Caprice Italian Style
The film consists of six short stories created by different directors, but all the stories share one thing: a warm irony to current events.
Agenore Incrocci
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Mario Monicelli
Steno
Roberto Gianviti
Mauro Bolognini
Casts & Crew
Franco Franchi
Ciccio Ingrassia
Totò
Walter Chiari
Ira von Fürstenberg
Silvana Mangano
Renzo Marignano
Ugo D'Alessio
Dante Maggio
Stefano D'Orazio
Domenico Modugno
Ninetto Davoli
Carlo Pisacane
Laura Betti
Adriana Asti
Mario Cipriani
Francesco Leonetti
Carlo De Mejo
Also Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini
Four corrupted fascist libertines round up 9 teenage boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of sadistic physical, mental and sexual torture.
The director presents takes and scenes filmed on location in Africa for a film-that-never-was, a black Oresteia.
This consists of four short films by different directors. Rosselini's 'Chastity' deals with an attractive air hostess who receives the unwelcome attentions of a middle aged American. Godard's 'New World' illustrates a post-apocalypse world the same as the pre-apocalyptic one but for an enigmatic change in attitude in most people, including the central character's girlfriend. In Pasolini's 'La Ricotta' (Curd Cheese), a lavish film about the life of Jesus Christ is being made in a poor area. The impoverished people subject themselves to various indignities in the name of moviemaking in order to win a little food. The central character is hoisted up on a cross for filming, and dies there. Finally comes Gregoretti's 'Free Range Chicken' in which a family of the materialist culture inadvertantly illustrate the cynical, metallic voiced doctrine of a top sales theorist.
The capital of Yemen, the city of Sana'a, holds an important part of history within its walls filled with medieval architecture and culture. But that same culture was about to disappear with the country's modernization which came after the civil war in the 1960's. To impeach such modern invasion, director Pasolini pledges to UNESCO for the recognition of Sana'a as a World Heritage Site.
Made as part of the omnibus film RoGoPaG, this short is a hilarious religious farce. At the Cinecittá film studio a director (played by Orson Welles) begins shooting a film dealing with Christ's cruxification. Among the cast is a Jesus who has sex with boys in the bushes, and a peasant who plays one of the thieves crucified alongside Jesus - the actor literally dies on the cross, but not of inflicted wounds, but of indigestion caused by too much cheese.
A wealthy Italian household is turned upside down when a handsome stranger arrives, seduces every family member and then disappears. Each has an epiphany of sorts, but none can figure out who the seductive visitor was or why he came.
Based on the plot of Euripides' Medea. Medea centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed her for another woman.
Microphone in hand, Pier Paolo Pasolini asks Italians to talk about sex: he asks children where babies come from, young and old women if they are men's equals, men and women if a woman's virginity matters, how they view homosexuals, how sex and honor connect, if divorce should be legal, and if they support closing the brothels (the Merlina Act). He periodically checks in with Alberto Moravia and Cesare Musatti. Bersani is intrusive and judgemental, prodding those who answer. The film's thesis: despite the booming post-war economy, Italians' attitudes toward sex are either rigidly Medieval (the poor and the South) or muddled and self-censoring (the bourgeoisie and the North).
Pier Paolo Pasolini's Biblical drama follows the life of Jesus Christ as depicted in the Gospel of Matthew from the New Testament. Which focuses on the teachings of Jesus, including his parables, and on their revolutionary nature. As Jesus travels along the coast of the Sea of Galilee, he gradually gathers more followers, leading him into direct conflict with the authorities.
Appunti per un film sull’India is a short documentary film by Pier Paolo Pasolini where he visits India in the search of a king who could give up his body to feed a starving tiger. The film was shot around post-independent India when it was facing grave challenges of poverty, population and caste system. Pasolini narrates the challenges of India and its charms amidst all the problems the country faces. The 33 minute long documentary is composed of short interviews from random people about their opinions on matters such as family planning. The documentary also shows short interviews of journalists and one politician about the challenges of India to modernize without becoming westernized or losing the Indian identity.
Also Directed by Mario Monicelli
The artistic evolution of the great composer, whose work left an indelible mark in the history of Italian cinema. In this documentary Nino Rota's extraordinary musical production relives in the words of his friends and colleagues. His collaboration with Visconti and Fellini are truly memorable. His movie score and sequences of his performances in theaters all over the world hand us down a full and evocative outline of this outstanding artist.
Like every year, everyone is going back to the ancestral family's home for the Christmas holidays. But this time, the old folks have a surprise, a good surprise for them. They have decided to go living with one of their children and make him or her inherit the family house.
The four old friends meet on the grave of the fifth of them, Perozzi, who died at the end of the first episode. Time has passed but they are still up for adventures and cruel jokes, and while they recall the one they created together with the late friend, new ones are on their way, starting right there at the cemetery.
On New Year's Eve, an insecure, struggling actress (Anna Magnani) has nothing to do. When a colleague invites her to a New Year's party, she jumps at the opportunity. Accidentally she runs into an old acting acquaintance (Toto), who is helping a professional pickpocket (Ben Gazzara) steal from people during the hustle-bustle of New Year's Eve festivities. During the course of the evening, they have numerous crazy, humorous adventures all over Rome at different parties, restaurants, and even the Trevi fountain. Magnani's character (Tortorella) falls for Gazzara's character (Lello) without knowing what he's up to, while Toto tries to placate them both.
Four different directors present lighthearted stories about married Italian couples and their dilemmas with jealousy, sex and love.
After saving an infant of royal blood, knight Brancaleone forms a new army and sets out to return the baby to his father: a prince fighting in the Crusades.
An anthology of four adult tales: a young couple tries to hide their marriage and the wife’s supposed pregnancy from their place of employment; a billboard photo of a scantily clad woman comes to life to torment the local censor; a lottery is held in which the prize is to spend the night with a beautiful woman; an aristocratic couple comes to terms with life and marriage after the domineering husband is caught visiting sex workers by the press.
The adventures of a couple of scoundrels in the Spain of the 16th century.
Antonio Scaparro (Toto) is obsessed for women. He invents his own way to hide from them - in the attic of his house.
Also Directed by Steno
Inspector Rizzo is accused of drug trafficking. In order to clear his name he has to find out who is the person, from a Mafia ring, who has infiltrated his police department.
Bertone is a moderately honest homicide cop. Unfortunately, the court system is so inept and corrupt that many more-or-less honest policemen have begun taking the law into their own hands. Between his efforts to thwart the growth of crime and to control his vengeful co-workers, homicide-chief Bertone has his hands full
To gain fame quickly - three actors - Mino, Giacinto and Mirella, stage a fake murder (Mirella is the "victim"), then plan to find the "body" at the most opportune moment. Unfortunately, a real murder takes place in Mirella's apartment when a young woman named Margaret is killed. Having left abundant clues to the fake murder, Mino and Giacinto realise the only way to save themselves from jail is to find Margaret's killer. Despite the intrusions of a stupid police inspector, the two men discover she was killed by a mysterious "organization". Although every witness they try to question is killed by a hitman, they eventually unravel the mystery...
Baron Osvaldo Lambertenghi is forced to sell his ancestral castle, staying on as a bellboy when it's converted into a hotel. However he becomes vampirized when his mysterious uncle comes to stay.
Bruno Fioretti, known as "Mandrake", is an inveterate gambler who never misses a day at the horse racing track in Rome. He is doubly unlucky: he bets too much on one horse, and his wife is sleeping with his best friend because Mandrake is always at the track. Penniless and cuckolded, Mandrake decides to make one last bet.
The marquis Galeazzo di Torre Alta is murdered by a mysterious killer who calls himself Diabolicus. His heirs are his three brothers and a sister, but all of them, with the exception of Monsignor Antonino di Torre Alta, are killed by Diabolicus. The police are unable to solve the case, but when Antonino gives his inheritance to Pasquale Bonocore, illegitimate son of his father and Pasquale is in prison and therefore can't be the killer, all the clues are in the hand of the police.
Otello, an amateur thief, tries a burglary on New Year Eve but he finds the maid Adalgisa in the supposedly empty house. Adalgisa likes Otello who, all things considered, is a good guy, unlike Amerigo the night watchman who tries to profit from the situation.
Also Directed by Mauro Bolognini
Despite of (or perhaps because of ) its sparse production values and unpretentiousness, the Italian Gli Innamorati was feted at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. The bulk of the story takes place in a single Roman neighborhood. In the manner of the 1925 German classic A Joyless Street, director Mauro Bolognini studies the hopes, dreams, successes and failures of the neighborhood's various and sundry denizens. No one subplot dominates the proceedings, though a bit of extra time is afforded the story of a fickle seamstress and her seemingly meek-and-mild boyfriend. The cast is dotted with such reassuringly familiar faces as Nino Manfredi and Gino Cervi. Released in the US as Wild Love, Gli Innamorati was instrumental in bringing international fame to director Bolognini, whose career soon shifted into high drive.
The place is Trieste and the time is 1927. Emilio Brentani leads a peaceful and uneventful life with his older sister Amalia. At least until the day he meets Angiolina Zarri, a beautiful young woman. But the lady is also fickle, wayward and coquettish. Unfortunately for him, Emilio falls madly in love with her.
The death of a wealthy patriarch in 1885 sets off an interfamily power struggle.
The mysterious relationship between a beautiful woman and a photographer.
A young woman uses her womanly wiles to seduce older men in order to aid her debt-ridden grandmother.
Italian episode movie
Ignazio Panizza goes from one failure to the other until he meets a singer, Caterina, provided with an exceptional voice.
Agostino is a 13-year-old boy on vacation in Venice with his widowed mother. When a local stud seduces her, jealous Agostino joins a local group of juvenile delinquents out of protest. They force him to face his budding sexuality..
Four unrelated short comedies by four different directors. "Queen Sabina"chronicles the sexual misadventures of a teenage girl on the road home. "Queen Armenia" centers on a self-serving opportunistic gypsy babysitter who uses her employer's kids for her own gain. The third episode, "Queen Elena" centers on a husband who learns a lesson about the perils of infidelity after he succumbs to the wiles of the seductive wife next door. The last vignette, "Queen Marta" centers on a wealthy woman who, when drunk, uses her butler as an outlet for her lust.