Recently widowed American opera diva Caterina takes her teenaged son Joe with her on a long singing tour to Italy. Absorbed in her hectic work in various Verdi operas around Rome, Caterina is soon shocked to discover that her troubled and lonely son has become a heroin addict. Her desperate attempts to wean the youth off the drug result in an incestuous relationship, but also in a possibility to reunite Joe–maybe even herself–with his real father, whose existence she has kept a secret from him.
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Tag Archives: 1970s
La menace / The Threat (1977) Alain Corneau, Yves Montand, Carole Laure, Marie Dubois
Henri Savin has managed a trucking company for his lover, Dominique Montlaur, for many years. Now he is planning to leave her for Julie Manet, the woman he has made pregnant, and Dominique is hysterical. She first threatens suicide, then shows up at a meeting of Savin and Julie. Dominique tries everything she can think of to break Savin and Julie apart, to no avail. Frustrated in her efforts, she jumps off a cliff and dies. Savin insists that he and Julie lie to the police about the encounter, although Dominique’s death was a suicide and therefore they had no direct hand in it. Detective Waldeck investigates Dominique’s death.
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One on One (1977) Lamont Johnson, Robby Benson, Annette O’Toole, G.D. Spradlin
Henry Steele is a basketball phenom at his small town high school, but when he matriculates to a big city university on a scholarship, soon realizes that he has few skills outside the sport. Expected by his coach to contribute significantly to the team, Henry is overwhelmed by the demands on his time, the “big business” aspect of college sports, and the fact that he never fully learned to read. Things look bleak for Henry when Janet Hays, a pretty graduate student, is assigned as Henry’s tutor. Her intellect and strength lift Henry out of his doldrums just in time to battle the coach, who attempts to rescind Henry’s scholarship.
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The Black Windmill (1974) Don Siegel, Michael Caine, Donald Pleasence, Delphine Seyrig
A British agent’s son is kidnapped and held for a ransom of diamonds. The agent finds out that he can’t even count on the people he thought were on his side to help him, so he decides to track down the kidnappers himself.
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Taste of Excitement (1970) Don Sharp, Eva Renzi, David Buck, Peter Vaughan
A man has been killed on the Dover/Boulogne car ferry. What is the connection between him and the attempts being made to kill Jane Kerrell, a young girl in her early twenties? As she speeds through the French countryside to the South of France, several attempts are made on her life as she is deliberately forced off the road by another car. But when she reports these attempts, the local Cap Ferrat Police Inspector and the sinister psychiatrist, Dr. Forla believe these attempts are in her imagination and Dr Forla, concludes that Jane is mentally disturbed. At her wits end Jane finds an ally in the young English painter, Paul Hedley who finally believes her life is in danger following an attempt to murder him. When Inspector Malling of Scotland Yard and Mr. Breese arrive in Cap Ferrat trying to uncover the connection between Jane and the murdered man on the ferry, this thrilling puzzle of international intrigue begins to unravel against the backdrop of the French Riviera.
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Bolwieser / The Stationmaster’s Wife (1977) Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Elisabeth Trissenaar, Kurt Raab, Bernhard Helfrich
The lackluster and plodding station master Bolwieser has the (mis)fortune to be married to the town’s siren; his trusting nature leads him into serious trouble when she beds nearly every available guy.
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How Funny Can Sex Be? AKA Sessomatto (1973) Dino Risi, Giancarlo Giannini, Laura Antonelli, Alberto Lionello
SESSO MATTO is an episodic comedy in which Dino Risi generated a series of grotesque episodes concerning sexual deviations.
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Blood from the Mummys Tomb (1971) Seth Holt, Michael Carreras, Andrew Keir, Valerie Leon, James Villiers
An archaeological expedition brings back to London the coffin of an Egyptian queen known for her magical powers. Her spirit returns in the form of a young girl and strange things start to happen.
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Norma Rae (1979) Martin Ritt, Sally Field, Beau Bridges, Ron Leibman
Norma Rae is a southern textile worker employed in a factory with intolerable working conditions. This concern about the situation gives her the gumption to be the key associate to a visiting labor union organizer. Together, they undertake the difficult, and possibly dangerous, struggle to unionize her factory.
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Giordano Bruno (1973) Giuliano Montaldo, Gian Maria Volontè, Hans Christian Blech, Mathieu Carrière
Flying from his enemies in the Catholic Church, the free thinking philosopher, poet and scientist Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) has found some protection in Venice. But the Roman Inquisition, fearing his influence in Europe, wants to bring him on trial for ‘heresy’.
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