FILMO, the Spaghetti Western Aficionado
Viewing Coverage:

Once Upon a Time in the West resp There Was Once the West
A Fistful of Dollars
For a Few Dollars More
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
A Fistful of Dynamite (also credited as "Duck, You Sucker" in the US )
The Big (great) Silence
Django
Django 2
Keoma
Lonesome Gun or My Name Is Nobody
A Genius, Two Friends, and an Idiot or Nobody's the Greatest
The Big Gundown
Sabata
Adios Sabata
Return of Sabata

Dolcevita, Italian Films by Decade
Viewing Coverage:

1940's
The Bicycle Thieves
The Children are Watching Us
Rome, Open City (Open City)

1950's
Accatone
Miracle in Milan
The Nights of Cabiria
La Stada
Umberto D.
Variety Lights
I Vitelloni

1960's
8 1/2
L'Avventura
Blow-Up (I had to, despite being English, Antonioni and I love it)
Divorce, Italian Style
La Dolce Vita
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
The Hawks and the Sparrows
Juliet of the Spirits
The Red Desert
Satyricon
Two Women (La Ciociara)

1970's
Casanova
Christ Stopped at Eboli
The Clowns
The Decameron
The Gardens of the Finzi-Continis
The Night Porter
Orchestra Rehearsal
Seven Beauties
Suspiria
Swept Away
We All Loved Each Other So Much
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

1980's
And the Ship Sails On
Cinema Paradiso
City of Women
Ginger and Fred
Intervista

1990's
Ciao, Professore
Johnny Stecchino
Life is Beautiful
Mediterraneo
Il Mostro (The Monster)
Open Doors
Il Postino (The Postman)
Voice of the Moon

2000's
Bread and Tulips
The Last Kiss
Malena

My Top Recommendations

(In no particular order)

Rome, Open City
Miracle in Milan
The Nights of Cabiria
L'Avventura
Blow-Up
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
La Dolce Vita
Divorce, Italian Style
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Seven Beauties
Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow
Open Doors
Cinema Paradiso

Some personal reviews:
8 1/2
Blow-Up
Dolce Vita, La
Intervista
Night Porter, The
Strada, La
Nights of Cabiria
Seven Beauties

*I will do my best to add several more reviews by October 1st. If there is a particular one someone would like covered, please let me know.

Rocky?

**1940's

To me, the 40's were split into two thematic, and not coincidentally chronological, schemes. WWII and the labor class. Prior to the 40's the industry had been well established, and already had a rich history of lavish international productions. But with Mussolini and half of the country bombed out (well, technically not half, but we'll get to that in the 90's) directors with antagonistic messages had little money or any access to material sponsored by the Fascists. Rome, Open City (1945) is the underground efforts almost every big name we associate with the Italian film system. Directed by Roberto Rossellini, and screenplay by Federico Fellini and Sergio Amerdei, the lead actress Anna Magnani went on to be the first import to win an Oscar for best actress in the American production The Rose Tatoo in 1955.

The first time I saw Open City I realized it was a composite of interior shots and a few street scenes. With the exception of two pivotal moments, all the street sceens are shot through windows of houses, looking down and out as tanks grind down into the stones. The film is not ambiguous in the least. It is a harsh critcism of the Fascist and Nazi systems, and follows Magnani and her son through their working class existence and less than political motivations. Of course, one cannot stay nuetral on a moving train, and even their desire to retain personal belongings is interpretted with aggressive implications of anti-nationalism. Meanwhile, a second, and more important story develops around a local priest, Don Pietro, who begins to suffer from more existential questions of humanity whilst working for the more immediate resistence movement.

What I later questioned was how Rosselini and Co. could produce such a scathing work prior to weakening of Fascist rule? I learned from a fellow fan that they couldn't. All materials were aquired via the black market, and all cast/crew involved did so at risk of being caught. So in some respects, I consider this film to be almost a documentary. Many of the street scenes are live shots, and the gritty, low-budget style paved the way for the second, and most well known movement to emerge from Italy (during the 1940's an onwards), neo-realism.

The kind of Neo-realists, Vittorio De Sica, is most well known for his The Bicycle Thief (mistranslated from the Italian "Thieves" for obvious reasons). Thieves set a precedence that has since been picked up by almost every budding industry world-wide. Most noteably the Cubans, and most recently the Senegalese. In Tomas Guiterrez Alea's Memories of Underdevelopment, the apparent benchmark of Castro's cinema industry foundation, De Sica even gets a bit of mention if I remember correctly. When push came to shove, Italy after the war had no Cinecitta, and no money to prop new infrastructure on. still they were in a hurry to revive the economy and address unrest, and so directors took their cameras into the streets. They filmed the delapitated building that had survived years of war, and the ruined people who remained to wander the streets in search of new life. They typically cast unknown actors and actresses not only in an attempt to avoid salaries (many of the stars left the country as well), but also to "capture" the face of those they were trying to sympathize with. This face was predominantly that of the lower classes.

The Bicycle Thief simply follows a man and his boy as they spend a day wandering the city desperately searching for the man's bike in order to continue working the following morning as a poster man. It is so well known, its hard for me to admit its not my favorite De Sica. That priviledge goes to Miracle in Milan which has far more humour, a bit more contrived of a vision, but still speaks of a similar agenda. To me, Thief is just so motivated by the city's landscape, that I miss the great theatrical tradition that Rome had prior to the war. Thief feels like a complete break (and the War, in fact, was a jarring break from the past as well). Milan sets up the scenes of a young exuberant orphan befriending the city's bums. They hang out in one giant cardboard slum where De Sica has them huddle in a group and chase a ray of light around a field. There's also a wonderous scenes were a couple in love jump between two poles while looking into eachother's eyes. Oh yes...and flying broomsticks. The miracle of Miracle is that it still deals with social unrest, but doesn't resort to the heavy handedness so many other De Sica's do.

Umberto D. apppraised by so many others, has to be the epitome of De Sica's blunt, overly melodramatic, and uncreative side. This is just such a contrived story of a man's gradual demise that half way through I just beg for it to all end. De Sica makes him resort to the most decrepid and pathetic actions just to evince sympathy from the viewer. Regardless of the neo-realist style, its just not enough. There's no grit, just gritty aesthetics and class-generated sob story. Thief, in counterpoint, never resports to real prescripted patheticness. In fact both the father and son are very matter of fact, if a bit dejected, about their day's journey, and its not so sure how it will end. It doesn't end, actually. The sun just sets for the evening.

De Sica is probably the king of the neo-realists, a man often imitated and always most associated with the movement, he paved a way for the 1950's film indistry to both continue and rebuff his style. While the theme of social unrest has yet to really been adandoned in Italy, the by the close of the 50's, Cinecitta was in full swing. Lavish set productions would become equally as reknown as stone streets and cramped living quarters.

So, we basically watch these films and discuss them?

Italo- Western (also know as Spaghetti-Western)


Italo- Western

Italo-Western is a subgenre of the western develop since 1960. The genre was mostly developt by Italian production companys with Italian directors (art). Shooting was normaly at European film location. It was a further development of the American Western and a persiflage of it. In the early seventies the number of Italian productions noticeable declined up to a nearly stop. From then there were only some several productions with a melancholic
keynote.


Contents and stylistics

In the Italo- Western you have normaly an antihero and a dirty-dirty scenery. Glorious doings
à la John Ford give way to stubbornness and greed. Even the main character is only a loner who looks only for gold and other valuables or who is looking for revenge. Good doings are done as well but most only additionally or unwillingly.The heroes are a cycle swan song to the previous US-westernheroes. The Italo-Western prominent visual features are the from Sergio Leone made perfect pan shots and extrem close-ups from the faces of the actors.
The European western were also technically progressive. Nearly all films are coloured and shoot in widescreen.


Music

Most Italo-Western use a elaborate score. So the viewer is emotional bound. Very important is the composer Ennio Morricone whose score for C'era una volta il West achieved an amazing popularity. The work of Morricone enhanced the genre a lot and helped especally the movies from Leone to a "masterpiece-state".


Undreamed appreciation

The Italo- Western wasnt really sucessful in the US (The US people prefered late US-Western like Sam Peckinpah). But then movies from Sergio Leone and Corbucci had more and more sucess.Those movies rank among the best Western (or even movies) of all-time even before US-Classics like High Noon. The reason for that ist the excellent co-operation of excellent camerawork and music. The cooperation from Leone and Morricone is always mentioned when it comes to that topic.


German Moneymaking

Figures like Django, Ringo or Sabata were icons of the sub-genre who always returned. But nearly none of the series had a coherent story and even the character changed a lot during one. So German movie companies changed movie titles and especally the synchronisation to make several movie look like they were from one serie with coheren storytelling and character (like Star Wasrs for e.g.). Officially the Django movie has only one real sequel but in the German market you can find several of it.


Bud Spencer and Terence Hill

Like in a lot of other genres the Italo Western soon got its comedian expression. Epecally the Duo Bud Spencer and Terence Hill made a serie of "funny western movies" with unsteady humorous sucess. But Bud Spencer and Terence Hill also had serious western movies or movies with distinctive western elements. So Terence Hill was often seen as silent Anti-Hero of the genre. Especally "Nobody" is still well known. Terence Hill also returned as Licky Luke but unfortunately that movie was not a sucess and Hill couldnt return to the glorious times from the "Bud Spencer and Terence Hill" era.






