Vittorio Cecchi Gori Movies

True love, jealousy, and betrayal bring about a good old-fashioned case of body swapping in Italian director Sergio Rubini's 2002 fantastical dark comedy Soul Mate. Rich and unbelievably spoiled, Teresa (Valentina Cervi) is accustomed to getting what she wants. In her most recent conquest, she managed to steal her cousin Maddalena's (Violante Placido) boyfriend, Tonino (Michele Venitucci), even going so far as getting the young man to agree to an engagement. But when the appointed time comes, Tonino backs out and seeks out his true love and soul mate Maddalena. Enraged, Teresa tracks down the village mystic, Benedetta (Maria De Fano), only to meet with the old woman's refusal to cast any spell for the sake of evil. Fortunately for Teresa, Benedetta's son, Angelantonio (director Sergio Rubini), isn't so scrupulous and goes about learning what he needs to in order to enable Teresa to swap bodies with Maddalena. Meanwhile, Maddalena convinces Angelantonio to transport her into Teresa's body, in order to test Tonino's ability to judge beyond outward appearances -- setting in motion the final test to Maddalena and Tonino's relationship. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide

A young man finds his family history thrown into question in this politically charged drama. Javier Ramos (Carlos Echevarria) is the teenaged son of an Argentinean exile living in Italy (Enrique Pineyro) -- or so he's been led to believe. Recently, Javier has been receiving strange e-mail messages from Rosa (Giulia Sarano), a woman from Buenos Aires who claims to be his twin sister, even though he's never met her. Javier isn't sure what to make of Rosa's messages, but when she arrives unannounced at his family's doorstep, his father's reaction leads him to suspect there's a certain amount of truth in her story. Rosa tells Javier that her mother was a political prisoner in Argentina during the 1970s, when thousands of opponents of the nation's military government simply "disappeared." After Javier was born in a prison hospital, he was given to a pilot who flew with the Argentinean Air Force and disposed of murdered dissidents by throwing their bodies into the ocean. The doctors at the prison were not aware that Javier's mother was carrying twins; after Javier was born, Rosa soon followed, and her mother was able to smuggle her out of the hospital before the authorities were the wiser. As Javier awaits the results of a DNA test that will determine if he and Rosa truly are related, he wonders how much of her story is true and how much is imagined -- and if she is telling the truth, does that make his father a criminal, or a soldier who simply followed orders? Figli/Hijos was directed by Marco Bechis, who previously examined the tragedy of Argentina's "desaparecidos" in his film Garage Olimpo. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Recalling François Girard's The Red Violin, Canone Inverso - Making Love is a multi-layered, multi-generational tale of music, fate, and passion. Based on the novel by Paolo Maurensig, the film opens in pre-WWII Europe, where Jeno, a half-Jewish boy, lives in relative poverty with his mother. His father, who abandoned his wife and son, left them with only a rare violin and a canone inverso, a traditional composition written for two instruments. During Jeno's (Hans Matheson) adolescence, his mother dies, and in the wake of her death, he is drawn to Sophie Levy (Melanie Thierry), a married, French Jewish pianist with whom he develops a close relationship. At Sophie's encouragement, Jeno applies for a scholarship to a music conservatory; there, he meets David Blau (Lee Williams), an aristocratic cad who becomes a great influence in Jeno's life. When Jeno is expelled from the school for being Jewish, David quits in protest and takes his friend back to his father's estate. It is at the estate that Jeno discovers a piece of music written by David's father that sparks a revelation about his family heritage -- and his connections to David and Sophie. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide

In this broad comedy from Italy, five buddies -- the owner of a cafe (Carlo Buccirosso), his best friend (Emilio Solfrizzi), a mama's boy schoolteacher (Gennaro Nunziante), a one-time professional soccer player (Claudio Amendola), and a bus driver (Alessandro Di Carlo) -- buy lottery tickets as a group, assuming that the more tickets they buy, the better their chances of winning, with the group sharing the prize if they hit the number. However, when their lucky day finally arrives and they have the right number for a $43 million jackpot, it's discovered that someone has pocketed the winning ticket and plans to keep the money for himself. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Noted Italian filmmaker Leonardo Pieraccioni follows up on his cowboy epic My West (1998) with this good-natured fable about the fleeting and shallow nature of fame. Pure-hearted carpenter and amateur novelist Arturo (Pieraccioni) stumbles into fame after his collection of children's stories, entitled "The Fish in Love" finds its way onto the lap of a bigwig publisher (Patrizia Loreti). The book is a phenomenal international success, and soon Arturo is swept up in one launch party after another. Eventually, Arturo tires of the high life and decides to spend the night in the relative quiet of his hotel room. A hotel snafu has him sharing a suite with the drop-dead gorgeous Matilde (Yamilia Diaz), and Arturo finds himself in an unexpected romance. The next day, when he learns that his love is in fact married, he retires from the high-rolling lifestyle to live and work in a tranquil mountain retreat. Several months later, Matilde suddenly appears on his door step with a baby in tow. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Italian playwright turned director Vincenzo Salemme's sophomore effort is a bizarre romance between a bereaved widower and a rakish Mafioso libertine, both of whom are supposedly heterosexual. Mobster scion Bruno (Salemme) runs into a widowed policeman whose dead wife's eyes were donated to him thanks to a transplant. They experience a strange attraction that neither party can explain, thanks to Italy's organ donor anonymity laws. Soon, to the shock and disgust of his gangster family and peevish bride-to-be, Bruno begins acting in ways unbecoming a future godfather. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

The second feature of Steano Incerti, who learned his trade as assistant director to established fellow Neapolitan filmmakers Mario Martone and Pappi Corsicato, Prima del Tramonto (Before Sundown) is set on Italy's southern coast, a transit point for every kind of human and illegal cargo from around the Mediterranean border. Ali (Said Taghmaoui) is a young and charming Moroccan man who works as a waiter for Nicetra, the old boss of the local criminal ring. At 8 o'clock in the morning, we see him getting ready to marry the daughter of the boss with dreams of settling down comfortably. But at the last minute, he decides to reject the security of an easy solution and deserts the ceremony to take his destiny in his own hands. He finds shelter in a seedy hotel with Assia, who is also from Morocco and is hopelessly in love with him. They make love and plan to run to the airport when it gets dark. Ali falls asleep, only to be woken up by two thugs of the boss, who did not forgive his desertion. Assia has disappeared; probably she has betrayed him. Ali starts to run across hostile land with two men on his tail who are determined to take revenge for their boss. The film is a contemporary thriller, which explores the crisis of values in a society in transition towards a new, multi-ethnic identity. Prima del tramonto was screened in competition at the 1999 Locarno International Film Festival. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide