The Agony and The Ecstasy

Here indeed is a 20th Century Fox "prestige" production, from 1965, by Carol Reed, a sumptuous film of Irving Stone's bestseller. Somehow I had not seen it before.

Pope Julius is eager to leave behind works by which he will be remembered. To this end he cajoles Michelangelo into painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When not on the battlefield uniting Italy, the Pope nags Michelangelo to speed up his painful work on the frescoes.

This is a fascinating, colourful and very-well made film that looks like an epic and is in fact an intelligent drama, with great roles for Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as the warrior pope, who seems an extension of Harrison's Caesar in CLEOPATRA. Others here from CLEO are cameraman Leon Shamroy and a music score by Alex North. Heston seems rather subdued at first - one thinks is this the man who was Moses, Judah Ben-Hur and El Cid? - but he grows into stature as we share the hardships of painting that ceiling and dealing with the wily pope. Harry Andrews and Adolfo Celi are just right in support, and Tomas Milian is the young rival painter, Raphael. 

Diane Cilento does not have much to do apart from looking decorative as a maybe romantic interest, though Michelangelo's homosexuality is not stressed either. 

One feels one has "done" the Sistine Chapel by the end, and there is a 20 minute prologue on Michelangelo's sculptures, including that Pieta and his Moses and of course David and the tomb for Pope Julius. Heston and Harrison are well-paired and its genuinely affecting by the end. Reed went on to direct OLIVER! next, and Heston next took on Olivier in KHARTOUM, which was better than expected when I saw it a while ago - review at Heston, Olivier labels. When I met Heston at the BFI in 1971, he towered over me. He was certainly a physical presence, 

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.

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 ....

 

Actors: those early '60s guys continued ...

I was right about LA NOTTE BRAVA (above and left) - it played in London in 1960 as NIGHT HEAT, my then bible "Films & Filming" is very illuminating on it and those late '50s-early '60s boys making a stir then. (click pictures to enlarge...). 

Tomas Milian is Cuban, trained at the Actors Studio and found his early fame in European cinema. He is still working at almost 80, did lots of spaghetti westerns and police thrillers, as well as films like JFK and LA LUNA, and lots of tv series.

Laurent Terzieff (1935-2010) of Russian descent, had a distinguished career too, in films like Buneul's MILKY WAY, KAPO, TWO WEEKS IN SEPTEMBER with Bardot in 1967. I have ordered Pasolini's MEDEA with Callas, where he plays the centaur.

Jean-Claude Brialy (1933-2007) also in LA NOTTE BRAVA and of course those early Chabrols like LE BEAU SERGE and LES COUSINS seems to have been friends with them all, including Romy Schneider and Alain Delon (whom he took to the Cannes Festival in 1957, launching Delon's career). One of France's openly-gay actors, he also owned a restaruant in cenrtral Paris. 
Others too include Gerard Blain, Hardy Kruger, Maurice Ronet (see labels), Jean-Louis Trintignant, Renato Salvatori, Raf Vallone, Vittorio Gassman,  more on these in due course.

Here in Jean Sorel (see Sorel label) in THE ADOLESCENTS (I DOCLI INGANNI - SWEET DECEPTIONS), 1960, which I reviewd last year.

and a photo-spread on Sorel's unknown to me: LA GIORNATA BALORDA another by Bolognini, with Lea Massari, and below, a first 1960 photo-spread on Rene Clements' PLEIN SOLEIL....

A Discovery: La Notte Brava

"The moral bankruptcy of desperate youth brought stunningly, shockingly to the screen"-  or the glamour of delinquency ?

LA NOTTE BRAVA (NIGHT HEAT), aka "The Big Night" aka "Les Garçons", is an Italian-French co-production starring Rosanna Schiaffino, Elsa Martinelli, Laurent Terzieff, Jean-Claude Brialy, Franco Interlenghi, Antonella Lualdi, Anna Maria Ferrero, Mylene Demongeot and Tomas Milian. It was directed by Mauro Bolognini from a screenplay by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Jacques-Laurent Bost.

This 1959 movie is a socially conscious drama chronicling the exploits of three Roman thugs. The young men spend the day committing petty crimes, beginning with gun theft and culminate it in a rendezvous with three streetwalkers. After taking their pleasure, the guys attempt to cheat the hookers out of their money, but the women outsmart them ahead of time. That night, the hoods return to the city for more exploits, including an attempted car theft, and the harassment and robbery of three rich men. By daybreak, the guys have all separated, with nothing but feelings of loneliness and disgust for their troubles.

This is another of those ground-breaking movies about delinquent youth in 1959 - at the same time Jean-Pierre Mocky was shooting LES DRAGUEURS (THE YOUNG HAVE NO MORALS) in Paris (when Truffaut was shooting his 400 BLOWS there..). Antonioni may well have set the template with his alienated youth in I VINTI in 1953 (Antonioni label), before THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE or REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. LA NOTTE BRAVA is a key '50s film too and catches its young cast at the cusp of the 1960s when they were going places. It is a perfectly Pasolini story of low-lifes but with a more attractive cast - Pasolini had yet to shoot ACCATONE or MAMMA ROMA with his own real low-life discovery Franco Citti.

