Vittorio Gassman

Vittorio Gassman

Birth : 1922-09-01, Genoa, Liguria, Italy

Death : 2000-06-29

History

Vittorio Gassman Knight Grand Cross OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [vitˈtɔːrjo ˈɡazman]; born Gassmann; 1 September 1922 – 29 June 2000), popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian actor, director and screenwriter. He is considered one of the greatest Italian actors, whose career includes both important productions as well as dozens of divertissements. Gassman's debut was in Milan, in 1942, with Alda Borelli in Niccodemi's La Nemica (theatre). He then moved to Rome and acted at the Teatro Eliseo joining Tino Carraro and Ernesto Calindri in a team that remained famous for some time; with them he acted in a range of plays from bourgeois comedy to sophisticated intellectual theatre. In 1946, he made his film debut in Preludio d'amore, while only one year later he appeared in five films. In 1948 he played in Riso amaro. It was with Luchino Visconti's company that Gassman achieved his mature successes, together with Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli and Paola Borboni. He played Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' Un tram che si chiama desiderio (A Streetcar Named Desire), as well as in Come vi piace (As You Like It) by Shakespeare and Oreste (by Vittorio Alfieri). He joined the Teatro Nazionale with Tommaso Salvini, Massimo Girotti, Arnoldo Foà to create a successful Peer Gynt (by Henrik Ibsen). With Luigi Squarzina in 1952 he co-founded and co-directed the Teatro d'Arte Italiano, producing the first complete version of Hamlet in Italy, followed by rare works such as Seneca's Thyestes and Aeschylus's The Persians. In cinema, he worked frequently both in Italy and abroad. He met and fell in love with American actress Shelley Winters while she was touring Europe with fiancé Farley Granger. When Winters was forced to return to Hollywood to fulfill contractual obligations, he followed her there and married her. With his natural charisma and his fluency in English he scored a number of roles in Hollywood, including Rhapsody with Elizabeth Taylor and The Glass Wall before returning to Italy and the theatre. On 29 June 2000, Gassman died of a heart attack in his sleep at his home in Rome at the age of 77. He was buried at Campo Verano. Description above from the Wikipedia article Vittorio Gassman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Profile

Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman

Movies

Noi siamo cinema
Herself
An Italian documentary about Italian cinema.
Trintignant by Trintignant
Self (archive footage)
A portrait of a man of rare elegance and enigmatic charm, versatile and successful: Jean-Louis Trintignant, one of the most critically acclaimed French actors of the last sixty years, known for his numerous roles on stage and screen.
Cinecittà, de Mussolini à la Dolce Vita
Self (archive footage)
Cinecitta is today known as the center of the Italian film industry. But there is a dark past. The film city was solemnly inaugurated in 1937 by Mussolini. Here, propaganda films would be produced to strengthen the dictator's position.
Sono Gassman! - Vittorio re della commedia
Himself
This brisk, engaging documentary surveys the life, work, and legacy of Vittorio Gassman, the Italian screen icon who began his illustrious career as a serious dramatic stage actor before going on to subvert that image in classic works of commedia all’italiana by Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), Dino Risi (Il Sorpasso), and Ettore Scola (We All Loved Each Other So Much). Through a wealth of interviews, film clips, and archival footage, Sono Gassman! reveals how Gassman’s comedic screen persona cannily reflected and critiqued mid-20th-century Italian society, while shedding light on the complex inner life of the man himself.
Vittorio Gassman, le flamboyant
Lui-même
Marcello Mastroianni: The Ideal Italian
Self
A documentary about Marcello Mastroianni.
Monicelli: La versione di Mario
Self (archive footage)
The life and work of master Italian filmmaker Mario Monicelli (1915-2010).
Vittorio racconta Gassman: Una vita da mattatore
Self (archive footage)
Dino Risi, le pessimiste joyeux de la comédie italienne
Lui-même
Adolfo Celi, a Man for Two Worlds
Self (archive footage)
italian documentary
La bomba
Don Vito Bracalone
Luchino Visconti
Self
A chronological look at the creative life of Luchino Visconti (1906-1976). It examines his theatricality, role in the neorealist movement, use of melodrama, and relation to decadence. It touches on the impact of a fabulously wealthy childhood, his writing for "Cinema," his politics, his work with Renoir, his appreciation of Thomas Mann, and his deep knowledge of literature and the arts. Visconti moves constantly between film and the theater, staging plays provocatively, working with Maria Callas at La Scala, and shooting films in theaters. Clips from his films and interviews with actors, crew members, and critics provide details for this portrait of creativity.
