The Vesuvians
Five Italian directors -- Pappi Corsicato, Antonietta DeLillo, Antonio Capuano, Stefano Incerti, Mario Martone -- contributed a quintet of short films depicting life in Naples under the shadow of the volcano for this anthology film of comedy, drama, surrealism, and political commentary on the Italian left. Shown at the 1997 Venice Film Festival.
Pappi Corsicato
Pappi Corsicato
Ivan Cotroneo
Laura Sabatino
Stefano Incerti
Stefano Incerti
Mario Martone
Mario Martone
Antonio Capuano
Antonio Capuano
Antonietta De Lillo
Antonietta De Lillo
Marcello Garofalo
Fabrizia Ramondino
Casts & Crew
Anna Bonaiuto
Iaia Forte
Enzo Moscato
Nunzia Di Somma
Tonino Taiuti
Flavio Brunetti
Clelia Rondinella
Antonio Pennarella
Teresa Saponangelo
Renato Carpentieri
Toni Servillo
Cristina Donadio
Maria Luisa Abbate
Anna Avitabile
Maurizio Bizzi
Gino Curcione
Francesca Cutolo
Gino Intartaglia
Paola Iovinella
Franco Javarone
Francesco Leonetti
Vincenzo Peluso
Luigi Petrucci
Armando Pugliese
Lello Serao
Lello Giulivo
Also Directed by Pappi Corsicato
This high-energy three part comedy has a strong undercurrent of melancholy, as it shows three different women coping with difficult situations which are usually sexual in origin, even if the moment of romance is long past. In the first tale, Aurora has gotten used to a cozy, wealthy life, but begins to see her world destroyed when her husband is caught in bed with his secretary. Later, he flees the country to avoid getting arrested for something else he has done. Carmela is just welcoming her wayward son back to their slum home after he has spent a stint in "reform" school. Not only has he just confessed to her that he's gay, but he has become a heroin addict.Finally, Libera works at a newsstand outside of Naples as the sole breadwinner for her family. She is tired of her husband lounging in their house when he is not out tomcatting around with prostitutes, and decides to do something about it. So she secretly has him filmed in bed, and is marketing the tapes at her newsstand.
Toni leads a normal life with his wife Paola but full of enthusiasm and passion. The chance meeting with the young and wealthy Chiara will rekindle in him the desire to redeem himself and to realize his secret dream: to become an artist. The paths of the three will intertwine in a dangerous love triangle that will change the course of their lives forever.
Bella is the host of a popular television program about plastic surgery. Her husband René is a surgeon who performs operations on guests during the same show. Then Bella is fired, due to a drop in the ratings. She storms out of the TV studio and has a terrible car accident on the way home, leaving her disfigured. Yet what might well seem to be the coup de grace for Bella’s career turns out to be the perfect occasion to relaunch her own image...
The impossible love between one prostitute, managing a bunch of handicapped prostitutes, and the homosexual Adamo. In the horrible suburb of Napoli we can follow among fantasy, mythology and reality the absurd life of the protagonists.
An elderly man stands near a swimming pool, looking at a photo of two teenagers, with both tenderness and melancholy. His memories arise as a mixture of reality and dreams. The two young boys, who had served together during the Second World War, meet in a hotel many years later. Their meeting leads to the revival of a love that never died and is now renewed.
A chronicle of the personal life and public career of the celebrated artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel.
On the day she learns of her pregnancy, a woman also finds out that her husband is sterile.
The true natures of love, commitment, and reality are called into question in this offbeat drama. One night in bed, Tomas (Tomas Arana), a magician, begins telling a story to his wife Desire (Marit Nissen) about Emma (Iaia Forte) and Sal (Tommaso Ragno), a married couple whose love life has gone stale. In order to fire up their relationship, Emma and Sal begin playing an increasingly elaborate series of role-playing games, in which they assume different personas -- Sal saves Emma as she is tied to railroad tracks, or Emma must seduce another man to pull her husband out of debt. But the question soon arises -- are Emma and Sal real? And who really holds the power in their lives? Chimera also features Franco Nero as one of the participants in Emma and Sal's sexual fantasies.
Also Directed by Stefano Incerti
a young and charming immigrant, is about to marry the daughter of the underworld boss he works for. The ceremony is ready, but at the last moment Ali decides not to show up, and flees from Hesse, his countryman hopelessly in love with him. The two young lovers hide in a hotel waiting for the sunset to be able to reach the airport and escape forever. With Ninni Bruschetta.
A documentary about the making of "Buongiorno, notte" and the films and politics of director Marco Bellocchio.
Marino Pacileo has a soft spot for gambling. When he discovers that Lila's father, the young Chinese girl that he is in love with cannot pay a debt, the gambler steals money from the jail he is in to help the love of his life.
Also Directed by Mario Martone
An agricultural setting in the mid-14th century. Vineyards and olive groves stretch as far as the eye can see. In the distance, there is a farmstead, simple but not poor. The family that lives there consists of father, mother and an eight-year old son, Nino. As farmers, they have everything they need and nothing more. The rhythm of their days is set by the hours tolled by the bells, the passing of the seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, the rain and wind, the searing heat of summer. Nino wakes at dawn and takes the goats to pasture. Traversing archaic, sublime landscapes, he walks as if on an immensely long journey down a path of knowledge.
In 1914, with Italy about to enter World War I, a commune of young artists from Northern Europe establishes itself on the rural island of Capri, a safe haven for dissidents and nonconformists from all over the world, like Russian exiles led by Maxim Gorky, preparing to an upcoming revolution. Here, local girl Lucia meets Seybu, the charming leader of the commune, and Carlo, a young doctor.
From the Opera House of Rome Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini. Orchestra and Choir Of The Opera of Rome, conductor Daniele Gatti. Directed by Mario Martone.
Short film directed by Mario Martone, inspired by the work of the painter Francesco Hayez.
The director resumes at the theater Laura Berti who reads the most beautiful lyrics of Pier Paolo Pasolini, giving with his hands, voice and words, rhythm and unity to the work.
It describes the way of life of the Sahara people in the Western Sahara Desert, in particular it tells the story of a child bitten by a snake.
Also Directed by Antonio Capuano
Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.
A despairing Rosario has just murdered his wife and daughter at the dinner table on New Year's Eve. Somehow, Vito quietly convinces his father to drop the gun, spare their lives and call the police. Placed in the custody of sexually abusive relatives, Vito is left free to roam the trash-strewn back streets of Naples where he and his friends engage in drug abuse, prostitution and petty crime.
Italian filmmaker Antonio Capuano writes and directs the grueling gangster drama Luna Rossa (Red Moon). Aging Tony Cammarano (Italo Celoro) is the patriarch of an organized crime family, but his son Amerigo (Toni Servillo) runs most of his operations. Amerigo is a killer who invites his mistress, Rita (Lucia Ragni), to live in the family house. Meanwhile, his wife, Irene (Licia Maglietta), has an affair with mob henchman Egidio (Antonino Iuorio), who fancies the Cammarano's teenage daughter, Orsola (Antonia Truppo). This leaves Irene to eye her own son, Oreste (Domenico Balsamo), who has taken to self-mutilation. Luna Rossa won the Wella Prize at the 2001 Venice Film Festival.
A young priest crusades against organized crime in his Naples neighbourhood but falls in love with a 13-year old boy. It's the chance the gangsters were waiting for to get rid of the thorn in their side. Will they be able to force the boy to accuse the priest of sexual harassment and have his reputation destroyed?
An elderly man living by himself is haunted by memories related to the Holocaust.
A judge decides to take a difficult child, Mario (9 years old), from his family and entrusts him to a couple of unmarried forty-year-olds. For the three of them, living together is difficult and painful, since the couple and the child come from two separate realities. As relief from solitude and displacement, Mario creates his own world, where he meets Schad Sky, an imaginary playmate.
A collective film made of nine episodes characterized by a critical and pessimistic attitude towards the future of Italy in the case of the ascension of the center-right government of Berlusconi.
Also Directed by Antonietta De Lillo
A testimony of the force of love that binds two people, a present-day betrothed couple. The narration proceeds as a thriller in which the two protagonists conceal a mystery: visible traces, scars on an arm, details that worm their way into the story until the enigma is revealed. He had previously been a she. A contemporary metamorphosis made possible by their love.
Set in the 1790s, this historical drama follows the travails of an idealistic noblewoman who helps lead a daring revolution in Italy.
A testament of the greta B-movie director Lucio Fulci, whose films inspired great director like Quentin Tarantino. Lucio Fulci gift a long meditation about moviemaking fascinating for his sincerity, irony e clearness, about his filmmaking and his particular career.