TLW's Italian Cinemascope™ (Italian Cinema Historyscope) |
By T.L. Winslow (TLW), the Historyscoper™ |
© Copyright by T.L. Winslow. All Rights Reserved. |
Original Pub. Date: Dec. 3, 2016. Last Update: Jan, 26, 2025. |
Westerners are not only known as history ignoramuses, but double dumbass history ignoramuses when it comes to Italian cinema history. Since I'm the one-and-only Historyscoper (tm), let me quickly bring you up to speed before you dive into my Master Historyscope.
On Apr. 10, 1941 after Milan atty. Carlo Fortunado Pietro Ponti (1912-2007) attempts to establish a film industry in Milan and agrees to produce it, Piccolo mondo antico (Little Ancient World) debuts, dir. by Mario Soldati (1906-99), based on the 1895 Antonio Fogazzaro novel "The Little World of the Past", about the struggle to take NE Italy from the Austrians into the Kingdom of Italy, a thinly-disguised defiance against the Nazis and Mussolini, getting Ponti briefly jailed; helps initiate the Calligrafismo style of filmmaking, known for treating contemporary lit. material in an artistic, highly formalistic, complex expressive style; the breakthrough role for Alida Valli (Alida Maria Laura) (Freiin Altenburger von Marckenstein-Frauenberg) (1921-2006), who is called "the most beautiful woman in the world" by Benito Mussolini and becomes a big star, appearing in 100+ films over 67 years (1935- 2002); Ponti goes on to produce 140+ films, reinvigorating the Post WWII Italian film industry along with Dimo De Laurenttis; in 1966 after moving to France with her to divorce his first wife (since 1946) Giuliana Fiastri, he marries actress Sophia Loren, whom he met while judging a beauty contest in 1951, casting her in films and making her a star.
On May 16, 1943 Luchino Visconti's B&W debut film Ossessione (Obsession) debuts, a crime drama film ripping off James M. Cain's 1934 novel "The Postman Always Rings Twice, starring Clara Calamai, Massimo Girotti, and Juan de Lando, getting condemned by the Fascist govt. and becoming the first Italian Realist film, usually shot on location among the poor and the working class using non-prof. actors, which go out of style in the early 1950s in the early stages of the Italian economic miracle, with the govt. labelling it "Dirty laundry that shouldn't be washed and hung to dry in the open" (Italian De Gasperi govt. vice-minister); Milan-born aristocrat (member of the WWII Resistance) Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (1906-76)began his dir. career in France as Jean Renoir's asst. dir., going on to switch to luxurious sweeping epics focusing on the decay of the Euro nobility and bourgeoisie; "No one did so much to shape Italian cinema as Luchino Visconti" (Jonathan Jones).
On Sept. 27, 1945 Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (Roma citta aperta), co-written by Federico Fellini, Sergio Amidei, and Celeste Negarville debuts, about a diverse group of chars. in 1944 Rome under Nazi occupation, helping launch the Golden Age of Italian Cinema of mostly neorealist film, becoming one of the first post-WWII Italian films to gain internat. acclaim, receiving the Palm d'Or at the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, and launching Rome-born dir. Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (1906-77) and Rome-born actress Anna Maria "La Lupa" (the She-Wolf) Magnani (1908-73), ("the Italian Edith Piaf") (known for her fiery personality and volcanic acting), (called by Rossellini "the greatest acting genius since Eleanora Duse") into internat. fame; does $4M U.S. box office.
On Apr. 27, 1946 Vittorio Da Sica's Sciuscià (Shoeshine) debuts, becoming the first masterpiece of Lazio-born Naples-raised neorealist dir. Vittorio De Sica (1901-74), about Pasquale Maggi (Franco Interlenghi) and Giuseppe Filippucci (Rinaldo Smordoni), two shoeshine boys trying to find enough money to buy a horse and getting into trouble with the police; it becomes the first film to win the Oscar for Best Internat. Feature Film in 1947, launching his filmmaking career that results in four Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film.
In Feb. 1946 the annual Nastro d'Argento (Silver Ribbon) award is first awarded by the Italian Nat. Union of Film Journalists (Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani)at the Taormina Film Fest in Sicily and Naples; awarded in Feb. until 1971, when it is changed to June; in 1950-91 there is no best film award, only best dir.