Brialy & Terzieff watch Martinelli & Lualdi

Mylene smoulders ...

LA NOTTE BRAVA is not available now except on YouTube where it can be seen in full and with English sub-titles! Pity it has never played in London since my arrival in 1964; it is a great discovery for those interested in Italian cinema of the '50s and '60s - like those others now only available on YouTube like my recent reviews of SENILITA and LA CORRUZIONE, both early '60s Bolognini's with that perfectly early '60s black and white look and attractive players like Cardinale and Perrin, and that rarity: Vancini's  THE LONG NIGHT OF '43. Mauro Bolognini (he died in 2001 aged 78) is now becoming another Italian director of note for me, I must seek out his other successes like IL BELL' ANTONIO with Mastroianni. GRAN BOLLITO (Italian label) was a great discovery last year. He also did amusing episodes in those favourites of mine LE BAMBOLE and LE FATE.

Brialy, Terzieff & Tomas Milian (background)

Back to the film:

My friend Daryl says: "It's a glittering movie about wasted youth: beautiful young people with no jobs and nothing to do who get into all sorts of trouble". That captures it perfectly.

I had not noticed Laurent Terzieff much before but he is the real discovery here, with that angular face and frame, its a perfect look: the look I had in the early '60s (he died in 2010 aged 75 - he is a centaur, half-man half-horse, in Pasolini's MEDEA). The girls are lookers too: Elsa Martinelli and Antonella Lualdi as cat-fighting prostitutes .... Demongeot as the wealthy girl Terzieff would like to know better - or is she the maid dressed up in her mistress's finery? - and Schiaffino as the nice girl Brialy and Terzieff want to impress. These layabouts want to sell their stolen goods ignoring the fact that their fence is in the middle of his grand-mother's funeral, then the streetwalkers steal their money; then they try to rob three rich young guys and pretend to fight but get taken back to their plush home where a different scenario seems to be unfolding, are these guys gay looking for some rough thrills? some intense homoerotic tensions seem to be simmering - is the stunning Tomas Milian coming on to Brialy?, who wants to borrow money from him. It's all very Pasolini... I wasn't expecting a scene like this in a 1959 film.

Milian smoulders ...

They have to flee though when Bellabella (Interlenghi), a real opportunist, steals a wallet full of cash  - which they then squander in an expensive restaurant (after Terzieff wants them to return it so he can continue his flirtation with Demongeot). By dawn nothing of the money is left as Terzieff screws up the last note and tosses it away - so they start all over again. Its a stunning climax to a fascinating film which is also great social document of that time.  I am currently watching a violent  Italian weekly crime series ROMANZO CRIMINALE here, the gang in it would surely be the less violent NOTTE BRAVA boys 50 years ago.... 

Here it is:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVZpa8_yHZo

I have now unearthed some rare photos of Tomas Milian, Laurent Terzieff, Jean Sorel . watch this space!

Summer re-runs continue with some choice Italians: THE RED DESERT, YESTERDAY TODAY & TOMORROW, MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE, LE BAMBOLE and LE FATE again,  and Wertmuller's unseen since the '70s, the stunning SEVEN BEAUTIES, which I must experience again before I lend it to Jerry on Tuesday when we are having a boozy afternoon out. Then its on to Almodovar, Chabrol, Deneuve and so many others ...

Laurent Terzieff (centre) LES TRICHEURS, 1958
I have been familiar with this image since my teens from "Films & Filming" magazine

Senilita, and some more Italian rarities

Thank goodness for YouTube where one can find rare Italian films sometimes in full and sometimes with optional sub-titles - like that recent Bolognini CORRUPTION, as per review at Italian label - (also GHOSTS OF ROME and GOLD OF ROME. 

Bolognini's SENILITA from 1962 is another one, no subtitles alas but one can still enjoy the unfolding drama from Italo Svevo's well-regarded book (I have just ordered a copy of it...) - James Joyce was an admirer of the book, he lived in Trieste where it is set. 

It centers on a middle-aged public official and his unrequited love for a flirtatious but unpossessable girl who blithely betrays him. The melancholy hero is played by the perhaps too-young Anthony Franciosa; Claudia Cardinale is in her element as the girl - and looks as marvellously 20s here as she does in Moravia's TIME OF INDIFFERENCE (review at Claudia label).

Tony keeps his shirt on in the film!

The man's sister who lives with him is a depressive also disappointed in love and is wonderfully played by American Betsy Blair (the ex-Mrs Gene Kelly, who was also terrific in Antonioni's IL GRIDO in '57, before she settled in England and married director Karel Reisz). The solitude and sadness of these characters is captured perfectly. SENILITA has never cropped up here in the UK, but at least I can read the book and see the Italian film on YouTube! 

