
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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Tag Archives: italian
Il Messia / The Messiah (1975) Roberto Rossellini, Pier Maria Rossi, Mita Ungaro, Carlos de Carvalho, Biography, History

Rossellini’s final film relates the story of Christ in the director’s unsentimental, realistic style.
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La città si difende / Four Ways Out (1951) Pietro Germi, Gina Lollobrigida, Renato Baldini, Cosetta Greco, Crime, Drama

As a soccer match is in progress, a group of four criminals robs the stadium office. Before they can make their getaway, a chase begins, and they must split up before they can divide the money. The police have little to go on, since it appears that none of the robbers were experienced criminals. Meanwhile, the thieves have to arrange for dividing the money while trying to avoid being captured.
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Fotografando Patrizia / The Dark Side of Love (1984) Salvatore Samperi, Monica Guerritore, Lorenzo Lena, Gianfranco Manfredi, Drama, Erotic

The sexual relationship between a successful woman and her brother, an introvert, hypochondriacal youth, who is also a pornophile.
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Il grande silenzio / The Great Silence (1968) Sergio Corbucci, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Klaus Kinski, Frank Wolff, Western

Bounty killers led by Loco prey on outlaws hiding out in the snowbound Utahn mountains. After Pauline’s husband becomes Loco’s latest victim, she hires a gunman for revenge; Silence, mute since his throat was cut when he was a boy.
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Sesso nero / Orgasmo Nero III (1980) Joe D’Amato, Mark Shannon, Annj Goren, George Eastman, Drama, Sexploitation, Erotic

Helen arrives on a tropical island with her husband, anthropologists studying the life of the local tribe. Faced with a nice native Heini and imbued with her ??feelings, Helen takes her to the city, where does his mistress. Husband soon accuses Helen of infidelity, but he begins to use in retaliation Heini as exotic bed-toys.
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Storia di Piera / The Story of Piera (1983) Marco Ferreri, Isabelle Huppert, Hanna Schygulla, Marcello Mastroianni, Biography, Drama, Erotic

This sometimes confusing erotic drama about the incestuous relationship of a mother and daughter is based on the autobiography of Italian theater actress Piera Degli Esposti though it focuses more on her mother Eugenia (Hanna Schygulla).
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Genova a mano armata / Merciless Man (1976) Mario Lanfranchi, Tony Lo Bianco, Maud Adams, Adolfo Celi, Crime, Thriller

The city suffers and succumbs unarmed, but an ex secret agent succeeds in winning the struggle against the gangsterism. Intrigue and violence grip a society victim of the crime.
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Cielo sulla palude / Heaven Over the Marshes (1949) Augusto Genina, Rubi D’Alma, Michele Malaspina, Domenico Viglione Borghese, Drama

The scene is the Pontine Marshes, a disease-ridden region. The year is 1902. Maria Goretti, a twelve-year-old girl, lives with her parents, poor farm hands, in the house of Serenelli, a heavy drinker who has offered them board and lodging. The farmer has a son, Alessandro, aged eighteen, who is sexually attracted to the pious girl. Maria resists his advances. One day the young man can’t help it anymore: he rapes Maria before murdering her. Before she dies, Maria forgives her assailant. After her death she is canonized as a saint.
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Dove vai in vacanza? / Where Are You Going on Holiday? (1978) Mauro Bolognini, Luciano Salce, Ugo Tognazzi, Stefania Sandrelli, Pietro Brambilla, Comedy

Three shorter comedies: In “Saro Tutta Per Te” (I Will Be All Yours), Tognazzi is Enrico, a dentist who has agreed to vacation with his ex-wife at her lover’s villa. In “Si Buana” (Yes, Buana), Villaggio is Wilson, a man in charge of a group of tourists in Kenya. In the final episode, “La Vacanze Intelligenti” (Intelligent Vacation), Alberto Sordi is Remo, a greengrocer who, along with his wife, gets sent on a vacation by their well-meaning children who want to “improve” their parents’ minds by sending them off to see Etruscan tombs, hear performances of atonal modern music, and appreciate the wonders of avant-garde modern art.
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