Important directors

* Enzo G. Castellari
* Enzo Barboni
* Sergio Corbucci
* Sergio Leone
* Sergio Sollima

Important actors

* Clint Eastwood
* Lee van Cleef
* Franco Nero
* Fernando Sancho
* Terence Hill
* Bud Spencer
* Klaus Kinski
* William Berger
* Tomas Milian
* Eli Wallach
* Charles Bronson
* Henry Fonda
* Claudia Cardinale

Important composers

* Ennio Morricone
* Francesco De Masi
* Luis Enríquez Bacalov

Important movies (English titles)

* Once Upon a Time in the West
* A Fistful of Dollars
* For a Few Dollars More
* The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
* Duck, You Sucker or A Fistful of Dynamite
* The Big (Great) Silence
* Django
* Django Strikes Again
* Keoma (Desperado)
* My Name Is Nobody or Lonesome Gun
* A Genius, Two Friends, and an Idiot or Trinity Is Back Again

C'era una volta il West


In this post I will write something about the movie C'era una volta il West (perhaps better known to you as Once Upon a Time in the West or Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod) from 1968 by director Sergio Leone.
I will not actually write a review (just some points perhaps). It will be more background info. But let me just say this: Even you dont like the Western genre you should watch this movie. It really deserves its 8.8/10 (alltime rank 22) in the IMDB chart and its 96% from the "tomatoemeter".

Some background info

After his "Dollar Trilogy" Leone actually wanted to stop doing movies about the Wild West and concentrate on the gang wars in the late twenties. Unfortunately nobody was interested in his "Once upon a time in America" concept. People and studios wanted to see more Western from Leone. Leone wasnt all that happy with that situation but agreed to do one more Western. ( note: Once upon a time in America became one of the most loved moviees of all time. It was just not the right time yet).
Leones goal was to do one last big western what he actually did.
The post production of the movie wasnt really easy. The script was rewriten some times and the writers were changed. At the end most of the final script was written and changed by Sergio Donati who found a good way of mainstream an intelligent movie.
For the cast Leone got Henry Fonda and the beautyfull Claudia Cardinale (The Monica Belucci of her time just a bigger star ..äehhh soryy back to topic.). But casting wasnt all that easy. Fonda didnt want to join the project first. But of course he did but then Leone found him to old when Fonda appeard finally on the set etc.. etc.. Problems and problems. Also Ennio Morricone wrote most of the soundtack before any film was already shoot. So its actually just more stunning how in the end we have one of the best scores ever that fits the movie so good.
The part of the loonely here was played by Charles Bronson.
As you see we have a lot of starpower in this movie. Actually it was also planned that Clint Eastwood would have a little part in the movie (One of the killers in the begining) Unfortunately that wasnt possible.
The "Shooting" of the movie wasnt that easy as well. During filming even big parts of the script were rewritten. It came to a point were the producers actually wanted to cancel the project cause they had really fear for their money. But at the end the movie was made for 3 mio Dollars and was right in time for start.


Leone and the Box office

Perhaps you know...Leone isnt that lucky with his most loved movies at the Box Office (I guess you will find a lot of stuff about the Once Upon a time in America Box-Office disaster.)
Same with Once upon a time in the West. Start in the movies was 21 December 1968 in Italy where the movie was actually a good sucess. Not so in the US. The movie was sudenly cut 22 minutes to get one screentime more a day (Same happend by Once upon a time in America btw). Not even a million dollar was made in the US. But the movie was a bigger sucess in Europe and especally Japan.

The pure briliance of the movie was newly-discovered way later after the movie was out of the cinemas.
Today it (in its full and original Version) Cera una volta il West counts as one of the best Western and movie ever.

Now something about the movie and genre

As I said you should check this movie even you are not a big western fan. The cinematography and the sets give you really a nearly perfect journey back in time. Plus one of the best score ever.
Perhaps you read my overview about spaghetti western first. You will recognizee so much stuff.
-The not so "shinning" hero
-Close-ups and close-ups and close-ups.....
-Revenge as main theme etc.
The movie starts perhaps a bit slow for you (it has the longest title seqence ever) but you should really sit through. It becomes better and better.

Later I will also write something about the movie Sabbata. Then I will focus a bit one the heores in spagetthi Western. you will see there is a lot of analogy in Sabbata and Cera una volta il west.

Not all of them. ;-)

We're giving our sentiments, background information, discussions, and you can pick and chose films that are compatible with what information you find most interesting. What you want to explore in further detail than what we've provided as general information. We're trying to get it up long enough in advance so that you have time to search out films that piqued your interest. You can also watch ones that aren't listed, and add your own insight.

For instance, recently Catelina in the City came out. Its probably the most contemporary Italian import to the states. So If you're interested in Italian cinema after 2000, that and the well received I'm Not Scared (2003) would be great ones to watch. Scared is considered quasi-horror and drama. I have seen neither of these two, but would love to hear from people who have.

Yay! The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly!