In Aug. 1948 Without Pity (Senza pietà) debuts, dir. by Mario Alberto Lattuada (1914-2005) (who started out as a screenwriter until being appointed asst. dir. bo Mario Soldani on his 1940 film "Piccolo mondo antico") and produced by Carlo Ponti and Clemente Fracassi (1917-93), starring Battle Creek, Mich.-born African-Am. actor John Kitzmiller (1913-65) (one of the few black GIs who stayed in Italy after the war and was discovered in 1946 by Carlo Ponti at an officers' club playing poker) as Jerry, an Am. GI stationed in Italy at the end of WWII, who falls in love with white Italian babe Angela, played by Lattuada's wife (1945-2005) Carla Del Poggio (Maria Luisa Attanasio (1925-2010) after she saves his life, fighting attempts to recuit him by local gangsters until he relents to support Angela to keep her from becoming a ho; a black-white Romeo and Juliet tragedy?; banned in the segregated U.S. and British occupation zones in Germany, it's a hit in Italy; Del Poggio goes on to appear in 30+ films; Kitzmiller decides to stay in Europe, making 50+ films and becoming the first black actor to win the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award in 1957 , later playing Quarrel in the James Bond 007 film "Dr. No".
On Nov. 24, 1948 Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief (Thieves) (Ladri di biciclette) based on the 1946 novel by Luigi Bartolini about poor father Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani) searching the streets of post-WWII Rome for a stolen bicycle he needs for his job is a jewel of Italian neorealism; does $429K box office on a $133K budget; receives an honorary Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1950, and in 1952 is named the greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound mag.
On Sept. 7, 1949 Giuseppe De Santis'Bitter Rice (Riso amaro = bitter rice or bitter laughter) debuts, produced by Torre Annunziata, Italy-born neorealist Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (1919-2010) is a neorealist crime drama starring Doris Dowling as Francesca, and Vittorio Gassman as Walter Granata, a pair of fugitives hiding in the rice fields of N Italy, who are protected by pesant rice worker Silvana, played by Rome-born Silvana Morgano (1930-89), ex-lover of Marcello Mastroiani and Mohammad Reza Shah, 1946 Miss Rome, and after the film ends, wife (1949-88) of Dino De Laurentiis, who becomes a star and sex symbol in the 1950s-1960s; after seven films since 1945, Genoa-born (German father, Italian Jewish mother) Vittorio Gassmann (1922-2000), going on to appear in films by dir. Luchino Visconti, becoming a hit in the TV series "Il Mattatore" (The Spotlight-Chaser), which becomes his nickname; in 1952 after she visits Italy with her fiance Farley Granger, where they fall in love, he marries Am. actress Shelley Winters and moves with her to Hollywood, appearing in "Rhapsody" with Elizabeth Taylor and "The Glass Wall" before returning to Italy; he later voices Mufasa in the Italian-dubbed version of "The Lion King"; Fondi, Lazio-born neorealist dir. (member of the Italian Communist Party who joined the Roman Resistance in WWII) Giuseppe De Santis (1917-97) wins a Best Original Story Oscar; De Laurentiis goes on to collaborate with Carlo Ponti to produce 500+ films, incl. 38 Hollywood films that received Oscar nominations.
On Nov. 4, 1950 Atto d'accusa (The Accusation) debuts, dir. by Giacomo Gentilomo (1909-2001), becoming the first starring role for Lazio-born Marcello Mastroianni (1924-96) as Renato la Torre, who made his film debut in 1939 at age 14, going on to appear in 147 films by 1996, shunning Hollywood while becoming the first actor to be nominated for an Oscar for a non-English language performance, along with three Best Actor Oscar nominations, and one of three actors along with Jack Lemmon and Dean Stockwell to win the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor award 2x.
On Jan. 12, 1951 Variety Lights debuts, written and dir. by Alberto Lattuada and Rimini-born Federico Fellini (1920-93) (his dir. debut), a romantic drama film about young beautiful ambitious young Lilana (played by Lattuada's wife Carla Del Poggio), who joins a traveling troupe of 3rd-rate vaudevillians after the aging mgr. Checco Dal Monte (Peppino De Filippo) falls in love with her, jilting his mistress Melina Amour, played by Fellini's wife (1943-93) Giulia Anna "Giulietta" Masina (1921-94), who proves her acting chops, drawing comparison with Charlie Chaplin, who calls her "the actress who moved him most"; John Kitzmiller plays trumpet player Johnny; Fellino goes on to become one of the top filmmakers of all time, getting nominated 17X for Oscars and winning four.
In 1952 Steno's Toto in Color (Totò a Colori) debuts, becoming the first Italian color movie, using the Ferraniacolor system, starring Italian #1 actor Toto (Totò) (Prince Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno Porfirogenito Gagliardi De Curtis di Bisanzio) (1898-1967) as failed musician Antonio Scannagtti, who seeks his fortune in Naples; Toto's masterpiece?
On Apr. 10, 1953 Il viale della speranza (The street of hope) debuts as the 5th film of Milan-born dir. Dino Risi (1916-2008) grossing $100M+ lire at the box office and making him a star and noted master of commedia all'italiana, becoming known for giving opportunities to up-and-coming actors incl. Sophia Loren and Vittorio Grassman.
On Aug. 26, 1953 Federico Fellini's I Vitelloni (The Slackers) debuts, a comedy drama film starring Fellini's brother Riccardo, along with Franco Interlenghi, Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizi, and Leopoldo Triests as five young Italian men going through life turning points mirroring 1950s Italian societal changes, becoming Fellini's first commercial success.
On Dec. 22, 1953 Luigi Comencini's Bread, Love and Dreams (Pane, amore e fantasia) debuts, a romantic comedy film starring Vittorio De Sica as Marshal Antonio Carotenuto, and Subiaco, Lazio-born Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida (1927-2023) as Maria de Ritis, launching her career as a sex symbol, later dubbed "the most beautiful woman in the world".
On Sept. 6, 1954 Federico Fellini's B&W La Strada (The Road) (Paramount Pictures) debuts, starring Fellini's wife Giulietta Massina as simple-minded clown Gelsomina, who is sold to circus strongman Zampano (Anthony Quinn), and gets in a love triangle with acrobat Il Matto (The Fool) (Richard Basehart); "One of the most influential films ever made" (Am. Film Inst.); wins the first Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1957.
On Sept. 18, 1954 Robert Rossen's Mambo (Paramount Pictures) debuts, an attempt to milk the mambo craze, starring Silvano Mangano as poor Venetian girl Viovanna Masetti, who is discovered by Toni Salerno (Shelley Winters) and plays off dueling lovers Mario Rossi (Vittorio Gassmann) and Count Enrico Marisoni (Michael Rennie) while training with real-life choreographer Katherine Dunham; too bad, critics pan it, and it flops; Winters and Gassmann are forced to work together while their marriage is disintegrating after he hooks up with 16-y.-o. Anna Maria Ferrero, who plays Ophelia in his "Hamlet".
On Dec. 23, 1954 Vittorio De Sica'sThe Gold of Naples (L'Oro di napoli) (Paramount Films) debuts, an anthology film meant as a tribute to De Sica's hometown Naples, becoming the breakthrough role for Rome-born sex idol Sophia Loren (Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone) (1934-) as unfaithful pizza vendor Sofia, who loses her wedding ring.
In 1954 Luigi Capuano's Tragic Ballad (Ballata tragica) debuts, a crime musical melodrama starring Teddy Reno, Beniamino Maggio, and Nando Bruno, launching the career of Turin-born sex symbol Maria Luisa Lucia "Marisa" Allasio (1936-) as Maria Rota; in Jan. 1958 after appearing in almost 20 films since 1952, Allasio appears in "Seven of Hills" then retires to marry Count Pier Francesco Calvi di Bergolo (1932-2012), grandson of Victor Emmanuel II.
On Oct. 21, 1955 Robert Z. Leonard's Beautiful but Dangerous ( La donna più bella del mondo) (Le belle des belles) (The World's Most Beautiful Woman) debuts, a romantic comedy bio. of Italian soprano Lina Cavalieri; a co-production between Italy and France; Vittorio Gassman plays Prince Sergio of Russia.
On July 5, 1956 after a reaction against the Nastro d'Argento for being voted on by film critics and journalists instead of people within the film industry, the first annual David di Donatello Award, named after Donatello's statue of David is awarded by the Academy of Italian Cinema (Accademia del Cinema Italiano), following the same criteria as the Am. Oscars; the first David is awarded to Gina Lollobrigida for "Beautiful but Dangerous" (1955).
