is shaken when his mother is killed. To escape troubling memories, he's sent to Canada to stay with friends of the family. He finds an escape from the sorrow of his loss by joining his school's soccer team; he also finds himself falling for the daughter of his soccer coach. But winning her heart proves to be every bit as challenging as winning a hard-fought soccer game, as he learns some hard lessons about life, love, and the playing field. The cast includes Giancarlo Giannini, Burt Young, and Simone Corrente. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Francesco Cesena Giancarlo Giannini is a smart cop who does not like his job. While conducting a routine investigation, he gets involved in a shoot-out during which he is wounded, one of his colleagues is gunned down, and he kills an ex-con and his wife. A few months later, two kids, Fabrizio and Simonetta, are arrested for stealing a car. Cesena and his assistant Cane, who is about the same age as the suspects, have to question them. Partly out of boredom and also because he finds Simonetta appealing, Cesena leads on the couple to believe that he has something much more serious on them than the car theft. Fabrizio believes him, while Simonetta smells a rat but decides to play along. During the night, the youths tell the cops the story of their wasted lives; they are two people who have completely lost control and turned their worst fantasies into reality. Cesena is so fascinated by the fragile personality that lies beneath Simonetta's hard exterior that he does not want to hear any more. But she is determined not to leave out any details. A cross between Bonnie and Clyde and Hana-Bi via Pulp Fiction, the saving grace of this Italian thriller is Giancarlo Giannini, best known for his remarkable performances in Lina Wertmuller's films. Vuoti a Perdere was screened as part of the Panorama of 49th International Berlin Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

While one would imagine that the average New Yorker would be used to dealing with bugs after years of apartment dwelling, a scientific experiment gone wrong results in an insect that even Raid can't handle in this sci-fi/horror thriller. In Manhattan, cockroaches are spreading a deadly disease that is claiming hundreds of the city's children, so entomologist Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) uses genetic engineering techniques to create what she and her colleague (and husband) Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) call the Judas Breed, a large insect that will feed on the disease carrying roaches. Since the Judas bugs have been designed so that they can't breed, the mutated species should die out in a matter of a few years. However, Susan, Peter, and their staff severely underestimated the cockroach's ability to adapt to its conditions. The Judas Breed has indeed found a way to reproduce itself, but more importantly, the insect has grown remarkably large (sometimes reaching six feet in length), has developed a taste for meat, and can mimic the appearance and behavior of other creatures with uncanny accuracy -- including humans. Susan and Peter have learned that huge swarms of the Judas Breed are living beneath the city in the subway system, and with the help of Leonard (Charles S. Dutton), a transit system employee who knows the labyrinth of subway tunnels like the back of his hand, they search out the humanoid insects before they can take over the city. Mimic also features Giancarlo Giannini, Josh Brolin, and F. Murray Abraham. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on a popular novel by Spanish author Antonio Gala, this romantic melodrama centers on the struggles on a Seville rancher's dissatisfied wife. Poor Palmira; her husband Willy has not slept with her in ages, her teenaged son is sexually confused, her sister a lesbian, and her daughter is seeing a man on the sly. Matters worsen when Palmira finds out that her husband is having an affair, that her daughter is pregnant with a hemophiliac child and her son has died in a motorcycle accident. If that weren't enough, she learns of his homosexuality shortly after the funeral from his bisexual best friend, the one with whom Palmira had a brief affair. Overwhelmed, Palmira leaves the family to search for herself and for her long-lost first love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

On convalescent leave on his birth-island off Dalmatia, Franco (Marco Leonardi), a Croatian-speaking soldier in the Italian army, sees things that cause him to question his loyalty to the Italian rulers in the area. Thus, he does not think too harshly of the local children's efforts to sabotage the Italian army, and he seeks the wisdom of his older mentor Simeone (Omero Antonutti). From him, he hears the story of another young man who, in the time of World War I, faced a similar dilemma. Emidio (Raoul Bova), the other young man, was a soldier in the Austrian army (Austria ruled the island at that time). Prompted perhaps by a love affair, he was killed while attempting to desert to the Italian side. This film is in Italian. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

An elite team of plainclothes policeman are assigned to see that a murderous Mafia stoolie and his family make it safely from their Palermo home to the courts in Milan, where he plans to testify, in this Italian thriller. The man they escort is Mafia-attorney Leofonte, who recently had another informer killed for mentioning his name to the police. Now it is his turn to sing, hence the heavy guard consisting of three experienced cops, two female officers and two rookies. They must also insure that his wife and children are protected from retaliation. Unfortunately, despite the caution of the police, things do not go as planned and two of them plus the lawyer's family are slain. Now the lawyer and the others travel in fear that they too will be killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The biblical story of Jacob explored in this made-for-TV movie starring Matthew Modine as the titular religious figure and Lara Flynn Boyle as his love Rachel. Set against the backdrop of Jacob's many trials from God throughout his life, Turner Pictures' production focuses on the romantic aspect to present what many consider to be the best love story in the Bible. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

This political docudrama follows the real-life circumstances that led to the assassination of the anti-Mafia crusading judge Giovanni Falcone (Michele Placido) and his wife, in addition to the assassination of another such judge. A number of high-ranking Italian public figures were under investigation by the judge for their alleged association with the Mafia (and hence with these "hits") and they threatened lawsuits to prevent this film from being made or shown. Some small changes were made to prevent libel suits from being filed. Much of the dialogue comes directly from official documents in the cases the judge was prosecuting. It is interesting to note that, in interviews filmed for U.S. television, the judge acknowledged that his and his wife's lives were in danger, but he felt that the possibility reducing the power of the Sicilian mafia in Italy was worth the risk. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this leisurely melodrama, a middle-aged man has resented his schoolteacher mother for decades because he imagines she had an affair with a colleague. In fact, he hasn't spoken to her in almost as long. This resentment has scarred his emotional life irreparably. Only when he hastens to his mother's deathbed and arrives too late does he get a letter from her via her supposed lover, which corrects his misconceptions and explains the scene we see at the beginning. In it, she is reading a poem to her son when he is a boy, which reads: "Footsteps echo in memory along the corridor we didn't take to the door we never opened." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide