1860 (1934)

Director: Alessandro Blasetti
Starring: Giuseppe Gulino, Aida Bellia, Gianfranco Giachetti, Mario Ferrari
Label:  Ripley's Home Video (2007)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 0
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audio: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo)
Subtitles: English, Italian

Bonus:
* Contains both the 1998 restoration (74 minutes) and the 1951 reissue by Blasetti (69 minutes)
* 1934 alternate epilogue (1 minute)

Available on Amazon.it

What's the film about?

A chronicle of the unification of Italy as seen through the eyes of a young partisan. While the film is sometimes (unhappily) labelled as "propaganda", Blasetti's approach can easily be considered as proto-Neorealist because of its attention on popular participation and historical process. Influenced by Eisenstein and Pabst, the style is in fact anti-rhetorical and even anti-spectacular, but also unexpectedly lyrical and touching. Perhaps, non-Italian viewers may prefer to start with the 1951 version, which has a more declared didactic aim.

Recommendations
...well, a must see.

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Borelli Lives!

Update

Ma l'amor mio non muore! is now also available from Amazon.it.
Here you can find my review, written when the disc was still only available from Cineteca di Bologna.

Necropolis (1970)

Director: Franco Brocani
Starring: Viva, Carmelo Bene, Tina Aumont, Pierre Clementi
Label:  Ripley's Home Video (2013)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 0
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: multilingual (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono)
Subtitles: English

Available on Amazon.it

What's the film about?

Underground film from the 1968 era, clearly influenced by pop art (the color scheme is very Mario Schifano-like) and Warhol's works. The film lacks any kind of storyline, being made up of monologues by such popular characters as Frankenstein's monster, King Kong, Mona Lisa and Bloody Countess Bathory, and these fragments convey an apocalyptic view of our culture, where ideology, religion and love are definitely dead. Great casting, especially for the unforgettable Viva/Bene duet.

Recommendations
...if you want to discover one of our most important underground filmmakers.

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Parole dipinte (1940-2009)

Director: Luciano Emmer (often with Enrico Gras and Tatiana Grauding as co-directors)
Label:  Cineteca di Bologna (2010)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 2
Audio: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono)
Subtitles: Italian, English, French

Contents:
* Racconto da un affresco (1940-1946)
* Paradiso terrestre (1941-1946)
* Cantico delle creature (1943)
* Guerrieri (1943)
* Destino d'amore, ovvero, Piccolo mondo al platino (1942)
* I fratelli miracolosi (1949)
* L'invenzione della croce (1948)
* L'allegoria della primavera (1948)
* La leggenda di Sant'Orsola (1948, French version also included)
* Isole nella laguna (1948)
* Romantici a Venezia (1948, French version also included)
* Goya. La festa di Sant'Isidoro / I disastri della guerra (1950)
* Leonardo Da Vinci (1952)
* La sublime fatica (1966)
* Il dramma di Cristo narrato da Giotto (1966, French version also included)
* Incontrare Picasso (1954-2000)
* Nostalgie (2001, French version only)
* I magici colori di Napoli (2004)
* La paz y la guerra (2009)
* Le carceri di invenzione (2009)

Bonus:

* Interview with composer Roman Vlad (16 minutes, with English and French subtitles)
* Scherzo su Giotto by enrico ghezzi and Luciano Emmer (5 minutes, with English and French subtitles)
* Passeggiate con Luciano (12 minutes, with English and French subtitles)
* 52 page Italian/French booklet

Available on Amazon.it

What are these films about?

Perhaps today Luciano Emmer is best known for a fistful of comedies shot in the '50s, but in his career he actually worked mainly in non-fictional cinema (educational shorts, spots, TV). His documentaries on art, in particular, represent his most accomplished works and are known to have inspired Alain Resnais' early films. In this wonderful 6-hour boxset Cineteca di Bologna has collected 20 shorts, ranging from Emmer's first attempts to his most recent videos. Notable appearances by Jean Cocteau (La leggenda di Sant'Orsola and Romantici a Venezia) and Picasso (Incontrare Picasso).

Recommendations
...if you want to get in touch with one of Italian greatest documentary filmmakers.

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Racconto da un affresco, 1940-1946

Romantici a Venezia, 1948

Incontrare Picasso, 1954-2000

Ma l'amor mio non muore! (Love Everlasting, 1913)

Director: Mario Caserini
Starring: Lyda Borelli, Mario Bonnard, Giampaolo Rosmino
Label:  Cineteca di Bologna (2013)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 2
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 b/w
Subtitles: Italian, English

Bonus:

* Tinted fragment (9 minutes)
* Photogalleries
* 24 page bilingual booklet

Available from Amazon.it and Cineteca di Bologna.