On May 10, 1957 Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria (Le notti di Cabiria) (Paramount Pictures) debuts, starring Fellini's wife Giuletta Masina as ever-cheerful but pathetic Roman ho Cabiria, who wins the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival; nobody would finance a film about hos until Dino de Laurentiis agrees; the film wins the 1958 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, 2nd straight for Fellino.
In 1957 Dino Risi's Poor, But Handsome (Poveri ma belli) debuts, starring Marisa Allasio as the beautiful Giovanna, who attracts two friends (Maurizio Arena, and Renato Salvatori) at the same time; followed by the sequels "Pretty But Poor" (1957), and "Poor Millionaires" (1959).
In May 1958 Jacques Baratier's French-Tunisian filmGoha debuts, starring Omar Sharif as Goha, and becoming the film debut of La Goulette, Tunisia-born Claude Josephine Rose "Claudine" Cardinale (1938-), going on to win the Jury Prize at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival; Cardinale goes on to become a top star in Italy, moving to Hollywood in 1963 to star in "The Pink Panther" with David Niven and many others until she moved back to Italy to avoid become stereotyped, meeting future hubby dir. Pasquale Squitieri in 1974 and star in his films, and going on to be a women's rights activist and UNESCO goodwill ambassar for the defense of women's rights in Mar. 2000.
On Feb. 5, 1960 Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita debuts, starring Marcello Mastroianni as tabloid journalist (Dantesque Pilgrim?) Marcello Rubini during his week-long sex adventures in decadent high society Rome with 120 chars. incl. hot wealthy heiress Maddalena (Anouk Aimee) and hotter Am. actress Sylvia Rank (Anita Ekberg), and intellectual party-loving Steiner (Alain Curry), ending in an orgy at his beach house; an allegory about the number seven incl. seven deadly sins, seven virtues, seven sacraments, and seven days of creation?; ends with a dead leviathan caught in fishermen's nets; big hit ($19.5M U.S. box office, 16.6M tickets in Italy & France); coins the term "paparazzi" (Fr. paperassier, rummager in waste paper) (big daddy rats) for hungry celebrity photographers; an allegory about the number seven incl. seven deadly sins, seven virtues, seven sacraments, and seven days of creation?; ends with a dead leviathan caught in fishermen's nets; banned in Spain until the 1975 death of Franco, and in Portugal until 1970; the Vatican condemns it as a parody of the Second Coming of Christ; big hit ($19.5M U.S. box office, 16.6M tickets in Italy & France); "One of the most widely seen and acclaimed European movies of the 1960s" (NY Times).
On Dec. 22, 1960 Vittorio De Sica's Two Women (La Ciociara) (The Woman from Ciociara) debuts, based on the 1957 Cesare Zavattini novel, starring Sophia Loren and Eleonra Brown as mother-daughter Cesira and Rosetta in bombed-out WWII Rome, who flee to Cesira's hometown of Ciociara in C Italy, where they meet young Communist Michele Di Libero (Jean-Paul Belmondo), deciding to return to Rome after the Allies capture it in June 1944, only to be raped by Moroccan soldiers, freaking-out the virginal daughter; does $7.2M box office in the U.S. and Canada.
On Jan. 2, 1963 Federico Fellini's 8-1/2 (Otto e Mezzo) debuts, about Italian dir. Guido Anselma (Marcello Mastroianni) really a self-portrait of Fellini and his struggles to come up with big ideas under pressure; the title is supposed to mean he's made that many movies up till now; co-stars Claudia Cardinale as Claudia, Guido's ideal woman, Anouk Aimee as Guido's estranged wife Luisa Anselmi, Sandra Milo as Guido's mistress Carla, and Rossella Falk as Luisa's best friend Rossella; does $3.5M box office in the U.S. and Canada.
On Mar. 27, 1963 Luchino Visconti's The Leopard (The Serval) (Il Gattopardo) debuts, based on the 1958 Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa novel, starring Burt Lancaster as aging Sicilian nobleman Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina in 1860 during the 19th cent. Italian Risorgimento, Alain Delon as his opportunistic nephew Prince Tancredi, and Claudi Cardinale as his beautiful goddaughter Angelica Sedara; after the rebels led by Giuseppe Garibaldi win and Tancredi switches allegiance to King Victor Emmanuel II, Don Fabrizio blesses his engagement to Angelica while refusing to join the senate of the new Kingdom of Italy on the theory that aristocrats are leopards and lions, bureaucrats are jackals and hyenas, and the gen. public are sheep who see themselves as the salt of the Earth; does a mediocre $1.8M box office in the U.S. and Canada plus 3.65M admissions in France, where it's a big hit; one of the greatest movies ever made?
aOn Dec. 21, 1963 Vittorio De Sica's Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Ieri, oggi, domani) debuts, a comedy anthology film starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni consisting of three short stories about Italian couples, incl. "Adelina", "Anna", and "Mara"; "An overrated dud" (John Simon, The New Leader).
On Sept. 12, 1964 Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (Per un Pungo di Dollari) (Sept. 12) debuts, a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1961 "Yojimbo", launcheing the made-in-Spain Spaghetti Western genre where the good guy is no longer good, becoming the breakthrough film for Rome-bornSergio Leone (1929-89) (3rd grade classmate of Ennio Morricone), and making a star of San Francisco, Calif.-born Clinton "Clint" Eastwood Jr. (1930-), who plays the cheeroot-chomping "Man with No Name", dealing death with his never-failing guns and doing that patented thing with his face and eyes that says steely rage as he plays the Baxters off against the Rojos in San Miguel with the help of coffin maker Piripero (Joseph Egger) and saloonkeeper Salvanito (Jose Calvo); Charles Bronson turned down Eastwood's part; does $19.9M box office on a $225K budget; the wistful rockish Fistful of Dollars Theme by Rome-born composer Ennio Morricone (1928-) is influenced by the guitar style of Dick Dale, and scores the sequels, incl. For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966), comprising the Dollars Trilogy, and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968); Morricone goes on to compose scores for 400+ films and TV shows incl. 70+ award-winning films, receiving two Oscars, two Grammies, and three Golden Globes;
On Oct. 22, 1965 Federico Fellini's Juliet of the Spirits (Giulietta degli spiriti) debuts, a fantasy comedy-drama film starring his wife Giulietta Masina as Giulietta Codrini, a middle-aged woman who uses mystical visions to help her leave her cheating hubby Giorgio (Mario Pisu); also stars Sandra Milo as her neighbor Suzy/Iris/Fanny, whose glamorous oddball lifestyle she admires, Valentina Cortese as Valentina, and Valeska Gert as Pijma; Fellini's first feature-length color film; music by Nino Rota.
On Dec. 30, 1965 Sergio Leone's For a Few Dollars More (Per qualche dollaro in piu) (United Artists) debuts, #2 in the Dollars Trilogy stars Clint Eastwood as Manco AKA Man with No Name, Lee Van Cleef as Col. Douglas Mortimer (the Man in Black), and Gian Maria Volonte as El Indio (known for smoking weed and waiting for his musical pocketwatch to wind down before killing somebody), and Klaus Kinski as Juan Wild; Leone plays a whistling bounty hunger; does $25.5M on a $600K budget; "Where life had no value, death, sometimes, had its price. That is why the bounty killers appeared".
On Nov. 25, 1966 Dino Risi's Treasure of Gennaro (Opoerazione San Gennaro), starring Nino Manfredi, Senta Berger, Toto, and Claudine Auger is about a group of Am. mobsters in Naples who team up with the local mafia to steal the holy treasures of its patron saint; it wins a silver at the 5th Moscow Internat. Film Festival.
On Dec. 23, 1966 Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo) (cattivo means bad and brutto ugly)(United Artits) debuts, #3 in the made-in-Spain Dollars Trilogy stars Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name (Good), Elich Wallach as bandito Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez (who calls Eastwood "Blondie", while Eastwood calls him "the Rat") (Ugly), and Lee Van Cleef as the Man in Black (who Tuco calls "Angel Eyes") (Bad) (Bad and Ugly are mixed-up in the English vers. because the English title has the words reversed), who get in a struggle to find some stolen Confed. gold in a cemetery in a grave in Sad Hill marked Unknown next to Arch Stanton's, passing through Betterville POW Camp (based on Andersonville); the ensemble of Italian actors who play Union and Confed. soldiers and U.S. and Mexican citizens plus 1.5K Spanish militia members in a Spanish setting gives the whole movie an eerie unreality, adding to the effect of the futility of the U.S. Civil War; "the best-directed film of all time" (Quentin Tarantino); does $38.9M box office on a $1.2M budget; banned in Norway until 1982; Ennio Morricone's Theme from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a hit; Leone, who is lax on safety at the set tops himself when Wallach drinks from a bottle of acid left accidentally next to his soda bottle by a studio technician, after which his horse runs away with him for a mi., and he is almost decapitated by an iron step on a railroad car; the bridge that is blown up onscreen is blown up by accident and has to be rebuilt.
On Dec. 20, 1968 Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time in the West (C'era una Volta il West) (Paramount Pictures) debuts, a Spaghetti Western based on the Harry Grey novel "The Hoods" about a band of ruthless gunmen trying to murder mysterious widow Jill McBain (Claudia Cardinale) in desert town Sweetwater is filmed in Rome, Spain, and Monument Valley, Ariz., and casts Henry Fonda against type as villain Frank, while smiling harmonica-playing Charles Bronson is cast as leading man Harmonica (after Clint Eastwood turns it down, reversing the situation in "A Fistful of Dollars"); Jason Robards plays bandit Manuel "Cheyenne" Gutierrez; features some of the longest opening credits ever; musical score by Ennio Morricone; big hit in Europe, but a flop in the U.S. ($5.3M U.S. box office on a $5M budget) plus 14.8M tickets in France and 13M in Germany; causes a fashion craze for duster coats; Canadian actor Al Mulock (1925-68), who had a part in this movie and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" jumps from a hotel window in full movie costume and commits suicide in Guadix, Spain in May 1968.
On Sept. 3, 1969 Federico Fellini's Fellini Satyricon (United Artists) debuts, loosely based on Petronius' "Satyricon" written during the reign of crazy Roman Emperor Nero, divided into nine episodes that follow Encolpius (Martin Potter) and his bud Ascyltus (Hiram Keller) as they vie for young bud Giton in a dreamlike surreal Roman landscape filled with degeneracy; does $8M box office outside Italy incl. $1.4M in the U.S. and Canada.
On Feb. 25, 1972 Mario Bava's Baron Blood (Jumbo Cinematografica) debuts, starring Joseph Cotten as Baron Otto von Kleist, a notorious sadistic mass murderer, whose great-grandson Peter Kleist (Antonio Cantafora) visits his old castle to see if the legend that he will rise from the dead is true; Elke Sommer plays Eva Arnold; "Behind dank walls a nightmare world of horror and butchery awaits as a rotitng corpse crawls from the Earth to terrify the living... Beware of Baron Blood... He earned his name through torture and death. The screams of his victims still echo in his chamber of horrors" "He returns to avenge a witch's curse and reclaim his empire of evil"; does £269.812M box office; watch trailer.
In 1972 Lina Wertmuller's The Seduction of Mimi (Euro Internat. Films) debuts, starring Giancarlo Giannini as Mim (Carmelo Mardocheo), who falls in love with virgin Fiorella "Fiore" Meneghini, played by Mariangela (Maria Angela) Caterina Melato (1941-2013), making her a star; both work together in more Wertmuller films; does $1.9M box office in the U.S. and Canada; Melato goes on to appear in the 1980 film "Flash Gordon". The start of the golden age of Italian dir. Arcangela Felice Assunta "Lina" Wertmüller (1928-2021), first of seven films ending with "Blood Feud" (1978).
On Feb. 22, 1973 Lina Wertmuller's Love and Anarchy (Film d'amore e d'anarchia, ovvero: stamattina alle 10, in via dei Fiori, nella nota casa di tolleranza...,) (Film of Love and Anarchy, or Rather: This Morning at 10, in Via dei Fiori, in the Well-Known Brothel...) debuts, making a star of La Spezia-born Giancarlo Giannini (1942-) as an anarchist living in a brothel in Rome while planning the assassination of Mussolini and falling in love with Communist ho Salome (Mariangela Melato).
On Mar. 29, 1973 Salvatore Samperi's Malicious (Malizia) debuts, starring curvaceous Laura Antonelli (nee Antonaz) (1941-2015) in her breakthrough role as dick-teaser maid Angela, who turns on widower Ignazio (Salvatore "Turri" Ferro) and his three sons incl. Nino (14) (Alessandro Momo) into trying to blackmail her to pose nude.
On Dec. 18, 1973 Federico Fellini's Amarcord (fond memory) (m'arcord = I remember) (Warner Bros). debuts, a semi-autobio. story about sexually-curious teenie boy Titta (Bruno Zanin) in the village of Borgo San Giuliano (near ancient Rimini) in 1930s Fascist Italy, which is filled with eccentric chars.; does $2.3M box office.
In 1973 Dino Risi's How Funny Can Sex Be? (Sessomatto) (Sex Nut) debuts, starring Giancarlo Giannini and Laura Antonelli, an Italian erotic comedy anthology with all nine segments being about sex or sexual perversions; does $5M box office in Italy.
On Mar. 11, 1974 Vittorio De Sica's The Voyage (Journey) (Il viaggio) debuts, De Sica's last film, starring Sophia Loren as Adriana de Mauro, and Richard Burton as Cesari Braggi as pre-WWI Sicilian lovers.
On Dec. 19, 1974 Lina Wertmuller's Swept Away (Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto) (Swept Away... by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August) debuts, starring Mariangela Melato as arrogant wealthy capitalist Raffaella Pavone Lanzetii, who gets stranded in the sea with dedicated Communist Gennarino (Giancarlo Giannini); ; does $6M ($1.75M?) box office in the U.S. and Canada; remade in 2002 starring Madonna and Guy Ritchie.
On Dec. 20, 1974 Dino Risi's Scent of a Woman (Profumo di donna) debuts, based on the story "Il buio e il miele" by Giovanni Arpino, starring Vittorio Gassman as blind Italian Capt. Fausto Consolo, who is accompanied by his aid Ciccio (Giovanni Bertazzi) from Turin to Naples to meet an old comrade and commit double suicide, until he meets beautiul-smelling Sara (Agostina Belli); it is remade in 1992 starring Al Pacino.
On May 4, 1975 Linda Wertmuller's Seven Beauties (Settebellezze) debuts, starring Giancarlo Giannini as small-time Naples hood Pasqualino Frafuso AKA Settebellezze, who has seven unattractive sisters. murdering one of their lovers after he finds out he's a pimp trying to turn her into a ho, pleading insanity and getting sent to an insane asylum where he rapes a patient, and gets released to join the army, deserting, getting captured and ending up in a German concentration camp, where he survives by balling the female commandant (Shirley Stoler), who makes him the kapo of his barracks and makes him do her dirty work; after the war ends, Pasqualino returns to Naples and discovers that all seven sisters plus his mother have become hos; Fernando Rey plays Pedro, the anarchist prisoner; receives four Oscar nominations, with Wertmuller becoming the first woman nominated for a Best Dir. Oscar; does $1.4M box office.
On Dec. 7, 1976 Federico Fellini's Fellini's Casanova (Il Casanova di Federico Fellini) debuts, based on 18th cent. Venetian profligate Giacomo Casanova's autobio. "Histoire de ma vie", starring Donald Sutherland as Casanova, and Tina Aumont as the "love of his life" Henriette, exploring his perverted sex adventures with detachment.
On Oct. 6, 1977 Giuseppe Bertolucci's Berlinguer, I Love You (Berlinguer ti voglio bene) debuts, becoming the acting debut of Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany-born Roberto Remigio Benigni (1952-) as Mario Cioni, a Tuscan construction worker who loves Enrico Berlinguer, leader of the Italian Communist Party.
On Aug. 9, 1980 Joe D'Amato's gory Italian horror film Anthropophagus debuts, set on a remote Greek island, starring George Eastman as cannibal Klaus Wortmann, making a star of Bologna-born Serena Grandi (Faggioli) (1958-), whose fetus is ripped out of her womb and eaten onscreen, causing the film to be prosecuted in the U.S., making it a cult hit; after appearing in the 1985 Italian erotic film Miranda, she becomes an Italian sex symbol; watch trailer; watch video.
On Oct. 22, 1994 Roberto Benigni's Il Mostro (The Monster) debuts, about Loris, a man mistaken by police for a serial killer; becoming the highest-grossing film in Italy until his "Life Is Beautiful" (1997).
On Dec. 20, 1997 Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful (Cecchi Gori Group) (Miramax Films) debuts, starring Benigni as Jewish Italian man Guido Orefice, who is forced into a concentration camp by the Nazis in WWII, and tries to convince his son Giosue that he is in a safe but complex game; does $229.2M box office on a $20M budget.
In 2008 the List of 100 Italian Films to Be Saved "that have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978" is established by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage.