The final part of Pasolini's Trilogy of Life series is rich with exotic tales of slaves and kings, potions, betrayals, demons and, most of all, love and lovemaking in all its myriad forms. Mysterious and liberating, this is an exquisitely dreamlike and adult interpretation of the original folk tales.
Rosario's wife
In Italy, a dying woman tells her granddaughter that she hid her treasure many years ago in Russia, in the city of Leningrad. Other people (who were around when she died) also learn about it. Thus several people arrive in Leningrad trying to find the treasure, each one for himself/herself. What's worse - the only information they have is that the treasure is under a lion - and it's in Leningrad, a city known by its numerous statues of lions. The story gets even more interesting when the soviet militia (police) learns about the whole thing and send an undercover agent...
The Godfather Don Vito Monreale knows, by chance, the Italian-American singer Nick Bouillon. Since the two are alike, Don Vito decided to exploit this similarity in his favour.
Rome, 1800. Napoleon threatens the power of the Church and executions of Jacobins are constant. Angelotti, the most famous of them all has escaped from prison and the chief of police is on his tail. Angelotti is being helped by a painter, lover of "La Tosca", a famous singer. The police chief suspects the truth and tries to arouse the jealousy of "La Tosca" to catch the escapee.
la femminista
Father of English literature, the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, involved in storytelling a rainy night at an inn.
Glimpses of Chaucer penning his famous work are sprinkled through this re-enactment of several of his stories.
When a shipment of heroin disappears between Italy and New York, a small-time pimp in Milan is framed for the theft. Two professional hitmen are dispatched from New York to find him, but the real thieves want to get rid of him before the New York killers get to him to eliminate any chance of them finding out he's the wrong man.
When women were called Madonna is a film of 1972 directed by Aldo Grimaldi . The film is one of the first Italian erotic comedies in which a licentious bursting Edwige Fenech struggles with the nagging demands of three suitors.
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.
Nurse
An American journalist in Prague searches for his girlfriend who has suddenly disappeared.
A defense counsellor and a judge are at loggerheads and the latter thinks his liver condition depends on the lawyer's ploys to get his clients acquitted.
Segretaria di Ferrentini
Time after time, soldiers of the Italian Army are forced to leave their mountain trenches in attempts to storm an enemy fortress, always with the same disastrous results. As casualties mount, indignation spreads among the rank and file. Disturbed by his superiors' decisions, Lieutenant Sassu is led to question the purpose of war and reconsider where his real duties lie.
To satisfy his wife, an elderly man has to have a penis transplant and is willing to pay a lot to do so. Three men are selected who for different reasons are forced to accept but giving up manhood can be more complicated than expected.
After many years of living abroad, a troubled young man returns home due to the death of his father (who he suspects was actually murdered). He attempts to untangle that mystery while still carrying an unhealthy obsession toward his mother, who committed suicide ten years ago. This obsession then draws in his attractive cousin and takes a sexual turn.
Ersilia Di Gennaro
Story of an ambitious young doctor through unethical means intend to make a quick career. Now is primary in a luxury clinic where administers the sick with the same cynicism of his young years.
Segretaria regista TV
Tells a dark story about a young lawyer that falls in love with a strange girl with an unknown past.
Girl in Accident
Mysterious romance involving an uninhibited woman and a photographer, shot in strange modernist interiors and abstract sports car-on-a-highway to nowhere exteriors.
Maid
Drama about the fading relationship between a professor and his wife. Based upon a short story by Alberto Moravia.
An old pornographic photo and anonymous letters are sent to two men and a woman, who now enjoy a respectable social status, accusing them and questioning things they have done in their lives. Unique and amazing Morricone score
The "stone in the mouth" is the scar that the mafia makes on betrayal's corpse.
The modern mafia has the historical and sociological roots into the birth of the american capitalism at the time of Roosevelt. The American "Cosa Nostra" applies the similar methods as the sicilian mafia: same apparatus, same "omertà", same power and same terror.
Giuseppe Ferrara, journalist and writer, uses fragments footage, film clips, (Salvatore Giuliano by Franco Rosi, Paisà by Roberto Rossellini) and current news to make this film.
