Tag Archives: italian

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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La sfida / The Challenge (1958) Francesco Rosi, Rosanna Schiaffino, José Suárez, Nino Vingelli

La sfida (1957)
Vito Polara is a young ambitious man from the slums of Naples, who wants to get as much power and money as possible. He decides to quit smuggling cigarettes and tries to take over the local fruit and vegetable distribution, which is considered more profitable. After challenging the rural crime boss of the local Camorra, Vito becomes part of his gang and soon his life changes. He moves to a new luxurious seaside apartment and plans to start a family with the beautiful Assunta. At their wedding party, however, and later on, he’s about to see who the real boss is.
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Buongiorno, notte / Good Morning, Night (2003) Marco Bellocchio, Maya Sansa, Luigi Lo Cascio, Roberto Herlitzka

Buongiorno, notte (2003)
The movie is based on a true story. On 16 March 1978 Aldo Moro, the former Italian Prime Minister was kidnapped in Via Fani by the Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades), a militant Communist Italian group. He was the main supporter of the Compromesso Storico (Hystorical Compromise), which had to lead to the first Italian government supported by both the Christian Democrats and the Communists, in a period of social, economic and political crises. During the attack his five escort agents were all killed. Moro’s corpse was found on 9 May 1978 in a car parked in a street between the headquarters of the Christian Democrat Party and the Communist Party. This movie is inspired by this tragic event which traumatize the whole nation. It focuses mainly on the relationship between the prisoner and his guards through the eyes of Chiara, the young woman whose role is to guard the prisoner. The movie portraits Chiara’s life (her job as a librarian, the ordinary household) on one side and the political …
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Campane a martello (1949) Luigi Zampa, Gina Lollobrigida, Yvonne Sanson, Carlo Romano

Campane a martello (1949)
Agostina is a maid turned prostitute during World War II. She sends all the money she makes to the local priest in her home village for safekeeping. After the war is over Agostina and her friend Australia plan to open a clothing store so they return to her home island to collect the money from the priest. But after arriving there Agostina learns in shock that the priest has been dead for more than a year and that his eccentric successor mistook the received money for donations and spent all of it on building a new orphanage for war orphans. To make matters even worse, other islanders think that Agostina is now a millionaire and beg her to help them financially.
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La vita ricomincia / Life Begins Anew (1945) Mario Mattoli, Alida Valli, Fosco Giachetti, Eduardo De Filippo

La vita ricomincia (1945)
When former POW, Paolo, returns from India to his middle-class home in Rome at the end of the war, he is relieved to find his wife, Patrizia, and young son alive, managing to get by thanks to Patrizia’s business in lampshades. They also enjoy the moral support of the jovial, elderly Neapolitan widower, who is their new neighbour, Il professore. However disaster strikes when Patrizia commits a murder – her response to a mysterious man’s attempt to blackmail her to have sex with him. Paolo discovers that during his absence, in the face of their son’s desperate need for a life-saving operation, Patrizia prostituted herself once to the murdered man to raise the funds, a sequence revealed through a flashback sequence…
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