The Dinner
maestro Pezzullo
An evening at an Italian restaurant. Hosted by tolerant and relaxed Flora, various parties of middle-class people come in -- large and small, young and old, regulars and tourists, married and single -- to dine, converse, argue, celebrate, make confessions; to overhear other people's discussions, to interrupt them, to sing, listen to music, and enjoy life. The camera, just like the people, moves constantly from table to table, into the kitchen and the back room to observe the staff's petty jealousies and frustrations -- until two hours later it's time for everybody to go home.
Deserto di fuoco
Tareq
A helicopter crashes in the Sahara Desert. The entire crew are killed - only a small infant miraculously survives. Emir Tafud, who has no children of his own, brings the child up as his successor. When Ben is 25 years old he decides to set off in search of his true parents. In Casablanca he meets French crook Jacquot, who takes him with him to Monte Carlo. They both actually manage to find Ben's mother Christine. She tells Ben that his father was a scientist on a secret mission to Africa. Christine wants Ben to stay in Monte Carlo and take over her firm, but Ben has his heart set on living in Belem with his adored Amina. But now Ben gradually unearths a dreadful secret: Christine's second husband François was responsible for the death of his father, who had discovered valuable minerals in the Sahara. After a bitter struggle, Ben finally succeeds in saving his homeland from Western greed.
Sleepers
King Benny
Two gangsters seek revenge on the state jail worker who during their stay at a youth prison sexually abused them. A sensational court hearing takes place to charge him for the crimes.
Once a Year, Every Year
Giuseppe
A man enters a restaurant in Trastevere, in the suburbs of Rome, and asks the owner to cook him the superb bass he has just been given. He wants it served at the dinner gathering like every year the group of inseparable friends he is a member of. The others join him. The last to come is a lawyer who has just liquidated the succession of the one that will be missing tonight. The deceased leaves them an estate in Umbria provided they live there in community. What will the friends decide during this dinner like no other?
Abraham
Terach
This engrossing dramatization of the life of Abraham, the most tested servant of God and the father of Judaism, spans from the patriarch's quest for the Promised Land to the sacrifice of his son, Isaac.
El largo invierno
Claudio, El Mayordomo
In 1939, Ramón was a young man, caught up in his Barcelona family's involvement on the Republic side in the brutal Spanish Civil War. He and his family fled into exile ahead of Franco's troops. Now it is many years later, and he has come back to see how his old homestead fared in the intervening years. The only person he can find who is able to remember those years clearly is his family's old butler Claudio.
Rossini ! Rossini !
Ludwig van Beethoven
An funny, witty and bright biopic by the master of italian comedy Mario Monicelli about the famed italian composer Gioacchino Rossini, here portrayed in a wonderful way by famed actor and later director Sergio Castellitto.
I'll Be Going Now
Augusto Scribani
After eighteen years of psychiatric care, the former bank manager Augusto Scrivani returns home from his daughter-in-law Carla. Dino Risi directs a melancholy and scratchy Gassman.
The Amusements of Private Life
Marquis
Italian-French costume dramedy that takes place in France in the end of 18th Century during the French Revolution. It is "The Marriage of Figaro" meets "The Dangerous Liaisons" and it tells the story of two women, Mathilde Seurat, the actress and Julie Renard, the aristocratic wife and a mother (Delphine Forest plays both) with the same face who came from the different parts of society and at one point exchanged their identities and their lives. The movie also features Giancarlo Giannini and great Vittorio Gassman.
1001 Nights
Sinbad
Sheherazade has been married to a ruler who wants many wives, but only one at a time. Consequently, as soon as he has bedded them, he has them put to death. In most retellings, the girl staves off this unfortunate conclusion by putting off the connubial event for a thousand and one nights, telling irresistible stories instead. In this one, she gets hold of a magic lamp.
The Palermo Connection
Il principe
Carmine Bonavia wins election as the mayor of New York on a promise to legalize drugs. After the election, he marries Carrie and goes to his ancestral home of Sicily for their honeymoon. In his hotel, he meets Il Principe, a Sicilian prince who has spent years confined to the hotel because he crossed the Mafia. Amid the beauties of Sicily Carmine discovers that men of power will stop at nothing to prevent the legalization of drugs, which threatens their business.
Lo zio indegno
Zio Luca
A businessman has trouble reuniting with his roguish con-artist uncle, especially when the uncle propositions school-age girls and comes on to his nephew's mistress.
Mortacci
Domenico
Before finally entering the afterlife, the dead spend a period in a limbo from which they depart only when, among the living, there is no one who remembers them. Under the care of the salacious Domenico the visitors of a small cemetery recount how they arrived at eternal peace.
The Rogues
Marquis Felipe de Aragona
The adventures of a couple of scoundrels in the Spain of the 16th century.