**1950's

My second favorite decade in Italian Film production, the 1950's were when the film industry had already found its footing, but Cinecitta had not yet reached its lavish heights. The 50's were marked by a more diverse film landscape, where humour, hope, and the first signs of the topic of disillusionment began rearing their heads. Like the 40's most of the production still took place in the street, and addressed the lower and working classes. But now the realism of earlier De Sica has given way to a more liberal touch at representing reality. There's magic, cynicism, comedy, and dreamscapes.

Federico Fellini has six or seven movies in this decade, including his directorial debut Variety Lights which he co-directed and addressed his long lasting affair with circus performers. Two of his movies are incredibly well known. My favorite, The Nights of Cabiria is about a prostitute who regardless of how many times her ambitions are dashed, against her determination to remain jaded, she keeps finding hope. One of the most beautiful and memorable scenes, she is hypnotized on stage and starts being a young girl picking flowers for her sweetheart. While not technically shot yet in the movie lots, Fellini's Cabiria is the first of his films to begin showing more lavish elements, that he later became known for. His other major film was La Strada about a slightly simple woman who is married off to a circus strongman. Strada was the first movie he received international critical acclaim for, winnning the Oscar in best Foreign Language film; his first of four. Both star Giulietta Masina, Fellini's wife, and a gifted facial actress. I always consider her to be the female Chaplin, and one of the most under appreciated film heroines from Italy.

The 1950's also hosts my most and least favorite De Sica movies. Miracle in Milan and Umberto D.. One is incredibly theatrical and light hearted while still adressing urban poverty, the second hits you over the head with it like if yoiu're an obtuse four year old that doesn't understand how rough life can be for the poor. Stick to the former. I really love it and think it gets dwarfed by Bicycle Thief, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, and The Gardens of the Finzi Continis.

The 50's also sees the entrance of one of the most creative and hard to address director's in Italian Film History, Pier Paolo Pasolini. I like him, I really do, but he has a tendency to bite off more than he can chew. An incredibly ambitious director, he was well known not only for his gritty movies, but his larger than life personal history. He was a poet, politicial activist, and an intriguing character. Born and raised ina small town, he was openly gay and had to move to Rome. He was very vocal about not associating with a gay film identity, though there have been heavy gender readings, etc, of his work. He was considered an anarchist, and a scathing post-war voice until he was shot to death in 1975. There are mixed rumours as to weather it was a man whom he associated with, or a political assassination.

He produced a wide range of films, and is most well known for his work in the 60's and 70's, as well as his painful 120 Days of Sodom. I have not seen it, but have selected it as one of the movies I will watch for the festival.

In the 50's, however, his Accatone provides a look at a hustler trying to make a living on the streets of Rome. Not my favorite by him, its sympathetic to unsympethtic characters due to their economic situation. That's what makes it interesting, as well as the gritty black and white images. To me, however, it gets oddly repetitive, and is too grounded to a "realist" (though much darker reality than most directors) aesthetic.

Wow, I don't even wanna mention how many of these I've seen.

I definitely wanna check out The Bicycle Thief (Thieves?), as one of my recent favorite films (probably top ten of this decade thus far) is Beijing Bicycle...which I'm sure is a modern remake of sorts...(perhaps not remake, but inspired by at least).

And, I just recently read the short story Blow Up, so maybe I'll go for that too. Or maybe we can just discuss the story (pretty sure you said you've read it?)...because I'm not so sure I even got it.

Finally, I have a recommendation...one of my favorite films of last year.
La Finestra Di Fronte (Facing Windows) - it has 7.7 with 1500 votes on IMDb, so it's definitely not complete crap. It's been a while, but I loved it. Beautiful, engaging story, and really well made.

Ive got La Dolce Vita sitting infront of me. Will watch it within the next few days.

I rented it recently and was moderately impressed. I gave it a B+

Maximus. For you, as you know, I highly recommend Nights of Cabiria if you can get your hands on it. I have a sense of your tastes, and think its right up your alley.

Michael, you simple must let me know what you think. And as an aside, anyone catch the new album cover for Cecilia Bartoli?????

**1960's

Otherwise known as: My Favorite Decade in Italian Film Production

Here it is guys, the most dynamic period of film production in Italy as far as I'm concerned. Cinecitta the Italian equivalency of Hollywood finally revitalized it resources and space. Directors could afford to return to lavish set design and construction, and the past two decades of neo-realism was merged with the sumptious, the scathing, the humorous, and the subtle criticism. While previously directors tended to sympathize with the post-war working class, and grappled with the dark underbelly of reconstruction, only in the 60's did they equally pan and embrace everyone. The "common" folk do not escape criticism, and neither do the men, women, Catholic church, or the fabulously wealthy. At the same time, the Italians were always routed in their neo-realist roots. They were cutting edge in cinematography, breaking conventions, and storyline, but they are rarely unpalateable as a decade and genre. They are not aloof, even when picking at the collapsing and bored aristocracy.

This decade introduces yet another incredibly genius and popular director, Michelangelo Antonioni. Most famous for his British Language film Blow-Up he was always invested in voyeurism, social criticism, and perception. All the movies I've seen, seam to occur within the comprehesion of they're lead characters. That is to say, Antonioni draws a very ambiguous line between what the audiance is seeing and what the hero(ine) is. His The Red Desert focusses on a woman who is slowly going insane in the claustrophobia of her life. She lost a son to an accident and has never been the same, and when she gets into an accident herself, she slowly unravels, has an affair, and starts seeing extremely synthetic colors within a drab, black and white landscape of her industrial hometown. In short, the audiance sees the color as well, and though we follow the heroine in the third person, we often see through her eyes.

The play of audiance perception is a benchmark of 1960's Italian film. Fellini's 8 1/2 is probably synonimous with the discussion. In 8 1/2, a semi autobiographical piece that has often been imitated but never duplicated in spirit (think Open Your Eyes), a washed up director with writers block tries to pull together a sci-fi film. The director, played by the devine Latin Lover Marcello Mastroianni starts to have escapist visions. I don't want to fully give away the experience of the film, suffice it to say that the viewer is never quite sure where reality ands and dream sequence begins. This is also the movie with the infamous "bordello" scene that later sparked Peter Greenway's 8 1/2 Women; a movie about a father and son who watch 8 1/2 and try to recreate it. Mastoianni went on to work often with Fellini, and its clear that whenever Fellini was working with one of his two muses (Masina and Mastroianni) he's at his finest. The two actors even did a movie together for Fellini when they got older. The touching Ginger and Fred.

Antonioni also directed L'Avventura this decade, and its one of his most scathing commentaries on Italian society in general. A couple wealthy, self-indulgent youths go on a yachting trip where one of the young women dissappears suddenly. Out in the middle of the sea, they have no idea where she has gone off to. They pull aside to the nearest island and start searching, only every single one of them loses interest in the search within a day. Only Claudia played by Monica Vitti continues to be obsessed with finding the missing woman. However, the woman's boyfriend quickly starts an affair with Claudia, and she enters the relationship with only marginal hesitation. It's Antonioni's critique of wealth and boredom, lack of investment and aloofness. At the same time Claudia begins to doubt her relationship as it progresses. At the same time as she becomes obsessed with the missing friend, the group arrives in a small poverty stricken community where all the men proceed to oggle the incoming women. Never one to avoid discussions of escapeism, Antonioni explores sexual projection onto Italian women as a depressing and distasteful side of the economic stagnation. The working class's inability to focus on their long term needs, and to displace them into horny gestures and sexually coded distractions. Vitti would go on to do several films with Antonioni, and it seems as with Mastroianni and Masina for Fellini, and later, Giancarlo Giannin and Mariangela Melato for Lina Wertmuller, Vitti was one of Antonioni's muses.

Of course, his Blow-Up is a divine piece of work about a British photgrapher who is approached by a woman demanding film from his camera after he innocently snaps pictures of her and a man in a city park. What unfolds is the photographers developement, both literally and rhetorically, or the film and its contents. I beautiful film parodied in the photography scenes of Austin Powers, I'm one of the few people who disagrees with the general conclusion as to what happened in the park and to the photgrapher. Look for the mimes, an integral theme in the movie and also a beautiful touch aesthetically.

Fellini also did my beloved La Dolce Vita in this decade. For reference, please see my username, review, my avatar, and the several threads about the movie already in the forums, heh.

To note is also Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew. For a man who spent an aweful lot of his time rebelling against both political and religious institutions and who is mostly known for his gritty urban and harsh films, Gospel is an odd diamond in the trough. Simple put, it is the best film version of the Life of Christ ever. I'm not religious, so perhaps the other more dogmatic and scriptural interpretations didn't resonate with me, but Gospel is very real. Pasolini maintains his neo-realist, minimalist film touch, and depicts Jesus more as the sandled peasant that romaed the country side appealing to villagers of a similar background. They move around a stark landscape, and the splicing of angels and visions is so abrupt it actually makes for a more convincing version than the usual puffs os smoke, bathing light, and majestic height. Here, everyone is common, and they survive on faith alone. They are all very human, and the infamous betrayel plays out less as some "inevitable" fate and more like a man trying to do his best and becoming frustrated in a moment of weakness. Likewise the Magdalene's feet washing scene seems a bit cunning, and Jesus' most aggressive line that his faith is not easy and will split families with in-fighting.

