What European films did you see? July / August 2016

'Caina : The Island And The Continent' (1922, Cainà: L'isola e il continente - Gennaro Righelli)

Caina (Maria Jacobini) dreams of leaving old Sardinia by taking to the seas but the old world doesn't release its living creatures easily.

'Caina : The Island And The Continent' is a haunting silent movie from Maestro Gennaro Righelli starring Maria Jacobini as a peasant girl who harbours dreams and aspirations. It's a film about nature and the elements trying to take back creation from a free-spirited woman who's intent upon forging her own destiny. Righelli transports you to a strange, angular world when the action occurs along narrow shores and sharp rockscapes, before launching out to sea in high style.

'You join with other ladies to deride me
and do not think, my lady, for what cause
I cut so awkward and grotesque a figure
when I stand gazing at your lovely form.
Could you but know my soul in charity,
then yours would melt from its accustomed scorn;
for Love, when he beholds me near to you,
takes on cruel and bold new confidence
and puts my frightened senses to the sword,
murdering this one, driving that one out,
till only he is left to look at you;
thus, though his changeling, I am not so changed
but that I still can hear in my own soul
my outcast senses mourning in their pain.'

- Sonnet from 'Vita Nuova' by Dante Alighieri

'Four Steps In The Clouds' (1942, 4 passi fra le nuvole - Alessandro Blasetti)

Travelling candy salesman Paolo Bianchi (Gino Cervi) assists pregnant bus passenger Maria (Adriana Benetti) in a plan to fool her family into thinking she's due to get married.

'Four Steps In The Clouds' is a disarming fable about the milk of human kindness and the nourishment that love can bring during periods of moral panic. Gino Cervi is funny as sweets vendor Paolo who takes time out from his busy life in the north of Italy to spend time with a group of strangers. Adriana Benetti captures the moral quandary between Maria's moral servitude and sense of duty, inviting the audience to question whether she's a manipulator or simply bound by convention. Both stars flourish under Alessandro Blasetti's sensitive direction, working from a tender script by Giuseppe Amato, Aldo De Benedetti and Blasetti that's based on an original story by Piero Tellini and Cesare Zavattini. The music for this thoughtful film is composed by Alessandro Cicognini.

'Down With Misery' (1945, Abbasso la miseria! - Gennaro Righelli)

Honest driver Giovanni Straselli (Nino Besozzi) and his wife Nannina (Anna Magnani) are struggling to make ends meet so the introduction of abandoned boy Nello Esposito (Vito Annichiarico) to their home exerts considerable financial pressure. Their friend and neighbour Gaetano Schioppa (Virgilio Riento) is also a driver but his crooked profiteering through the black market could carry severe repercussions for all, not least his costly wife Caterina (Marisa Vernati).

'Down With Misery' is an old-fashioned tragi-comedy about trying to stay on the straight and narrow during times of economic strain. The criminal plot at its core allows for plenty of soul-searching but never at the expense of a good laugh. Experienced director Gennaro Righelli depicts the aftermath of the 2nd World War by arranging for startling location shoots in among crumbling buildings and ruins, showing a broken society that's slowly starting to pull itself back together and foster a sense of community. It's a film about hope beyond deprivation and learning to dream again. Umberto Mancini's relaxed orchestral score is augmented by Anna Magnani's spirited vocal performances on the songs 'L'Eco Der Core' and 'Nanni'.

'Peddlin' In Society' (1946, Abbasso la ricchezza! - Gennaro Righelli)

Fruit vendor Gioconda Perfetti (Anna Magnani) takes a lease out on a villa owned by Count Ghirani (Vittorio De Sica) who's down on his luck. Her sister Lucia (Zora Piazza) comes to stay and the Count dwells in the cellar but it doesn't take long for suspicions to be aroused by Gioconda's rapid ascent up the social ladder.