What's the film about?

Beautifully shot and acted, this melodrama is one of the most outstanding examples of the so-called "Diva film", a hugely popular genre in Italian early cinema. These films were meant as vehicle for their leading female star (in this case, the measured, stylized Lyda Borelli), but here you also have an added value consisting in Mario Caserini's fine mise-en-scène, where each shot becomes an art déco piece. The DVD features a superior restoration, and you also have two differents soundtracks: a new 2013 orchestral score and a compilation from 1913-1961 opera recordings.

Recommendations
...if you want to discover Italian cinema from one hundred years ago.

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Il Cinema Ritrovato DVD Awards

I just got home from Bologna, where I attended "Il Cinema Ritrovato" 2013. Here you can have a look at the DVD Awards ceremony.

http://www.cinefiliaritrovata.it/il-cinema-ritrovato-dvd-awards/

Gli ultimi (already reviewed here) won as the Best DVD of the year.
Also, Geoff Gardner wrote a nice appreciation of the film:

The Award for Best DVD of the year at the Bologna Cinema Ritrovato to Gli Ultimi. It was made in the Friuli region in 1963 and not long after fell into obscurity. Friuli, a northern province which was Pasolini’s birthplace, has its own Cineteca and it supervised the restoration work and commissioned the 150 page publication, only in Italian, that accompanies the DVD. The film itself is a sensitive story of a young peasant boy growing up in the depression years of the 30s. The son of a farm labourer he tends several sheep, is mercilessly bullied at school and lives with his family in dirt poor surroundings. The family diet is polenta (il cibo della miseria) and vegetables. The village is hollowing out as most of the able bodied men have headed for Belgium to work in the coal mines. Fascism gets only a brief nod via a ranter in the local pub. The black and white photography by Armando Nannuzzi is beautiful to behold. Singling the film out for this attention had one immediate positive effect. Nobody having heard of it there was a run on the available copies being offered at the Cineteca’s book and DVD stall and it sold out quickly.

A luci spente (Lights Off, 2004)

Director: Maurizio Ponzi
Starring: Giulio Scarpati, Giuliana De Sio, Toni Bertorelli, Damiano Andriano
Label:  Ripley's Home Video (2007)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 0
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo)
Subtitles: English, French, German

Available on Amazon.it

What's the film about?

Loosely inspired by Vittorio De Sica's La porta del cielo backstory. In 1943 an antifascist director is shooting a film with financial support from the Vatican, trying to avoid the regime propaganda in the name of realism. Maurizio Ponzi had been one of Italian most interesting new wave critics (also writing for "Cahiers du Cinéma"), and when he later became a director he especially worked in comedies and TV series. This film combines both his activities, offering a nice insight into Italian fascist cinema. Lightly likeable.

Recommendations
...if you want a portrait of Italian cinema before Neorealism.

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La cagna (Love to Eternity, 1972)

Director: Marco Ferreri
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Michel Piccoli
Label:  Minerva (2005)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 2
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audio: Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono)
Subtitles: English

Bonus:

* Interview with film critic Adriano Aprà (10 minutes, with English subtitles)
* Interview with director of photography Mario Vulpiani (5 minutes, with English subtitles)
* 12 page bilingual booklet

Available on Amazon.it

What's the film about?

Based on a novel by Ennio Flaiano, Melampus, loosely inspired on a character from Pinocchio. An artist has withdrawn to a desert island, where he lives alone with his dog. One day, a woman arrives and tries to replace the dog. Kind of continuation of Dilliger Is Dead, this surrealistic fable explores the sexual revolution's effects, but also "the false myth of the intellectual's return to nature" (Ferreri). The disc contains the Italian track only, because the French cut (entitled Liza) features some minor variants.

Recommendations
...if you wonder about the journey Michel Piccoli embarked on in Dillinger Is Dead.

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Gelosia (Jealousy, 1953)

Director: Pietro Germi
Starring: Erno Crisa, Marisa Belli, Liliana Gerace, Paola Borboni
Label:  Ripley's Home Video (2004)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 0
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 b/w
Audio: Italian (Dolby Digital 1.0 mono)
Subtitles: English, Italian

Available on Amazon.it

What's the film about?

The descent into madness of a Marquis who has killed his mistress' husband. Nowadays Pietro Germi is best known for his groundbreaking comedies (Divorce Italian Style, Seduced and Abandoned), but in the '40s and '50s he worked mainly in noirs and melodramas, achieving great box office success with highly stylized films like In nome della Legge and Il ferroviere. Gelosia is definitely a lesser work, but despite its flawed structure it still displays strong evidence of Germi's vigorous visual style.

Recommendations
...if you are curious about a straight face version of Divorce Italian Style.

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Assassination (1967)

Director: Emilio Miraglia (aka Hal Brady)
Starring: Henry Silva, Fred Beir, Evelyn Stewart, Peter Dane
Label: Ripley's Home Video (2006)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 2
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: English, Italian (Dolby Digital 1.0 mono)
Subtitles: None

Bonus:

* English trailer
* Photogallery (33 b/w stills)

Available on Amazon.it

What's the film about?

Sentenced to death, a CIA agent takes over his brother's identity in order to go undercover in Europe and enter a hitman gang. As usual in Italian thrillers, the plot is somehow a bit fuzzy, but the film is redeemed by its striking visual style, deeply indebted to modern art. Just add that main charachters are named Chandler (after Raymond?) and Lang (after Fritz?), and you have mannerism in its purest form.

Recommendations
...if you want to find out where Robert Rodriguez's Machete comes from.

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Ad ogni costo (Grand Slam, 1967)

Director: Giuliano Montaldo
Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Janet Leigh, Klaus Kinski, Adolfo Celi
Label:  Ripley's Home Video (2005)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 2
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Audio: Italian, English, French (Dolby Digital 1.0 mono)
Subtitles: None

Bonus:

* English trailer
* Photogalleries (60 stills)

Available on Amazon.it

What's the film about?

Retired school teacher assembles a team of professional thieves and attempts to carry out the perfect crime, stealing 10,000,000 $ in diamonds. A nice entry in the classic heist trend, enhanced by an international cast and shot in Rome, New York and Rio de Janeiro. Giuliano Montaldo is better-known for his historical films (Sacco and Vanzetti), but his genre flicks still have plenty of energy, colour and humour. Well suited soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. "One of the best heist movies" (Roger Ebert).

Recommendations
...if you love the Rififi/Topkapi kind of film, just get your popcorn ready.

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Abbasso la ricchezza! (Peddlin' in Society, 1946)

Director: Gennaro Righelli
Starring: Anna Magnani, Vittorio De Sica, Virgilio Riento, John Garson
Label:  Dolmen Home Video (2007)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 2
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1 b/w
Audio: Italian (Dolby Digital 1.0 mono/5.1 remix)
Subtitles: English, Italian

Bonus:
* Photo gallery (20 stills)

Available on Amazon.it.

What's the film about?

Due to housing crisis, a newly rich black market dealer (Anna Magnani) and an impoverished count (Vittorio De Sica) have to share the same manor. Neorealism's influece also extended into genre films, as we can see in this entertaining lightweight comedy. Magnani was post-war Italian biggest star, and De Sica had been Italian biggest star in the '30s, so the film also has an additional interest, for you can compare two different acting style and two very different screen personas.

Recommendations
...if you want to see an acting contest between two legends.

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Il Federale (The Fascist, 1961)

Director: Luciano Salce
Starring: Ugo Tognazzi, George Wilson, Elza Vazzoler, Stefania Sandrelli
Label:  Medusa Video (2007)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 2
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 b/w
Audio: Italian (Dolby Digital 1.0 mono/5.1 remix)
Subtitles: English, Spanish, Italian

Available on Amazon.it.

What's the film about?

A fascist fanatic is entrusted with the task of bringing an anti-Fascist professor to Rome in the last days of Fascism. Starting with Monicelli's The Great War (1959), Italian comedies acquired a new social dimension, often dealing with low class situation. After Monicelli's hit, however, the most immediate result was a bunch of "historical" comedies, most of them set during Fascist era. Luciano Salce's road movie, starring Tognazzi at his best, represents one the most popular and most successful entry in this sub-genre. "A modest anecdote that blossoms beautifully into stature and significance" (Andrew Sarris).

Recommendations
...if you enjoyed Comencini's Everybody Go Home, here you have a pleasing follow-up.

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La tarantola dal ventre nero (The Black Belly of the Tarantula, 1971)

Director: Paolo Cavara
Starring: Giancarlo Giannini, Stefania Sandrelli, Claudine Auger, Barbara Bouchet
Label:  Ripley's Home Video (2005)
Format: DVD / PAL / Region 2
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio: Italian, English (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono)
Subtitles: None

Bonus:

* English trailer
* Photogalleries (29 stills)

Available on Amazon.it

What's the film about?

Young inspector investigates on a serial killer who paralyzes his victims with a needle in their neck. A follow up to Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, the film has the usual strengths and shortcomings of most '70s Italian thrillers: clumsy narrative, aggressive visual style, atmospheric music score, effective location photography and many zoom shots. On the plus side we have a decent cast, featuring Giancarlo Giannini (Swept Away) and a whole bunch of sexy starlets (Sandrelli, Bouchet, Auger).

Recommendations
...if you are a fan of Argento's early works, you should check out this too.

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