
Spans 300 years in the life of one famed musical instrument that winds up in present-day Montreal on the auction block. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin derives its unusual color from the human blood mixed into the finish. With this legacy, the violin travels to Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake.
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Tag Archives: Italy
Il dio serpente / The Snake God (1970) Piero Vivarelli, Nadia Cassini, Beryl Cunningham, Sergio Tramonti, Adventure, Drama, Horror

A beautiful Italian woman is told by her black friend about the Carribean love god Jambaya who appears in the form of the snake. By the end of the movie, Cassini has decided to give herself to Jambaya while Cunningham departs with her white friend’s ex-lover, establishing a neat symmetry between their respective fantasies of exoticism.
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Un uomo, un cavallo, una pistola / The Stranger Returns (1967) Luigi Vanzi, Tony Anthony, Daniele Vargas, Ettore Manni, Western

Taking the identity of a dead postal inspector found on the trail, a stranger rides into a small western town and finds himself in the middle of a stagecoach robbery perpetrated by a gang of twenty ruthless desperados. Finding out the object of the heist was not a strongbox as it seemed but a solid gold stagecoach, he enlists the aid of a down-and-out old preacher and tracks down the dangerous gang and their unsuspected ally.
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Chinese Kamasutra (1993) Joe D’Amato, Giorgia Emerald, Leo Gamboa, Marc Gosálvez, Fantasy, Romance, Erotic

Joan Parker, an American scholar of Chinese lore, recently took on a job at a Chinese library. When she stumbles upon a volume of the Kamasutra, her sexual fantasies are unleashed, but she remains cold towards the advances of her fellow librarian. There seems to be a connection to a haunted house she passes by on her way home, and the strange man keeps watching her from a barred window above. Unknowingly, she stumbles into the clutches of the Kamasutra cult, and through a series of trials and orgies discovers her sexuality…and her true nature as a reincarnation of an unhappy lover.
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The Twist / Folies bourgeoises (1976) Claude Chabrol, Bruce Dern, Stéphane Audran, Sydne Rome, Comedy

French New Wave director Claude Chabrol steps away from his usual style of mysteries and psychological dramas for the sex comedy Folies Bourgeoises, based on the novel Le Malheur Fou by Lucie Faure. Bruce Dern is the American writer William Brandels and Stephane Audran is his French socialite wife, Claire Brandels. The story follows the confusion of the infidelities of the wealthy upper class.
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Nana (1983) Dan Wolman, Katya Berger, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Yehuda Efroni, Comedy, Drama, Erotic

In Zola’s Paris, an ingenue arrives at a tony bordello: she’s Nana, guileless, but quickly learning to use her erotic innocence to get what she wants. She’s an actress for a soft-core filmmaker and soon is the most popular courtesan in Paris, parlaying this into a house, bought for her by a wealthy banker. She tosses him and takes up with her neighbor, a count of impeccable rectitude, and with the count’s impressionable son. The count is soon fetching sticks like a dog and mortgaging his lands to satisfy her whims. She bankrupts him, arranges the debauching of his wife, and seduces his son on his wedding day. What else can she accomplish before she leaves Paris airborne?
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Radio Arrow (1998) Luciano Ligabue, Stefano Accorsi, Luciano Federico, Alessio Modica, Drama

Popular Italian rock star Luciano Ligabue made his directorial debut with this Italian drama based on Fuori e dentro il borgo, his collection of autobiographical short stories about growing up in small-town Italy of the ’70s. DJ Bruno reflects on the past, a small circle of friends, and the hopes of their generation. At the group’s core is Freccia, a heroin user until Marzia steps in to help him kick the habit. As expected, Iena marries and settles down, while unhappy Boris is a victim of his own cynicism, and Tito is driven to violence by his dysfunctional family. An older bartender listens to the group’s woes and dreams. Along with a guitar score and a closing-credits song by Ligabue, tunes of the time include ones by Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, and David Bowie. Shown at the 1998 Venice Film Festival.
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Il solco di pesca (1975) Maurizio Liverani, Martine Brochard, Gloria Guida, Alberto Terracina, Comedy, Drama, Erotic

This movie centers around a group of people that are both very Italian-Catholic and the same time oversexed and jaded European bourgeosis from the late “dolce vita” era. The main protagonist is a former priest who has become bored to the point of impotence by the easy availability of beautiful women. He misses the shame of the priesthood which made sex somehow more enjoyable, and this somehow leads to his strange fascination with photographing asses . He gets involved with a sexy married woman (Martine Brochard), but he is more interested in her virginal maid (Gloria Guida)–or, to be more specific, in the maid’s ass. The woman’s husband meanwhile, a hilariously pretentious actor, discovers the affair. Strangely, he is not angry at his wife’s infidelity but depressed that she was so indiscreet, and he too takes solace in his maid’s ass.
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11 Days, 11 Nights (1987) Joe D’Amato, Jessica Moore, Joshua McDonald, Mary Sellers, Drama, Romance, Erotic

Female writer who as part of a book project has slept with 99 men . Her 100th unsuspecting “victim” is an American architect who she first seduces on a New York ferry and then begins a very hot and semi-kinky affair with despite the fact he’s due to be married in 11 days (and 11 nights). A love lust triangle soon develops between the writer, the architect, and the latter’s bride-to be
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Italian Sex / Sesso in testa (1974) Sergio Ammirata, Pilar Velázquez, Didi Perego, Mario Carotenuto, Comedy, Erotic

A sexy graduate student (Velazques) is giving her thesis presentation, which creates quite a stir since she has just posed as a prostitute for several months to do sociological research for her thesis. She relates various stories of her experiences to her salivating thesis committee and a large audience of curious on-lookers.
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