Franco Giraldi Movies
- 2006
Few American film enthusiasts were even aware that anyone made westerns in Italy before Sergio Leone's breakthrough film, 1964's Per un Pugno di Dollari (aka A Fistful Of Dollars), made Clint Eastwood a worldwide star and introduced audiences to the forbidding beauty and troubling morality of Leone's unique vision of the American West. A Fistful of Dollars was an international hit, as were its follow ups Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (aka For A Few Dollars More) and Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo (aka The Good, The Bad and the Ugly), and Leone's striking visual sense and complex storytelling established him as one of the masters of genre filmmaking, though in later years his ambition would outstrip his ability to bring his projects to the screen. Sergio Leone: Il mio modo di vedere le cose (aka Sergio Leone: The Way I See Things) is a documentary which takes a loving look at the highlights of Leone's career in cinema, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how several of his best films were made through interviews with actors and technicians who collaborated with him as well as archival footage of Leone discussing his pictures. Sergio Leone: The Way I See Things received its American premiere at the 2006 Cinequest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eugenio Alabisio, Nino Baragli, (more)
- 1996
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
- 1985
- R
This lurid Italian production is set in a convent with a dark history, beginning with the death of the Mother Superior and continuing several years later with a series of unexplained murders. When an elderly priest is called in to investigate the deaths, the current Mother Superior (Franca Stoppi) tries to stop him at all costs. It is eventually revealed that the nuns are harboring the daughter of Satan in their midst, who has enslaved them to do her evil bidding and is capable of destroying all who stand in her path. Truly disgusting scenes abound, from gory murders to blood-spurting stigmata, combined with Exorcist-style demonic displays and more clerical depravities than Ken Russell's The Devils. To top things off there's even a zombie-filled climax. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandy Samuel
In this woeful "zombie" film, an accident occurs in a scientific lab in Papua-New Guinea sending out a dangerous chemical in a cloud of green smoke and turning the technicians and locals into ghouls ravenous for human flesh. An Italian news reporter (Margit Evelyn Newton) and her crew land on the island in search of the story, quickly followed by a search-and-destroy mission of soldiers. From that point onward, highly unreal dialogue ("something eating you?") would classify the movie as a cult-camp favorite. When the mismatched or unmatched sequences in the film are combined with ugly color and moronic dialogue, it is difficult to tell whether the living-dead or brain-dead dominate the film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margit Evelyn Newton, Franco Giraldi, (more)
- 1979
Salvini (Jean-Pierre Cassel) is an orchestra conductor of some renown. While rehearsing for a performance of Verdi's Othello he has a psychological crisis, brought on by his recognition of the man playing tympani in his orchestra. Near the end of World War II, Salvini took a false identity and hid in a remote monastery. While there, he encountered Romualdi, a funny, blustering buffoon who thought of himself as a true musical genius. Salvani and an actress, who was also hiding nearby, had some mean-spirited fun with Romualdi, pretending that the man was in fact a genius, and encouraging him in his delusions. Seeing Romualdi years later, humbly playing the least prestigious position in the orchestra, gives him pause, and causes him to rethink his career. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Cassel, Renzo Montagnani, (more)
- 1976
In the years just before World War I, an enterprising early Viennese women's rights activist daringly takes the exams to enter an all-male college in Trieste (a port on the Mediterranean which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and later became part of Italy). She becomes the only girl student at the college, and this film chronicles her experiences as she crashes through the barriers of male attitudes again and again. She becomes involved in a complex romantic situation which seems very important to her until the war begins and puts everything into a new perspective. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laura Lenzi, Stefano Patrizi, (more)
- 1973
The harbor of Trieste, at the head of the Adriatic, has at various times been an independent state, a port of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, part of Yugoslavia, and part of Italy. This film, set in 1917 when the city was still Austrian, examines the last days of the life of a fading nobleman (Alain Cuny) of Italian/Austrian lineage, and the change in that city's fortunes which his death prefigures. Only two years later, Trieste was ceded to Italy. This Italian movie is based on the novel La Rosa Rossa by Perantonio Quarantotti Bambini. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1969
Stefano (Ugo Tognazzi) and his wife Giovanna (Senta Berger) are tempted to shed their sexual inhibitions when they witness a couple making love atop the Eiffel Tower. He places an ad in a lonely hearts column, but the women he dreams about all seem to be hideous creatures. The swinging couple take on various bed partners in this sex satire about modern moral decay. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ugo Tognazzi, Senta Berger, (more)
- 1968
A bachelor attorney with a roving eye for beautiful women stets his sights on a 17-year-old student for his next amorous conquest. He meets with her parents, an economically troubled couple who soon give their consent for the couple to date. Using an engagement ring as an enticing lure to initiate sex, the lawyer gets more than he bargained for with the wily female who is wise far beyond her years. The tables are turned on the lawyer as she withholds her affections, feigns a pregnancy and ends up holding all the cards in the relationship with the older, "more experienced" attorney. Comedy relief is provided by the man's gay houseboy who engages in his own sexual escapades in this situation comedy of love, lust and desire. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ugo Tognazzi, Lilla Brignone, (more)
- 1967
- R
- Add A Minute to Pray, a Second To Die to QueueAdd A Minute to Pray, a Second To Die to top of Queue
Clay McCord (Alex Cord) is a former outlaw determined to live the life of a law-abiding citizen. Colby (Arthur Kennedy) is the town marshall who keeps law and order. Not far from the peaceful town is a haven for criminals led by Kraut (Mario Brega), a trigger happy outlaw who welcomes those who are wanted by the law. McCord worries that he may have the epilepsy that plagued his father and hastened his demise. He battles the sadistic gunman while hoping for a pardon from the sympathetic governor (Robert Ryan). He also falls for the lovely Laurinda (Nicoletta Machiavelli) as he walks between the two worlds of the law and the lawless in this action-packed and often bloody western adventure. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alex Cord, Arthur Kennedy, (more)
- 1967
In this comical spaghetti western, a companion film to Seven Guns for the MacGregors, two immigrant families move to Texas during the 1800s. The MacGregors hail from Scotland while their neighbors the Donovans come from Ireland. The two families frequently engage in rivalry, but it is all in fun as all six MacGregor boys are engaged to the Donovan girls. The trouble begins during an engagement party for Bailey and Flori. The festivities are interrupted by an outlaw gang which steals the trunk containing all the MacGregor's money. Naturally the boys, including Bailey, take off in hot pursuit. Flori, afraid her beloved may be tempted by the outlaw's wanton women, follows them and ends up taken hostage. Bailey tries to save her but ends up captured also. Now his brothers, aided by helpful natives must save them both. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Bailey, Leo Anchoriz, (more)
- 1966
This Latin western comedy chronicles the epic saga of the MacGregors, a Scottish clan of ranchers living on the Mexican border, who are in conflict with the local crooked sheriff, the local horse salesman, and a gang of banditos. The trouble begins when the horse trader tries to bilk them on a deal. The brothers begin brawling and are tossed in jail. They are eventually released and discover that the outlaws have taken their horses and find out the sheriff is in league with the rogues and will not help. They then set off to catch the thieves themselves. Unfortunately, they end up captured and can only be saved by their bagpipe-playing daddy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Manuel Zarzo
