20 Italian classics .....

Its my delayed Lists week - we start with some Italian favourites, then French, British, Costume films, American dramas and 20 Trash favourites ..... let's do one a day. (I am limiting myself to 2 maximum from each director).

• BICYCLE THIEVES / GARDEN OF THE FINZI CONTINI (1970) – De Sica
• TOO BAD SHE’S BAD – Blasetti, 1954 (the first pairing of Sophia and Marcello, with Vittorio having fun too)
• I VITELLONI (1953) / AMARCORD 1974) – Fellini - two Fellini classics (it may be heresy but I never liked LA DOLCE VITA or EIGHT AND A HALF that much ...)
• JOURNEY TO ITALY – Rossellini. A key Italian movie from 1953 that paved the way for the likes of Antonioni and the others .... Bergman and Sanders were hardly ever better.
  
• PANE, AMORE, E …. (SCANDAL IN SORRENTO) – Risi, 1955 Delicious Italian frolic with Sophia and Vittorio having fun in Sorrento. 
• LA NOTTE BRAVA (1959) / FROM A ROMAN BALCONY  (1960) –Bolognini - Doomed glamorous youth (Terzieff, Brialy, Sorel, Milian) in Bolognini's key works .... (perhaps MUBI will put them on for Martin .... just sayin'.)

LA NOTTE BRAVA

• L’AVVENTURA / L’ECLISSE – Antonioni & Vitti  (its all at the labels...)
• IL MARE (THE SEA) – Patrone Griffi (never seen this since 1964, when I was 18, and it was at the old Academy in Oxford Street, London). Rare indeed ....
• THE LEOPARD / SANDRA – Visconti (Luchino's opulence and that great black and white melodrama from 1965, with Cardinale and Sorel at their sumptuous beautiful peaks). 
  
• THE CONFORMIST (1970) – Bertolucci (it still amazes now). 
• OEDIPE RE / TEOREMA – Pasolini. His late 60s classics with Silvana Mangano mesmerising as ever. 
• THE LONG NIGHT OF ’43 – Vancini (this 1960 rare classic has Ferzetti and Belinda Lee in a terrific dramatic role - she is the equal of Loren or Mangano here). 
• SEVEN BEAUTIES – Wertmuller - this 1975 stunner still packs a powerful punch, particularly those scenes with Giancarlo Giannini and Shirley Stoler in the concentration camp ...)
• PADRE PADRONE - Taviani  Brothers. 1970s arthouse favourite - I liked it so much I returned with friends so they could share it too. More on these at labels.

Scorsese's documentary MY VOYAGE TO ITALY, as per my post in 2011, is essential and covers these key films and directors in detail with lots of clips, the movies he grew up watching.

RIP, continued ....

Tomas Milian (1933-2017), aged 84.  Tomas Milian, an American actor born in Cuba; was trained at the Actors Studio. He appeared in a few plays on Broadway in the 1950s. Italian director Mauro Bolognini noticed him and that was the starting point of a rich cinematographic career in Italy, 
where he played in all manner of genres. 
We like him as the rich young guy propositioning Jean-Claude Brialy in Bolognini's 1959 saga of Italian youth LA NOTTE BRAVA (below), and he is Romy Schneider's husband in the Visconti episode of BOCCACCIO 70 (right) in 1962, and Claudia Cardinale''s brother in TIME OF INDIFFERENCE in 1964, and with Belmondo in MARE MATTO. He was Raphael in THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY in 1965.

He progressed to Spaghetti Westerns (DJANGO KILL in 1967) and Italian giallo thrillers, and the lead in Antonioni's IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN in 1982. Later films included TRAFFIC in 2000, Spielberg's AMISTEAD, Stone's JFK. He continued working, 120 credits in all, until 2014. Quite an acting career. More on Tomas at label ....

Christine Kaufmann (1945-2017), aged 72. She had a promising European and maybe international career, which she temporarily gave up when she became the second Mrs Tony Curtis (they co-starred in TARAS BULBA in 1962). Other titles included TOWN WITHOUT PITY in 1961, and some peplums THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII with Steve Reeves (below), 1959,and CONSTANTINE AND THE CROSS with Belinda Lee. She later appeared in films like BAGDAD CAFE, and clocked up 110 credits. 

Lola Albright ( 1925-2017), aged 92.  I featured her only a month or so ago, in a review of some interesting careers - see Lola Albright label.

Italians: Bolognini

So, Bolognini or Bertolucci? No, its not an Italian sauce. We have been liking quite a few Mauro Bolognini Italian flicks of late here at The Projector, as per Bolognini label.

The Italian greats of course are Rossellini and De Sica, followed by the Big Three of the late 50s and early '60s: Antonioni, Fellini and Visconti, followed by Pasolini and Bertolucci. But there were several others prolific in those years, that great LA DOLCE VITA era, such as Bolognini, Monicelli, Germi, Risi, Rosi, Lattuada, while now the new guys like Paolo Sorrentino (THE GREAT BEAUTY, THE YOUNG POPE) and Luca Guadagnino (I AM LOVE, A BIGGER SPLASH) grow in stature. 

Today, lets focus on Mauro Bolognini (1928-2001), rumoured to be gay - he certainly filled his films with attractive people, his best output coming from scripts by Pasolini (as in LA NOTTE BRAVA) or adaptions of novels by Alberto Moravia or Italo Svevo. His 46 credits include these I like:

GIOVANI MARITI (YOUNG HUSBANDS) in 1957, with Gerard Blain, Raf Mattioli, Isabelle Corey, Sylvia Koscina, and Franco Interlenghi. Its as the title implies a drama about young husbands and their marriage problems.

LA NOTTE BRAVA (THE BIG NIGHT, see below) in 1959, glamorises Pasolini's tale of Roman layabouts and petty hoodlums and prostitutes, including the wildly attractive Laurent Terzieff, Jean-Claude Brialy, Tomas Milian, Mylene Demongeot, Antonella Lualdi, Elsa Martinelli etc. It also has a rather gay scene - right. Pasolini took to directing his own scripts after that, such as ACCATONE.

LA GIORNATA BALORDA (FROM A ROMAN BALCONY), a delicious 1960 drama with Jean Sorel and Lea Massari. We reviewed these in full at Bolognini/Italian labels.

SENILITA in 1962, from the Svevo novel, set in 1920s Trieste, with a great performance by Claudia Cardinale as the heartless vamp, and Bestsy Blair as a frustated spinster in love with the wrong man.

LA CURRIZONE (CORRUPTION) in 1963, one of Jacques Perrin's great performances as the son of wealthy industrialist Alain Cuny to uses his mistress Rossano Schiaffino to lure the son into his business plans.

METELLO in 1970 is a great costume period drama with Massimo Ranieri and it looks ravishing in colour,

GRAN BOLLITO is a chiller from 1977, with Shelley Winters as that very over-protective mother who will do anything for her son, including turning the neighbours into bars of soap, as Rita Tushingham finds out. It also has Max Von Sydow in drag as one of the victims. Bizarre is the word.

I haven't seen the acclaimed IL BELL ANTONIO, one of Mastroianni's great performances from 1960. He later did several costume dramas for Italian television: Isabelle Huppert as the LADY OF THE CAMELIAS, and and THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA.

He also did several segments in those Italian '60s episodic films, usually made up of 4 short films by different diretors. He directed the deliciously funny episode in LE BAMBOLE (THE DOLLS) in 1965 where Gina Lollobrigida (above) tries in vain to seduce Jean Sorel (as one would,,,,,), and the Claudia Cardinale segment of THE QUEENS in 1966, the Silvana Mangano episode in THE WITCHES, also '66. Belmondo and Cardinale are both marvellous in LA VIACCIA in '61. A lot of these, like his I TRE VOLTI with Princess Soraya,  did not get wide distribution outside of Italy, so he may be rather unknown to many.
Movie reviews coming up: THE NEON DEMON, NOCTURNAL ANIMALS, PLAN B, some French double bills and features on Catherine Deneuve and Anouk Aimee ...

Rita and those Sixties boys ...

Time for some praise for that other Rita we like rather a lot: Rita Tushingham - maybe THE girl of the 60s British Film Scene - Julie Christie (whom we adore) may have been its poster girl, followed by Susannah York, wayward Sarah Miles (we like her a lot too, as per label), Sam Eggar and then those Redgrave girls burst on the scene, and the amazing young Charlotte Rampling - and then of course that sad 60s poster girl I shall be discussing shortly: Carol White.  

First out of the post though was Miss Tushingham with A TASTE OF HONEY in 1961 - her Jo, pregnant by a black sailor was sensational stuff back then, aided by Murray Melvin as the gay friend, who gets his marching orders when Jo's feckess mother Dora Bryan in her best role, returns to take charge. Its a fascinating document of that era, grimy black and white, moonlight flits from furnished rooms, at that Salford (or was it Liverpool?) then. Tush was a Liverpool girl, born in 1942. Shelagh Delaney's play was just perfect for her. We like Tony Richardson's lyrical film, typical of Woodfall Films of the time.  

Rita went on to delight us with her brassy blonde selfish young wife in THE LEATHER BOYS in 1964, driving her husband into another man's arms; was the nice girl friend of Mike Sarne in the gritty Dearden film A PLACE TO GO also then, and we love her as the wide-eyed Irish girl in the Edna O'Brien THE GIRL WITH GREEN EYES, also 1964, with Peter Finch (a companion piece to Desmond Davis's I WAS HAPPY HERE, also exploring the London-Irish scene, with Sarah Miles in 1966) . I love the ending of GIRL WITH GREEN EYES where she and Baba (Lynn Redgrave) move to Engand on the ferry (as I did myself many times back then) and we see her working at that W H Smith store in Notting Hill Gate, just across from the Notting Hill Classic cinema - one of my old stomping grounds. 

We simply love her with Lynn again, as Brenda and Yvonne in the 1967 SMASHING TIME - as per posts on that - Rita, Lynn labels - a Swinging London dream as imagined by George Melly ..... Richard Lester's THE KNACK was super too teaming her with young Michael Crawford and full of marvellous sight gags. It captured the moment perfectly. 

Rita also graduated to big movies, appearing in DR ZHIVAGO, co-starring with Marcello Mastroianni in DIAMONDS FOR BREAKFAST in 1968, with Oliver Reed in THE TRAP (one I must get around to...) and Michael York in THE GURU in India, in 1969 for Merchant Ivory. 

In 1977, she was in the Italian GRAN BOLLITO a stunning movie from Mauro Bolognini - see label. She had an extensive later career in television, and still works now. Did she inspire The Beatles' "Lovely Rita, meter maid ..."? 

Posters - an occasional series

Today's choice: LA NOTTE BRAVA, that 1959 Mauro Bolognini discovery I liked so much the other year. From a script by Pasolini featuring lowlife layabouts and prostitutes but glamorised by Bolognini by casting attractive people like Brialy, Terzieff, Milian, Demongeot, Schiaffino, Martinelli etc. The various posters give a taster.  I like that "The moral bankruptcy of desperate youth ... " Reviews at Bolognini, Brialy labels.
 It is on YouTube too: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5kjDFVL_Us&index=65&list=PLoiWwTmzdQ_8V3J9hQZ47wU19Q00DilnG

Next: the more wholesome Troy Donahue in PARRISH!

From A Roman Balcony, 1960

LA GIORNATA BALORDA from 1960 is another of those delicious black and white Italian dramas of the early '60s. It follows GIOVANA MARITI and LA NOTTE BRAVA which were discoveries for me a year or two ago, in the sequence of Italian films directed by Mauro Bolognini, and usually scripted by Pier Paolo Pasolini (before he started directing himself). Bolognini then went on to SENILITA in 1962 and CORRUPTION in 1963 - as per my reviews at Bolognini label.

FROM A ROMAN BALCONY (its English title) conjures up a vision of Italian high life, a la THE GREAT BEAUTY or decadence in high places (THE ROMAN SPRING OF MRS STONE) but the Rome we see here is pure Pasolini territory as we take in the details of an enormous tenement housing estate where all the balconies have washing hanging from them and is a very working class environment, where women cope with children and daily life.

