Tag Archives: Italy

Il boia di Lilla / Milady and the Musketeers (1952) Vittorio Cottafavi, Rossano Brazzi, Yvette Lebon, Armando Francioli, Action, Adventure, Drama

Milady and the Musketeers (1952)
La storia narra della vita Anne de Beuil, meglio conosciuta come Milady De Winter, famosa per essere la nemica dei 3 moschettieri, donna crudele dal passato oscuro legato a quello del conte de La Fère , prima come moglie e poi come avversari. La donna riuscirà a sopravvivere al tentato omicidio del marito ma la rincontrerà con il nome di Athos. Alla fine verrà condotta al patibolo, e il boia che deve ucciderla si scopre essere…
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Django (1966) Sergio Corbucci, Franco Nero, José Canalejas, José Bódalo, Western, Action

Django (1966)
Sergio Corbucci crafted one of the most popular and widely imitated of the Italian “spaghetti westerns” of the 1960s with this violent but stylish action saga. A mysterious man named Django (Franco Nero) arrives in a Mexican border town dragging a small coffin behind him. When he attempts to save a woman who is being attacked by a group of bandits, he finds himself in the middle of a conflict between Mexican gangsters and racist Yankee thugs, with the innocent townspeople and a fortune in Mexican gold stuck somewhere in between. Django becomes a force to be reckoned with when it’s discovered his coffin actually contains a Gatling gun. Django proved so popular in Europe that over 30 sequels and follow-ups were produced, though Franco Nero would not return to the role until 1987’s Django 2: Il Grande Ritorno (the only sequel endorsed by Corbucci), which proved to be the last film in the series.
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The Stranger / Lo straniero (1967) Luchino Visconti, Marcello Mastroianni, Anna Karina, Bernard Blier, Drama

The Stranger (1967)
In an atmosphere of political tension when the French still control Algiers, an Algerian is killed on the beach and a French man who has lived in Algiers all his life is arrested for the murder. A trial takes place. One of the witnesses was at the funeral of Arthur Meursault’s mother. It bothers other mourners and Mersault himself that he showed no emotion when his mother died. His eventful day at the beach takes place a short time after the funeral when he is examining what his life has been and what path should he take in the future.
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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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La rupture / The Breach (1970) Claude Chabrol, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Michel Bouquet, Thriller, Drama

La Rupture
Hélène Régnier walks out on her drug-addicted husband Charles after he brutally attacks their infant son. She stays in a run-down hotel whilst her son convalesces in hospital and she files for divorce. Charles’s wealthy bourgeois father is adamant that Hélène will lose custody of her child and, to that end, he engages a former business associate of Charles, Paul Thomas, to discredit her. When Paul fails to uncover any incriminating evidence against Hélène he concocts a scheme that will destroy her reputation. Things do not go quite as planned…
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MADO (1976) Claude Sautet, Michel Piccoli, Ottavia Piccolo, Jacques Dutronc, Drama

MADO (1976)
Middle-aged businessman Simon Léotard finds his future in jeopardy when his partner Julien commits suicide after having accumulated a mass of debts. Simon’s unscrupulous business rival Lépidon offers to save him from bankruptcy by buying his company, at a discount rate. Reluctant to fall into Lépidon’s trap, Simon decides to resolve the crisis himself. A prostitute, Mado, provides him with the solution to his problems…
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