'Peddlin' In Society' is a comedy that's separated into two acts. The first part is a majestic farce centred around a haunted house party designed to show off Gioconda's newly acquired social status. As the party reaches its climax, Count Ghirani is sitting in his basement wondering how to return his tenant's missing panties so she'll stop accusing chambermaid Anna (Laura Gore) of stealing them, while Gioconda is shaking her booty in a bouncing black bow-tail dress and showing up her kid sister. Gennaro Righelli treats audiences to a lengthy musical interlude filmed in boogievision for his penultimate feature, encouraging his party guests to take turns singing (Anna Magnani performs 'Quanto Sei Bella Roma').
The second part of 'Peddlin' In Society' proves to be altogether different as Gioconda's plot starts unravelling at the seams and her cold, arrogant behaviour comes back to haunt her. There's a poker game set to live piano but the mood turns sharply towards reflection amidst sobriety. Everybody's fortunes change, leading to a fitting finale that restores society to its established order.
'Peddlin' In Society' is an entertaining comedy from Righelli who elicits terrific performances all round. It has a lovely sense of balance, nice timing and a feel for musicality that's infectious. There are contributions from Cesare Bixio and Felice Montagnini on the soundtrack.

'Bellissima' (1952 - Luchino Visconti)

Maddalena Cecconi (Anna Magnani) takes her daughter Maria (Tina Apicella) to Cinecitta Studios to audition for film director Alessandro Blasetti's latest project.

Luchino Visconti's comic meta-fantasy 'Bellissima' hinges itself upon the volcanic talent of Anna Magnani who portrays a Roman stage mother with a massive chip on her shoulder. Maddalena Cecconi oversees the talent of her daughter Maria (who's never far from tears) and it soon becomes obvious that she's living vicariously through her child. This is a horrifying vision of a matriarchal society that's volatile, disturbed and delusional, an artificial world in which birds flock together and daughters are taught to mimic their mothers. It becomes a cry for individualism delivered with consummate artistery, though it possesses a raw, spontaneous quality due to Magnani's methods of improvisation (almost like a fly-on-the-wall documentary during the auditions). The writing team of Visconti, Suso Cecchi D'Amico and Francesco Rosi take a story from Cesare Zavattini and soak it in satirical menace to create something that's crude, instrusive, and wholly inappropriate. 'Bellissima' is magnetically charged and often uproarious, but exhausting.

"I am an Anna Magnani fan. I laugh with her, cry with her, love with her, hate with her."

- Bette Davis

'Fiasco In Milan' (1959, Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti - Nanni Loy)

A gang of robbers is assembled to steal a suitcase of money.

'Fiasco In Milan' is the second part of the 'Big Deal' heist trilogy that begins with 'Big Deal On Madonna Street' (1958) and ends with 'Big Deal After 20 Years' (1985). It's alot of fun with the Sardinian Nanni Loy in charge and sees the return of Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori, Claudia Cardinale and Elena Fabrizi who lead an all-star cast that includes Riccardo Garrone, Vicky Ludovici, Tiberio Murgia, Carlo Pisacane, Gianni Bonagura, Clara Bindi, Gastone Moschin and Nino Manfredi. There's title cards, sight gags (Brandoesque vest tanlines haha) and pratfalls galore, giving 'Fiasco In Milan' an old-time comedy feel that's further enhanced by the smooth jazz stylings of composer Piero Umiliani and jazz trumpeter Chet Baker.

'Alien 2 : On Earth' (1980, Alien 2 sulla Terra - Ciro Ippolito)

A crew of scientists prepare to search a subterranean cave system for extraterrestrial life when the National Aeronautics & Space Administration Centre reports a possible landing on Earth.

'Alien 2 : On Earth' is Italy's unofficial follow-up to Ridley Scott's blockbuster 'Alien' (1979). It's shot with a much smaller production budget but it's similarly characterised by its extraordinary visual design. The caves are incredible; I'm still not sure if the whole thing was shot underground or on sets built from walls of stalagmites and stalactites. The miners' flashlights and torches look like space beams and disco lights when photographed from a low trajectory underground and the use of candles adds an air of gothic candour to the setting. The bizarre (though largely unseen) creature design and gory make-up effects are wonderfully gruesome and grisly, right up to the point where a vile internal organcam appears during the final twist. Speaking of which, the surprising anti-climax before the climax, when philosophical alien hunter Thelma Joyce (Belinda Mayne) gets back to the big city, manages to be sad, tense and teasing all at once. This is an exciting science-fiction horror from filmmaker Ciro Ippolito with a jaw-droppingly beautiful guitar theme composed by Guido De Angelis & Maurizio De Angelis. 'Alien 2 : On Earth' where have you been all my life.

'We now were at the summit of the stair.
The mountain there - which, as one climbs, takes ill
away - is chiselled back a second time.
And so there's, here, a ledge around the slope,
which binds it, as the first ledge also did,
except that now the arc curves faster in.
Shade? There's none here, nor any sign to see.
The cliffs show bare. The path looks shorn of marks,
save only for its stones of liverish blue.
'I fear,' the poet said, considering this,
'our choice of route may well be long delayed
if we wait here for someone we can ask.'
Firmly, he fixed his eyes towards the sun.
He made a fulcrum of his right-hand side,
and moved his left around that central point.
'You, sweetest light, in trusting you I now,'
he said, 'embark upon this strange new road.
Guide us, as guidance must be here required.
You warm the world. You shine out over it.
Your rays, where counter reasons have no weight,
must always lead with their authority.'
The distance of a mile (as earth miles count)
we travelled now from where we'd been before -
our will so quick - in little time at all.
Then, unseen, flying towards us now
were heard the voices of spirits, all delivering
a courteous welcome to the feast of love.'

- - Excerpt from Canto 13 of 'The Divine Comedy : Purgatory' by Dante Alighieri

'Breathless - Loving On The Run' (1997 - Bill Maycock)

Assessing the impact of filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's 1960s output on the lovers on the run crime subgenre.

This ambitious, overreaching video essay attempts to bridge the gap between the suspense cinema of British filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock and the written revolution sparked by the rights wars over Quentin Tarantino's early screenplays. I think it does a pretty good job of this by positioning 'Breathless' (1960) at the apex of classical cinema, and 'Pierrot Le Fou' (1965) at the beginnings of the modern cinema era. English writer-director Bill Maycock first examines the influence of Hitchcock classics like 'The 39 Steps' (1935) which was released shortly after 'It Happened One Night' (1934), 'Young And Innocent' which came out the same year as 'You Only Live Once' (1937), and 'Saboteur' (1942) which was released around the same time as 'This Gun For Hire' (1942). He also considers the doomed lovers syndrome in crime scenarios, focusing upon classic film noir titles like 'Detour' (1945), 'They Live By Night' (1948) and 'Gun Crazy' (1950).
There's no doubt that Godard changed the aesthetics associated with filmic lovers on the lam as we can see this influence on modern American classics like 'The Sadist' (1963), 'Bonnie And Clyde' (1967), 'The Honeymoon Killers' (1969), 'Badlands' (1973), 'Dirty Mary Crazy Larry' (1974), 'The Sugarland Express' (1974), 'Thieves Like Us' (1973), 'Running Hot' (1984), 'Into The Night' (1985), 'Drugstore Cowboy' (1989), 'Kalifornia' (1993) and 'Trouble Bound' (1993). When QT finally broke through with his heist picture 'Reservoir Dogs' (1992), Tony Scott delivered the road movie 'True Romance' (1993) shortly afterwards, and then Oliver Stone made the road movie 'Natural Born Killers' (1994). QT is still out there making movies, and so is Jean-Luc Godard.

'I saw her standin' on her front lawn just twirlin' her baton,
Me and her went for a ride sir and ten innocent people died,
From the town of Lincoln Nebraska with a sawed-off .410 on my lap,
Through to the badlands of Wyoming I killed everything in my path,
I can't say that I'm sorry for the things that we done,
At least for a little while sir, me and her we had us some fun ...'

- Bruce Springsteen

'Sindoni' (2016, Documentary - Angelo Pannucci)

A glimpse at what's going on in the working life of film director Vittorio Sindoni

During a long and glittering career, Vittorio Sindoni has directed some of Italy's most popular television mini-series, worked with some of the film industry's biggest stars and served as head of theatrical troupe The Collective Of Rome. Back in the 1970s, the comic maestro fought to cast veteran gigolo Walter Chiari in several projects, including both of the smash hit 'Airline Pilot' comedy pictures with Leonora Fani. Sindoni picked out a promising extra on that series to play the title role of 'For The Love Of Cesarina' (1976) opposite the resurgent Chiari; that extra was Cinzia Monreale.
Like Vittorio De Sica, Antonio Pietrangeli and Pietro Germi, Sindoni has made classic comedies in the grand storytelling tradition. In addition to working in film, theatre and television, he's carved out a successful career as a writer. He's now 77 years of age and has a new film out this year with music composed by Fabio Frizzi.

I saw http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4080728/ "En man som heter Ove" meaning "A man called Ove".

It was the best Swedish movie this year! (Well, maybe it actually came out 2015, but I saw it this year).

Being a troll isn't an excuse to be an a$$hole.

I've not seen any movies from director Hannes Holm. Thanks for the recommendation!

'The Overcoat' (1952, Il cappotto - Alberto Lattuada)

Local government clerk Carmine De Carmine (Renato Rascel) finally earns some respect when he purchases a plush new overcoat.

The absurdist fantasy 'The Overcoat' is an adaptation of a story by Nikolai Gogol with writing contributions from Giordano Corsi, Enzo Curreli, Luigi Malerba, Giorgio Prosperi, Leonardo Sinisgalli, Cesare Zavattini and director Alberto Lattuada. The phrase "too many cooks ..." springs to mind but this large team of ideas men was assembled to colour in the story's descriptive passages for cinematic presentation. Lattuada originally trained as an architect and every little sound and detail in 'The Overcoat' appears for a reason. The story, which deals directly with excavation and construction in the hands of local council, is put together brick by brick, so it's a film that rewards repeat viewings for the many small moments that contribute to the grand design.
'The Overcoat' also operates as a vehicle for singer-songwriter Renato Rascel who delivers a delicate comic masterclass as the hapless clerk battling state officials The Mayor (Giulio Stival) and The Secretary General or "Deputy Mayor" (Ettore Mattia). At work, Carmine is a master of italics with an exquisite gothic font who can't resist peppering protocols and minutes with his own creative embellishments. At home, Carmine is a cheapjack voyeur who dreams of getting jiggy with rich girl Caterina (Yvonne Sanson). The mystery unfurled by the story sees Carmine gain a spirit by breaking free from his shackles. There's tremendous contrast in the visual design between the cold, empty corridors of power which feel distant and remote, and the warm, cosy interiors of the workers' apartment blocks which feel intimate and connected. 'The Overcoat' is a bureaucratic nightmare about life's little details and the frustration they can bring.

"Milan-born Alberto Lattuada had a long career spanning more than four decades and a kaleidoscopic variety of genres and registers. He was equally at ease with crime thrillers, erotic dramas or adaptations of Russian literary giants Pushkin, Gogol and Chekhov. Defending his eclecticism in a 1979 interview, Lattuada argued that while he did indeed take on a variety of different genres, he nonetheless always returned to the same handful of themes. “All the films I’ve made are denunciations of taboos, errors, crystallisations, impositions, injustices”, he noted. “Every kind of imposition makes my blood boil, be it organised - wars, totalitarian ideologies - or just that of the person who barges in front of you on the bus”. By 1960, the director had more than a dozen features under his belt, including the film that many believe is his masterpiece, 1952’s Gogol adaptation 'Il cappotto' (The Overcoat)."

- Pasquale Iannone, Senses Of Cinema

"Not only did Totò make films in mass quantity; he also produced a series of very high quality movies. Pier Paolo Pasolini, Roberto Rossellini, Dino Risi, Alberto Lattuada, Vittorio De Sica, and Mario Monicelli are just some of the important Italian directors who worked with Totò to create authentic masterpieces of Italian comedy, such as 'Guardie e Ladri', 'Dov’è la libertà', 'L’oro di Napoli', and 'Uccellacci e Uccellini'. Totò was also a great poet who wrote in dialect, and an outstanding song-writer, composing both the music and lyrics of his pieces. There are few Italians who do not recognize his infamous song ‘Malafemmena,’ composed and dedicated to the actress Silvana Pampanini whom he fell in love with while filming '47 morto che parla'."

- Leonardo Cardini, 'Master Of Laughter'

'Come Have Coffee With Us' (1970, Venga a prendere il caffè... da noi - Alberto Lattuada)

Stuffy tax inspector Emerenziano Paronzini (Ugo Tognazzi) abuses his influence to woo three grieving sisters who live together as spinsters : Tarsilla (Francesca Romana Coluzzi), Fortunata (Angela Goodwin) and Camilla (Milena Vukotic). Further complications arise when the taxman takes a shine to family maid Caterina (Valentine) and realises he's starting to identify women from the waist down.

'Come Have Coffee With Us' is a buoyantly fastidious comedy based on a novel by Piero Chiara. It finds director Alberto Lattuada in scintillating form as he unveils a luminescent gothic about dieting, death and dynamic female figures emerging from the throes of self-imposed perdition. Lattuada's first assignment as an art director in the 1930s was an adaptation of a story by Edgar Allan Poe and his early feature films of the 1940s drew from the work of novelists like Emilio De Marchi, Alberto Moravia and Luciano Zuccoli, setting the career course of a filmmaker who remained steadfastly committed to combining art, poetry, literature and music (his father was the composer Felice Lattuada) in distinct and unusual ways. His meticulous direction of 'Come Have Coffee With Us' is typically detailed, uninhibited in its passions, and greatly appreciative of the full potential of the frame to capture women in their various forms. Director of photography Lamberto Caimi displays an unforgiving touch, employing precision camerawork that reveals all manner of foibles, fancies and imperfections. Fred Bongusto's multi-faceted psychedelic lounge score is a musical marvel dripping with liquid acid.

'My lady, the women you've been talking about were certainly extremely steadfast, resolute and faithful. Could one say as much of even the strongest men who ever lived? Yet, of all the vices that men, and especially authors, accuse women of possessing, they are unanimous that the female sex is unstable and fickle, frivolous, flighty and weak-minded, as impressionable as children and completely lacking in resolution. Are men therefore so unwavering that it is utterly unheard of for them to vacillate, given that they criticize women for being so unreliable and changeable? If, in fact, they themselves are lacking in constancy, it's totally unacceptable for them to accuse others of having the same failing or to insist that others should possess a virtue which they themselves do not.'

- Christine De Pizan, 'Proofs to refute the view that women are lacking in constancy: Christine asks questions, to which Rectitude replies with various examples of emperors who were unreliable and inconsistent'

'Take The Power Back' - Anna Sentina
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXmdVEkJKGg

'White Sister' (1972, Bianco, rosso e... - Alberto Lattuada)

Sister Germana (Sophia Loren) returns to Italy from Libya in the wake of an industrial accident and takes charge of the chaotic ward of a catholic hospital. Discovering desperate patients flailing amidst poor conditions, Sister Germana takes on chief medical officer Doctor Jefe (Fernando Rey) and communist plant Annibale Pezzi (Adriano Celentano) in a fight to raise standards and save the community.

'White Sister' is a black comedy about the clash between organised religion, anarchism and radical left-wing politics. It's an odd mixture of romantic melodrama and the kind of panicked polemic that fuelled historical outrages like Carlo Lizzani's 'Requiescant' (1967) and Valerio Zurlini's 'Black Jesus' (1968). Sophia Loren is gripping in the lead role which is just as well as Adriano Celentano is just goofy as the skirt-chasing, marxism-espousing hunchfront agitator with a limp. There's a wonderful comic performance from Tina Aumont as spoilt patient Senora Ricci but the movie itself is sketchy and I don't think it hangs together all that well. Nonetheless, it's an interesting film with some entertaining moments.

'As you yourself pointed out earlier, good judgement consists of weighing up carefully what you wish to do and working out how to do it. To prove to you that women are perfectly able to think in this way, even about the most important matters, I'll give you a few examples of some high-born ladies, the first of whom is Dido. As I'll go on to tell you, this Dido, whose name was originally Elissa, revealed her good sense through her actions. She founded and built a city in Africa called Carthage and was its queen and ruler. It was in the way that she established the city and acquired the land on which it was built that she demonstrated her great courage, nobility and virtue, qualities which are indispensable to anyone who wishes to act prudently. This lady was descended from the Phoenicians, who came from the remotest regions of Egypt to settle in Syria where they founded and built several fine towns and cities. Amongst these people was a king named Agenor, who was a direct ancestor of Dido's father. This king, who was called Belus, ruled over Phoenicia and conquered the kingdom of Cyprus. He had only two children: a son, Pygmalion, and a daughter, Dido.'

- Excerpt from 'The Book Of The City Of Ladies' by Christine De Pizan

'Don't Give Hate A Chance' - Marta Altesa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_AI2v-4DTs

'Father Dear Father' (1973 - William G. Stewart)

Old-age pensioner Patrick Cargill (Patrick Glover) desires to retire to his writing but his seventeen year-old daughter Karen (Ann Holloway) is dating bad boy Richard (Richard O'Sullivan) and his eighteen year-old daughter Anna (Natasha Pyne) is moving out looking for action. What can an old man do?

I've never watched a full episode of the popular 1960s sitcom 'Father Dear Father' but I decided to watch this feature-length spin-off regardless. It's a strange bird because the two teenage girls (played by actresses in their mid-to-late twenties) tease their dear daddy Patrick and dodgy uncle Glover (Donald Sinden) mercilessly but don't do much else. Anyway, it's all very innocent and keeps it in the family, it's just not very funny. I'd rank it in my bottom three U K sitcom spin-offs of the 1970s alongside 'For The Love Of Ada' (1972) and the risible 'Steptoe And Son' (1972). Ole!

'Ator, The Fighting Eagle' (1982, Ator l'invincibile - Joe D'Amato)

The Shadow of the Spider has been set as law in the valleys of the shadows for one thousand years. The High Priest of the Spiders (Dakkar) orders the Black Knights of the Spider Cult to abduct women and among their captives is Sunya (Ritza Brown) who's chained up in the Temple of the Spider. Fearless warrior Ator (Miles O'Keeffe), son of the mighty Torren who defied spiders, declares war against the Spider Kingdom on a mission to rescue his missing sister-lover.

Joe D'Amato's landmark fantasy 'Ator, The Fighting Eagle' is the original that spawned the franchise, with Miles O'Keeffe as the fighting barbarian Ator. It's a perilous adventure that moves at a clip, expertly handled by D'Amato who doubles up on cinematography duties (like his friend Massimo Dallamano, D'Amato started out as a cameraman, quickly establishing a reputation as one of the best in the business). Many of D'Amato's genre pictures encourage exploration of his anthropological passions and 'Ator, The Fighting Eagle' is no exception. It features ancient cultures, tribal dances and largely undisturbed natural habitats, as well as some highly imaginative dress codes connected to societal class structures. There's some great spider action too.
Favourite sequence - Mentor Griba (Edmund Purdom in the performance of a lifetime) teaches Ator the rules of battle engagement by telling the legend of Chung The Terrible and the Seven Siamese Sisters, leading to a riveting training montage showcasing different forms of creativity, defence and combat, before drifting effortlessly into a lakeside introduction for lethal thief Roon (a devilishly complex character portrait etched by fantasy icon Sabrina Siani).

'Daughter Of The Jungle' (1982, Incontro nell'ultimo paradiso - Umberto Lenzi)

New York numbnuts Butch (Renato Miracco) and Ringo (Rodolfo Bigotti) tangle with a cannibal tribe and a gang of criminals (Salvatore Borghese, Claudio Miraco & Big Mario Pedone) while stranded in the jungle. Help arrives in the form of seasoned tree swinger Jane (Sabrina Siani) who can talk to the animals.

'Daughter Of The Jungle' is one of the funniest comedies I've seen in a long while. The script is patchy with some jokes working better than others, but the laughs keep coming thanks to Umberto Lenzi's inspired direction, Giovanni Bergamini's creative camerawork and the perfect comic timing of legendary editor Vincenzo Tomassi. Renato Miracco and Rodolfo Bigotti form a neat double-act that becomes a triple-act, a quadruple-act and a quintuple-act thanks to the comedy chops of Sabrina Siani who rolls three characters into one to keep audiences guessing (Jane the queen of the jungle, Susan the lost daughter of the jungle & Luana the jungle warrior). Sit back, pour yourself a beer and enjoy - it's a scream. Oh, and don't forget, nothing suggests friendship like a pair of tight white "I love NY" jeans!

'The Wicked Lady' (1983 - Michael Winner)

Lady Barbara Skelton (Faye Dunaway) joins pesky bandit Jerry Jackson (Alan Bates) for some illegal fun in the countryside.

'The Wicked Lady' is based on the novel 'The Life And Death Of The Wicked Lady Skelton' by Magdalen King-Hall. The book was filmed by Leslie Arliss in 1945 so he stepped in to co-write this new version with director Michael Winner. It's a saucy tale with an all-star cast that rips through the pages like wildfire (John Gielgud gets to perform a soliloquy but editor Michael Winner cuts him off before the finish haha). This is the perfect romantic adventure for fans of Mills & Boon, Silhouette Desire and Candlelight Supreme, with directors Lindsay Anderson, Karel Reisz and John Schlesinger sticking up for it against the scissor-happy British censors.

'Cats And Dogs In Rome' (2008, Documentary - Andrew Atkins)

Middle-aged Englishman Andrew Atkins elects to muse upon the reasons behind the union forged between macro-historian Elsa Morante and existentialist voyeur Alberto Moravia in the city of Rome.