Almost too glamorous for this environment is Davide, our young drifter hero, an early key role for Jean Sorel, whom we like a lot here. He is a rather feckless layabout with a baby and a young girlfriend who stay with her mother, as he idly looks for work and sleeps with any available woman .... we follow him around Rome, or the parts of Rome we see here - a scrubland of housing estates on the outskirts. We encounter several others like Paolo Stoppa or Rik Battaglia, whose wife Lea Massari (a very glamorous presence here, she was the girl who vanished in Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA the same year) who takes a shine to Davide. After a fruitless search for work or money, he ends up - as we knew he would - stealing a ring from the corpse we see laid out ..... so he has money when he returns to the apartment to play with his baby and girlfriend. It is just another day for Davide.

Sorel's Davide is a more attractive ACCATONE - Franco Citti in Pasolini's first feature. It seems Pasolini felt Bolognini glamorised his lowlifes by casting attractive players in his dramas - a la LA NOTTE BRAVA and here. LA GIORNATA BALORDA is only available now in an Italian only dvd but is engrossing enough that the language does not matter that much in enjoying the visuals - like those stunning opening and closing panning shots of the balconies and the housing estates. LA GIORNATA BALORDA/FROM A ROMAN BALCONY is a terrific additon to those Italian films of that early Sixties era, along with Bolognini's LA NOTTE BRAVA, Vancini's THE LONG NIGHT OF '43,  Lattuada's THE ADOLESCENTS, Visconti's ROCCO, Fellini's LA DOLCE VITA and of course Antonioni's L'AVVENTURA. Bolognini also went to to do sections of FOUR KINDS OF LOVE and THE QUEENS, as well as METELLO, GRAN BOLLITO and more.

        

The very prolific Jean Sorel (more on him at label - who said he was the poor man's Alain Delon?) is also 80 this year and still working. I particularly like him with Cardinale in Visconti's SANDRA in 1965, Duvivier's CHAIR DE POULE with Hossein in '63, AMELIE OU LE TEMPS D'AIMER in '62, and with Gina Lollobrigida in FOUR KINDS OF LOVE in 1965,, and of course Bunuel's BELLE DE JOUR in 1967, and those later giallo thrillers like SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS in '71.

Italian choices: Marcello & Jacques, Anna & Giulietta

CRONACA FAMILIARE (FAMILY DIARY), 1962. Finally, a look at Valerio Zurlini’s absorbing family drama with brilliant performances from Marcello Mastroianni and Jacques Perrin. Post-war Italy looks marvellous, as lensed by Giussepe Rottuno, and produced by Geoffredo Lombardo. Sylvie scores too as the grand-mother. It is all as marvellous as De Sica’s GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINI (Italian label). Zurlini’s film is a melancholy meditation on two very different brothers, poor tubucular writer Enrico (Mastroianni) and the also ailing Lorenzo – Perrin is as effective here as he was in Zurlini’s GIRL WITH A SUITCASE or Bolognini’s LA CORRUZIONE, and of course this was Mastroianni’s great era too.. 

The downbeat story is totally affecting and leaves one in an emotional state. Did I say it looks marvellous? Its a perfectly restored print.

HELL IN THE CITY, 1959  (aka CAGED, Nella Citta L’Inferno) . Marvellous widescreen black and white drama with lots of comic moments from Renato Castellani and scipted by veteran Suso Cecchi D'Amico, which is a showcase for two of Italy’s greatest actresses Anna Magnani and Giulietta Masina. We are in a Roman prison, run by nuns. Masina is Lina, the timid newcomer, a variation on Masina’s CABIRIA – Lina is another lovelorn waif, seemingly a bit simple, who has been sent to prison for unknowingly aiding a robbery – a maid for a rich family, she was fooled by a man (Alberti Sordi doing a cameo) who got her to allow him into the house and then took her to the cinema while his accomplice carried out the robbery. Lina cries a lot and exasperates hardened criminal Egle – Magnani, forever in her black slip, as she dominates the screen. 

The other inmates are a varied bunch and we get involved in some stories. Renato Salvatori plays Piero, whom the nice young girl can see with the aid of a mirror, and there may be a happy ending for them. Lina finally leaves but will she be back? SPOILER AHEAD: Yes she does return and is now a hardened criminal, Egle is horrified to see how she has changed as Lina thanks her for teaching her the tricks of the trade. It is a satisfying conclusion and the two leads play it to the hilt. 

Antonioni, Fellini and Visconti as well as De Sica and Rossellini may have been the Italian great directors (along with Pasolini & Bertolucci and more), but its been fascinating catching up with those early films by Mauro Bolognini (1922-2001),which we like a lot here - LA NOTTE BRAVA, GIOVANI MARITI, CORRUPTION, SENILITA, METELLO, GRAN BOLLITO etc (as reviewed at Italian label). I still have to see Mastroianni & Cardinale in his highly-regarded IL BELL'ANTONIO, 1960, and Belmondo and Cardinale in LA VIACCIA, 1961., 

Another one, not available now, is his equally fascinating sounding FROM A ROMAN BALCONY (LA GIORNATA BALORDA), 1960, from a Moravia novel, with those attractive players Jean Sorel and Lea Massari. The trailer for it is on YouTube though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10i0K8iAT40

Bolognini also did episodes in those Italian compendium films I like: LE BAMBOLE (Four Kinds of Love - the hilarious and sexy Sorel & Lollobrigida episode) and LE FATA (The Queens), Sorel with Raquel Welch. 

Next Italian: Marcello and Romy in FANTASMA D'AMORE, 1981 - finally, a sub-titled print, and the Blu-ray of THE GREAT BEAUTY.  

Final summer re-run: the Italian List

Our own VOYAGE TO ITALY ...
Following on from a thread at the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) here is my listing of some favourite Italian movies from that early '60s era ... reviews of all those and more at Italian label. 

WHITE SLAVE TRADE, 1952 - Italian pot-boiler by Ponti-De Laurentiis and directed by Comencini about women being sold into prostitution against a grimly realised marathan dance competition. Eleonora Rossi Drago, Silvana Pampanini and Gassman are the leads, with Sophia Lazarro (soon to be Loren) making her mark too, as per recent review here.

LA NOTTE BRAVA, 1959 - Pasolini's young hoodlums and prostitutes glamorised by Bolognini with that terrific cast ... the young Brialy, Terzieff, Milian (right) shine

I DOLCE IGNANNI (SWEET DECEPTIONS), 1960 - Alberto Lattuada's 1960 stunner is a pleasing black and white look at a teenage girl - Catherine Spaak whom the camera loves, as she discovers love and loss, and meets a young gigolo (Jean Sorel) as she roams around Rome for a day.
 

GHOSTS OF ROME (PHANTOM LOVERS), 1961 - Pietrangeli's delicious comedy which has Marcello Mastroianni, Belinda Lee, Vittorio Gassman, Sandro Milo - about ghosts in modern day Rome, you will love the scene where ghostly Marcello watches Belinda having a bath ...

THE LONG NIGHT OF ‘43 - Belinda again (as an ordinary Italian woman in the Mangano / Loren mould)  in Vancini's rare 1961 wartime drama - there's a full review at Belinda/Italian labels.
  
SENILITA, 1962 - a melancholy literary film from a Italo Svevo novel, set in Trieste in the '20s. Claudia Cardinale shines as the heartless vamp professor Tony Franciosa falls for, Betsy Blair is marvellous as his spinster sister.

IL MARE (THE SEA) - Patroni Griffi's 1962 drama (which played in London in 1964 when I arrived here, not seen it since but its a fond memory), a sub-Antonioni mood puzzle with The Man, The Woman and The Boy in out of season Capri. Its gloomy, its delirious ...

IL MARE

LE CORRUZIONE (CORRUPTION), 1963 - Young Jacques Perrin leaves college and wants to be a priest, his businessman father Alain Cuny has other ideas and utilises his mistress Rosanna Schiaffino to join them on a sailing weekend .... stunning ending.
 
A TIME OF INDIFFERENCE, 1964 - Maselli's drama from an Alberto Moravia story: again set in 1920s, Claudia Cardinale & Thomas Milian are the indolent brother and sister, Paulette Goddard (chanelling Norma Desmond) is their mother, as they fall into the trap of Rod Steiger, while Shelley Winters has her own plans for Milian ...
 
SANDRA (OF A THOUSAND DELIGHTS, VAGHE STELLE DELL'ORSA) - Visconti's stunning operatic melodrama from 1965 - forget the clunky title, this is the real deal, as Claudia and her incestous brother Jean Sorel meet again at their Etruscan estate to honour their dead father. Michael Craig stands by as her husband.
 
