Giuliano Montaldo Movies

In early 1959, Fidel Castro led a rebel army that successfully overthrew the U.S.-backed government of Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista, and several months later a sweeping program of political and economic overhauls were put in place. The many foreign (mostly American) businesses that had set up shop in Cuba found their property nationalized, and a Communist government replaced what was ostensibly a Democracy but was in practice closer to a dictatorship. Fifty years after the revolution, Cuba remains one of the last holdouts for Communism on the world stage, and while many people are as fascinated as ever with Fidel Castro, the future of his empire is in doubt as the ailing leader has surrendered his position as president to his brother Raul Castro and the Soviet Union, who once provided extensive financial and military support for Cuba, is just a memory. On the golden anniversary of the Cuban Revolution, filmmaker Giuliano Montaldo examines celebrated moments in Cuba's past and asks ordinary citizens to share their opinions about its future in the documentary L'orio di Cuba, which was an official selection at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Filmmaker Peter Miller explores the crimes, trial, and execution of notorious 20th-century anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in a documentary that highlights just how this landmark case came to symbolize the injustice and intolerance experienced by immigrants longing to pursue their dreams in the land of the free. It was 1920 when Italian immigrant anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti were accused of murder in Massachusetts. Seven years later, when the jurors delivered their final verdict in a notoriously prejudiced trial, both men were condemned to death despite massive protests both in the U.S. and abroad. Eight decades later, as America continues to wrestle with issues of civil rights, immigrant liberties, and dissent, the case of Sacco and Vanzetti continues to resonate. In addition to balancing the personal and political aspects of the case as well as looking into the legal climate of the era, Miller's film brings the prison writings of Sacco and Vanzetti to life as never before as Tony Shalhoub and John Turturro read the deeply personal letters written by the pair during their ordeal. Additional music, artwork, poetry, and film clips inspired by the case propel the narrative by highlighting just what a lasting impression the Sacco and Vanzetti case has had on American culture. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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, Rovi

The ruination of Michel Sindona, a powerful Italian financier with underworld connections, is chronicled in this historical drama. The tale begins in 1974 after Sindona's banking empire has just collapsed. The state sends in Milanese attorney Giorgio Ambrosoli to supervise the official receivership of Sindona's personal bank. Following the bank's destruction, Sindona high-tailed it to New York, but he still has the lawyer's every move watched. The surveillance is a routine precaution and Sindona isn't too worried about Ambrosoli, whom he sees as just another ineffectual, corruptible bureaucrat, an annoyance, but no real threat to the rest of Sindona's empire. Ambrosoli investigates deeper, and discovers that Sindona is connected to not only, the Mafia, but also the Parliament and to the Vatican. He then becomes a real threat by assuming control of the criminal mastermind's European holdings. While stepping up his investigations, Ambrosoli pays no mind to the ominous hints from the government that he should stop. Thanks to Ambrosoli, Sindona's credibility is severely damaged; meanwhile the lawyer begins receiving anonymous death threats (the actual taped threats are used for added realism). Eventually, Sindona has enough and puts a contract out on Ambrosoli, who was killed in 1979. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this off-beat wartime drama, a young Italian soldier stationed in Ethiopia gets into deep trouble after a toothache compels him to set off in search of a dentist. He pauses at a desert oasis and sees a beautiful young woman bathing there. He loses control and rapes her. Afterward he feels bad and spends the entire evening with her. Unfortunately, during that time he hears a wild animal and fires a shot which ricochets off of a rock and mortally wounds the hapless girl. Unable to help her, the soldier shoots her in the head and then buries her body. As the soldier resumes his journey, a little time passes and he and his buddies see two natives wearing strange white garments, just like the poor girl he ravaged and killed. They are obviously pariahs and suddenly he realizes why--they are lepers and so was the girl! Soon the soldier discovers an open sore on his hand that will not heal. Believing that he too has the dread degenerative disease he suddenly remembers his family and fiancee in Italy and wants to see them desperately. Unfortunately, he cannot get home and so ends up seeking solace and forgiveness in the dead girl's native village. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Fifteen strangers who have volunteered for an experiment in isolation are forced to deal with an even larger problem in this film from Italian director Giuliano Montaldo. A research group in Germany wants to study the effects of isolation in a nuclear shelter on human subjects and assembles a diverse group of people for the test. The strangers agree to stay in the shelter for 20 days, but are allowed to exit at any time. During their time in the shelter, the group experiences a wide range of social dynamics, but near the end of their stay in the shelter, it is learned that a real nuclear incident is underway and the test group will be forced to stay in their shelter indefinitely. Featured in the cast are Burt Lancaster, Ben Gazzara, and Kate Nelligan. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi

Franco Zefferelli directs the Metropolitan Opera production of Puccini's Turandot in this live on-stage recording fromPolygram. Starring legendary performers Placido Domingo, James Levine, and Eva Marton, this opera is presented in the original Italian with English subtitles. Turandot tells the story of a princess in Peking who has pledged to marry the man who can correctly answer three riddles. Those who can not answer correctly meet with bloody consequences. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

In the uncertain days following the end of World War II, disillusioned German soldiers wander aimlessly over the charred countryside of Italy. Two of these soldiers are rounded up by their superiors and charged with desertion--surrender or no surrender. Despite an Allied edict that the Germans are no longer permitted to stage military trials, the two hapless conscripts are sentenced to death by firing squad. The Fifth Day of Peace was based on a true story. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A hardened criminal learns there's little loyalty on either side of the law in this drama from Italian director Giuliano Montaldo. Charlie Adamo (Peter Falk) is a rough-hewn but ambitious underworld kingpin who has taken control of the West Coast syndicates and wants a piece of the action in Las Vegas. Adamo's boss Don Francesco DeMarco (Gabriele Ferzetti) isn't happy about his plans to take over The Royal, a posh casino and hotel that's owned by the mob, and he's determined to put Adamo in his place. Meanwhile, a handful of young gangsters are plotting to rob The Royal of $2 million, and one of them, Jack (Pierluigi Apra), know just the right man for the job -- his father Hank McCain (John Cassavetes), better known as "Machine Gun McCain," currently serving a life sentence after a crime spree put him in prison twelve years earlier. The mob arranges for McCain to be released, and Jack escorts him to Las Vegas, where he runs into Irene (Britt Ekland), a young woman he meets in a bar and impulsively marries. McCain plans and pulls off an ingenious casino robbery, but he pulled the heist after his backers ordered him to abandon the robbery, and soon he's one of several characters on the run from the law and the mafia. John Cassavetes and Peter Falk struck up a friendship while working on Gli Intoccabili (aka Machine Gun McCain), and it was the first of several films the two actors would make together, most under the direction of Cassavetes, including Husbands, A Woman Under The Influence and Big Trouble. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Renato Salvatori and Norma Benguell star in this crime drama. Ettore is a husband whose wife has left him for her lover. The wife returns to tell him their marriage is over, but the scheming husband talks her into loaning him her car. He meets her lover and murders the man, disposing of his possessions in a symbolic gesture to obliterate his memory. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi