Tag Archives: Italy

L’ingorgo: Una storia impossibile / Traffic Jam (1979) Luigi Comencini, Alberto Sordi, Annie Girardot, Fernando Rey, Drama

L'ingorgo Una storia impossibile (1979)
A tremendous congestion hit the Roma highway ring. The biggest traffic jam ever seen endures for more than 36 hours. People blocked in their cars react at the beginning normally. But the more the time advance the more we are witness of personal dramas, hysteric reactions and more. All the episodes are linked like one only plot. Cars and their hosts are a microcosm of stories part of a major universe: the congestion.
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Le Tigre se parfume à la dynamite / An Orchid for the Tiger (1965) Claude Chabrol, Roger Hanin, Margaret Lee, Michel Bouquet, Adventure, Crime, Comedy

Le tigre se parfume a la dynamite (1965)
Louis Rapiere aka Tiger is sent to Port-a-Pitre (French Guyane), to supervise the recuperation of a treasure from a sunken ship. A group of revolutionaries pirates the ship and robs the treasure, intending to sell it to an international terrorist organization, named Orchid. When he gets there, he demands that the French authority arrests the revolutionaries, but trying to prevent a general strike, the police does nothing. The Tiger finds himself acting alone, in a paralized territory – as the revoltionaries incited the people to the general strike anyway… and competing against American, Russian, and German spies. Everybody is very interested in the treasure, a rare mineral with tremendous impact on arms development, now about to fall into the Orchid’s clutch.
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La legge / The Law (1959) Jules Dassin, Gina Lollobrigida, Pierre Brasseur, Marcello Mastroianni, Comedy, Crime, Drama

La legge (1959)
Marietta, servant of aristocrat Don Cesare, is the bellezza of an Italian town where men gather nightly in the tavern for the ‘game of the Law,’ selecting one by lot to boss and humiliate the others. Illicit passions abound: the judge’s wife pursues Francesco, son of crime boss Matteo, who is after Marietta (so is her brother-in-law); Marietta wants engineer Enrico for a husband, but he claims he’s too poor to marry. So she decides to steal herself a dowry!
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Rue des Prairies / Rue de Paris (1959) Denys de La Patellière

Rue des Prairies (1959)
Life in a one-parent family with a focus on the parent, Henri Neveu (Jean Gabin), is the topic of this standard drama with a dash of comedy. While Henri was a POW during the war, his wife passed away and he returned to face the challenges of bringing up three children alone. Henri may get drunk and angry at times but he also has a better side that will not stay buried. Since handling three children alone is no easy task, the single father has the choice of growing in the process or not.
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La doublure / The Valet (2006) Francis Veber

La doublure (2006)
A Parisian valet loves a woman who rejects him: she’s in debt to open a bookshop, and he’s not her ideal man. A billionaire two-times his wealthy wife with his beautiful mistress, a young supermodel. To draw the paparazzi and his wife off the trail of adultery, and to give his lawyer time to arrange a divorce that won’t cost him a fortune, the billionaire pays the supermodel and the valet to pretend for a month to be a couple. Within days, the bookshop owner and the billionaire are jealous, the supermodel experiences life with a nice guy, and the valet has status and self-confidence. What will each do with newfound wisdom?
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Dopo divorzieremo (1940) Nunzio Malasomma

Dopo divorzieremo (1940)
Grace Peterson works in department stores “Tutto per Tutti”, along with many other young people. His employment contract entitling them to live in a boarding house built specifically for them by the company but on the other hand, forbid them not fall in love or marry under threat of dismissal. Still, Grace falls for Phil Golder, a violinist penniless. The director of the residence will notice and the best friend of the girl impersonate violinist girlfriend to try to save Grace dismissal.
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Un maledetto imbroglio / The Facts of Murder (1959) Pietro Germi, Claudia Cardinale, Franco Fabrizi, Crime, Drama

Un maledetto imbroglio (1959)
A masked bandit steals valuables from Commendatore Anzaloni’s apartment and flees, leaving Anzaloni unharmed. Inspector Ingravallo is called in. The robbery is suspicious; the thief found the jewellery too quickly. The neighbour, Liliana Banducci, employs a servant girl, Assuntina. Her fiancé, Diomede, tries to flee when he sees police tailing Assuntina. But Diomede has an alibi, a rich American woman… Liliana’s cousin, Dr. Valdarena, pays her a visit, only to find her body on the floor. But before calling police, Valdarena removes an envelope addressed to him from the sideboard… Liliana’s husband Remo was away from Rome at the time of the murder, but he is surprised to hear that Liliana had changed her will only the week before…
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La viaccia / The Lovemakers (1961) Mauro Bolognini, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Claudia Cardinale, Pietro Germi, Drama

La viaccia (1961)
The original Italian is La Viaccia (the name of the family farm which motivates the plot). The death of a wealthy patriarch in 1885 sets off an interfamily power struggle. Son Ferdinando buys out his other relatives in order to gain full control over the dead man’s property. But Ferdinando’s nephew Amerigo holds out. Amerigo’s stance is weakened when he heads for Florence and meets prostitute Bianca.
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