Salvatore Piscicelli Movies

Italian filmmaker Salvatore Piscicelli writes and directs the psychological drama Alla Fine Della Notte (At the End of the Night). Depressed, middle-aged actor/director Bruno Spada (Ennio Fantastichini) goes on a journey in search of happiness. At his home in Rome, his own wronged wife Fiamma (Stefania Orsola Garello) rightfully wants to leave him due to his constant infidelity. He first goes to Tuscany in order to visit his ex-girlfriend Viola (Elena Sofia Ricci), but she has her own relationship problems with a Filippino man (Ricky Tognazzi) to deal with. In Naples, he reunites with his aunt (Ida Di Benedetto) and recollects his childhood memories. At the End of the Night was screened at the 2003 Taormina Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

With the industrial wastelands of the Metropolitan area west of Naples as background, this film is a Mediterranean style Bonnie and Clyde with a clever collage of film noir elements. The Chinese ideograms in the main credits set the tone, representing three I Ching hexagrams -- Adversity, Biting and the Family. Rosa is pregnant, but her partner Angelo does not know it. They are on the run from her ex-husband, the wealthy butcher Pappalardo, who has hired a killer to get rid of Angelo. To get the money to leave town, Angelo becomes involved in a strange hold-up while Rosa goes back to the erotic chat line she had worked in the past after an unsuccessful attempt at drug pushing. Subplots involve two dudes, a dentist who smokes, a role player, a couple who manage the erotic hot-line, a maniac, a transsexual, an ex-burglar who is mad about electronics, a serial killer, a veteran actress, and more. All this leads to an almost happy ending. The film supports the idea that classical feminism is at odds with the younger generation who find security in the ideals of family traditions and Catholicism, all of which results in hybridization. The structure is not a linear narrative, but rather a series of special links -- internal rhymes, reversals of themes and timing -- coming together as in a jigsaw puzzle. In a way, the form serves as the content. Talented Italian jazz musician Eugenio Colombo's score is emotionally gripping. Rose e Pistole was screened as part of the International Forum of New Cinema section of the 49th Berlin Film Festival, 1999. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide

In this series of multiple vignettes for a teen audience, director Salvatori Piscicelli switches between two nights of concerts under an enormous tent, and the myriad romantic liaisons and dreams of a wide range of musicians and fans. One of the musicians, in-between his times on stage, romances a recalcitrant girlfriend (Marina Suma) and fends off attempts by organized crime to buy him out. In the meantime, his girlfriend is also fending off demands from the Mafia to buy "protection" for her business, a beauty salon. Other musicians, singers, and groupies strike up relationships, or end them, in this continual series of love, music, sex, and drugs during a brief Naples concert tour. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This is an uneven presentation of the tragedies plaguing the lives of two women from the lower economic strata in Naples. Immacolata (Ida Di Benedetto) is married, is bisexual, and runs a butcher shop that is not bringing in much money. Concetta (Marcella Michelangeli) is a lesbian, doing manual labor and now serving time for taking a potshot at her lover's husband. Immacolata has also been put in jail for guiding a young woman into prostitution. Immacolata and Concetta develop an intensely passionate relationship in prison and after being released, they defy Immacolata's husband and society's scorn by moving in together. But external threats are not as destructive, in the end, as internal contradictions. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide