Pier Paolo Capponi Movies

The performer known as Farinelli, born Carlo Broschi (and played in this film by Stefano Dionisi), was famous in the 18th century as the world's greatest castrato, a male singer whose testicles were removed in childhood so that he would retain the high, clear voice of a child while gaining the control and power of an adult vocalist. A strikingly gifted singer with a range of more than three octaves, Farinelli was given little choice but to sacrifice his manhood in exchange for his art, and as his career was founded on the surgery that would dramatically restrict his off-stage life, his art was in turn hemmed in by his family. Carlo's father declared early on that he should only sing the songs of his brother Riccardo (Enrico LoVerso), and while Farinelli's fame gives Riccardo's career a needed boost, the mediocrity of Riccardo's compositions holds Farinelli back. When the singer is given the opportunity to work with the great composer Handel (Jeroen Krabbe), his brother's jealously and Farinelli's own poorly chosen career alliances stand in his way. The brothers' often contentious partnership also extends to the bedroom; while Farinelli's performances set women on fire, he's physically incapable of satisfying them sexually, so he provides the foreplay in a bizarre game of seduction and then turns his conquests over to his brother. Farinelli il Castrato received a Golden Globe award as Best Foreign Language Film of 1994 and an Academy Award nomination in the same category. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In Fiorile (US title: Wild Flower), Italy's Taviani brothers once again dissect the manners and mores of the Tuscany region. The story is predicated on a 200-year-old family curse. During the Napoleonic era, Elizabetta "Fiorile" Benedetti (Galatea Ranzi) discovers that her own brother Corado (Claudio Bigagli) is responsible for the crime for which her lover Jean (Michael Vartan) was executed. The embittered Fiorile places a curse on the Benedetti family, declaring that none of her brother's direct descendants will ever achieve true happiness. Over the next two centuries, the Benedettis' ill-gotten wealth increases, but they lose the love and respect of their neighbors. In fact, most people prefer to call the Benedetti family the "Maledettis," or the Cursed Ones. The film's final episode occurs during World War II, as Grandpa Massimo Benedetti (Renato Carpentieri), the last family member directly affected by the curse, relates his tale of woe to a pair of youngsters. Will the curse die with Massimo, or will the innocent young ones be forced to carry it into the next generation? Fiorile is not the sort of movie one sits back and relaxes with, despite its leisurely pace; those willing to work with the film, however, will be amply rewarded. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The majority of Italian communists had been somewhat independent from strict adherence to the Soviet Communist Party's dictates for several decades by the 1970s. This biographical drama explores the career of Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), one of the communists who, in the '20s and '30s began to break with Moscow over issues of strategy. Born in Sardinia, Gramschi, together with Palmiro Togliatti created the newspaper L'Ordine Nuovo in 1919. He became the Secretary of the Italian Communist Party in 1924. Arrested in 1926, he died days after his release from prison in 1937. His writings, The Prison Notebooks, cover the period between 1929-35. In these, he substituted the conception of the "dictatorship of the proletariat" for the "hegemony of the proletariat." His emphasis was on intellectual guidance rather than domination by the state. The movie mostly explores his career while he was in prison, from which he was allowed to circulate his notions concerning a gradual revolution. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

