A wannabe "Jaws" rip-off theorized what would happen if a killer whale wreaked revenge on humanity -- "Orca" was a warning. Let's be honest: it's kind of a surprise that it's taken this long for killer whales to revolt against humans. We've poisoned their oceans, killed their young, and forced them into a life of showbiz in cramped theme park pools. Humans had a good run but it seems that orcas are the new mammals in charge.
Sailors working off the coast of Western Europe have reported a series of attacks by a group of orcas they said seemed to be "coordinated." This included striking and sinking a number of boats, although no human casualties have been reported. Some scientists said spikes in aggression may have been started by a female orca nicknamed White Gladis, who is believed to have suffered trauma after a collision with a sailboat.
While other...
Sailors working off the coast of Western Europe have reported a series of attacks by a group of orcas they said seemed to be "coordinated." This included striking and sinking a number of boats, although no human casualties have been reported. Some scientists said spikes in aggression may have been started by a female orca nicknamed White Gladis, who is believed to have suffered trauma after a collision with a sailboat.
While other...
- 5/26/2023
- by Kayleigh Donaldson
- Slash Film
When I saw "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" for the first time last year, I was taken aback by how it felt as if I had always known "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Blondie's forced march through the desert; Angel Eyes's back as he walks through a house full of dead bodies; Tuco running through the cemetery looking for the right grave marker. Not to mention Ennio Moricone's score, whose main theme I guarantee you can quote from memory even if you've never seen the movie. I cannot say if "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" is the best western ever made, because it has plenty of competition even among Leone's own work. But it makes as strong a case as any for mythic permanence, as if it was set down on a tablet rather than filmed.
Of course, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
Of course, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...
- 10/13/2022
- by Adam Wescott
- Slash Film
It’s still one of the most popular movies ever, and fans are proving that by shelling out for an umpteenth home video release, this time on the 4K Ultra HD format. Everybody knows exactly what to expect from Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach, but what about the transfer quality and encoding — Sergio Leone’s film was originally shot in the half-frame Techniscope format, which is on the low-res side to scan in 4K. Kino adds a Blu-ray disc and a mountain of accumulated extras from earlier editions.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
4K Ultra-hd + Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 162 min. / Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo / Street Date April 27, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Enzo Petito, Benito Stefanelli, Aldo Sambrell, Al Mulock, Antonio Molino Rojo, Mario Brega, Chelo Alonso,...
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
4K Ultra-hd + Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 162 min. / Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo / Street Date April 27, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Rada Rassimov, Enzo Petito, Benito Stefanelli, Aldo Sambrell, Al Mulock, Antonio Molino Rojo, Mario Brega, Chelo Alonso,...
- 6/12/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
King Kong ("When the monkey die, people gonna cry," was his oft-repeated quote about the film). A year later, with Orca — in the tradition of 1975's Jaws and the Aug. 10 release The Meg — he took a more watery path of destruction.
"Find a fish tougher and more terrible than the Great White," De Laurentiis told screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni. But his killer whale tale sank at the box office amid scathing reviews. The Los Angeles Times said,...
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"Find a fish tougher and more terrible than the Great White," De Laurentiis told screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni. But his killer whale tale sank at the box office amid scathing reviews. The Los Angeles Times said,...
</!--[Cdata[...
King Kong ("When the monkey die, people gonna cry," was his oft-repeated quote about the film). A year later, with Orca — in the tradition of 1975's Jaws and the Aug. 10 release The Meg — he took a more watery path of destruction.
"Find a fish tougher and more terrible than the Great White," De Laurentiis told screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni. But his killer whale tale sank at the box office amid scathing reviews. The Los Angeles Times said,...
</!--[Cdata[...
"Find a fish tougher and more terrible than the Great White," De Laurentiis told screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni. But his killer whale tale sank at the box office amid scathing reviews. The Los Angeles Times said,...
</!--[Cdata[...
More mysterious than ever, Sergio Leone’s ode to (condemnation of?) revolution is said to be the centerpiece of his three ‘Once Upon a Time’ movies linking western violence to the modern age of brutal politics and ruthless gangsterism. Crudeness rubs shoulders with sad, beautiful images as Leone takes on a theme he claimed not to like very much. The writers Donati and Vincenzoni show him the way, while James Coburn and Rod Steiger bring to life the non-narrative moments of what becomes a broad, mural-like epic.
Duck You Sucker (A Fistful of Dynamite)
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1971 / 157 154, 138, 120 min. / Giù la testa, A Fistful of Dynamite, Il était une fois … la révolution / Street Date March 6, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: James Coburn, Rod Steiger, Maria Monti, Rik Battaglia, Romolo Valli, Antoine St-John, Vivienne Chandler, David Warbeck.
Cinematography: Giuseppe Ruzzolini
Film Editor: Nino Baragli
Art Direction: Andrea Crisanti
Original Music: Ennio Morricone
Written by Sergio Leone,...
Duck You Sucker (A Fistful of Dynamite)
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1971 / 157 154, 138, 120 min. / Giù la testa, A Fistful of Dynamite, Il était une fois … la révolution / Street Date March 6, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: James Coburn, Rod Steiger, Maria Monti, Rik Battaglia, Romolo Valli, Antoine St-John, Vivienne Chandler, David Warbeck.
Cinematography: Giuseppe Ruzzolini
Film Editor: Nino Baragli
Art Direction: Andrea Crisanti
Original Music: Ennio Morricone
Written by Sergio Leone,...
- 3/6/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Guest reviewer Lee Broughton is back with an in-depth look at Sergio Corbucci’s grand ‘Zapata’ Spaghetti Western. Set in post-1900 Mexico, Tony Musante’s rebellious peon wants to be a hero of the revolution but he primarily robs the rich in order to pay the extortionate wages that are demanded by Franco Nero’s interloping Polish mercenary-cum-military advisor. The resultant political allegory is played out on an almost epic scale and is suitably enlivened by the presence of a villainous Jack Palance, a plethora of large scale action scenes, an imaginatively used period car and biplane and a rousing soundtrack score by Ennio Morricone and Bruno Nicolai.
The Mercenary (Il mercenario)
Region B Blu-ray
88 Films The Italian Collection
1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 106 min. / A Professional Gun, Il mercenario / Street Date, 8 Jan 2018 / £15.99
Starring: Franco Nero, Tony Musante, Jack Palance, Giovanna Ralli, Franco Giacobini, Eduardo Fajardo, Franco Ressel, Raf Baldassarre, Tito Garcia.
The Mercenary (Il mercenario)
Region B Blu-ray
88 Films The Italian Collection
1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 106 min. / A Professional Gun, Il mercenario / Street Date, 8 Jan 2018 / £15.99
Starring: Franco Nero, Tony Musante, Jack Palance, Giovanna Ralli, Franco Giacobini, Eduardo Fajardo, Franco Ressel, Raf Baldassarre, Tito Garcia.
- 2/20/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Sergio Leone’s Civil War gunslinger epic is everybody’s favorite western, and most everybody has a bone to pick regarding problems with the previous DVDs and Blu-rays. The good news is that Kino’s 50th Anniversary Special Edition takes giant leaps in correcting older audio issues . . . but the bad news . . .
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Blu-ray
2-Disc 50th Anniversary Special Edition
Kl Studio Classics
1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Techniscope) / 187 161, 148 min. / Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il cattivo/ Street Date August 14, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Mario Brega, Al Mulock, Aldo Sambrell.
Cinematography: Tonino Delli Colli
Production Designer: Carlo Simi
Film Editor: Eugenio Alabiso, Nino Baragli
Original Music: Ennio Morricone
Written by Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone, story by Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone.
Produced by Alberto Grimaldi
Directed by Sergio Leone
I’d like to report...
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Blu-ray
2-Disc 50th Anniversary Special Edition
Kl Studio Classics
1966 / Color / 2:35 widescreen (Techniscope) / 187 161, 148 min. / Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il cattivo/ Street Date August 14, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, Eli Wallach, Aldo Giuffrè, Luigi Pistilli, Mario Brega, Al Mulock, Aldo Sambrell.
Cinematography: Tonino Delli Colli
Production Designer: Carlo Simi
Film Editor: Eugenio Alabiso, Nino Baragli
Original Music: Ennio Morricone
Written by Agenore Incrocci, Furio Scarpelli, Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone, story by Luciano Vincenzoni, Sergio Leone.
Produced by Alberto Grimaldi
Directed by Sergio Leone
I’d like to report...
