Young Roger Court arrives in Venice expecting to meet his father, Maj. Court, an influential British diplomat, little realizing that his father has been kidnapped by foreign agents and is being held as the drugged hostage of Dr. Vivaldi. Unable to find his father and distrusting the police, Roger latches on to hotel worker Roberta and her friend Joe, who are preoccupied with problems of their own.
Month: September 2019
A naive young college student, who is majoring in chemistry, is persuaded by her roommates and a would-be drug dealer to make LSD for them, and she winds up getting caught up in the “acid” lifestyle.
Maddalena, a prostitute, is forced by the Naples police to exit the the city and return to her hometown Volcano, a volcanic island off of southern Italy. There, she is accepted only by her younger sister, Maria, and a younger brother. Their life is rendered miserable by the women of the village.
The acclaimed Tony Palmer helmed this 1984 biopic on 19th and early 20th century Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, here portrayed by Robert Stephens. Palmer opts to focus not on the whole gestalt of Puccini’s life, but on a devastating scandal that transpired in 1909, when Giacomo’s wife, Elvira Puccini, accused maid Doria Manfredi of bedding her husband. The unfounded allegations prompted a massive lawsuit from the maid’s family, and nearly toppled Giacomo’s illustrious career.
When the men of a Sicilian village start obsessing over ravishing blonde midwife Jessica , angry females revolt by refusing to have sex with their husbands. As the local priest tries to encourage procreation, Jessica falls for a tricky recluse. An adaptation of a Flora Sandstrom novel, this charming comedy also features Noel-Noel as a matchmaking old-timer.
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In the swinging sixties three girls discover they have the same boyfriend who has been playing around with them all while vowing fidelity to each. To teach him a lesson he won’t forget, the trio contrive to lock him up and continually favour him with their attentions in turn.
Shindo’s “Hymn” is one of many adaptions of Tanizaki’s classical novella ‘Shunkinsho’ (‘A Portrait of Shunkin’, 1933). The story tells of the adoration of Sasuke for his mistress, the blind samisen-teacher Shunkin, who treats him imperiously and subjects him to cruel beatings. After an unknown intruder probably one of her pupils, who seeks revenge for her cruel behaviour, pours boiling water on the sleeping Shunkin’s face, Sasuke blinds himself in order not to behold her disfigurement. Sasuke’s sacrifice, made in response to Shunkin’s tacit wish, seals their life-long relationship.