From the Middle Ages onward, certain monasteries and nunneries were basically elegant retirement homes for rich noblemen and noblewomen. The position of abbot or abbess at one of these institutions often carried with it considerable wealth and worldly power. So it comes as no surprise that the elegant nuns of Sant'arcangelo in Naples should fight for the position of Mother Superior of their nunnery; it has a charter to huge quantities of gold from the New World. Nor should it surprise anyone that this squabble attracted the interest of powerful figures in the church. This Italian/French drama, based on a story by Henri Stendahl, focuses on the characters of the nuns, noblemen and churchmen involved in this dispute, which eventually came under the scrutiny of the Holy Inquisition. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This Italian tragedy chronicles the sad love affair between a military inductee and a young woman. The story is set in Italy, during 1938 when Mussolini was having all Jews exiled from Italy. Donatello loves Vernier. Trouble ensues when Vernier refuses to disclose her religious beliefs to the government. She eventually deliberately dives into the Arno River and drowns. The distraught fellow then learns from his mother, that his father, an opposition leader, was executed in prison. Despite the terrible tragedies surrounding him, the brave boy goes into the military. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Peter Strauss, six years removed from his Rich Man Poor Man stardom, stars in the Italian-Spanish Man of Legend. Strauss plays a WW I-era German soldier, who barely escapes being wrongly executed as a spy. He escapes to the French Foreign Legion, then enjoys a torrid romance with Tina Aumont, daughter of a Moroccan rebel leader. Before he knows what hit him, Strauss has become a hero of the rebellion Man of Legend bears no relation to truth, but it goes down easily on a rainy afternoon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first color film by writer/director Salvatore Samperi is this grim family melodrama, a modern-day reinvention of the tale of the Prodigal Son. Upon hearing of his father's death, Enrico Merlo (Jean Sorel) leaves his boarding school in Switzerland and returns home to Padua. There he overhears a conversation between his older brother Cesare (Maurizio Degli Espositi), who has taken over the profitable family business, and Verde (Marilù Tolo), Cesare's cousin and lover. Their words persuade Enrico that the two have murdered his father; he obtains proof when he discovers that his father's death certificate post-dates his death. But Enrico becomes gravely ill with pneumonia, all the while refusing to return the incriminating death certificate to the killers, and so Verde makes sure he is denied his needed medication and lets him die. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide

In this nasty drama, a 17th-century Italian nun's long repressed sexual passion is awakened when a handsome nobleman rapes her. Confused by her unholy emotions, the nun sees that the aristocrat is arrested. Unfortunately, the louse impregnated her and shortly after bearing his child, she helps him escape from prison. Reunited, the two embark upon a passionate affair. One day another nun sees the two making love. Unfortunately, she dies before she can tell anyone. Later the offending nun is captured and given a life sentence for having sex and helping to murder her colleague. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Like Cameron Mitchell and Jack Palance, Keenan Wynn spent an inordinate amount of time in obscure crime melodramas. In Falling Man, Wynn is second billed to the versatile Henry Silva. The plot concerns an ex-cop who goes after the men who ruined his career. The title refers to the hero's rapidly disintegrating emotional state. Barely released theatrically, Falling Man was run to death by independent TV stations in the 1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Congo rebel leader is captured and imprisoned with two white felons in this feature deep with religious symbolism and condemnation of colonial exploitation. Maurice Lalubi (Woody Strode) is thrown in jail with a soldier and an Italian thief. The trio endures torture at the hands of their captors, while a newly formed military regime decides the fate of the insurgent. His imminent demise could turn him into a martyr and spell trouble for the new government dictator in this sometimes violent film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The French/Italian/British King of Hearts (Le Roi de Coeur) takes place during World War I, but it might as well have been the Vietnamese conflict so far as its youthful "core" audience was concerned. Overacting outrageously, Adolfo Celi plays British colonel Alexander MacBibenbrook, who orders mild-mannered Scotsman Pvt. Charles Plumpick (Alan Bates) to undertake a life-or-death mission in a tiny French village. While evacuating the town, the Germans have left behind a time bomb that will explode at midnight; Plumpick must defuse that bomb. Upon his arrival in town, Plumpick discovers that it is far from deserted. A group of inmates from the local insane asylum, left behind during the evacuation, have claimed the village for their own. Knocked unconscious, Plumpick awakens to learn that he has been crowned "King of Hearts" by the gentle lunatics. None of the inmates pay any heed to Plumpick's warnings about impending doom, and when he attempts to lead them out of town, they are terrified at the prospect and scurry back to the "safety" of the village. Plumpick is finally able to render the bomb useless, whereupon the grateful inmates decide to stage a three-year celebration. When Plumpick tries to leave, he is kidnapped by the loonies at the behest of beautiful inmate Coquelicot (Geneviève Bujold), who has fallen in love with him. Bound and gagged, Plumpick watches helplessly as the Germans and the British troops kill each other off in comic-opera fashion. Finally set free, Plumpick weighs the horrible insanity of war against the more benign brand of lunacy represented by the inmates. The final image -- of a nude Plumpick carrying a birdcage, knocking on the doors of the asylum, and demanding that he be "accepted" -- was reproduced for the print ads of King of Hearts, effectively giving away the ending. An essential "date" film of the 1970s, King of Hearts was often released to campus movie houses in tandem with a pair of cult-favorite short subjects, the animated Bambi Meets Godzilla and Lenny Bruce's Thank You Masked Man. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide