Tag Archives: Vittorio De Sica

L’avventuriera del piano di sopra / The Lady Upstairs (1941) Raffaello Matarazzo, Vittorio De Sica, Clara Calamai, Giuditta Rissone, Comedy

L'avventuriera del piano di sopra AKA The Lady Upstairs (1941)
Misadventures of a young lawyer who, left alone at home for the departure of the jealous wife, is having to help a lady living in a top floor apartment, who asks him to host her to save her from the wrath of her husband. The young man offers his bed to the lady, content to sleep on the couch. The next morning, upon awakening, the lady is already gone, but at the same time is also missing a precious necklace of great value.
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After the Fox / Caccia alla volpe (1966) Vittorio De Sica, Peter Sellers, Victor Mature, Britt Ekland, Comedy, Crime

After the Fox (1966)
Peter Sellers plays Aldo Vanucci (aka the Fox), one of the greatest criminals of the world, and master of disguise. After Aldo escapes from the Italian prison he was held in, he meets again with his friends, and plans to retrieve the “gold of Cairo” a large shipment of gold, that waits to be unloaded somewhere in Italy. Aldo devices the perfect plan. Posing as a famous director, he finds the ideal coastal village to unload the shipment, and persuades the entire population that he has chosen their village as the set for his new movie. Everybody, including the idiot chief of the local police is so excited, that they can’t even imagine that in fact they are helping the Fox to get the “gold of Cairo”…
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The Witches / Le streghe (1967) Mauro Bolognini, Vittorio De Sica, Silvana Mangano, Annie Girardot, Francisco Rabal, Comedy, Drama, Romance

The Witches (1967)
Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman’s honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he’s not as romantic as he used to be.
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Una breve vacanza / A Brief Vacation (1973) Vittorio De Sica, Florinda Bolkan, Renato Salvatori, Daniel Quenaud, Drama, Romance

A Brief Vacation (1973)
A women lives a miserable life in the basement of her Milan apartment, with her boring inlaws and three children (boys). Her husband has been injured. Her bleak life takes an unexpected turn when she is diagnosed with tuberculosis and has to go to a sanatorium in the Italian Alps. At the medical clinic in Milan she meets young mechanic with the similar health problems. At the sanatorium she meets again the same man and they start a passionate love affair. All good things must come to an end. When she is cured, she has to return to that rathole from which she only briefly emerged.
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La bella mugnaia / The Miller’s Beautiful Wife (1955) Mario Camerini, Vittorio De Sica, Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Comedy

The Miller's Beautiful Wife (1955)
Alla fine del ‘600 nel napoletano sotto la dominazione spagnola, il mugnaio Luca cerca di arrabattarsi per non pagare le gabelle che impone Don Teofilo, il governatore, con il consiglio di Gardunia; da quella sulla pioggia (anche quando non c’è) a quella sul matrimonio. In questo è aiutato dalla bella moglie Carmela; diventa così amico di tutti i potenti del vicinato che sperano di conquistare le grazie della moglie. Tra i potenti vi è anche il governatore che, dietro consiglio di Gardunia, fa imprigionare Luca per avere mano libera con la moglie. Ma anche nei migliori piani le cose non vanno come previsto.
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Il generale della Rovere / General Della Rovere (1959) Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Hannes Messemer, Sandra Milo, Drama, War

Il generale della Rovere (Roberto Rossellini, 1959)
Genoa, 1943. Grimaldi is a swindler, pretending to be a colonel in the Italian army to get money from the family of people put into jail by the Nazis. Once caught, the Gestapo makes a deal with him : he will stay alive if he impersonates the General Della Rovere, a leader of the Resistance who has just been shot by the Nazis, to be put into a political jail where he is supposed to identify another Resistance leader.
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Pane, amore e gelosia / Frisky (1954) Luigi Comencini, Vittorio De Sica, Gina Lollobrigida, Marisa Merlini, Comedy, Romance

Pane, amore e gelosia AKA Bread, Love and Jealousy (1954)
In a small Italian village, Maria De Ritis is engaged to army Lieutenant Pietro Stelluti. Stelluti’s superior officer, Marshal Antonio Carotenuto, is contemplating marriage to Annarella Mirziano, but he will be forced to resign if he marries Annarella, since she has an illegitimate child and that is against regulations for army officers. When Stelluti leaves town for a few weeks, the town-gossips create an affair out of the innocent relationship between Maria and Antonio. Stelluti returns and accuses Maria of infidelity, and, she, in reprisal, runs off and joins a traveling theatrical troupe as a dancer. Antonio, after convincing Annarella that he has not betrayed her love, encounters more trouble when the father of Annarella’s child shows up and asks that she and the child go away with him. Antonio tells Annarella that it is her decision to make, and she chooses the child’s father and leaves with him.
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