Some Dino De Laurentiis items starring his wife Silvana Mangano:
 
ANNA - torrid drama by Lattuada in 1951 with Silvana as the nun with a past - Vittorio Gassman and Raf Vallone are the young guys, some terrific music numbers. A teenage Sophia Loren is one of the nightclub girls ...
 
MAMBO - that terrific 1954 drama for Paramount with Shelley Winters, Gassman & Michael Rennie, and more music numbers by the Katharine Dunham group.
 
THE TEMPEST, 1958 - from Pushkin's novel set in the Russian steppes, Agnes Moorehead is perfect casting as Mangano's mother, Viveca Lindfors is Catherine the Great, with Van Heflin leading the peasant revolt, as Silvana falls for Geoffrey Horne.
 
THE SEA WALL (THIS ANGRY AGE), 1958 - OK, here it is once again: Rene Clements' first version of Marguerite Duras' novel. Jo Van Fleet tries to keep the sea from encroaching on her rice plantation in Indo-China, as her children Mangano and Tony Perkins dance, listen to records and have their own problems. Alida Valli picks up Tony in the cinema .... its just marvellous. I loved this and TEMPEST as a kid. 

BOCCACCIO 70 - so very 1962

Other choice Italian plums, as per Italian label here, include those Antonioni's, Fellini's like I VITELLONI, CABIRIA and AMARCORD; Visconti, De Sica, Rossellini, some Pasolini and Bertolucci, Bolognini (1958's GIOVANI MARITI, also reviewed here), Monicelli, etc. Items like VOYAGE TO ITALY, GOLD OF NAPLES, BOCCACCIO 70 with the missing fourth segment (right) by Monicelli included; LE BAMBOLE and LE FATE, watching Gina and Jean Sorel (below), Monica Vitti (both comedienne and arthouse goddess), Anna, Alida, Silvana and Claudia; Sophia's early roles in WOMAN OF THE RIVER, TWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA, TOO BAD SHE'S BAD; De Sica acting and directing from items like NERO'S LOST WEEKEND to GARDEN OF THE FINZI CONTINI; Visconti's operatics from SENSO to ROCCO; Marcello and Vittorio and Raf with all those ladies ....

 

Giovani Mariti, 1958

This is a rarity - so rare it exists only in an Italian version. Mauro Bolognini's 1958 comedy drama focuses on a group of 5 young men - not layabout as in his next one LA NOTTA BRAVA from 1959, one of my discoveries of last year, as per Italian label. It is another group of attractive young players having late nights - these here are likeable young men, students, room-mates. The title translates as YOUNG HUSBANDS though we only see 2 getting married. The usual questions arise about settling down .... the lads drive around their deserted city at night, go for late night swims, play tennis ... the girls are nice too: Antonella Lualdi, Isabelle Corey, Sylvia Koscina. 

The boys include French Gerard Blain (here with Lualdi, above right), Franco Ingerlenghi (from Antonioni's I VINTI and also in LA NOTTE BRAVA, in a long career) and Raf Mattioli, who impressed in Dassin's LA LOI (see label) another discovery a year or so ago. He looks fit here in those skimpy (for 1958) shorts, but he died 2 years later in 1960 of a heart attack at 24!  The film looks lovely and crisp with great black and white photography by Armando Nannuzzi, and again was co-scripted by Pier Paolo Pasolini, costumes by Piero Tosi.

Another of those fascinating Bolognini films then like LA NOTTE BRAVA, SENILITA and LA CORRUZIONE capturing that early 60s Italian vibe perfectly, like Lattuada's I DOLCI IGNANNI, Patroni Griffi's IL MARE; Fellini's 1953 I VITELLONI must surely be the prototype for all these (all at Italian label) - the Italian maestros like Fellini, Antonioni, Visconti, De Sica and Rossellini were getting all the kudos then, but directors like Bolognini and Monicelli were coming up on the fast track - I like their episodes in compendium films like LE BAMBOLE and LE FATE too, and Bolognini's METELLO, GRAN BOLLITO etc.

Next: off to France in the company of Gabin, Delon, Hossein, Trintignant, Romy Schneider, Deneuve.