Sophia Loren becomes the first women to win an Oscar from another country's film in Two Women. This is a fairly straightforeward story of a woman who does anything necessary to assist her and her daughter surviving through and after WWII. They encounter alot of hardship, troubles, and her daughter is raped. But through it all Loren remains incredibly solid, practicle, and aggressive. She is transformed from a slightly self-intitled woman at the opening into a humble yet strong one by its end. Not my favoite but well worth watching for the acting. Her international breakthrough would trigger the longest love affair with an International actress from Italy. It also sets up her precedence for being a metaphor, in all her movies, for Italy. I've heard that she's an allegorical figure in almost every single movie for decades that she did. The hardship and perseverence were certainly applicable. LLater, she would go on to do Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow with De Sica where he even states outright that she represents regions and eras of Italy in each vignette.

Lastly, my favorite comedy from the Italians pops up in the form of Divorce, Italian Style. True slapstick and high humour mixed together, Mastroianni stars as Ferdinando, a wealthy man who wants to escape his wife and merital status in order to pursue a young attractive blonde cousin. According to Catholic Law (and Italy's for a long time) he could not get a divorce. Of course, he discovers a loophole in the laws that entitles a man to avoid jail if he kills his wife in a fit of rage when she is caught in the arms of a lover. The film, by Pietro Germi, sets up a situation in which Ferdinando tries to arrange for his wife to fall in love with someone else even though she only has eyes for him. he dresses her up and walks her around town for men to look at. He sets her up to be alone at his house with other men. He encourages her to mingle at social parties. She only has eyes for him though, and he becomes increasingly frustrated. There's some great voice overs in this film, and a charming scene where Ferdinando runs off to see a screening of La Dolce Vita on order to leave his wife alone at home with a house painter. The joke is, of course, that Mastroianni was in La Dolce Vita as well. There's a surprisingly entertaining twist in the last seconds of the movie as well, so keep your eye out for it. Probably one of my top ten favorite comedies ever.

The 60's were really a blessing for Italian film. Directors were beginning to explore new styles, narrative approaches, and diversifying their subject matter. At the same time, they hadn't lost their penchant for compelling and tight storyline yet. Later on, they would become more indulgent, and a bit looser in storytelling. That is not to say there aren't great movies from all decades, but the 60's marks the merge of the eno-realists and the first wave of Cinecitta visionaries. Wealth and economic aesthetic. All the major directors worked in this era, and the international market exploded with heavy demand for their films. This allowed them even more liberties. The Italian have won more Oscars than any other country in the "foreign film category" of the Academy here in the states. (I believe France is two shy of them). There was an incredible demand for their voice in the world, and alot of reward for it.

Sophia Loren is a goddess.

I promise Nights of Cabria is in my Q and I *will* be watching it! I have faith in your tastes.

Anita Ekberg is *the* goddess, though. Dolce's on my side, too. (she was, by far, my favorite part of La Dolce Vita)

I believe she was the only actor or actress to ever win an Oscar from a foreign language film until Begnini did it in 98. At which point she was actually the host who presented the statuette to him.

She's been in 90 movies beginning in 1950. I'd say she was best known for the below:
The Millionairess
It Started in Naples
La Ciociara (Two Women)
El Cid
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Marriage, Italian Style
Arabesque
The Cassandra Crossing
Grumpy Old Men

**1970's

The 1970's has a few benchmark additions to the Italian and International Film Industry, but none is so important to me as the controversial emergence of Lina Wermuller. She's very tough to pallate, and may not be as progressive as I read her to be. But the fact of the matter stands she's the first BIG female name in International film since Leni Riefenstahl in the 40's and 50's in Germany. And Wertmuller, like Riefenstahl has some great contributions to film, but some very negative and complex content. Nowhere is this seen more than in her 70's hit Swept Away. The basis of which finds Rafaella (Mariangela Melato) abandoned on an island with Gennarino (Giancarlo Giannini), where he proceeds to hold out food until she comes to him and he technically rapes her. Furthermore, she apparently enjoys it and begs for more for the rest of their stay on the island. I'd be very interested in someone speaking to me about this movie if they've seen it.

What's up for debate is the context in which it plays out. Taken alone, its gross theme, but I tend to view both of them in the light of gender and class discussion. In the beginning, Rafaella is a wealthy woman on a yacht having a party, where all the aristocratic attendees manipulate and flaunt themselves infront of the working class yacht staff. When they're shipwrecked, her wealth and status, her means to power, are taken away from her, and the two play out a gender war stripped of other means in which to excert power. However, once restored to the mainland, she promptly leaves him standing miserable and returned to his horrible life while she is restored to a position of power. So, it's almost like, "she wins." Taking into account what I said about Antonioni in the 60's, and the arguements of sexual distraction to the disempowered, there could be another reading here. But I'll let you guys decide.

