Francesco Rosi Movies
Distinguished Italian director Francesco Rosi is best known for the political films he made during the 1960s. He had his start assisting Luchino Visconti on La Terra Trema in 1947. Afterward, Rosi assisted other major directors, including Michelangelo Antonioni, and collaborated on film scripts until 1952 when he helmed Red Shirts. Taking the production over from director Goffredo Alessandrini, who had just quit, it turned out to be a solid, albeit rather average beginning. In 1958, Rosi made his real directorial debut with The Challenge. He made a splash on the international circuit four years later with Salvatore Guiliano, a neorealist biography of the Sicilian bandit. Its realism combined with none-too-subtle allegations of Mafia influence over the government caused controversy in Italy. That year, the film earned a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. His next film, Hands Over the City (1963), contained similar themes to Guiliano while his 1965 film The Moment of Truth was an exploitation exposé of bullfighting. By the 1970s, Rosi's films became considerably less topical and presented more conventional views of corruption in Italy. In the '80s, Rosi's style and focus again changed to even less inflammatory material based on literature. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 2009
A handful of Italian exiles fall into a turf war over the right to sell cloth in this drama from Italian auteur Francesco Rosi. Mario (Renato Salvatori) is a laborer who left Italy for Hanover, where he tried to get work as a miner with little success. Mario had decided to make his way back home until he meets Toto (Alberto Sordi), a fellow Italian exile who makes a good living selling fabric and rugs. Toto persuades Mario to join his team of peddlers, called magliari, who hawk their wares on the streets of West Germany. Toto works in partnership with Raffaele (Carmine Ippolito), a textile merchant who built a small empire from his team of street dealers, but Toto wants more. Toto decides to cut ties with Raffaele and affiliate himself with a German fabric producer, Mayer (Josef Dahmen), and urges Mario and the other magliari to join him. This leads to a bitter rivalry between the two fabric dealers, one that becomes even more heated when Mario stumbles into an affair with Mayer's wife. Il Magliari was an early effort from Rosi, who went on to direct the international successes Christ Stopped At Eboli and Illustrious Corpses. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2002
Legendary Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti's life and remarkable cinematic achievements are investigated in depth in Adam Low's 2002 documentary produced by the BBC entitled The Life and Times of Count Luchino Visconti. Born into Italian aristocracy in 1906, Visconti's life was one of discontented listlessness until he took a position on French director Jean Renoir's 1936 film Une Partie de Campagne. This development would greatly influence the young Italian's own entry -- not to mention his entire career -- into filmmaking, starting in 1943 with Ossessione, which was simultaneously his directorial debut and the masterwork that launched the Italian neorealist movement. Many of Visconti's colleagues and contemporaries are interviewed by Low, including such luminaries as Claudia Cardinale, Farley Granger, Franco Zeffirelli, and Helmut Berger. The Life and Times of Count Luchino Visconti premiered at the 2002 London Film Festival in connection with a Visconti retrospective produced by the British Film Institute in 2003. ~ Ryan Shriver, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helmut Berger, Meralda Caracciolo Di Melito, (more)
Italian chemist turned author Primo Levi was interred at Auschwitz during WW II until 1945. Following his release, he returned to his native Turin and penned the wrenching autobiographical account of life in the concentration camp If This Is a Man. In 1962, he wrote a companion book, The Truce, a chronicle of his hellish nine-month journey from the camp to Turin. Both books are crucial entries in the history of the Holocaust. This careful adaptation of the second book took filmmaker Francesco Rosi 10 years to make. Levi's trek begins when shortly after the Germans leave, four Russian horsemen ride up and tear down the gates of Auschwitz. Levi is quickly aboard one of the first outbound trucks. Over the next few months, he goes to many different countries, and along the way he meets and is befriended by assorted fellow travelers. Through them, his appreciation of life and freedom slowly returns, but with it also comes a deep rage and an abiding guilt at having survived, a guilt that may have led Levi to suicide in 1987. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Turturro, Massimo Ghini, (more)
- 1989
- PG13
This political drama chronicles the corruption of a mayoral candidate for New York City. His ordeal begins when he launches a campaign for the legalization of heretofore illegal narcotics. Alarmed by the support it gets, Mafiosos frame the candidate for a crime he did not commit and force him to choose between joining their ranks or going to jail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Belushi, Mimi Rogers, (more)
- 1987
This suspenseful Italian crime drama is set in a Colombian river town and chronicles the series of events that led up to murder. Based on a novel by distinguished author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the tale begins in the present as a middle-aged doctor returns to the village after a twenty-year absence to investigate the murder that occurred just before he left. A flashback ensues. All the trouble began when a wealthy general's son came to town searching for a bride. He found an appropriate girl and was very happy until he discovered that his bride was not a virgin. In a terrible rage he sent the poor girl back to her family where her father beat her into revealing her lover's name. Her twin brothers then set out to punish the guilty fellow, a much-despised womanizer. Though the entire town knew that the brothers planned to kill him, no one intervened. Strangely, the victim died without a fight. The story jumps back to the present to witness the return of the general's son. He runs into his former fiancee and quietly hands back all of the letters she had written him over the years. Not a single one is opened. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rupert Everett, Ornella Muti, (more)
