Posts Tagged ‘Italian’

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Pier Paolo Pasolni’s Trilogy of Life: Criterion Collection DVD Review: Make Mine Bunuel

As one of those individuals that became the slightly pretentious artsy-fartsy feller during his teenage years whilst growing up in a small town, I frequently made trips to video stores (or at least ordered random titles from grey market mail-in video distributors) in search of something that I surely thought would add a little culture to my mundane, tormented existence. It was through these actions that I transitioned from one phase to another – discovering and subsequently learning to appreciate the work of oft-renowned filmmakers such as French New Wave pioneer Jean-Luc Godard, the stylish bullet ballet work of Hong Kong’s John Woo, and the gory Italian splatter flicks of one Lucio Fulci. Read the rest of this entry »

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Night of the Devils (1972) Blu-ray Review: Sexually-Charged Psychosomatic Italian Horror at its Finest

Were I given the opportunity now to do a high school report on Italy, I would list the boot-shaped country’s top major exports as “Pasta, Shoes, and Horror Movies.” Made during the time of that curious cusp between Italian filmmakers’ transition from the giallo style of thrillers to the flat-out, full-on “We’re gonna try to make you puke” gore-laden chillers we all know so well today, Giorgio Ferroni’s (The) Night of the Devils (La Notte dei Diavoli) manages to deliver the goods from both genres — and incorporates a hypnotic (and sometimes bewildering) music score by Giorgio Gaslini (yes, you get two Giorgio’s for the price of one here!) to boot. Read the rest of this entry »

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DVD Review: The First Beautiful Thing (La Prima Cosa Bella)

Article first published as DVD Review: The First Beautiful Thing (La Prima Cosa Bella) on Blogcritics.

Anyone who has ever had a parent surely knows that nobody can quite screw up your life as well as they can. It’s bound to happen just about anywhere in the world — and our brothers and sisters in Italy are certainly not exempt from that sort of embarrassment. Case in point: the 2010 Italian dramedy, La Prima Cosa Bella, better known in the English tongue as The First Beautiful Thing. This sometimes lighthearted/frequently serious yarn from Paolo Virzì, whom many consider a traditional Italian comedy filmmaker, follows the oft-heartbreaking plights of Michelucci clan: Bruno, Valeria, and their mother, Anna. (more…)

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Blu-ray Review: The Moment of Truth (1965) – Criterion Collection

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: The Moment of Truth (1965) – Criterion Collection on Blogcritics.

With most motion pictures, you either get a case of art imitating life or life imitating art. In the case of Francesco Rosi’s Il Momento della Verità — better known to English-speaking audiences as The Moment of Truth — you have a situation where life is presented as art. Relayed via an in-your-face documentary style of filmmaking, Rosi brings us the tale of a young bullfighter named Miguel, played by a real life torero and non-actor, Miguel Mateo (all of the actors in the film are greenhorns — a deliberate deed on Rosi’s behalf to make his project look all the more “authentic”). Determined to leave the boring safety of his home with his aging farmer parents, Miguel sets off to Barcelona without any cents in his pocket or sense in his head. (more…)

Straight from the archives of Le Colección du Bastardo, seven French lobbies for that wild Italian cult classic, 2019: After the Fall of New York. I have no idea how many others are in the complete set; this is all I’ve come across thus far. Enjoy!

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Fox Launches its “World Cinema” Series with a Trio of Titles

Article first published as Fox Launches its “World Cinema” Series with a Trio of Titles on Blogcritics.

Sometimes, movie studios in Hollywood remember that the rest of the world exists — and that they even make those moving pictures things that keep them rolling in the dough year-round. Strange as it seems, them studio boys even occasionally realize that they are fully capable of releasing them there foreign flicks to their American audiences as a way of making even more money. Recently, Fox Home Entertainment launched their first assembling of International films for what they have dubbed their “Fox World Cinema” line. These titles include the Bollywood wonder Dum Maaro Dum, the Chinese martial arts epic The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman, and a little crime drama ditty from Italy, Angel of Evil.
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Live Like A Cop, Die Like A Man DVD Review: A Truly Mind-Blowing Experience

In the early ‘70s, cop flicks were all the rage. Witness, for example, the oh-so-spectacular Dirty Harry franchise from the United States; a series that was making money all over the globe. Meanwhile, in that Europe place, Italy was showing the world why their country was shaped like a policeman’s boot: it was kicking some serious ass of its own with its highly-revered poliziotteschi genre. And, although Italy’s contribution to the world of cop flicks started several years before Clint Eastwood’s cinematic saga ever hit the screen, the effects of said legacy were felt abroad as well as in America. [Read the rest at Cinema Sentries.]

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Blu-ray Review: Alien 2 – On Earth

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: Alien 2 – On Earth on Blogcritics.

Every now and again, I like to rekindle my retroactive romance with the analog video cassette. Seriously, I do. My interests in these antiquatedly-awkward, easy-to-irreparably damage bundles of plastic are not for their quality, however. Not by a long shot. Nevertheless, I find it fun to occasionally pop in a fuzzy, bastardized pan-and-scan transfer of an obscure and poorly-made excuse of a motion picture and laugh away. However, it’s not so much the crappy-quality factor that amuses me so: it’s the fact that, quite often, these are the only ways you can see some of the most hilariously mind-numbing films ever made.
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Blu-ray Review: A Bay Of Blood (UK Release)

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: A Bay Of Blood (UK Release) on Blogcritics.

Every enthusiast of the legacy that the Italian cult film industry has bestowed upon us has his or her favorite director, albeit for entirely different reasons. Some prefer the keen sense of style that Dario Argento’s earlier works possessed over the relatively superficial (but still damn good) contributions to Euro cinema from someone like Joe D’Amato — to say nothing of the mind-blowing ditties that Antonio Margheriti thrust upon us all! Like the many great painters and sculptors that preceded moviemaking auteurs such as Lucio Fulci and Sergio Martino, each of these cinematic artists went through their own particular “periods.” Just like Spanish painter Pablo Picasso had his famous Blue Period, Umberto Lenzi and Ruggero Deodato had their infamous cannibal periods.
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ALIEN 2: ON EARTH Coming to DVD and Blu-ray on March 22 via Midnight Legacy

Classic Italian Horror / Sci-Fi Film Never-Before-Released in the United States

For their inaugural release, Midnight Legacy is presenting the first-ever widescreen release of Alien 2 On Earth. The uncut, English language, 1.85 widescreen release of the 1980 Italian Horror / Sci-Fi film directed by Ciro Ippolito (Sam Cromwell), is coming to DVD and Blu-ray on March 22.
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