The Family
Carlo as a man / Carlo's grandfather
"The Family," an album with a velvet cover, is meant to touch the extended family of man. Formal portraits, bookends in this 80-year saga, enclose the central story, which opens with the baptism of Carlo, a baby in his grandfather's lap, and ends with Carlo as a grandfather with a baby in his arms. And never once do we get out of the house, whose rooms provide the film's structure. Comfort or passion? Carlo couldn't really decide until it was too late.
Big Deal on Madonna Street 20 Years Later
Peppe
Fresh out prison, Tiberio reconnects with his old partners in crime, Michele Ferribote and Peppe the Panther, only to realise that a lot has changed--including crime--after twenty years. Can he cope with this new reality?
Power Of Evil
Gottfried
An unsuspecting student thinks that the wife of an arms dealer is unhappy, but in reality she appears as cynical as her capitalist man.
To Be Hamlet
Vittorio Gassman
Documentary examination of the role of Hamlet, in which ten prominent actors who have played the part discuss Hamlet's personality, Shakespeare's play, and the enduring popular fascination it has inspired. The actors interviewed are Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Richard Burton, Nicol Williamson, Ben Kingsley, Jean Louis Barrault, Vittorio Gassman, Maximilian Schell, Innocenti Smoktunovsky, and Mandy Patinkin. Includes excerpts from various film and television versions of Hamlet, featuring these actors and others.
Benvenuta
Livio
A passionate affair set against the intense encounter between a film-maker and a novelist. The story begins with young scriptwriter François tracking down the author of a once-scandalous novel. His aim is to adapt the work for the screen but several elements of the novel he finds difficult to comprehend. The author, Jeanne, is initially cautious of relaying information, insisting the presumably autobiographical book in no way relates to her personal life. However, eventually she takes the man into confidence to tell the background of Benvenuta.
Life Is a Bed of Roses
Walter Guarini
In this whimsical fable, Resnais deftly interweaves three story lines: the creation of an early-20th-century utopia; romantic high jinks at a school conference; and a fantasy sparked by F/X pioneer Georges Méliès.
Count Tacchia
Prince Torquato Terenzi
In 1900 in Rome, the poor carpenter Francesco, by a twist of fate, is recognized component of a noble family in the process of decay. Francesco knows the cynical and ruthless Prince Torquato Terenzi, disappointed by life and progress, and also falls in love with the beautiful Duchess Elisa. When Prince Terenzi dies, Francesco realizes that he's not enriched for nothing with the inheritance, because the noble family is broke; so he enlistes himself for the war in Libya, but quickly returnes to Italy, disgusted by the atrocities of the fighting. His dream is to be a singer, and so he goes to America with the Duchess Elisa.
Tempest
Alonzo
A sobering mid-life crisis fuels dissatisfaction in Philip Dimitrius, to the extent where the successful architect trades his marriage and career in for a spiritual exile on a remote Greek island where he hopes to conjure meaning into his life - trying the patience of his new girlfriend and angst-ridden teenage daughter.
Di padre in figlio
Writer
Di padre in figlio
Director
Di padre in figlio
Se stesso
Sharky's Machine
Victor Scorelli
Police officer Tom Sharky gets busted back to working vice, where he happens upon a scandalous conspiracy involving a local politician. Sharky's new 'machine' gathers evidence while Sharky falls in love with a woman he has never met.
Il turno
Ciro Coppa
Hotel Room
Achille Mengaroni
A couple of young movie makers have secretly filmed for over a year what was going on in a hotel room, trying to realize a "live act" of common people living their life. They get in touch with old and money-tight producer Mengaroni to edit their movie, but while they contact the accidental actors for gathering authorization, he starts to manipulate their work.
The Nude Bomb
Sauvage / Nino Salvatori Sebastiani
When KAOS develops a bomb that can dissolve all clothing, Maxwell Smart is brought in to foil the evil plot.
I'm Photogenic
Vittorio Gassman (uncredited)
Antonio Barozzi moves from Lago Maggiore to Rome to become an actor. He does not realize his agent and acting coach are only manipulating him to further their own careers.
The Terrace
Mario
Drama about the difficulties of a group of people trying to change their lives. A group of people gathers in a terrace in Rome . Some are friends, some know each other and others just meet for the first time. All are intellectual and belong to the middle class.
Dear Father
Albino Millozza
In Caro papá, Dino Risi is telling the story of the decadent lifestyle, and dysfunctional family, of a wealthy businessman (played to perfection by Risi's favorite leading man, Vittorio Gassman). Risi paints his portrait against a backdrop of an Italy where the new permissiveness has run rampant, traditional socio-cultural values have been usurped by consumerism, and the streets have become an open battleground for politically extremist groups (the '70s were dubbed "The Years of Lead" due to the great number of terrorist acts, and politically motivated assassinations).
Quintet
Saint Christopher
During a future ice age, dying humanity occupies its remaining time by playing a board game called Quintet. For one small group, this obsession is not enough. They play the game with living pieces, and only the winner survives.
