Vittorio Caprioli Movies

In this wry comedy, if it were not for the fact that screenwriter Giuseppe Marchi (Giancarlo Giannini) is clearly overwhelmed by attacks of guilt at his sometimes caddish behavior, it would be easy to dislike him as he is shown disclosing his inner life to his psychiatrist (Vittorio Caprioli). Instead, he is seen to have suffered a series of acute psychosomatic illnesses which were misdiagnosed so that he suffered a slew of unnecessary abdominal operations. Eventually some shred of self-understanding, coupled with a deep sense of resignation at life's unfairness, prompts him to leave all his travails behind for a simple, if lonely, life in Calabria. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this episodic comedy, the rich are seen to be different from the rest of us: more lustful and less scrupulous, for starters. In one episode, a parish priest fresh from a pilgrimage to Lourdes is drawn into a situation (approved of by the Pope himself) where he must try to discourage the notions developed by an Italian princess, who dreamed of the priest's face and now entertains the idea of marrying him rather than the man society has destined her for. In another episode, the ever-hapless Paolo Villaggio plays an insurance agent who is drawn just a bit too deeply into one of his client's marital schemes. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this musical adaptation of the Cinderella story geared toward teen audiences, Cindy (Bonnie Bianco) lives with her father, stepmother, and two half-sisters in Brooklyn. The shrewish stepmom hates Cindy and is taking off for Rome to get her daughters trained in classical music. Completely against her wishes, she has to take Cindy along because her husband insists. Once in Rome, Cindy's great voice comes into its own when she sings for a band run by a prince (who has kept his true identity to himself). Everyone is invited to the prince's family mansion for a party, and when Cindy goes -- thanks to being outfitted by a friendly astrologer -- she is furious when she discovers the prince's real identity and throws her shoe at him in a fit of temper. The rest is history. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, Louis de Funes is a top restaurant critic, the head of an important French culinary guide. At the beginning of the film, he and his son (Coluche) are at odds, as the son prefers working as a circus clown to studying the fine arts of gastronomy. The two join forces, however, to thwart the greedy owner of a chain of inferior restaurants, who plans to take over the finest restaurants in France and substitute his formulaic fodder for real cooking. Another lure bringing the son into the picture is a lovely secretary working for the guide. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The rather overweight Italian lad (Michel Galabru), the hero of this comedy, would seem to be an unlikely ladykiller, but in fact he has been forced to flee his native Italy because he slept with the daughter of the local mafia's godfather. Now he is hiding in Paris, being helped by his mafia uncle Capoli (Vittorio Caprioli), who runs a noodle factory as a front. Capoli hides him with one of his employees, but the lad gets into even more trouble due to his unquenchable attraction for women. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Pierre (Pierre Richard) is a rumpled-looking fellow, consistently overlooked by the nubile girls at the college where he teaches mathematics. However, when he wins the affection of a movie star (Jane Birkin), he wins more attention than he bargained on: his stuffy father disapproves of the affair, the press is entranced, and the college girls can't keep away from him. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This Italian feature caters to a self-congratulatory stereotype of male virility which many an Italian male might fantasize as being true for himself. Paolo is from the lower ranks of the Sicilian nobility, and he shares his grandfather's penchant for beautiful women. Indeed, he proved his readiness for bedroom sports at age 10, when he beat his grandfather to the bed of a lovely young new house servant. As a grownup, Paolo (Giancarlo Giannini) now lives in Rome and cuts a wide swath through the female population of that town. Though the depiction of his succession of conquests is repetitive, one of the film's highlights is the great beauty of the numerous women he has encounters with. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

After collaborating on a series of small-scale political films under the alias of the Dziga Vertov Group, pioneering French director Jean-Luc Godard and filmmaker and activist Jean-Pierre Gorin attempted to fuse their Maoist theories of revolutionary art with a more accessible structural framework in this leftist comedy drama. Susan (Jane Fonda) is an American journalist working as a French correspondent for a radio network; her husband, Jacques (Yves Montand), was once a major filmmaker during the French New Wave, but now supports himself directing television commercials as he tries to come to terms with his political responsibilities. Jacques tags along when Susan visits a sausage factory to interview the manager (Vittorio Caprioli); their visit unexpectedly coincides with a wildcat strike staged by the plant's employees, who hold the boss captive as they lash out against both their employers and their union in a bid for more money and greater dignity. Over the course of the day, many of the participants speak to the camera about their varying degrees of commitment to radical political and economic change, while we are also afforded an inside look at Susan and Jacques' splintered relationship. Shortly after Tout Va Bien was released, Jane Fonda made her famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) visit to Hanoi, an action which led Godard and Gorin to create a companion film, Letter to Jane, in which they dissected a photo of Fonda in Vietnam for its multiple levels of political meaning. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This Italian movie is as much a love song to a place as a story. The place is the bohemian quarter in Rome known as the Trastevere. It is been compared to the Left Bank in Paris. This film features highly professional actors, a colorful setting, and very salty Italian dialogue. Actor/director Fausto Tozzi takes a tour of the neighborhood and its inhabitants in a series of colorful vignettes. Traveling between the Tiber river and the hill called Gianicolo, Vittorio De Sica searches for a lost pet, encountering along the way the difficulties faced by a gay nobleman, a suicidal American, the local prostitutes, and the intrigues and gossip that pass back and forth in a small square. The main dramatic issue seems to be how the slightly more conservative locals are dealing with an onslaught of hippie tourists. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a Neapolitan lad travels to Milan to attend his father's funeral. His father was a gigolo, and the young man decides to continue the family profession and begins looking for rich women to prey upon. He is successful, but then he finds himself caught in a bidding war between a wealthy steel heiress and an rich old homosexual. Though the homosexual wins, the gigolo decides to make it with the heiress. Time passes and he ends up falling for a beautiful woman. Unfortunately, he discovers that she is his half sister. He then remembers a bit of advice from one of his father's friends who said "It's better for a young man to attach himself to a rich homosexual." The young gigolo heeds that advice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Yet another entry in a long series of 1960s Italian sex comedies, this one has some clever moments in its study of four beautiful women (Ursula Andress, Marisa Mell, Virna Lisi, and Claudine Auger) who cheat on their husbands to relieve their marital discontent. Jean-Pierre Cassel also stars in this typical anthology written by Ruggero Maccari and Ettore Scola. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

A betrayed wife decides to teach her philandering husband a lesson in this riotous farce. Marta (Catherine Spaak) discovers that husband Franco (Nino Manfredi) has been stepping out with her own best friend (Maria Grazia Buccella), and gets revenge by inventing an imaginary lover. Franco takes the bait, leading to improbable but hilarious complications. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide