i pugni in tasca
Considered one of the great lost classics of Italian neo-realism,
this bleak drama was the debut feature of filmmaker Marco
Bellocchio.
Lou Castel stars as Alessandro, an epileptic from a large
family of similarly afflicted siblings, headed up by a blind
matriarch (Liliana Gerace).
The only healthy member of the family is Alessandro's brother
Augusto (Marino Mase), who wants to marry his girlfriend but
refuses to saddle a bride with the enormous burden of helping
to care for his ailing relatives.
Sympathetic to Augusto's plight, Alessandro decides to murder
the rest of the family so as to set his brother free and assure
him of an inheritance.
After hurling his mother into a ravine and drowning his little
brother, Alessandro returns home to suffer a seizure.
Long hailed by critics and historians as an unjustly ignored
film, I Pugni in Tasca (1965) was one of 15 titles selected
by New York's Museum of Modern Art for its Second Act retrospective
of post-war Italian cinema in the spring of 2000.
Cast:
Lou Castel, Marino Masé, Paola Pitagora, Liliana Gerace,
Pier Luigi Troglio
Director:
Marco Bellocchio
I basilischi
Three young men in a small town in Southern Italy lead directionless
lives wandering around town, telling lies and boasting about
their alleged romantic conquests.
When one goes off to Rome with his Aunt, he returns with fabulous
stories about the nightlife, the women and the modern advancements
of the big city.
He vows he will return, but soon is back to his familiar pattern
of hanging out with his idle friends in pursuit of a good
life they may never see.
A woman kills herself when she feels her life is completely
negated by her daughter-in-law.
Another woman verbally assault her husband in the town square
in front of disbelieving locals before she leaves him there.
A man finally gets up the nerve to visit a hooker, only to
be embarrassed when he meets an acquaintance on the way to
her room.
The film was written and directed by Lina Wertmuller, who
vividly captures the mood of the sleepy town where the three
young men seemed destined to spend their uneventful lives.
Cast:
Antonio Petruzzi, Stefano Satta Flores, Sergio Ferranino,
Luigi Barbieri, Flora Carabella, Mimma Quirico, Enzo Di Vecchia
Director:
Lina Wertmuller
gente di rispetto
The Italian Man with a Flower in His Mouth bears no relation
to the Luigi Pirandello one-act play of the same title.
Also known as Flower in His Mouth, and The Masters this thriller
stars Jennifer O'Neill as an American schoolteacher, newly
arrived in Sicily.
No sooner has she assumed her duties in a remote rural town
than a series of ritual murders begins.
Is Jennifer the catalyst, the cause...or merely the excuse?
Cast:
Jennifer O'Neill, Franco Nero, James Mason, Orazio Orlando,
Aldo Giuffrè, Claudio Gora, Luigi Bonos, Carla Calò,
Gino Pagnani
Director:
Luigi Zampa |