Two Pieces of Bread
Pippo Mifà
Two minstrels singing for their supper in Rome discover they've both been lovers to the same woman, and one of them is the father of her infant son; a privilege neither is willing to concede.
A Wedding
Luigi Corelli
Muffin's wedding to Dino Corelli is to be a big affair. Except the ageing priest isn't too sure of the ceremony, only the families actually turn up as the Corelli Italian connection is suspect, security guards watch the gifts rather over-zealously, and Dino's grandma expires in bed just as the reception starts. Could be quite an occasion.
The New Monsters
il cardinale/il cameriere/il marito/il commissario/il padre di famiglia
15 years after the monumental "I mostri" which was a great example of Italian sketch comedy, 3 of the greatest Italian directors ever (Risi, Monicelli, Scola) the best Italian writers ever (Age, Scarpelli) the best Italian actors ever (Tognazzi, Gassmann, Sordi) one of the most beautiful woman in the world (Ornella Muti) participate to this great tribute.
Lost Soul
Fabio Stolz
Bizarre events keep occurring in an old mansion, and it's soon become obvious that something mysterious is up in the attic.
The Desert of the Tartars
Filimore
Lieutenant Giovanni Drogo is assigned to the old Bastiani border fortress where he expects an imminent attack by nomadic fearsome Tartars.
Goodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen
CIA agent / Tuttumpezzo
An episodic satire of the political and social status of Italy in the seventies, through the shows of one day of a television channel. An English language lesson turns into a killing of a black dignitary of an embassy by a CIA agent and then into his own killing by another colleague. In a television film, the police are befooled by a fake bomb and put a real one in order not to be derided by the public. In a film inquisition show, the bishop of Naples speaks highly of the importance of the family, but a child who lives a miserable family life kills himself. In the debate that follows it is proposed that they should eat the children, as Swift had said. In the next episode, a general who is in the toilet is called for the NATO parade, but the flasher breaks and in his effort to fix it, he dirts allover and kills himself. In a children's show an inspector finds excuses and delays the arrest of a powerful man...
Pure as a Lily
Anthony M. Wilson
Anthony M. Wilson is an English gentleman. He has a string of restaurants in London plus a beautiful house decorated with all the trendy art he can get.
The Career of a Chambermaid
Franco Denza
This slight skewering of the mindset of the Fascist era when Italy’s “White Telephone” films (conservative minded sophisticated comedy-dramas revolving around the bourgeoisie) were in vogue gives Agostina Belli her best role – an ambitious Venetian girl that goes from chambermaid to prostitute to singer to film-star to mistress of ‘Il Duce’! – for which she received a special David Di Donatello award, the Italian equivalent of the Oscar.
E il Casanova di Fellini?
Self
During his preparation for his film on Casanova Fellini asks a number of renowned actors to give him their view on the character of Casanova.
The Immortal Bachelor
Andrea Sansoni
Tina is on trial for the murder of her lover, Gino. The violent nature of their relationship, revealed in the trial, seems to make obvious that she accidentally killed him during a fight. The lone female jury member compares her life to Tina's and, believing her to be innocent, sets out on her own to find a missing witness that can prove Tina's innocence.
We All Loved Each Other So Much
Gianni Perego
Three partisans bound by a strong friendship return home after the war, but the clash with everyday reality puts a strain on their bond.
Scent of a Woman
Fausto Consolo
An army cadet accompanies an irascible, blind captain on a week-long trip from Turin to Naples.
La Tosca
Scarpia
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.
What Am I Doing in the Middle of the Revolution?
Guido Guidi
In the beginning of the 20th. century Italian actor Guido Guidi, more enthusiastic than talented, and his ensemble tour Texas. The mysterious and obviously rich Peppino Garibaldi gives them an offer, they can’t deny: For a large amount of dough they should play “Richard III.” in the Mexican town Vera Cruz. But Peppino is not really interested in cultural affairs: He supports “La Revolución” and “General” Carasco, who utilizes the feastful premiere of “Richard III.” to raid Vera Cruz for Comandante Zapata. But shortly after the Mexican Army shows up with some canons in tow to sort things out. Guidi and Padre Albino, Italian like him, succeed to flee and save Carasco accidentially from the firing squad. Whereas the latter coninues his revolutionary fight, Guidi and Albino start an odyssey through the struggling Mexico, which lets them fall one time in the hands of Carasco the other time in those of Herrera or even in the clutches of “hand-taking” bandidos.
The Audience
Principe Donati
Caustic satire on bureaucracy of the Vatican authority and a simple Italian who wants to achieve the audience with the Pope.
Without Family
Screenplay
Released from the orphanage at the age of thirty, a man dreams of finding his mother.