- 1984
- PG
Georges Bizet's 1875 opera about Carmen, the colorful cigarette factory worker whose flirtations with the soldier Don José are forgotten in her love for the matador Escamillo, is the source for director Francesco Rosi's cinematic version of the same story. Plácido Domingo sings the part of Don José, Julia Migenes-Johnson sings Carmen, and Ruggero Raimondi is Escamillo. Although there is nothing to fault in the singing itself, some viewers may feel that director Rosi has stayed closer to a stage production than the medium of film would warrant. Carmen received the 1984 Cesar award for "Best Sound." ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Migenes, Plácido Domingo, (more)
Director Francesco Rosi earned a Best Foreign Film Academy Award nomination for his drama Tre Fratelli (Three Brothers), an adaptation of a work by Andrei Platonov. When the matriarch of an Italian family dies, the husband brings his three boys, each of whom are facing difficult personal problems, back to their farmhouse. Raffaele (Philippe Noiret) is a judge who fears being executed over the politically unsettling case over which he is presiding. Rocco (Vittorio Mezzogiorno) is quite religious and dreams of helping troubled teenagers. Nicola (Michele Placido) is a worker involved in a labor dispute as well as a failed marriage. Each of the men grieves in his own way, while also wrestling with the other emotional issues that are pressing on them. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Philippe Noiret, Michele Placido, (more)
Based on an autobiographical novel by Carlo Levi, Cristo si e fermato a Eboli stars Gian-Maria Volonte as Levi, a prominent anti-fascist author and artist who, during Mussolini's regime was exiled to Eboli, a tiny village in Southern Italy. The government believed Levi's controversial views would fall on deaf ears, but as he spent time in the small pastoral community, the simple wisdom of the peasants came to have a profound impact on Levi, and his beliefs would also impact the people of Eboli. Francesco Rosi's film is usually screened in a version running 150 minutes, though a longer 210 minute cut is also available. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gian Maria Volontè, Paolo Bonacelli, (more)
- 1976
- R
Francesco Rosi utilizes the breathtakingly beautiful Italian landscape in an unspecified Italian city to hatch this mystery film involving murder and corruption in high places. As the film begins, a well-known prosecutor is killed. The murder turns out to be the first in a series of murders -- and all the victims are judges. With Italy lapsing into chaos because of the crimes, the craggy and careworn Inspector Rogas (Lino Ventura) is brought in to solve the murders. Rogas thinks that a man, sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit, is the person responsible for the killings. But when Rogas reports that fact to his superiors, they want nothing to do with the case. When more killings occur, Rogas uncovers a plot involving his superiors who are using one man's revenge murder as a ploy in order to affect nefarious changes on the entire country. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lino Ventura, Alain Cuny, (more)
- 1973
Director Francesco Rosi returns to his recurring theme of the connections between legal and illegal exercises of power in this sensationalized account of the infamous gangster Charles "Lucky" Luciano (Gian Maria Volonte). The film examines the life of Luciano after serving nine years of his 50-year sentence in the 1930s and 1940s, after which he was pardoned and deported to Italy. Once back in Italy, Luciano travels to Naples, where he finds himself under a continuous ten-year investigation by narcotics investigator Charles Siragusa (who plays himself). Rosi uses Luciano as a clinical study, questioning his legendary status and exploring the truth behind the legend. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gian Maria Volontè, Rod Steiger, (more)
- 1972
Well-known actor Gian Maria Volonte carries this Italian biographical film almost single-handedly in his role as the industrialist Enrico Mattei. Mattei gave Italian industry a much-needed shot in the arm in the postwar era and died under suspicious circumstances in 1962. However, like many larger-than-life figures, he is not without his flaws. He created a giant monopolistic industry, which he is thought to have maintained free from interference by the government through the application of generous bribes. When he set out to make Italy a power in the petroleum world, however, he ran into serious difficulties. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gian Maria Volontè
- 1970
Italian army regulars resist the orders of a cruel general whose rigid interpretations of the rules call for a man to be shot. Leone (Alain Cuny) orders the execution of an army regular who halted the troops while under enemy fire. A sympathetic lieutenant substitutes a dead body for that of the doomed soldier because he believes the general has been wrong and the man acted normally. Another lieutenant is shot when he refuses to shoot men who have exited quickly from a foxhole under bombardment. This anti-war film illustrates the enemy is not the only force of evil on the battlefield and that war is inherently wrong for everyone involved. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Frechette, Alain Cuny, (more)
- 1967