Swept Away was not the movie that made her big in the states however. That prestige goes to Pasqualino SetteBellezze (Seven Beauties); a brilliant movie about an Italian in a prisoner of war camp in Germany who tries to seduce the head Nazi officer in order to survive. Its vulgar and insightful at the same time, and Pasqualino (Giannini again) is a pretty despicable and unappealing character. The film plays out with several flashbacks to his life in the village with his seven sisters, all of whom he's not very nice too. He's a poor, lazy, self-entitled, horny (there's that poverty displaced onto sex theme again) wimpy, masogensistic piece of scum. And yet, his endevours to free himself in such an unorthodox way are so pivotal to Wertmuller's commentary on humanity, voracity for life, in the face of automated death. True human spirit.

Seven Beauties stormed the Oscars here in the states. Wertmuller became the first woman ever nominated in the Best Director field where she joined Alan J. Pakula for All the President's Men, Ingmar Bergman for Face to Face, Sidney Lumet for Network, and John Alvidson for Rocky. No other woman had ever been nominated (either American of Foreign) and no other woman would again until Jane Campion for The Piano almost 2 decades later. If you check on the imdb pages for the oscar nominations, you will see they even insert special mention of this significant hallmark. Along with that nomination, Seven Beauties went on to be nominated for Best Actor (Giancarlo Giannini), best screenplay (Wertmuller), and Best Foreign Language Film. Why she's so big in the international scene is probably a mix of her genius and her being in the right place at the right time. A similar reason as to why Liliana Cavani rose in international prominence around that time for her The Night Porter. Another movie that deals with sex and WWII (in Cavani's case, the Holocaust). Porter has also been toted as incredibly inciteful and brilliant by some, I personally feel its a piece of trash, and while being much more austere and dark that Seven Beauties, its content is actually alot more shallow and empty of either spirit or introspection. Regardless, the Italian female directors hit International audiances full force.

Somehow the earlier French female directors (Agnes Varda comes to mind) where missed, but by the 70's, the International community was really desperate to produce post-sexual revolution female figures in high places. Wertmuller's movies are very interesting, and deserve to be as reknown as they are (the first montage of Seven Beauties should be mandatory viewing for everyone ever), but its important to note she was actually never as famous in her home country as she was in America.

The other gems of the 70's include Christ Stopped at Eboli by Francesco Rosi. The story of an exiled doctor, writer, and political activist during the Fascist parties peak. Gian Maria Volente plays Carlo Levi. The doctor rhuminates on the condotions of the small isolated Italian village, which is so poverty stricken and goegraphically removed from the rst of the political upheaval in 1935, that it doesn't even know there's a war going on. Eboli is the city which is the last stop on the train station. This village exists even beyond that, had unyielding crops, and the inhabitants barely subsist from day to day..hence the title that Jesus never made it past the last train stop, and these villagers were left unsaved. Volente is incredibly powerful as the sullen and philosophical Levi. He is better known for all of his work with Sergio Leoni where he played "bag guys" in the Spaghetti Westerns.

Casanova was Fellini's only attempt at an English language film. It starred Donald Sutherland as the infamous ladies man. Fellini hated it, refused to allow it to be released in the US. Eventually someone may buy the copyrights to release it here in DVD, but I've never seen it on video release, and have only seen it because I knew someone who had a bootleg copy. Good luck finding it if you're adventurous. Its quite good actually, and dissappointing that there's restricted access to it. Orchestra Rehearsal was aweful. I don't know what Fellini was thinking as he turned his ridicule on unionized members of the national symphony and the entire movie is just everyone freaking out.

Pasolini's The Decameron is the best film rendition of the celebrated late medieval tales by Boccaccio. I've never been that into tales due to how short each one tends to be, but of all the ones I've seen, Decameron probably handles the short stories the best. This is bacchantal celebration at its finest, and the whole cast just looks like its having a ball. Somehow the movie still retains some of Pasolini's gritty angsty edge though. He could never shed it, heh.

Lastly, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow is one of De Sica's great triumphs and the only movie I know of where he actually used big name actors. Setting aside his neo-realist principles of hiring unknowns this one time, he procurrs a great trilogy of vignettes that all start Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren. As the title indicates, its a commentary on the eras of Italy, and also the regions. The first vignette stars the two as a poverty stricken couple in the south of Italy. In order to keep the wife from going to jail, she must be preganant. So the two proceed to re-empregnate her everytime she comes home with a new child. The humous is that she flourishes and he flounders. The "Today" aspect includes the two as an aristocratic ,disinterested, woman and the reporter who is interviewing her. They drive in a car, converse, and this is supposed to equal equate to the reconstructionist era of Italian history. The last vignette was later made famous for being recreated in Robert Altman's Pret-a-Porter. A man courts a sweet and well intentioned prostitute who constantly evades him. In the meantime she meets a young man who is studing to enter a Catholic order.

Interesting decade where some of the "Old Wave" of Italian cinema begins to fade and alot of new names emerge. By the 80's only Fellini and to a lesser extent Wertmuller would remain at CineCitta. Pasolini dies, De Sica retires, and a larde chunk of the directors including Antonioni, Zeffirelli, Bertolucci would transition into the American and English indistries altogether.

