71% (2) Swept Away 114 min, R, [Adventure, Comedy, Drama] [Lina Wertmüller] [17 Sep 1975]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 76%, Rotten Tomatoes: 67%, External Reviews
Awards: 4 wins & 3 nominations.
Actors: Giancarlo Giannini, Isa Danieli, Mariangela Melato, Riccardo Salvino
Writer: Lina Wertmüller
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Italian, French Country: Italy
Plot: A rich woman, Raffaella, and some friends rent a yacht to sail the Mediterranean Sea during summer. The sailor, Gennarino, who is a communist, does not like this woman but has to bear with her bad mood. One day she wakes up late in the afternoon and asks to be taken to land where everyone had gone earlier. Gennarino sets up a boat but during the trip, the boat breaks down. They spend the night in the middle of the sea.
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76% (1) Todo modo 125 min, [Drama] [Elio Petri] [30 Apr 1976]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 76%, External Reviews
Awards: 5 wins.
Actors: Ciccio Ingrassia, Gian Maria Volontè, Marcello Mastroianni, Mariangela Melato
Writer: Leonardo Sciascia (novel), Elio Petri (screenplay), Berto Pelosso (collaborator)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Italian, Latin, English Country: Italy, France
Plot: Party leader and power broker Aldo Moro, holed up with his cronies and rivals at a monastic retreat where they plot their political fortunes while being led by a Jesuit cleric in spiritual cleansings.
Rotten Tomatoes: Set at an indeterminate time in the near future, this routine, well-acted drama by Elio Petri tackles favorite Italian topics: religion and politics. A bit of macabre fantasy is added to the mix, but the end product remains somewhat muddled. Don Gaetano (Marcello Mastroianni) is a priest who is supervising a group of Christian Democrats on a religious retreat. The objective is to help these politicians purify their past wrongdoings, no matter how large or small, and live closer to God. The retreat takes place in a concrete bunker with plenty of small rooms for contemplation and icons set here and there to offer inspiration. Once the retreat begins, the politicos alarmingly begin to die off one by one. Don Gaetano wants them to get closer to God but did he mean that close?
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75% (1) The Seduction of Mimi 108 min, R, [Comedy, Drama] [Lina Wertmüller] [28 Jun 1972]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 75%, External Reviews
Awards: 8 wins & 1 nomination.
Actors: Agostina Belli, Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato, Turi Ferro
Writer: Lina Wertmüller (screenplay), Lina Wertmüller (story)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Italian Country: Italy
Plot: In Sicily, the mine worker Carmelo "Mimí" Mardocheo votes in the Communist Party candidate instead of in the Mafia's one believing that the suffrage is secret. After the elections, he loses his job and cannot find any other job in his village that is controlled by the mobster Don Calogero. He leaves his wife Rosalia with his family and travels to Turin expecting to find a job. He finds an illegal position in the civil construction that is also explored by the Mafia and when a coworker dies in an accident, he finds that the mobsters have dumped his body on the road. However, he does not report the crime to the police and lies to the mobster Salvatore Tricarico telling that he belongs to the family of a powerful mobster. Mimi gets a metallurgic position and joins the Communist Party. Then he fall in love with the virgin Trotskyite street vendor Fiorella Meneghini and they have a boy. When Mimi witness the mobster Vico Tricarico executing several men in a hotel, he survives but he does not report to the police. Mimi is transferred to Catania in a supervisory position against his will. He brings Fiore and their son to Sicily, but he is still married with Rosalia but he claims that he is ill and does not have sex with her. When Mimi learns that Rosalia is pregnant, he finds that he is a cuckold and plots a scheme to seduce and knock up Amalia Finocchiaro, who is the wife of Rosalia's lover. But his revenge does not work as planned.
Rotten Tomatoes: This scorching satire of political and personal corruption focuses on the misadventures of the macho Sicilian laborer Mimi. Eventually, he sets out to impregnate the wife of a man who cuckolded him -- even though she's a huge woman who requires many arduous lovemaking sessions before she will conceive.
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70% (1) To Forget Venice 110 min, [Drama] [Franco Brusati] [14 Apr 1979]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 70%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 2 wins.
Actors: Eleonora Giorgi, Erland Josephson, Mariangela Melato, Nerina Montagnani
Writer: Franco Brusati (story), Jaja Fiastri
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Italian Country: Italy, France
Plot: A gay brother visits his childhood home where his lesbian sister still lives. They reminisce about the better past and their parents.
Rotten Tomatoes: This effective drama about crisis and change in an unorthodox family is directed by Franco Brusati, best known for his earlier Bread and Chocolate. Marta (Hella Petri) lives in a large country estate after retiring from her career as an opera singer. She is not alone. Two women live with her, Claudia (Eleonora Giorgi) and Anna (Mariangela Melato), of uncertain familial ties, though perhaps nieces. Claudia and Anna are established in a lesbian affair and both depend on Marta like daughters would depend on a mother. Marta's brother Nicky (Erland Josephson) and his lover Picchio (David Pontremoli) arrive one day because Marta wants to take the two couples for a brief trip to Venice. Circumstances conspire to change those plans as one crisis after another, as well as a tragedy, make Claudia, Anna, and Nicky rethink their dependent behavior. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
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67% (1) Caro Michele 108 min, [Comedy, Drama] [Mario Monicelli] [01 Jan 1978]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 67%, External Reviews
Awards: 3 wins & 1 nomination.
Actors: Aurore Clément, Delphine Seyrig, Lou Castel, Mariangela Melato
Writer: Suso Cecchi D'Amico, Natalia Ginzburg (novel), Tonino Guerra
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: Italian Country: Italy
Plot: Michael is the younger son of a middle-class family, a strong-willed and free-thinking fellow, who is off in some distant country fighting for a revolutionary cause.
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