A handsome prince searches for love in this whimsical fairy tale. Prince Ramon (Omar Sharif) has been pledged to an arranged marriage by the Queen Mother (Dolores Del Rio), but he balks at marrying a woman whom he doesn't love, and rides away on his horse rather than face the altar. While riding in the woods, Ramon is thrown from his mount, and the wounded prince finds refuge at a nearby monastery presided over by Brother Joseph (Leslie French). Unlike most monks, Joseph has magical powers and can fly when the spirit moves him. The Prince confesses to Joseph that he's been unable to find true love, so the monk puts his powers to work; soon Ramon finds himself awestruck by the beautiful servant girl Isabella (Sophia Loren). Ramon and Isabella fall in love, but her status as a commoner would preclude a marriage between them -- that is, until Brother Joseph does some rummaging through his bag of tricks. More Than a Miracle (also released as C'era una Volta and Cinderella -- Italian Style) was Dolores Del Rio's last dramatic screen appearance for 11 years; she was to act in only one more film, The Children of Sanchez. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sophia Loren, Omar Sharif, (more)
- 1965
World class toreador Mateo Miguelin plays an impoverished Spanish lad who becomes a bullfighter in this routine drama. He quickly rises to the top and is soon appearing before capacity crowds in the bullrings of Barcelona. Linda Christian plays the beautiful society woman who is intrigued by the macho Mateo. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
A corrupt city councilman seeks a huge profit in a suburban real estate deal. Nottola (Rod Steiger) manipulates corrupt local government officials in the political instability that plagues Italy following World War II. The only councilman who tries to block the shady deals in defense of the people is the lone Communist elected to the board. The only insight on the characters is shown by the political machinations undertaken and the final result of the new zoning laws that followed the tangle of secret deals, bribes and blackmail. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Steiger, Guido Alberti, (more)
This is a documentary-style Italian drama chronicling the rise and fall of the title character, a real-life Mob chieftain who rose to prominence in post-WWII Sicily. Salvatore Giuliano himself is almost unseen and his career is recalled in flashbacks after his assassination in 1950. With the help of his right-hand man and cousin Gaspare Pisciotta (Frank Wolff), Salvatore becomes a guerilla leader whose resistance to the corrupt politicians dominating his post-war nation leads to his popularity among the Sicilian peasant class. As time passes, though, Salvatore becomes more of a criminal than a rebel, threatening Mafia income. Even Salvatore's own devoted followers begin to doubt him, and when he orders the slaughter of communist supporters at a rally, a bloody shootout with police ensues. Salvatore Giuliano (1962) was such an effective anti-organized crime film that it inspired a real-life investigation into Mob activities in Sicily. The Giuliano story was later filmed as The Sicilian (1987) starring Christopher Lambert as the title character. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Salvo Randone, Frank Wolff, (more)
- 1959
A young group of enterprising con artist attempt to break up some Italian expatriates trying to sell an inferior cloth as genuine quality fabric. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberto Sordi, Renato Salvatori, (more)
- 1958
3DLa Sfida3D (3DThe Challenge3D) marked the directorial debut of former screenwriter Francesco Rosi. Based on a true story, the plot concerns a young man named Vito (Jose Suarez), who harbors a grudge against the Neopolitan Mafia. At great personal risk, Vito vows to smash the mobsters who control the region's fruit and vegetable distribution. Unfortunately, the local Mafia chieftan (Pasquale Cenammo) proves to be just too powerful and well-armed for Vito to succeed. Rosanna Schiaffino contributes a powerhouse performance as Vito's wife (and, ultimately, his widow). Despite official protests from certain "business interests", 3DLa Sfida3D earned a Special Jury Prize at the 1958 Venice Film Festival. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- José Suárez, Rosanna Schiaffino, (more)
- 1953
Camicie Rosse (Red Shirts) was released in most markets as Anita Garibaldi, in deference to the star status of Anna Magnani. The actress plays the wife of the great Italian patriot Garibaldi, who at the beginning of the film hovers on the brink of death, harking back to past glories. Most of the story deals with the European political upheavals of 1848-49, and Garibaldi's participation in these earth-shattering events. Raf Vallone stars as Garibaldi, while the stellar supporting cast includes Alain Cuny, Jacques Sernas, Serge Reggiani and Michel Auclair. According to some reports, Auclair was supposed to have played Garibaldi, but was replaced by Vallone when the film's initial director, Goffriedo Allesandri, was put out of commission by an auto accident (Allesandrishares screen credit with Franco Rosi, who completed the film). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Magnani, Raf Vallone, (more)
- 1951
This early Luchno Visconti drama stars Anna Magnani as an overbearing stage mother. Magnani's daughter (Tina Apicella) has zero talent, but Magnani raises such a ruckus at the studio after the girl's abortive screen test that the producers eventually find work for the girl. By this point, Magnani has renounced show business and, with daughter in tow, returns to her patient husband, who has been waiting for his wife to get her dreams of vicarious stardom out of her system. Based on a story by famed Italian scenarist (and frequent Fellini collaborator) Cesar Zavattini, Bellissima seems too trivial a story to be given the tender loving care provided by Visconti. Originally released at 130 minutes, the film was honed down to 90 minutes for American consumption. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Magnani, Walter Chiari, (more)