I watched Sophia Loren in her own Biopic. It was bizarre but engaging purely because shes so gorgeous. She played her mother then she played herself later in life.

Sergio Leone

Name:Leone, Sergio
Profession: Italian Director
Date of Birth: 3.1.1929
Place of Birth: Rome;Italy
Died: 30.4.1989

Leone was especially known for his Western. He brought the genre back and made Clint Eastwood a big star.
His special style embossed the Italo Western. Two trilogies of him are important for the movie history.
First the "Dollar Trilogy" including "A fistful of Dollars","For some Dollars more" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly".
The second Trilogy is called the "Americatrilogy". Here three important parts of the Amercican history are shown. This trilogy inlcudes: "Once Upon a time in the West", "A Fistful of Dynamite" and "Once Upon a time in America".

INteresting FILMO. Once Upon a Time in America is Mafia. So it really is a leap for Leone. To be honest, he's the only Spaghetti director I've ever seen a film from. I've seen four actually, and love your review on Once Upon A Time in the West. The brief period of time Italian Westerns flourished is really interesting to me. I wonder why it took off there as a genre? Had suck a big group of directors that jumped on it? I always joke the American West to the Italians were like Space movies to the Americans. Their "unknown" frontier where anything could happen.

I don't know if they created the anti-hero, or if there was such a thing in the American ones beforehand. I've seen only one Wayne movie (well two, but I don't count him as a Hun) and he wasn't that anti-hero in it. Washed up, and considered gruff and unloving, but not like the Italian anti-heros. Leone picked Eastwood out of the soap operas I heard (urban myth?) and you can really see how Eastwood was influenced by the anti-heroes in Spaghetti before he went on to do his own, even darker films.

**1980's

The 1980's are a big transition period in style and content for the Italians. Its probably most well known for Cinema Paradiso directed by Guiseppe Tornatore. The names are new, and the directors don't quite develope the massive catalogue of works as their ancestral generation of film makers. To me, the films become noticeably more "modern." I'd say they became more higher budget, but films in the 60's and 70's weren't exactly cheap, and most likely equally as expensive to produce. But the film material, and style feel alot more glossy, stable, and less gritty than earlier ones. Previous directors had adhered to washed out colors or grainy film, Fellini even stuck to black and white decades after the film industry had transitioned. But in the 1980's, the cinema began to have the "feel" we now associate with high budget films.

Cinema Paradiso is of course the story of a young boy growing up in a village, and how he befrieds the local projectionist. Its setting is back when projectionists were highly specialized, and projection machines were somewhat of less questionable safety. Due to government restrictions, all the sexual content of films are spliced out of the reels before presentations. The story is quite touching, and the ending a bit sad. Apparently the re-released Cinema Paradiso, which inclluded footage editted off the first release ending, makes the story close on a far more bitter and depressing, rather than just emotional experience. I have not seen Nuevo Cinema Paradiso which was only released into theatres recently.

The 80's also begin to set a new tone for Italian movies which I find to be more "romantic." NOt so much in the way of love stories "and there are plenty" but also that the stories become less jaded, softer, more "cute" or just less complicated emotional range. Cinema Paradiso is probably the last movie I've seen that exhibitis some bitterness, but jadedness, ridicule, and irony completely leave the scene (of films I've seen that is). We return to the stories that while perhaps having demanding content (some may think later Malena was tough) are handled in a fairly straightforeward narrative fashion. Attention and details are now focussed on style.

Fellini takes a crack at a quasi-opera movie, And the Ship Sails On which is very humorous if not a bit out of place. I know many people who liked it, but I just sat there wondering what he was thinking. It is funny though, since all the aristocracy on the boat is always singing, but its not exactly a well written opera. Could be fun for someone with patience. His City of Women is so well loved by others, but sadly its the one movie of his i couldn't even sit through. Stopped about 40 minutes in. Ginger and Fred which I've mentioned several times already, is a great little gem, and much softer and less scathing than Fellini's mid-career works, it harkens back to his early Masina helmed films. Intervista is also at the forefront of mockumentaries with, apprently, Rob Reiner. This one is even a mock autobiographical documentary. Makes the head spin just thinking about it, but is quite fun, and further fools me into thinking Anita Eckberg really is glamorous 24/7.

There's only one more very big director that emerges after the 80's, and that Roberto Begnini so he'll be discussed next.

I had Blow Up in my hand today - in the VCR, even...unfortunately, I couldnt get it to work, and really didn't have the time to sit in the library for 2 hours. I'll probably get The Bicycle Thief on dvd tomorrow. What would be your number one recommendation for me other than that? (I still plan on watching Blow Up, but will have to get it through Netflix, I guess)