From Trieste to Genoa and on to Capri: We also never saw MARE MATTO (CRAZY SEA) here, a 1964 drama by Renato Castellani - which point of interest is it stars a deglamorised Gina Lollobridgida as the plain repressed woman who runs a boarding house in the busy port of Genoa used by local sailors, two of whom are Jean-Paul Belmondo and Tomas Milian. Again no subtitles, but the interest is in seeing these players at their peak - but why cast Gina and make her plain..? 

 

Plus 2 more shots from that 1964 rarity: Patroni Griffi's IL MARE (THE SEA) - reviewed at Italian label, back in 2010 - Francoise Prevost with Umberto Orsini and Dino Mele as the teenager - that trio in out of season Capri, a very moody sub-Antonioni piece, which I caught during its 1964 run at London's presige Academy cinema - its never appeared anywhere here since! (SENILITA did play here in December 1962, before I arrived in '64).  

People We Like: Miss Shelley Winters

Those who only know Shelley Winters [1920-2006] from her later blowsy period and tv appearances in ROSEANNE as well as her famous underwater swim in THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE might be surprised to learn that Shelley was quite an arty, ritzy dame back in the '50s when she was certainly one of the most prolific players around. Did she and Anthony Quinn ever stop working? - both were stars but kept busy in such a variety of roles - sometimes leading, sometimes not - so they did not always have to carry the picture - and could move from A-list movies to programmers and dabble with European cinema. Shelley roomed with Marilyn at one stage, and also married Vittorio Gassman for a few years, also Tony Franciosa, and worked, worked, worked.. here are a few of her choice ones I have been catching up with:

One of her six films in 1954, Shelley is one of the two female leads in PLAYGIRL - one of those romantic melodramas (like Joan's FEMALE ON THE BEACH) that journeyman Joseph Pevney was turning out back then. This deliriously entertaining farrago has Colleen Miller (new to me) arriving in New York off the greyhound bus determined to be a top model - she is met by old chum Shelley who is now making it as a chanteuse in a swish nightclub. Cue Shelley in some strapless numbers singing (or could it be miming - the lip movements look suspect) ritzy numbers like "Lie to me" and "There will be some changes made". Shelley though is carrying on with married club owner Barry Sullivan who takes a shine to the newcomer Colleen and is soon having secret dates with her. Shelley gets more and more overwrought and implodes with fury when she finds out what her innocent room-mate is up to and she causes a major scene as Sullivan tries to drop her. Then there is a gun - and you can work out the rest - but its entertainly done and great fun of its type.

Fascinating to see TIME OF INDIFFERENCE now - this 1964 black and white Italian (but with mostly American players) melodrama based on a Moravia novel features Claudia Cardinale at her most beautiful in the '20s setting with great hair and costumes, she gets to pout a lot and her husky voice is great. Its the tale of a wealthy family falling on hard times and being taken over by an unscrupulous businessman, Rod Steiger, who after making the mother (Paulette Goddard in probably her last appearance) his mistress now wants daugher Claudia for himself. Thomas Milian (that Cuban actor who did lots of Italian films) is the son getting involved with family friend Shelley who wants him for her gigolo. The son and daughter are too indolent and indifferent to try to change things and just settle for going along with what Steiger and Shelley want of them; even an attempt to kill Steiger is half-hearted. Goddard is wonderful here and reminds one a lot of Swanson as Norma Desmond. The director Francesco Maselli is unknown to me, but the other credits are satisfyingly familiar: producer Franco Cristaldi, writer Suso Cecchi D'Amico, photographer Gianni di Venanzo and composer Giovanni Fusco. I was surprised that I liked it a lot.

I have already reviewed 1954's MAMBO (that Italian oddity with Silvana Mangano) and her 1964 farrago A HOUSE IS NOT A HOME and that '63 comedy WIVES AND LOVERS and 62's kitsch classic THE CHAPMAN REPORT further back here.



Shelley was billed as 'Miss Shelley Winters' in the 1955 I AM A CAMERA where she co-stars with Julie Harris and Laurence Harvey in this earlier working of the Isherwood stories set in Berlin.

Her later better known roles included Charlotte Haze in Kubrick's LOLITA, in Strick's film of Genet's THE BALCONY in 1963, one of those frustrated wives in THE CHAPMAN REPORT in '62 for Cukor, she is outstanding in Laughton's NIGHT OF THE HUNTER and her well-known turns in A PLACE IN THE SUN as Monty Clift's frumpy whiny girlfriend whom you just want him to leave for young Elizabeth Taylor; back with Stevens for THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK in '59and her best supporting actress win, that awful mother in A PATCH OF BLUE resulting in a second best supporting actress award. Then there were her over the hill starlets in THE BIG KNIFE and HARPER with Newman, out west with Lancaster in THE SCALPHUNTERS and with Ladd in SASKATCHEWAN, among so many others, and of course her star turn in Caine's ALFIE! I shall have to try and get hold of her memoirs - both of them - Shelley was notoriously indiscreet and tells all...