- 8/12/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In the aftermath of Jaws, many cinematic imitators swam into shore, but few could compare to Orca. Steven Spielberg's first blockbuster benefited from terrific advance publicity. Peter Benchley's novel, first published in February 1974, became an instant bestseller, casting a large shadow on the forthcoming film, which began production three months later. According to Wikipedia. Orca was born from the mind of producer Dino de Laurentiis. Supposedly, late one night in 1975 -- perhaps unable to sleep because of his own, ill-fated production of King Kong that would be unleashed the following year -- he called fellow producer Luciano Vincenzoni and told him to "find a fish tougher and more terrible than the great white" shark portrayed in Jaws. Luciano's brother Adriano had an interest...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 6/15/2017
- Screen Anarchy
Italian screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni has passed away at age 87. Vincezoni was best known for his work on the Sergio Leone Western classics "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", both starring Clint Eastwood. Vincenzoni was rather dismissive of his work on these films, saying that he knocked off his writing contribution in a matter of days. In the case of "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" he improvised and created a plot outline on the spot in order to win financing from United Artists. Vincezoni said he was most proud of other films that he worked on that were honored on the film festival circuit. Indeed, although regarded as classics today, the Leone Westerns were largely despised or ignored by the critical establishment in the 1960s. Vincenzoni once told Leone biographer Sir Christopher Frayling that one of his great regrets was allowing a...
- 9/26/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Clint Eastwood Western persona co-creator dead at 87: Luciano Vincenzoni (photo: Clint Eastwood in ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’) Screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni, whose nearly five-decade career included collaborations with Mario Monicelli, Pietro Germi, and Sergio Leone, died of cancer on Sunday, September 22, 2013, in Rome. Vincenzoni (born on March 7, 1926, in Treviso, near Venice) was 87. In the late ’50s, Luciano Vincenzoni co-wrote Mario Monicelli’s The Great War / La Grande guerra (1959), a humorous (if overlong) World War I comedy-drama starring Vittorio Gassman and Alberto Sordi as reluctant conscripts that earned a Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nomination and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (tied with Roberto Rossellini’s Il Generale della Rovere). Vincenzoni was also partly responsible for the screenplay of two well-regarded Pietro Germi movies: the omnibus comedy of manners The Birds, the Bees and the Italians / Signore & signori (1966), featuring Virna Lisi and Franco Fabrizi,...
- 9/26/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
December was Tarantino Month here at Sos, and since January is dedicated to westerns, I thought it would be best to whip up some articles spotlighting films that influenced Tarantino’s Django Unchained. Since I began my list back in December, I’ve noticed similar lists popping up online – all of which are somewhat suspect, since they recommend some terrible films. For my money, all of the movies listed below are essential viewing for fans of Django Unchained, and come highly recommended.
Note: This is the third of a three part article.
****
I Giorni dell’ira (Blood and Grit) (Day of Anger) (Gunlaw) (Days of Wrath)
Directed by Tonino Valerii
Written by Ernesto Gastaldi, Tonino Valerii, Renzo Genta
Italy, 1967
Day of Anger is a spaghetti western directed by Tonino Valerii, who began his career as Sergio Leone’s assistant and would later direct My Name Is Nobody (1973). Lee Van Cleef stars as Frank Talby,...
Note: This is the third of a three part article.
****
I Giorni dell’ira (Blood and Grit) (Day of Anger) (Gunlaw) (Days of Wrath)
Directed by Tonino Valerii
Written by Ernesto Gastaldi, Tonino Valerii, Renzo Genta
Italy, 1967
Day of Anger is a spaghetti western directed by Tonino Valerii, who began his career as Sergio Leone’s assistant and would later direct My Name Is Nobody (1973). Lee Van Cleef stars as Frank Talby,...
- 1/3/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
After all the debates, controversies, and stereotype accusations have cleared, looking back on Blaxploitation cinema today it’s easy to see healthy portions of the crime and action genres. Using these genres and the struggles of the black community, these films were created for those that wanted to see African American characters on the big screen not taking shit from the man, “getting over”, and–above all else—being the heroes in movies. In the documentary Baad Asssss Cinema, Samuel L. Jackson gives his take on the heroes of Blaxploitation: “We were tired of seeing the righteous black man. And all of a sudden we had guys who were…us. Or guys who did the things we wanted those guys to do.”
The unsung supporting players in these films that backed Fred Williamson and Pam Grier and many other stars were people acting and making a living off of it.
The unsung supporting players in these films that backed Fred Williamson and Pam Grier and many other stars were people acting and making a living off of it.
- 12/4/2012
- by Gregory Day
- SoundOnSight
The Movie Pool reloads with For a Few Dollars More, on Blu-ray for the first time!
Blu-ray Specs
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Running Time: 132 minutes
Rating: R
Audio: English 5.1 DTS HD-ma, English Mono, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Spanish, French
Special Features: Christopher Frayling Archives, "A New Standard: Christopher Frayling on For a Few Dollars More" featurette, "Back for More: Clint Eastwood on For a Few Dollars More" featurette, "Tre Voci" featurette, "A Look at Alternate Scenes and Releases" featurette, Location Comparisons featurette, 12 radio spots, Original theatrical trailers.
Audio Commentary: By Sir Christopher Frayling
The Set-up
The Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) teams up with a fellow bounty hunter (Lee Van Cleef) to track down an escaped bandit (Gian Maria Volonte), only to discover he is planning a huge bank robbery.
Director: Sergio Leone
Screenplay: Luciano Vincenzoni
The Delivery
Sergio Leone's follow...
Blu-ray Specs
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Running Time: 132 minutes
Rating: R
Audio: English 5.1 DTS HD-ma, English Mono, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Spanish, French
Special Features: Christopher Frayling Archives, "A New Standard: Christopher Frayling on For a Few Dollars More" featurette, "Back for More: Clint Eastwood on For a Few Dollars More" featurette, "Tre Voci" featurette, "A Look at Alternate Scenes and Releases" featurette, Location Comparisons featurette, 12 radio spots, Original theatrical trailers.
Audio Commentary: By Sir Christopher Frayling
The Set-up
The Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood) teams up with a fellow bounty hunter (Lee Van Cleef) to track down an escaped bandit (Gian Maria Volonte), only to discover he is planning a huge bank robbery.
Director: Sergio Leone
Screenplay: Luciano Vincenzoni
The Delivery
Sergio Leone's follow...
- 9/5/2011
- Cinelinx
The spirit of Fellini is very much alive in Giuseppe Tornatore's "Malena", a frisky coming-of-age wartime allegory about a 13-year-old boy and the ravishing town beauty who kick-starts his raging hormones.
But the "Cinema Paradiso" director has more on his mind here than a Sicilian "Summer of '42". What begins as a nostalgic sex comedy inevitably falls prey to those darker fascist elements, but the resulting tonal shifts never completely blend into a satisfying whole.
Ultimately, the handsomely appointed film remains as emotionally elusive as its unattainable title character. While "Malena" could entice some modest art house business, Miramax won't be in "Paradiso".
With those dark, soulful eyes, young Giuseppe Sulfaro, who had no acting experience, makes for an ideal Renato. Convincingly at that awkward age, he suddenly finds himself having to sort out dueling sensations of lust and love for Malena (Monica Bellucci), the new girl on the block with a husband off at war whose every stroll through the seaside village of Castelcuto seems to turn all men into drooling idiots and all women into bitter gossip-mongers.
Those pangs of adolescent desire don't exactly sit well with Renato's parents, who deal with his sexually obsessed behavior by first sending him to a priest, then to an exorcist and finally, in an act of pure defeat, dropping him off at the local bordello.
Meanwhile, as World War II escalates, Malena has apparently become emblematic of the growing fear and paranoia of Italians everywhere. No longer regarded merely as the town tart, she has become reviled as a Jezebel who brazenly sleeps with the enemy and is all but tarred and feathered by an angry mob of women.
After the war is over, with feelings of hatred and despair giving way to forgiveness and hope, the people of Castelcuto and the maligned Malena likewise start anew, while Renato finally gets to wear his first pair of long pants.
It's not that Tornatore, who also wrote the script, goes particularly wrong anywhere in his telling of a short story originally penned by Luciano Vincenzoni. It's just that "Malena" feels like a compendium of any number of similarly themed coming-of-age films without the ability to mine any fresh, satisfying resonance in the assembly.
MALENA
Miramax
Medusa Film/Miramax
Credits: Director-screenwriter: Giuseppe Tornatore; Based on a story by: Luciano Vincenzoni; Producers: Harvey Weinstein, Carlo Bernasconi; Executive producers: Bob Weinstein, Teresa Moneo, Fabrizio Lombardo, Mario Spedaletti; Director of photography: Lajos Koltai; Art director: Francesco Frigeri; Set designer: Bruno Cesari; Editor: Massimo Quaglia; Costume designer: Maurizio Millenotti; Music: Ennio Morricone. Cast: Malena: Monica Bellucci; Renato: Giuseppe Sulfaro; Renato's father: Luciano Federico; Renato's mother: Matilde Piana; Professor Bonsignore: Pietro Notarianni; Nino Scordia: Gaetano Aronica. MPAA rating: R. Running time -- 94 minutes. Color/stereo.
But the "Cinema Paradiso" director has more on his mind here than a Sicilian "Summer of '42". What begins as a nostalgic sex comedy inevitably falls prey to those darker fascist elements, but the resulting tonal shifts never completely blend into a satisfying whole.
Ultimately, the handsomely appointed film remains as emotionally elusive as its unattainable title character. While "Malena" could entice some modest art house business, Miramax won't be in "Paradiso".
With those dark, soulful eyes, young Giuseppe Sulfaro, who had no acting experience, makes for an ideal Renato. Convincingly at that awkward age, he suddenly finds himself having to sort out dueling sensations of lust and love for Malena (Monica Bellucci), the new girl on the block with a husband off at war whose every stroll through the seaside village of Castelcuto seems to turn all men into drooling idiots and all women into bitter gossip-mongers.
Those pangs of adolescent desire don't exactly sit well with Renato's parents, who deal with his sexually obsessed behavior by first sending him to a priest, then to an exorcist and finally, in an act of pure defeat, dropping him off at the local bordello.
Meanwhile, as World War II escalates, Malena has apparently become emblematic of the growing fear and paranoia of Italians everywhere. No longer regarded merely as the town tart, she has become reviled as a Jezebel who brazenly sleeps with the enemy and is all but tarred and feathered by an angry mob of women.
After the war is over, with feelings of hatred and despair giving way to forgiveness and hope, the people of Castelcuto and the maligned Malena likewise start anew, while Renato finally gets to wear his first pair of long pants.
It's not that Tornatore, who also wrote the script, goes particularly wrong anywhere in his telling of a short story originally penned by Luciano Vincenzoni. It's just that "Malena" feels like a compendium of any number of similarly themed coming-of-age films without the ability to mine any fresh, satisfying resonance in the assembly.
MALENA
Miramax
Medusa Film/Miramax
Credits: Director-screenwriter: Giuseppe Tornatore; Based on a story by: Luciano Vincenzoni; Producers: Harvey Weinstein, Carlo Bernasconi; Executive producers: Bob Weinstein, Teresa Moneo, Fabrizio Lombardo, Mario Spedaletti; Director of photography: Lajos Koltai; Art director: Francesco Frigeri; Set designer: Bruno Cesari; Editor: Massimo Quaglia; Costume designer: Maurizio Millenotti; Music: Ennio Morricone. Cast: Malena: Monica Bellucci; Renato: Giuseppe Sulfaro; Renato's father: Luciano Federico; Renato's mother: Matilde Piana; Professor Bonsignore: Pietro Notarianni; Nino Scordia: Gaetano Aronica. MPAA rating: R. Running time -- 94 minutes. Color/stereo.
The spirit of Fellini is very much alive in Giuseppe Tornatore's "Malena", a frisky coming-of-age wartime allegory about a 13-year-old boy and the ravishing town beauty who kick-starts his raging hormones.
But the "Cinema Paradiso" director has more on his mind here than a Sicilian "Summer of '42". What begins as a nostalgic sex comedy inevitably falls prey to those darker fascist elements, but the resulting tonal shifts never completely blend into a satisfying whole.
Ultimately, the handsomely appointed film remains as emotionally elusive as its unattainable title character. While "Malena" could entice some modest art house business, Miramax won't be in "Paradiso".
With those dark, soulful eyes, young Giuseppe Sulfaro, who had no acting experience, makes for an ideal Renato. Convincingly at that awkward age, he suddenly finds himself having to sort out dueling sensations of lust and love for Malena (Monica Bellucci), the new girl on the block with a husband off at war whose every stroll through the seaside village of Castelcuto seems to turn all men into drooling idiots and all women into bitter gossip-mongers.
Those pangs of adolescent desire don't exactly sit well with Renato's parents, who deal with his sexually obsessed behavior by first sending him to a priest, then to an exorcist and finally, in an act of pure defeat, dropping him off at the local bordello.
Meanwhile, as World War II escalates, Malena has apparently become emblematic of the growing fear and paranoia of Italians everywhere. No longer regarded merely as the town tart, she has become reviled as a Jezebel who brazenly sleeps with the enemy and is all but tarred and feathered by an angry mob of women.
After the war is over, with feelings of hatred and despair giving way to forgiveness and hope, the people of Castelcuto and the maligned Malena likewise start anew, while Renato finally gets to wear his first pair of long pants.
It's not that Tornatore, who also wrote the script, goes particularly wrong anywhere in his telling of a short story originally penned by Luciano Vincenzoni. It's just that "Malena" feels like a compendium of any number of similarly themed coming-of-age films without the ability to mine any fresh, satisfying resonance in the assembly.
MALENA
Miramax
Medusa Film/Miramax
Credits: Director-screenwriter: Giuseppe Tornatore; Based on a story by: Luciano Vincenzoni; Producers: Harvey Weinstein, Carlo Bernasconi; Executive producers: Bob Weinstein, Teresa Moneo, Fabrizio Lombardo, Mario Spedaletti; Director of photography: Lajos Koltai; Art director: Francesco Frigeri; Set designer: Bruno Cesari; Editor: Massimo Quaglia; Costume designer: Maurizio Millenotti; Music: Ennio Morricone. Cast: Malena: Monica Bellucci; Renato: Giuseppe Sulfaro; Renato's father: Luciano Federico; Renato's mother: Matilde Piana; Professor Bonsignore: Pietro Notarianni; Nino Scordia: Gaetano Aronica. MPAA rating: R. Running time -- 94 minutes. Color/stereo.
But the "Cinema Paradiso" director has more on his mind here than a Sicilian "Summer of '42". What begins as a nostalgic sex comedy inevitably falls prey to those darker fascist elements, but the resulting tonal shifts never completely blend into a satisfying whole.
Ultimately, the handsomely appointed film remains as emotionally elusive as its unattainable title character. While "Malena" could entice some modest art house business, Miramax won't be in "Paradiso".
With those dark, soulful eyes, young Giuseppe Sulfaro, who had no acting experience, makes for an ideal Renato. Convincingly at that awkward age, he suddenly finds himself having to sort out dueling sensations of lust and love for Malena (Monica Bellucci), the new girl on the block with a husband off at war whose every stroll through the seaside village of Castelcuto seems to turn all men into drooling idiots and all women into bitter gossip-mongers.
Those pangs of adolescent desire don't exactly sit well with Renato's parents, who deal with his sexually obsessed behavior by first sending him to a priest, then to an exorcist and finally, in an act of pure defeat, dropping him off at the local bordello.
Meanwhile, as World War II escalates, Malena has apparently become emblematic of the growing fear and paranoia of Italians everywhere. No longer regarded merely as the town tart, she has become reviled as a Jezebel who brazenly sleeps with the enemy and is all but tarred and feathered by an angry mob of women.
After the war is over, with feelings of hatred and despair giving way to forgiveness and hope, the people of Castelcuto and the maligned Malena likewise start anew, while Renato finally gets to wear his first pair of long pants.
It's not that Tornatore, who also wrote the script, goes particularly wrong anywhere in his telling of a short story originally penned by Luciano Vincenzoni. It's just that "Malena" feels like a compendium of any number of similarly themed coming-of-age films without the ability to mine any fresh, satisfying resonance in the assembly.
MALENA
Miramax
Medusa Film/Miramax
Credits: Director-screenwriter: Giuseppe Tornatore; Based on a story by: Luciano Vincenzoni; Producers: Harvey Weinstein, Carlo Bernasconi; Executive producers: Bob Weinstein, Teresa Moneo, Fabrizio Lombardo, Mario Spedaletti; Director of photography: Lajos Koltai; Art director: Francesco Frigeri; Set designer: Bruno Cesari; Editor: Massimo Quaglia; Costume designer: Maurizio Millenotti; Music: Ennio Morricone. Cast: Malena: Monica Bellucci; Renato: Giuseppe Sulfaro; Renato's father: Luciano Federico; Renato's mother: Matilde Piana; Professor Bonsignore: Pietro Notarianni; Nino Scordia: Gaetano Aronica. MPAA rating: R. Running time -- 94 minutes. Color/stereo.
- 12/19/2000
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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