Lina Wertmüller

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A portrait of Ennio Morricone, the most popular and prolific film composer of the 20th century, the one most loved by the international public, a two-time Oscar winner and the author of over five hundred unforgettable scores.

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Opera Prima is a tribute and a journey through the evolution that cinema has had in Italy. Tayu Vlietstra, a pupil of Bertolucci, carries out an investigation on the first work of six of the most authoritative and beloved Italian directors. The result is an unpublished and precious document that reveals the emotions and expectations of directors grappling with their cinematic debut. Mario Monicelli, Bernardo Bertolucci, Lina Wertmüller, Marco Bellocchio, Liliana Cavani and Francesca Archibugi offer a still current evolution on the needs and difficulties of making cinema in our country.

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Ferruccio Castronuovo was the only authorized eye, between 1976 and 1986, to film the brilliant Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini (1920-1993) in his personal and creative intimacy, to capture the gears of his great circus, his fantastic lies and his crazy inventions.

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The feature documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff is the story of Donald Rugoff, who was the crazy genius behind Cinema 5, the mid-century theater chain and film distribution company. Rugoff was a difficult (some would say impossible) person but was also the man who kicked art films into the mainstream with outrageous marketing schemes and pure bluster. Rugoff's impact on cinema culture in the United States is inestimable, and his influence on the art film business-from the studio classics divisions to the independent film movement to the rise of the Weinsteins-is undeniable. Yet, mysteriously, Rugoff has become a virtually forgotten figure. The story is told through the eyes of former employee Ira Deutchman, who sets out to find the truth about the man who had such a major impact on his life, and to understand how such an important figure could have disappeared so completely.

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This documentary tells the story of Rome's contemporary art scene, so far from the stereotypes that have represented it until now.

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Tracing the journey of a free thinker, engineer, writer, scriptwriter, actor and director through his life and work, Così Parlo De Crescenzo harnesses the energy of a man determined to transform the lives and culture of those around him. Born in Naples, Luciano De Crescenzo graduated in engineering and worked as a programmer for IBM until 1976, when he escaped the routine of his 'corporate prison' and published his first book.

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An account of the life and work of legendary cinematographer and director Carlo Di Palma (1925-2004) and an emotional journey through the great moments of cinema, from Italian neorealism to the masterpieces of Woody Allen.

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It is a musical portrait that shines a spotlight on unknown aspects of the creative, visionary and groundbreaking talent of filmmaker and writer, Lina Wertmüller.

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A documentary about the Italian director Sergio Corbucci.

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Registe, talking on a blade is an Italian documentary about the Italian Cinema signed by women and about the pioneer of the Silent Cinema Elvira Notari (1875-1946) plays by Maria De Medeiros. The directors interviewed are the most important Italian women directors: Lina Wertmüller, Cecilia Mangini, Francesca Archibugi, Francesca Comencini, Wilma Labate, Cinzia Th Torrini, Roberta Torre, Antonietta De Lillo, Giada Colagrande, Donatella Maiorca, Ilaria Borrelli and others.

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Documentary about Italian cinema.

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In a small mountain village lives a man with a challenging name, Giuseppe Garibaldi (one of Italy's "fathers of the fatherland"), but everybody call him with the nickname Peppino. Love fishing, the company of friends, the library where he works as a precarious employee. He is an optimistic person even if his child accuse him of being a wannabe. One day, due to a mess of politicians, an amazing thing happens: Peppino is mistakenly elected President of the Italian Republic. Pulled out from his quiet life, is to play a role for which he knows he is obviously inappropriate, but his common sense and his instinctive gestures are incredibly effective, except for the etiquette, for which he is in trouble. The inflexible and fascinating Deputy Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, Janis Clementi, is anxious to no avail in an attempt to regulate the unpredictable actions of the President...

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February 20, 1958: the Italian Parliament approved Law No. 75, the "Merlin Law": the end of an institution of Italian society for ages: the brothel. The Italian writer Dino Buzzati likens the event to the fire in the library of Alexandria in Egypt. The brothel is an institution that has spanned the centuries,thru different aspects, different forms. It is an institution that, in Italy, at least officially no longer exists. But it is also an institution that in other countries, still exists. The doc offers a journey that will start from the ruins of Pompeii brothel to get to the lights of Artemis in Berlin, with its soft drinks and its attention to the well-being and to the erotic papyrus from the Egyptian Museum of Turin and the giant Paradise in Girona, that El Pais has called the biggest brothel in Europe.

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Filming Lina at her place next to Piazza del Popolo was a great experience to check on her way of movie making: "I'm not looking for a story, the story calls me!"

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A documentary about Vittorio de Sica with clips of his films and testimonials from friends and family.

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Documentary exploring the formidable life and career of Italian film star Sophia Loren. With interviews with the actress herself, as well as thoughts from colleagues and admirers, including Woody Allen.

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After shooting to fame with Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” (1960), actor Marcello Mastroianni (1924-1996) starred in more than 160 films in his nearly half-a-century career. Directors Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri look into the melancholic charm of one of the most famous Italian actors through interviews with his two daughters, Barbara and Chiara; directors Fellini and Luchino Visconti; actresses Claudia Cardinale and Anouk Aimee; and in archival footage of Mastroianni himself. The subject matter ranges from Mastroianni’s passion for kidney-bean pasta and his addiction to the telephone to his famous laziness, humility and talent. Shown in black-and-white, Mastroianni — elegantly holding a cigarette in between his fingers — is undeniably the dandy.

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A documentary on Fellini’s lost alternate ending for 8½

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Documentary with interviews and clips of Fellini's movies.

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The artistic evolution of the great composer, whose work left an indelible mark in the history of Italian cinema. In this documentary Nino Rota's extraordinary musical production relives in the words of his friends and colleagues. His collaboration with Visconti and Fellini are truly memorable. His movie score and sequences of his performances in theaters all over the world hand us down a full and evocative outline of this outstanding artist.

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In the streets of Moscow, Lina Wertmuller asks its inhabitants if they know who are personalities like Marx, Stalin, Hitler, Stanislavsky, Shakespeare and others. She also inquire about their dreams, about work and freedom. Between one testimony and another, she documents the daily life in Russia during the 1990s: street trading in Moscow, dancing in public spaces, nightlife, casinos, and popular religiosity.

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A look at the life and work of composer Nino Rota.

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Special TG3 by Giorgio Chiecchi of 8 May 1980.

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A behind-the-scenes documentary about the filming of the Federico Fellini film, "Satyricon."

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Composer Gioachino Rossini comes back to the three Italian cities — Rome, Naples, and Venice — and recalls artistic beauties and experiences of his life.

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Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace prize winner, is known in the whole world as the banker of the poor, because he pioneered and tested a funding system in Bangladesh: by lending little sums of money to the less well-off with no interest, and returning it by installments gained with their work, people are able to get free from extreme misery. Thus, what can happen if three boys, just graduated, who live in Naples, try to import this funding system that subverts every economic rule?

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After a long marriage, Maria and Jeffrey are now in crisis. Trying to keep the family together, she tries to convince their children to attend the birthday of the old grandmother Assunta, owner of the beautiful house in which they live. But their children are going through a rough patch. Francesco is a writer who is ashamed of having achieved fame with a book of literary shoddy, why his wife has lost respect. Marco is a doctor and is happy with his family, but his wife is determined to throw it all away for that to become an actress. Meanwhile, Miriam, a young emancipated, discovers she is pregnant, but does not know which of her lovers is the father.

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1820s Naples: On his death bed, King Ferdinando I tries to escape the ghosts of his bloody kingship by recounting his youth, when he was allowed a life of frivolity. However, then he was obliged to marry Mary Caroline of Austria, daughter of Empress Mary Theresa, in a political convention: unexpectedly, they became happy lovers, until court power games divide them, and a life-changing historical season arrived.

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During the 1994 general elections, a mechanic with a firm belief in communism, fearing that his party is about to lose, journeys to a northern village to instigate. He isn't there long before he encounters a beautiful hairdresser, with whom their debate is fiery as is his growing and impossible-to-hide passion for her. Although she too is intrigued with him, their disparate ideologies threaten to keep them apart.

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On the outskirts of Naples during the Second World War, naïve 15 year-old Miluzza, subjected to repeated abuse by the men around her, is unable to escape the confines of her small village. After her mother's unfortunate death, she meets a wounded soldier and helps him return to his family's farm. He falls in love and wants to marry her but his mother insists on his betrothal to a virgin.

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A bureaucratic snafu sends Marco Tullio Sperelli, a portly, middle-aged northern Italian, to teach third grade in a poor town outside Naples

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A mature mother of several children is concerned that her beloved husband is losing interest, so she does her best to provoke some jealousy in him.

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An American journalist working for a French newspaper is writing an article on the public reaction to those with AIDS, unaware that he too is infected. Once he finds out, he decides to go into reclusion, leaving his wife and daughter.

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Originally titled simply Decimo Clandestino, this Lina Wertmuller "miniature" began life as an Italian TV drama. Piera Degli Esposti plays the widowed, impoverished mother of a huge farm family. The woman moves her nine children to Bologna, where their living conditions are deplorable. To avoid a hike in rent, she tells her landlady (Dominique Sanda) that she is living alone. Also known as To Save Nine (a curiously brief English-language title for a Wertmuller film!), IL Decimo Clandestino was expanded from 60 to 90 minutes for its theatrical release.

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A charming billionaire manager kidnaps a criminal and locks him up in her private villa in Sardinia.

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After Annunziata opens up a hostel with her friend Antonio, she is saved from being raped by a Camorra boss as the gangster is suddenly killed. The killer escapes before Annunziata is able to see who it was. Following this murder are several others, and always with the same “signature” — a syringe in one of the testicles of the victims. As the gangsters continue to be killed off, the identity of the killer – or killers – slowly becomes obvious.

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Ester finds herself sexually attracted to her newly divorced friend Adele. When Ester admits another love to her hot-headed husband, he searches manically for the rival, who he never suspects is a woman.

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When the Minister of the Interior accidentally becomes locked inside his computerized, armoured limo following a mechanical failure, it triggers a series of headline-making events, especially as he happens to be in front of his political opponent's home. The event becomes a scandal involving many, including the rival, his feminist daughter, his wife, and her one-time terrorist lover hiding in the basement.

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In pre-World War II Sicily, just as the fascists come to power, two men fall in love with the same woman. The changes in their country's politics ultimately take all three on a journey across the ocean to New York City.

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When romantic journalist Paolo rescues American photographer Lizzy from a scuffle in an Italian village, his efforts at romance lead nowhere. But when they meet again in San Francisco, Paolo succeeds in wooing her. Can their love overcome the differences between the traditional Italian Communist and the modern, liberated American woman that threaten to tear the two apart?

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Pasqualino Frafuso, known in Naples as "Pasqualino Seven Beauties" is a petty thief who lives off of the profits of his seven sisters while claiming to protect their honor at any cost, Pasqualino is arrested for murder and later sent to fight in the army after committing sexual assault. The Germans capture him and he gets sent to a concentration camp where he plots to make his escape by seducing a German officer.

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A wealthy woman's yachting holiday with friends in the Mediterranean Sea takes an unexpected turn when she and one of the boat's crew are stranded on a desert island. Her capitalist beliefs and his communist convictions clash, but during their struggle to survive, social roles are reversed and heated passions come alive.

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Southern Italian workers relocate to Milan and adjust to life in the city, where they reside in a house together. Among the group are country boys Gigi and Carletto, who are overwhelmed by urban living. While some find work at a hectic restaurant, others are employed at a grim slaughterhouse. However, when some of the migrant workers are unable to make ends meet, they resort to theft, worsening their situations.

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When his anarchist friend is killed trying to assassinate Mussolini, Tunin decides it's up to him to finish the job. While visiting a brothel, he meets a prostitute named Salome, who agrees to help, as her former boyfriend was also killed by Mussolini. They enlist the aid of another prostitute and hatch an elaborate plan, but as the fateful day quickly approaches, the women have second thoughts.

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An Italian woman who has not heard from her daughter for a while travels to London, where the daughter is living, and is shocked to be confronted with the young woman's world. During the brief days they spend together, the women come to acknowledge the insurmountable differences that exist between them despite the love they share.

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In his delirium from his return from war, Francesco Bernardone goes back in his memories to the days when he lived for parties and carnal pleasures. He slowly recovers, but after the illness he is no longer the Francesco that everybody knew. Instead of spending hours in taverns, he meditates on the beauty of God's creatures, soon renouncing his riches and his family with plans to rebuild an abandoned church and his life.

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Filli and the cavemen from "When Women Had Tails" are living a carefree life inside a dinosaur skeleton. But when conman Ham introduces them to the concept of currency and economics, their lives fall apart. On top of that, Filli starts to fall in love with Ham.

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Sicilian dockworker Mimi inadvertently becomes embroiled in an increasingly complicated array of personal conflicts. When he loses his job after voting against a Mafia kingpin in an allegedly secret election, Mimi leaves his wife to find new employment. He moves to Turin, where he engages in an affair with a Communist organiser. Soon, Mimi finds himself juggling two demanding relationships while plotting revenge against the corrupt forces that ruined his life.

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Seven orphan cavemen grow up on a little island all by themselves. After a fire burns all vegetation they set out to find a new place to live.

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A hitman is double-crossed by his girlfriend and barely escapes a murder attempt. He then sets out to take his revenge on the woman and the gang boss who put her up to it.

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Dominated by men in her youth, Belle Starr now out-shoots and out-gambles them as she makes her way around the West. One man who's her equal is Larry Blackie, with whom she has an on-again, off-again relationship. Together, they become involved in a robbery which goes awry...

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Rita, a vivacious co-ed flees her boarding school with her music teacher, who is also engaged to her. She wants to take part in a singing contest but her father who is dead against it has her kidnapped. He finally gives in when his wife threatens to sing in the contest herself.

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Vivacious co-ed Rita falls in love with her music teacher, who leads a double life: bespectacled professor by day, rock star by night.

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Multiple stories intersect in this satirical look at misogyny, male promiscuity and oppressive behaviour: a wealthy man discovers his wife suffers from kleptomania and decides to help her indulge her vice; a retired circus performer returns to knife-throwing with his once-lovely assistant, even though his vision has deteriorated; and a lecherous college professor attempts to sleep with his attractive female students.

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Francesco, Sergio, and Antonio, three young men in a small, poverty-stricken village, lead uneventful lives. As all three are unemployed, they pass time roaming the streets and chasing girls. One day, Antonio's aunt asks him to stay with her and his cousins in Rome. He accepts and enrolls at a university, leaving his two friends behind to envy him for his new upscale lifestyle. But eventually Antonio returns, initially just for a day. Though he boasts about his life, he never returns to Rome and instead opts for his friends and the place he grew up, despite all its shortcomings.

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