Without Family
Story
Released from the orphanage at the age of thirty, a man dreams of finding his mother.
Without Family
Armando Zavanatti
Released from the orphanage at the age of thirty, a man dreams of finding his mother.
Without Family
Director
Released from the orphanage at the age of thirty, a man dreams of finding his mother.
In the Name of the Italian People
Lorenzo Santenocito
An obscure Italian magistrate suspects that a well-known industrialist commited murder, and decides to investigate him, and bring him to court, whatever it takes. But - will the magistrate have it in him to go against impossible odds, in the name of the Italian people he represents?
Scipio the African
Catone il Censore
Years after the Second Punic War, Scipio Africanus finds himself generally unliked, despite his defeat of Hannibal Barca. He and his brother, Scipio Asiaticus, are accused by Marcus Porcius Cato of the theft of 500 talents intended for Rome.
Brancaleone at the Crusades
Brancaleone Da Norcia
After saving an infant of royal blood, knight Brancaleone forms a new army and sets out to return the baby to his father: a prince fighting in the Crusades.
Il Divorzio
Leonardo Nenci
Middle-aged man leaves his wife to devote himself to a carefree life.
Let's Have a Riot
Riccardo
Social satire in three parts. In the first, a young man causes riots on campus and on television. In the second, a big businessman bullies his subordinate during a business trip to New York. In the third part, the priest demands from the bishop a car, a wife, and a new flock.
L'uomo dal fiore in bocca
L'uomo dal fiore in bocca
12 + 1
Mario Beretti
Mario, a young philanderer, receives 13 antique chairs in a bad state by inheritance and decides to sell off them to get some money. Afterwards he gets to know that one of them contains documents worth a lot of money. So he begins an adventurous trip to regain possession of the chair. On the way he meets many strange people who would like to help or to swindle him.
Where Are You Going All Naked?
Rufus Conforti
Young bank employee is very surprised by his bride behavior...
The Archangel
Furio Bertuccia
Comedy about a lawyer who is suspected of murder
L'alibi
Writer
Three friends meet for the first time in years.
L'alibi
Director
Three friends meet for the first time in years.
L'alibi
Vittorio
Three friends meet for the first time in years.
The Black Sheep
Mario Agasti / Filippo Agasti
Episode film about identical twin brothers. Mario is an honest government-minded deputy. Filippo lives by his wits, not quite legally. Eventually Filippo ruins his brother's career and mind, absorbs his wife and finally steps into his shoes as an honorable member of Parliament.
The Prophet
Pietro Breccia
In this comedy, a guru’s groupie plans to seduce him so she can number him among her many conquests.
Catch As Catch Can
Bob Chiaramonte
Bob is a successful actor, but his career gets doomed by a strange phenomenon: the animal kingdom is taking on him!
Woman Times Seven
Cenci
Seven mini-stories of adultery: "Funeral Possession," a wayward widow at her husband's funeral; "Amateur Night," angry wife becomes streetwalker out of revenge; "Two Against One," seemingly prudish girl turns out otherwise; "Super Simone," wife vainly attempts to divert her over-engrossed writer husband; "At the Opera," a battle over a supposedly exclusive dress; "Suicides," a death pact; "Snow," would-be suitor is actually a private detective hired by jealous husband.
The Tiger and the Pussycat
Francesco Vincenzini
A middle-aged businessman finds himself in thirst for romance adventure, and it seems that a proper partner is not far away.
Ghosts, Italian Style
Pasquale Lojacono
Pasquale and Maria, husband and wife, live in a palace supposedly haunted by ghosts and pay no rent. When Pasquale finds some food in the cupboard he thinks the ghosts are at work.
The Devil in Love
Belfagor
Two devils from Hell are sent to Earth to cause trouble. Belfagor and his faithful sidekick Adramalek must start a war between Rome and Florence in 1478.
Pleasant Nights
Bastiano da Sangallo
A trilogy of comedic tales set in the Middle Ages.
For Love and Gold
Brancaleone da Norcia
A group of rogues steal a scroll granting its bearer the property of the land of Aurocastro in Apulia, a province in the south of Italy. They elect a shaggy knight, Brancaleone from Norcia, as their leader, and decide to get possession of this supposedly wealthy land. Many adventures will occurr during the journey.
I Knew Her Well
Vittorio Gassman - in Film Clip (archive footage) (uncredited)
A young woman from the Italian countryside experiences the dark side of the business after she moves to Rome to become a star.
A Maiden for the Prince
Principe Vincenzo Gonzaga
Young Prince Vincenzo Gonzaga, rejects his first wife Margherita Farnese, obtaining the annulment of the union and, at the same time, raising strong doubts about her virginity
Snow Job
Lucio Ridolfi
Lucio sees his holiday on the Italian Alps interrupted when he is suddenly and unwillingly involved in an International plot involving fake dollar bills.
The Dirty Game
Perego / Ferrari
A U.S. intelligence general recalls three Cold War cases of Soviet, French and Italian spies.
One Million Dollars
Giuliano
Don Giuliano Niccolini Borges, Roman prince and member of the Pontifical Noble Guard, is very much attracted to Jane, an English girl he has met that is accompanying him on a pleasure trip to Switzerland. He has some plans for hanky-panky on their various stops along the route, but Jane has other plans as she is only with him because his car has a special-identification license plate and can go through customs without inspection. The car clears customs as does the stolen million dollars she is smuggling. Sandro, her former boyfriend is following and plans to hi-jack the loot, leaving Jane empty handed.
Il gaucho
Marco Ravicchio
An italian film producer travels to Argentina with part of the crew to a Film Festival contest.
Let’s Talk About Women
Straniero / Practical Joker / Cliente / Amante / Amante impaziente / Cameriere / Fratello timido / Rigattiere / Prigioniero
Vittorio Gassman stars as different characters in each of the nine episodes of this unusual Italian comedy. Playing everything from a practical joker to a prisoner, he comments upon romance, love and women in general.
Summer Frenzy
Cap. Nardoni
The Monsters
The Actor (segment "La Raccomandazione") / Policeman (segment "Il Mostro") / Production Assistant & Movie Director (segment "Presa dalla Vita") / Nicola (segment "Che Vitaccia!") / Blonde Latin Lover (segment "Latin Lovers-Amanti latini") / Defence Layer
The myths of the sixties are satirized in 20 episodes.
Il successo
Giulio Ceriani
With the desire to be rich gnawing at him, an arriviste pursues a golden real-estate opportunity at the expense of friends and family. Now, he has to renounce his dignity. What's the good of chasing success when you are left all alone?
The Eye of the Needle
avvocato Mazzarò
Two young men in a village in Sicily raping a girl. In the end, two skilled lawyers will succeed in getting them to complete the trial, but one, who in the meantime has fallen in love with the victim.
Sex Can Be Difficult
L'avvocato (segment "L'avaro")
A journalist could marry the daughter of a tycoon, but prefers a relationship with a married woman. An attorney renounces her lover by greed. A soldier tries to approach a widow on a train. A German couple looking for adventure mistakingly aim for the wrong target, yet find love.
March on Rome
Domenico Rocchetti
March on Rome (Italian: La marcia su Roma) is a 1962 comedy film by Dino Risi with Vittorio Gassman and Ugo Tognazzi, aimed at describing the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini's black shirts from the point of view of two newly recruited, naïve black shirts
Il Sorpasso
Bruno Cortona
Roberto, a shy law student in Rome, meets Bruno, a forty-year-old exuberant, capricious man, who takes him for a drive through the Roman and Tuscany countries in the summer. When their journey starts to blend into their daily lives though, the pair’s newfound friendship is tested.
Dark Soul
Adriano Zucchelli
A man with a past gets married and it seems that he will be able to start a new life, but an unexpected inheritance gets in the way and deteriorates the relationship with his wife.
Barabbas
Sahak
Epic account of the thief Barabbas, who was pardoned for his crimes and spared crucifixion when Pilate offered the Israelites a choice to pardon Barabbas or Jesus. Struggling with his spirituality, Barabbas goes through many ordeals leading him to the gladiatorial arena, where he tries to win his freedom and confront his inner demons, ultimately becoming a follower of the man who was crucified in his place.
A Difficult Life
Self (uncredited)
Silvio refuses to fight for the fascists and joins the resistance with Elena. After the war, his vitriolic newspaper articles cause him to be sentenced to imprisonment.
Seduction Of The South
O Caporale
Based on the events from the Italian civil war. In 1860's, a member of a guerrilla force captures a colonel from the opposing army and later leads one of the sides to victory.
The Last Judgment
Cimino
The Last Judgement (Italian: Il giudizio universale) is a 1961 commedia all'italiana film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It was coproduced with France. It has an all-star Italian and international cast, including Americans Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine; Greek Melina Mercouri and French Fernandel, Anouk Aimée and Lino Ventura. The film was a huge flop, massacred by critics and audiences when it was released. It was filmed in black and white, but the last sequence, the dance at theatre, is in color.
Ghosts of Rome
Il Caparra
An old prince lives in his ancient palace in Rome together with the ghosts of his ancestors. For years he has proudly rejected huge offers by a real estate group seeking to buy the palace and build a department store in its place, but when he suddenly dies his nephew signs the deal. The palace seems lost, but the ghosts forge a plan to save it from destruction.
...And Suddenly It's Murder!
Remo
Three couples are involved in a murder at Montecarlo.
Love and Larceny
Gerardo Latini
Gerardo, an aspiring actor, trying unsuccessfully to cross over from comedy to tragedy, is involved, due to his ability to mimic dialects of Italy, in a scam concocted by Lallo against a rich cloth-merchant.
Fiasco in Milan
Giuseppe "Peppe er Pantera" Baiocchi
The usual gang of robbers in engaged by a thief from Milan to steal a suitcase full of money, but troubles will menace the success of the operation.
La cambiale
Michele
The Posalaquaglia cousins are two small scammers and make a living of expedients: Dante receives as recognition for Tommaso a bill of one hundred thousand lire from the famous financier Bruscatelli, who ends up in prison immediately afterwards.
The Miracle
Guido
A novice leaves a Spanish convent to follow a 19th-century British soldier she loves.
The Great War
Giovanni Busacca
Italy, 1916. Oreste Jacovacci and Giovanni Busacca are called, as all the Italian youths, to serve the army in the WWI. They both try in every way to avoid serving the army.
Tempest
Prosecutor
A young officer in the army of Empress Catherine of Russia is on his way to his new duty station at a remote outpost. During a blinding snowstorm he comes upon a stranger who was caught in the storm and is near death from freezing. He rescues the man and eventually brings him back to health. When the man is well enough to travel, the two part company and the man vows to repay the officer for saving his life. Soon after he arrives at his new post, a revolt by the local Cossacks breaks out and the fort is besieged by the rebels. The young officer is astonished to find out that the leader of the rebellious Cossacks is none other than the stranger whose life he had saved during the storm.
Big Deal on Madonna Street
Peppe il pantera
Best friends Peppe and Mario are thieves, but they're not very good at it. Still, Peppe thinks that he's finally devised a master heist that will make them rich. With the help of some fellow criminals, he plans to dig a tunnel from a rented apartment to the pawnshop next door, where they can rob the safe. But his plan is far from foolproof, and the fact that no one in the group has any experience digging tunnels proves to be the least of their problems.
The Love Specialist
Piero di Montalcino
A Texas girl wins a trip to Italy where she meets a prince who's afraid to admit that he's flat broke (so is she). They strike up an affair, but things come to a crazy conclusion when he tries to bribe a horse to win a race at the Palio racing grounds.
Kean: Genius or Scoundrel
Screenplay
England, first half of the 19th century. Edmund Kean is a celebrated theatre actor, notorious for his tumultuous private life. He is in love with the beautiful countess Koefeld, wife of the Danish ambassador, to the consternation of his friend, the Prince of Wales. He is also hounded by Anna Damby, who wants to become an actress to escape a marriage to Lord Mewill.
Kean: Genius or Scoundrel
Director
England, first half of the 19th century. Edmund Kean is a celebrated theatre actor, notorious for his tumultuous private life. He is in love with the beautiful countess Koefeld, wife of the Danish ambassador, to the consternation of his friend, the Prince of Wales. He is also hounded by Anna Damby, who wants to become an actress to escape a marriage to Lord Mewill.
Kean: Genius or Scoundrel
Edmund Kean
England, first half of the 19th century. Edmund Kean is a celebrated theatre actor, notorious for his tumultuous private life. He is in love with the beautiful countess Koefeld, wife of the Danish ambassador, to the consternation of his friend, the Prince of Wales. He is also hounded by Anna Damby, who wants to become an actress to escape a marriage to Lord Mewill.
Giovanni dalle bande nere
Giovanni De Medici
The legendary John of the Black Bands begins a romantic relationship with a beautiful girl without revealing his identity. The girl unconsciously discovers the truth and retires to a convent. She thinks that John is guilty of the death of her family, and cannot continue to love him. He remains wounded in battle.
Defend My Love
Giovanni Marchi
As part of a story, a reporter goes to meet Elisa, a young woman he met a few years ago on a trial on which she was finally exonerated.
War and Peace
Anatol Kuragin
Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia including his disastrous 1812 invasion serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families.
Beautiful but Dangerous
Prince Sergei
Lina, a music hall singer, has fallen in love with Sergei, a Russian prince. Maestro Doria, who gives her voice lessons and who hopes to make her his mistress, takes her to Paris where she becomes the star of the "Folies-Plastiques".
Amleto
Amleto
Mambo
Mario Rossi
A young and poor Venetian woman is invited to a masquerade ball by a charming count.
Rhapsody
Paul Bronte
A rich, young beauty, Louise Durant, follows the man she loves and hopes to marry to Zurich where he studies violin at the conservatory. A piano student at the conservatory falls madly in love with Louise. The violinist loves his music first and Louise second. The pianist loves Louise first and his music second. Louise must ultimately choose which man she wants.
Cry of the Hunted
Jory
A prison convict escapes through the Louisiana swamps.
Sombrero
Alejandro Castillo
Mexican love stories follow a dying man, a bullfighter's sister and lovers from feuding villages.
The Glass Wall
Peter Kuban
Peter Kuban, a Hungarian refugee, is about to be deported after jumping ship in New York harbor. He needs to find an ex-G.I. named Tom whom he helped during the war, as Tom can prove Peter's right to legal entry into the United States. If he can't find Tom within 24 hours and prove his case, he will be branded a fugitive and will be permanently disqualified for U.S. citizenship.
Girls Marked Danger
Michele
A police officer meets a girl who is near to falling into the net of shady individuals. To prevent this, he invites her into the police station and tells her a story.
The Dream of Zorro
Don Juan Antonio
An old gentleman, a direct descendant of Zorro, has a single son named Raimundo in whom there is no trace of proud pride.
Anna
Vittorio
Anna is a 1951 Italian drama film directed by Alberto Lattuada and starring the same trio as Bitter Rice: Silvana Mangano as Anna, the sinner who becomes a nun; Raf Vallone as Andrea, the rich man who loves her; and Vittorio Gassman as Vittorio, the wicked waiter who sets Anna on a dangerous path. Silvana Mangano's real sister, Patrizia Mangano, acts as Anna's sister on the film. Sophia Loren has got a small uncredited role as a nightclub assistant. Future film directors Franco Brusati and Dino Risi cowrote the script. [Wikipedia]
Black Crown
Mauricio
A woman suffers from amnesia after killing her husband, who was just about to demand a divorce for having found her engaging in an affair with a lover, who is only interested in her to find where some precious jewels are hidden.
Double Cross
Renato Salvi
A businessman is wrongly accused and convicted for the murder of his associate.
Il leone di Amalfi
Lo sparviero del Nilo
Yussuf
The Outlaws
Turi
Turi, having returned to Sicily from abroad, learns that his sister Maruzza is the lover of Cosimo Barrese, a militant of the Movement for the Independence of Sicily, who, abandoned by everyone, has become a bandit. The two would like to get married, but life as an outlaw seems an insurmountable obstacle. Turi asks for revenge on the bandit who has dishonored the family and uses a shady and devious lawyer to drive him into a trap.
Streets of Sorrow
Giorgio
A magistrate saves a young woman from drowning and they fall in love.
Lure of the Sila
Pietro Campolo (as Vittorio Gassmann)
Returning home after a night of love spent in a woodman's hut with Orsola, Pietro is arrested by the police for a crime he did not commit. His mother and youngest sister, Rosaria, go to Orsola begging her to provide Pietro with the alibi that will clear him. But Rocco, Orsola's brother, dreading a family scandal, constrains Orsola to silence. Condemned despite his innocence, Pietro escapes from prison, but the police track him down and kill him, and his mother, before the eyes of Rosaria. Years pass, and one day Rocco stumbles upon a half-frozen young woman lying in the snow. He takes her home and confides her to the care of Orsola. Later, yielding to the pleas of Orsola, Rocco and Rocco's son, Salvatore, the girl stays on in the house, and Salvatore falls in love with the beautiful stranger, who is careful to keep the family members from learning she is Rosaria, the grown up sister of Pietro seeking revenge for the deaths of her brother and mother.
Bitter Rice
Walter
Francesca and Walter are two-bit criminals in Northern Italy, and, in an effort to avoid the police, Francesca joins a group of women rice workers. She meets the voluptuous peasant rice worker, Silvana, and the soon-to-be-discharged soldier, Marco. Walter follows her to the rice fields, and the four characters become involved in a complex plot involving robbery, love, and murder.
The Mysterious Rider
Giacomo Casanova, cavaliere di Seingalt
Giacomo Casanova returns to Venice, to help his brother, falsely accused of robbery.
L'ebreo errante
Mathieu Blumenthal
Matthew, a rich nationalist Jew and a contemporary of Jesus, regards the latter as an obstacle in this struggle to free their people from the Roman yoke by means of revolt.
The Captain's Daughter
Svabrin
A peasant leader under the enlightened despotism of Empress Catherine the Great, and a love story.
Daniele Cortis
Daniele Cortis
The film follows the struggles of an idealistic Catholic politician.
The Adventures of Pinocchio
Hässlicher Fischer / Il Pescatore verde
This is an Italian live action film with Alessandro Tomei as Pinocchio.
Preludio d'amore
After returning from the war Davide, a fisherman from Liguria, discovers that his girl Anna has been courted and compromised by a sailor named Rocco. Rocco’s other girl, Tea, takes revenge by denouncing him to the police. In remorse she commits suicide by drowning herself.
Incontro con Laura
L'altro enigma
Writer
L'altro enigma
Il padre / Sofocle
L'altro enigma
Director