This is a nice video essay regarding the strange relationship that developed between a pair of authors who both became enshrined within Italian culture of the 20th century.

'Oh, human blindness! Seest thou not, unfortunate man, that thou thinkest to love things firm and stable, joyous things, good and fair? And they are mutable, the sum of wretchedness, hideous, and without any goodness; not as they are created things in themselves, since all are created by God, who is perfectly good, but through the nature of him who possesses them intemperately. How mutable are the riches and honours of the world in him who possesses them without God, without the fear of Him! For to-day is he rich and great, and to-day he is poor. How hideous is our bodily life, that living we shed stench from every part of our body! Simply a sack of dung, the food for worms, the food of death! Our life and the beauty of youth pass by, like the beauty of the flower when it is gathered from the plant. There is none who can save this beauty, none who can preserve it, that it be not taken, when it shall please the highest Judge to gather this flower of life by death; and none knows when.'

- Catherine Of Siena, Excerpt from 'A Letter To Three Cardinals'

Big Dog Alberto Moravia
http://cdn.thedailybeast.com/content/dailybeast/articles/2015/10/04/alberto-moravia-the-forgotten-muse-of-the-nouvelle-vague/jcr:content/image.img.2000.jpg/1444021212340.cached.jpg

Elsa Morante the Cat Lady
http://www.romecentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/elsa_morante_gatti.jpg

'The Way You Love' - Alessandra Scaravilli
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1fjhFaghhg

Taking a lead from our thread host and his long running exposition of Italian Cinema we decided to explore the unknown.
A Giallo film first for us, from writer/director Salvatore Samperi ...
Wow this is one grim family melodrama, a modern-day reinvention of the tale of the Prodigal Son, which is where the title Kill The Fatted Calf And Roast It originated .

Upon hearing of his father's death, Enrico Merlo leaves his boarding school in Switzerland and returns to his home in Padua. Overhearing a conversation between his older brother Cesare, who has taken over the profitable family business, and his lover & cousin Verde the beautiful (Marilù Tolo), Enrico becomes convinced that the two have murdered his father.

All of the psychological themes often associated with the Giallo genre, madness, alienation, sexuality; incestuous and the erotic, paranoia, fetishism are cleverly inter-woven into this dark engrossing offbeat tale.

Ennio Morricone's score is the perfect accompaniment for creating the Giallo Sound , it is a pulsating mix from grooving 70's to nerve jarring discord back to soothing harmony.

In stark contrast to the above mentioned Kill The Fatted Calf, Greek director Theo Angelopoulos 1970 film Reconstruction is masterfully shot in a spare and austere style with high contrast black and white cinematography.

The film's setting is a statement in itself on the dictator controlled political environment in which it was filmed.
Haunting and bleak despite the obvious charm of the quaint village, mud, rain & grey skies dominate the cold barren rock strewn landscape .
On the surface a crime of passion.
A man returns to his Greek village home after a long time away, he is murdered by his wife and her lover? We never see the actual killing, the elliptical tale unfolds crossing back-and-forth between the suspects who attempt to cover up the truth, once they are caught flashback reconstructions are presented by the official police investigation.

The central murder element becomes symbolic and runs parallel to the underlying story of the amoral and disordered world of the military junta, of the depopulation of rural Greek villages and subsequent loss of identity & culture which has left an empty, cold-hearted land where an innocent man is killed for what seems no justifiable reason .

The Socio-political films of Theo Angelopoulos demand multiple viewings, his films are densely structured multi layered works of exquisite beauty which I would Highly Recommend.

edit adding ...

“It all depends on the spectator and to what extent he is willing to do his share of the work when he watches my films. The film supplies him with a certain amount of information, but it is only by completing it with his own input that he can hope to enjoy the film”. T.Angelopoulos .

Hi planet. I've seen a number of films from Salvatore Samperi over the years, but not that one! Sounds far out. One thing I like about Samperi is how all his films seem to carry the same themes yet he explores them in different ways, even adapting his style accordingly. A fascinating director whose work deserves a nice big box-set (preferably with English subtitles haha).

Is Reconstruction available on DVD? I've seen a fair few of his films, last time I watched his work it wasn't available (although that was about 12 years ago I think).

Nothing to see here, move on