Tullio Pinelli Movies

Fresh off of the international success of La Dolce Vita, master director Federico Fellini moved into the realm of self-reflexive autobiography with what is widely believed to be his finest and most personal work. Marcello Mastroianni delivers a brilliant performance as Fellini's alter ego Guido Anselmi, a film director overwhelmed by the large-scale production he has undertaken. He finds himself harangued by producers, his wife, and his mistress while he struggles to find the inspiration to finish his film. The stress plunges Guido into an interior world where fantasy and memory impinge on reality. Fellini jumbles narrative logic by freely cutting from flashbacks to dream sequences to the present until it becomes impossible to pry them apart, creating both a psychological portrait of Guido's interior world and the surrealistic, circus-like exterior world that came to be known as "Felliniesque." 8 1/2 won an Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, as well as the grand prize at the Moscow Film Festival, and was one of the most influential and commercially successful European art movies of the 1960s, inspiring such later films as Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979), Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (1980), and even Lucio Fulci's Italian splatter film Un Gatto nel Cervello (1990). ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

This mildly amusing satire of Italian marital customs concerns a meek bank teller (Dustin Hoffman) who has an affair with pretty Carla Gravina, then learns that he is unable to get a divorce from his tiresome wife (Stefania Sandrelli). Hoffman learned his lines in Italian before making Alfredo, Alfredo, only to discover that it was being filmed in English and redubbed. Although it has its moments, the film has aged badly, particularly with regard to its views of women, who are portrayed as either sex kittens or shrews. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

This romantic situation comedy finds Giovanni (Alberto Sordi) extremely jealous when his wife Raffaella (Monica Vitti) admits her infatuation over their handsome neighbor Valerio (Silvano Tranquilli). Giovanni spies on his wife and recruits their 10-year-old son in an effort to stop his wife's good-neighbor policy. Giovanni's once liberal and progressive outlook changes drastically with his wife's candid revelation. The two eventually consider a temporary separation after a series of incidents which seem to prove their incompatibility. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This episodic Italian comedy follows the misadventures of housemaid Maria (Elsa Merlini). Her various employers include a salesman (Aldo Fabrizi) who values peace and quiet, but never gets it, and a vainglorious actor (Vittorio de Sica) with woman trouble. Through it all, Maria survives with a little help from her friends, including best pal Ermelinda, played by the future star of Stromboli and Juliet of the Spirits, Giulette Masina. Among the screenwriters for this film was Masina's husband Federico Fellini. Cameriera Bella, Presenza Offresi marked the return to the screen of Elsa Merlini, one of the most popular personalities of the prewar Italian cinema. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Paola (Daniele Gaubert) feels her husband Marco (Philippe Leroy) is neglecting her, she willingly falls for his best friend Alberto (Horst Buchholz). Marco allows the affair to proceed and Paola experiences feelings of love she never knew were possible. She returns to her marital commitments but allows her romantic fantasies of Alberto and a Lesbian lover to continue. Marco soon experiences the positive benefits of his wife's imagination as their romantic romps take a favorable turn for the better. Nude scenes could mark this film as an exploitation feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The slow disintegration of a group of friends in their 30s is the subject of this equally slow-paced film set in the Emilia-Romagna coast of Italy. A local folk singer (Andrea Mingardi) is trying to make a go of his chosen profession, but is frustrated by the fact that everyone would rather listen to American rock than Italian folk songs. Meanwhile, his troubles are only beginning because his wife is starting to get interested in the local loco, and her friend Aida has a penchant for wanting to express herself, if she can only find herself first. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Director Federico Fellini gently lampoons the world of small-time show business in Ginger and Fred. Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni star as Amelia Bonetti and Pippo Botticella, a onetime celebrity song-and-dance team. Having risen to fame with a dancing act where they recreated the acts of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire (hoping to become the Fred and Ginger of Italy), Amelia and Pippo parted company to pursue their separate lives. Neither one was particularly successful in other fields of endeavor, so when after many years Amelia is offered a guest-star gig on a TV variety show, she jumps at the chance. She also seeks out her former partner, Pippo, who may have looked like Astaire in his younger days, but now....The overall good cheer of the film was dampened when the real Ginger Rogers sued the distributors of Ginger and Fred for "defamation of character." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Italian maestro Federico Fellini's first international success is a nakedly autobiographical film that bears many of the formal and thematic concerns that recur throughout his work. Set in the director's hometown of Rimini, I Vitelloni follows the lives of five young vitelloni, or layabouts, who while away their listless days in their small seaside village. Fausto (Franco Fabrizi), the leader of the pack, marries his sweetheart, but finds himself constantly distracted by other women. Meanwhile, would-be playwright Leopoldo (Leopoldo Trieste) continues work on his dreary plays, dreaming of staging them one day. Clownish Alberto (Alberto Sordi) still lives at home with his mother and sister, Olga (Claude Farell), while boasting of preserving the family honor by watching over her. While the movie seems to pay little attention to Riccardo (Riccardo Fellini) and Moraldo (Franco Interlenghi), the latter eventually emerges as its key character, plainly serving as Fellini's alter ego. Stuck in adolescence, the five friends stumble into various misadventures, as they seek to spice up their uneventful provincial lives. Ultimately, one of them breaks free from their self-imposed paralysis and moves on, leading to one of the most poignant farewell sequences in film history. A hit in Italy upon its release, I Vitelloni secured Fellini's reputation as an up-and-coming talent, while also introducing its title into Italian vernacular. ~ Elbert Ventura, All Movie Guide

Il Brigante di Tacca del Lupo represented another move away from neorealism into sheer commercialism by Italian filmmker Pietro Germi. The story is set in the 1860s, when the Northern and Southern regions of Italy were forcibly assembled into a unified whole. A bandit loyal to the idea of Southern sovereignty wreaks havoc upon the forces of Northern Italy. In depicting the exploits of the bandit and the diligence of his military pursuers, director Germi is careful not to take sides, mirroring the political confusion rampant in Italy at the time of the story. When distributed to the U.S., Il Brigante di Tacca del Lupo was advertised along the lines of a Civil War epic --which, for all intents and purposes, it was. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Both controversial and compelling, this is the story of a naive peasant girl who becomes pregnant after being seduced by a shepherd and believes that she is carrying a specially blessed child. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Valentina Cortese's star continued to rise with the period melodrama Bullet for Stefano (Il Passatore). Cortese plays Barbara, whose wedding is interrupted when dashing brigand Stefano (Rossano Brazzi) kills the groom and abducts the bride. Eventually, Stefano tires of Barbara, and casts her aside. But she is not to be dispensed with so easily. Rallying the peasantry, Barbara sets the wheels in motion for Stefano's destruction. Curiously, despite his wretched behavior, there is a certain amount of sympathy for Stefano, who is a thief only because he wishes to help the poor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Seven top Italian filmmakers pooled their talents on the omnibus "reality" feature Amore in Citta (Love in the City). The film is divided into six separate episodes; the first of these, "Paid Love", is a straightforward study of prosititution written and directed by Carlo Lizzani. In the second, Michelangelo Antonioni's "Attempted Suicide", several would-be suicides discuss the reasons for their despair. Dino Risi's "Paradise for Four Hours" is a humorous glance at a provincial dance hall. Federico Fellini's "Marriage Agency" finds an investigative reporter posing as a husband-to-be. Cesara Zavattini and Umberto Maselli's "Story of Caterina" dramatizes the true story of a young unwed mother. And "Italians Stare", written and directed by Alberto Lattuada, illustrates the various "girl-watching" techniques of Italian males. Among the actors particpating in the six vignettes are Ugo Tognazzi, Maressa Gallo, and Caterina Riogoglioso. Originally intended as the first installment in a "movie magazine" titled "The Spectator", Amore in Citta was released at 110 minutes; most American prints are bereft of the opening "Paid Love" segment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide