What Did You Do in the War, Daddy?
by Blake Edwards
from United Artists
Set against the backdrop of WW 2, a by-the-book Captain is ordered to capture a strategic village in Italy and finds the soldiers are willing to surrender if the can have their annual wine festival first. But he must make it look like a real fight for the aerial viewers and the practice makes for loads of fun!
The Children Are Watching Us - Criterion Collection
by Vittorio De Sica
from Criterion
Vittoria De Sica's mastery of neorealism was already well apparent in 1944's The Children Are Watching Us, an excellent, emotionally devastating drama that marked De Sica's first collaboration with renowned screenwriter and longtime partner Cesare Zavattini. While not as well known as De Sica's later masterpieces The Bicycle Thief (1948) and Umberto D. (1952), the film shares many of De Sica's stylistic trademarks, beginning with his exquisite use of real Italian locations in telling the story of Pricò, an observant and inquisitive 4-year-old boy who bears silent witness to his mother's infidelity and the subsequent collapse of his parents' marriage. Like Carol Reed's thematically similar classic The Fallen Idol, De Sica's film is seen almost exclusively through the eyes and perception of this innocent young boy, and the frank treatment of adultery and its effect on Pricò was considered quite shocking for Italian audiences who were emphatically concerned with the sanctity of childhood. What seems dramatically tame by modern standards still retains much of its power, notably due to the remarkable performance of Luciano De Ambrosis, who was barely five years old when the film was shot in the summer of 1942, just before the violence of World War II would erupt all over Italy.
In combining empathy for his characters with the graceful sentimentality that would be refined in his later classics, De Sica refrains from judging the weaknesses of Pricò's parents, both of whom love the boy equally but are ill-equipped to avoid the disintegration of the relationship. This places Pricò in the middle of a gut-wrenching dilemma, and the boy responds with understandable grief and confusion. In running away, he shifts the story toward a heartbreaking conclusion, lending substance to the film's alternate title (The Little Martyr) with a final image that's simply unforgettable. Criterion's exquisite DVD release presents this potent drama in a new, fully restored high-definition digital transfer, and includes illuminating video interviews with De Ambrosis (well into his sixties, with vivid memories of working with De Sica) and De Sica film scholar Callisto Cosulich. The 24-page booklet features mini-essays by film scholar Peter Brunette (writing about The Children Are Watching Us) and film critic Stuart Klawans on the unique collaboration of De Sica and Zavattini. Considering that The Children Are Watching Us was largely unavailable in any previous film or video format, Criterion's DVD release is cause for celebration. --Jeff Shannon
The film follows the anguish of the four-year-old, Prico, after his mother, Nina, leaves his father, Andrea, for her lover Roberto. Prico is sent to his aunt and then to his grandmother. Nina returns when Prico is sick and vows to give up Roberto, even though he persists in seeing her. The family situation gradually improves until they take a holiday on the Italian Riviera.
C'eravamo Tanto Amati (We All Loved Each Other So Much)
by Ettore Scola
A Professional Gun
Towards Evening
by Francesca Archibugi
from Synkronized USA
Starring screen legend Marcello Mastroianni as Professor Brusci, a widower's sedate and settled life is suddenly disrupted when his four-year-old granddaughter Papere is deposited on his doorstep. Drawing on his teaching (and grandfathering) skills, the professor is teaching her to become an upstanding young lady, when her mother suddenly returns for a visit, and her destructive streak causes layer upon layer of dissension between all involved.
Cold Eyes of Fear
by Enzo G. Castellari
from Image Entertainment
A bad boy with an awful British accent threatens a lawyer and his main squeeze in this stylish and ultra-rare seventies thriller, set in a swinging London seemingly populated entirely by corrupt policemen.
General della Rovere
by Roberto Rossellini
from VellaVision
Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. Languages: o English (subtitles) o Spanish (subtitles) o English (Dolby Digital 5.1) o Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1) o Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0) o Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0) Synopsis: With a deft guiding hand, director Roberto Rossellini brings out the depths in this study of a man's transformation during the German occupation of Milan. Based on a novel by Indro Montanelli, the story is true. Colonel Mueller (Hannes Messemer) and his cohorts have decided to plant a spy in the Milan prison. They choose a petty thief from the streets who earns his living plying the black-market trade and assign him to the task. He is thrown in jail under the false identity of General della Rovere (Vittorio De Sica) in order to bring the Italian resistance fighters among the prisoners, out into the open. As the fake general slowly makes friends with these men, he becomes a leader of sorts, and this transformation gets him thinking in a different way about himself. This well-wrought drama was given the "Best Foreign Film" award in 1960 by the New York Film Critics, and it won the Golden Lion at the 1959 Venice Film Festival. Special Features: o Biographies o Filmographies o Interactive Menu o Photo Gallery o Scene Access o Trailer(s)
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