Italy Challenge (plus Holy See/San Marino/Malta) (Official, October 2023)

[gunnar]

Official Italy Challenge (plus Holy See/San Marino/Malta)

Challenge runs from October 1, 2023 to October 31, 2023 in your local time zone.

GOAL
Watch Italian movies. Discuss them. Movies from Holy See/San Marino/Malta are also eligible.

What is an Italian Film?
- Any film listed with Italy as first country of production on IMDb automatically qualifies
- Any film listed in one of the Official lists below automatically qualifies
- Any other film that you genuinely believe to be an Italian Movie qualifies (please state reasoning if one of the above does not apply).

RULES
- Each feature film (at least 40 minutes) counts as one point.
- 80 minutes of short films or miniseries/TV episodes counts as one entry.
- Please include year of release when listing your viewings.
- Do not edit your posts to add new watches, just create a new one.
- Try to give an indication of how much you liked/disliked your watchings (reviews, comments, ratings,...)


LINKS

Official
Roy Menarini's Il Grande Cinema Italiano (available with English subs)
FilmTV's100 Greatest Italian Films
David di Donatello - Best Italian Film
UNESCO / entries for Italy: 528-542
SWDB's Top 50 Spaghetti Westerns

Non-Official:
One hundred film and one country, Italy (former official list)
Italian Neo-Realism
Italian Gothic Movies
Giallo Checklist
Italian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
'I Capolavori' - The 4 and 5 star Italian classics, according to the Morandini dictionary
Jean A. Gili's Italian Cinema
iCM Forum's Favorite Italian Films (Complete List)

Misc
Available online with English subtitles: Italy

Leaderboard

Rank	Participant	# of Points
1	gunnar	82
2	jdidaco	64
3	Traveller	49
4	FilmWalrus	36
5	sortile9io	17
6	sol	16
7	DudeLanez	14
8	frbrown	13
8	pitchorneirda	13
10	peeptoad	11
11	Arkantos	8
11	monclivie	8
13	AB537	7
13	ororama	7
15	Lonewolf2003	6
16	blocho	5
16	maxwelldeux	5
16	Tngy	5
19	Melvelet	3
19	RogerTheMovieManiac88	3
21	magnusbernhardsen	2
21	Obgeoff	2
21	OldAle1	2
24	Mario Gaborović	1
	Total	379

[sol]

First post for this challenge; meanwhile, the Horror Challenge is already almost up to Page 3.

1. A Cat in the Brain (1990) Italy



Lucio Fulci plays himself in this meta flick about a horror movie director who hallucinates horrific things after filming too much gore. There is a reality blur throughout as it appears that Fulci is murdering random people in between retakes, but possibly he is imagining these too. Most of the kills are striking (face being microwaved; 2001 parody death). Despite obvious puppetry, a cat eating a brain in the opening credits is really creepy too. The project works far better when it is all left ambiguous, which isn't always the case, but it is fun seeing Lulci doing the meta deal so well before Wes Craven made it cool.

[Traveller]

01. Waterloo (1970) - 8/10

[sortile9io]

I hope the horror flooding is not too vast; it will be interesting to check at the end of the challenge what share of points it takes. Meanwhile, I'll try to watch a few and help balance the landscape. Thanks for hosting, gunnar.

[Mario Gaborović]

01. Profumo di donna (1974) - Italy

[pitchorneirda]

1. Riso amaro (1949, Giuseppe De Santis) - 6/10

[peeptoad]

1. Due OcchiDiabolici/Two Evil Eyes (1990)

[Traveller]

02. Zombi Holocaust (1980) - 2/10

[pitchorneirda]

Spoiler

1. Riso amaro (1949, Giuseppe De Santis) - 6/10

2. Sangue blu (1914, Nino Oxilia) - 4.5/10
3. Nostos: Il Ritorno (1989, Franco Piavoli) - rewatch: 6/10 --> 6/10

[Arkantos]

1. Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento)

[sol]

The Italian Job

1. A Cat in the Brain (1990) Italy

2. Beyond the Darkness (1979) Italy



A taxidermist exhumes his dead girlfriend's body to turn it into a stuffed trophy of sorts here. There is a lot of blood and guts as he removes her innards, with some parts simply dropping on the ground, and there is an intense and perfectly drawn out scene as he reluctantly picks up a hitchhiker on the way back from the graveyard. Casually smoking a joint in the front seat, there is real tension regarding whether she will be look behind and see the dead girlfriend's arm sticking out. Most of the film however (his relationship to his housekeeper?) feels like 'weird for the sake of it'. Great Goblin score though.

[gunnar]

1 - The House with Laughing Windows (1976) - 5/10 - An art restorer is brought in to restore an old fresco in a church in a rural village. He discovers that the artist kidnapped, tortured, and killed people to use as inspiration for his art. The movie is pretty dull for a long time and even when the action starts, it isn't very good.

2 - City of the Living Dead (1980) - 5/10 - A priest's suicide opens up the gates of hell and it must be sealed by All Saints Day or all hell will literally break loose. The soundtrack was decent. The acting and story were not very good.

[frbrown]

1. Day of Anger (1967)

Less action than I like in a Spaghetti Western

[peeptoad]

2. Horror aka ‘The Blancheville Monster’ (1963)
3. Un posto ideale per uccidere/Oasis of Fear (1971)

visto!

1. Due OcchiDiabolici/Two Evil Eyes (1990)

[Traveller]

03. 1990: The Bronx Warriors (1982) - -1/10

[jdidaco]

Thanks for hosting, gunnar!

(Screenshots from 'Dei' & 'Blood on Méliès' Moon'),



1. Trio (Gianfranco Mingozzi, 1967) 9/10
2. Dei (Tonino De Bernardi, 1968) 9/10
3. Love Birds - Una strana voglia d'amare/Komm, süßer Tod (Love Birds, Mario Caiano, 1969) 8.5/10
4-6. La porta sul buio (Door Into Darkness, 1973) : Il vicino di casa (The Neighbour, Luigi Cozzi) 7.5/10, Il tram (The Tram, Dario Argento) 8/10, La bambola (The Doll, Luigi Cozzi & Mario Foglietti) 6/10, Testimone oculare (Eyewitness, Dario Argento & Roberto Pariante) 6.5/10 (220 min), Gli incubi di Dario Argento (The Nightmares of Dario Argento, Dario Argento, 1987) 6/10 (21 min) (Total: 241 min)
7. L'osceno desiderio (Obscene Desire, Giulio Petroni, 1978) 5/10
8. Il cavaliere, la morte e il diavolo (Knight, Death, and the Devil, Beppe Cino, 1983) 8/10
9. La casa del buon ritorno (The House of the Blue Shadows, Beppe Cino, 1986) 7.5/10
10. Paganini Horror (Luigi Cozzi, 1988) 6/10
11. Non aver paura della zia Marta (The Murder Secret, Mario Bianchi, 1988) 5.5/10
12. Ad un passo dall'aurora (Nightmare in Venice, Mario Bianchi, 1989) 6.5/10
13. Piccoli orrori (Little Horrors, Tonino De Bernardi, 1994) 9/10
14. M.D.C. - Maschera di cera (The Wax Mask, Sergio Stivaletti, 1997) 6.5/10
15. Roma fantastica (Luigi Cozzi, 2011) 7.5/10
16. Blood on Méliès' Moon (Luigi Cozzi, 2016) 7.5/10

[Arkantos]

2. La dolce vita (1960, Federico Fellini)

Cinetaliano

1. Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento)
2. La dolce vita (1960, Federico Fellini)

[gunnar]

jdidaco starts out with a bang...


3 - Troll 2 (1990) - 5/10 - This was pretty dumb with bad acting, but it was still kind of fun.

4 - Black Sabbath (1963) - 5.5/10 - This is a horror anthology that is introduced by Boris Karloff who also stars in one of the segments. The stories were pretty boring for the most part. I did laugh at the bit at the end of the film, though.

5 - House on the Edge of the Park (1980) - 5/10 - A rapist/murderer gets himself and a friend invited to a party with a few wealthy people and then proceeds to terrorize them throughout the night. It certainly isn't a very nice film.

Spoiler

1 - The House with Laughing Windows (1976) - 5/10
2 - City of the Living Dead (1980) - 5/10

[sol]

Indeed. He must really love Italy!

The Italian Job

1. A Cat in the Brain (1990) Italy
2. Beyond the Darkness (1979) Italy

3. Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966) Italy



Unwelcome in a superstitious small town where he has been called upon to deliver an autopsy, a coroner comes to question whether there is something supernatural going on in this Mario Bava horror movie. Shot with vivid colours, the film looks pretty great, especially glowing green spider webs all round, and scattered images, like a staring ghostly child at a window, having real staying power. There is also a really cool spinning spiral staircase chase, as well as a nifty loop chase sequence in the final fifteen minutes that seems to defy known physics. As a narrative though, the film only treads familiar tropes.

[sortile9io]

Le soldatesse
1. Valerio Zurlini, 1965, 119 min
A road movie with the merit of putting the focus —almost 60 years ago— on the women (played by a cast that includes two of my favourites: Lea Massari in an almost silent role and lovely Anna Karina) led to work in military brothels due to the extreme hardship brought by war —invasion of Greece by Italo-German fascist troops in WWII—, it also succeeds in showing without resorting to gruesome details the cruelty, absurdity and frequent role of pure chance in determining the fate of people during wartime. 7/10

Una storia d'Italia

1. LE SOLDATESSE · Zurlini, 1965

[Tngy]

1. L'Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) 6.0 - Italy

[Traveller]

04. This Must Be the Place (2011) - 7/10

[sol]

The Italian Job

1. A Cat in the Brain (1990) Italy
2. Beyond the Darkness (1979) Italy
3. Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966) Italy

4. The Guest Room (2021) Italy



This thriller begins with strong Barbarian vibes as a woman lets a stranger into her home who claims to have booked her guest room online despite having not advertised it for months, and Guido Caprino is both charming and unnerving as the visitor. The movie takes quite a dramatic turn at around 25 minutes in as the woman's ex-husband rocks up and while all of the drip-fed information keeps the first hour of the movie engaging, the film loses its way in its final half-hour as a sci-fi plot turn is introduced that leaves more questions than answers. Everything also becomes very melodramatic towards the end.

[pitchorneirda]

Spoiler

1. Riso amaro (1949, Giuseppe De Santis) - 6/10
2. Sangue blu (1914, Nino Oxilia) - 4.5/10
3. Nostos: Il Ritorno (1989, Franco Piavoli) - rewatch: 6/10 --> 6/10

4. Zabriskie Point (1970, Michelangelo Antonioni) - 2/10

I knew this wouldn't be Antonioni's best but I had no idea this would be this bad.

[gunnar]

6 - What Scoundrels Men Are! (1932) - 7/10 - This romantic comedy has a mechanic falling for a young woman who works at a perfume store. He borrows his boss's cars to impress her and take her on a date, but things happen to make a mess of it. He continues his efforts, but maybe fate is against him. Vittorio De Sica and Lia Franca are each pretty good here.

7 - Fists in the Pocket (1965) - 7/10 - A dysfunctional family of three adult brothers and one adult sister live with their blind mother. Only the oldest son seems fairly normal and supports the family with his earnings. The film is kind of bleak, but the characters are interesting.

8 - An Average Little Man (1977) - 7.5/10 - A civil servant who is nearing retirement wants nothing more than to get his son a job at his workplace so that the son can have a secure living. The son works hard, but is not too bright and has some trouble with the tests for employment. The first half of the film is filled with the father's efforts to help his son and it is of less interest than the second half of the film where circumstances dictate a change in direction.

9 - The Stolen Children (1992) - 8/10 - A young police officer is assigned to accompany an 11 year old girl and her younger brother to a distant orphanage. The mother of the children was arrested for prostituting the daughter from their apartment. The trip runs into a snag when the orphanage refuses to take the girl and the police officer tries to find another place that will accept the pair. The kids are reluctant to open themselves up to more pain, but slowly bond with their temporary guardian.

10 - Cops and Robbers (1951) - 7/10 - Ferdinando is a low level con man supports his family with his tricks. He is arrested, but manages to escape. The policeman who lost custody of him now has three months to recapture Ferdinando or else will lose his job despite 30 years of good service. It's a decent film that was a bit hit or miss at times, but got more interesting in the second half.

Spoiler

1 - The House with Laughing Windows (1976) - 5/10
2 - City of the Living Dead (1980) - 5/10
3 - Troll 2 (1990) - 5/10
4 - Black Sabbath (1963) - 5.5/10
5 - House on the Edge of the Park (1980) - 5/10

[sol]

The Italian Job

1. A Cat in the Brain (1990) Italy
2. Beyond the Darkness (1979) Italy
3. Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966) Italy
4. The Guest Room (2021) Italy

5. The New York Ripper (1982) Italy



Quacking like a duck, a serial killer taunts a morose detective with threatening phone calls in this slasher from Lucio Fulci. Ridiculous as the premise might sound, Fulci generates several great thrills and chills from knives stabbing towards the camera, victims screaming in sync with foghorns and so on, with the above gif being the most-PG one that I could find from a quick search. The solution to the mystery is ultimately underwhelming and leaves some unanswered questions regarding why he ends up targeting the detective, but this is a pretty great watch if one can get past the comical quacking.

[peeptoad]

4. L'arcano incantatore/Arcane Sorcerer (1996)
5. Nonho sonno/Sleepless (2001)
6. Giallo (2009)

visto!

1. Due OcchiDiabolici/Two Evil Eyes (1990)
2. Horror aka ‘The Blancheville Monster’ (1963)
3. Un posto ideale per uccidere/Oasis of Fear (1971)

[sol]

The Italian Job

1. A Cat in the Brain (1990) Italy
2. Beyond the Darkness (1979) Italy
3. Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966) Italy
4. The Guest Room (2021) Italy
5. The New York Ripper (1982) Italy

6. Lust of the Vampire (1957) Italy



Amid newspapers reporting that a vampire is on the loose, an inquisitive journalist and a hard-nosed detective each individually investigate whether there could be any truth to these wild claims as a number of female murder victims turn up drained of blood. Without revealing too much, it can be said that the film has some amazing facial transformations that occur with minimal cutaways and trick lighting. There are also some great spooky locations and some terrifically used shadows. That said, this is ultimately more of a talky police procedural thriller than an atmospheric chiller and it feels oddly overlong.

[sortile9io]

Don Camillo e l'on. Peppone
2. Carmine Gallone, 1955, 100 min
The third instalment in the film series of Don Camillo (and not my favourite one), revolving once again around the permanent contest between the astute reactionary priest —more combative and provoking than usual— and the communist major —determined to become an MP— of Brescello while dealing in an episodic way with topics such as marriage, public/private property, election campaigning, etc., using a sharp but well-meaning sense of humour rarely seen nowadays —especially when religion and politics are the central subject—. 7/10

Una storia d'Italia

1. LE SOLDATESSE · Zurlini, 1965
2. DON CAMILLO E L'ON. PEPPONE · Gallone, 1955

[Traveller]

05. The Monsters (1963) - 6/10

[Arkantos]

3. Stromboli (1950, Roberto Rossellini)

Cinetaliano

1. Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento)
2. La dolce vita (1960, Federico Fellini)
3. Stromboli (1950, Roberto Rossellini)

[sol]

The Italian Job

1. A Cat in the Brain (1990) Italy
2. Beyond the Darkness (1979) Italy
3. Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966) Italy
4. The Guest Room (2021) Italy
5. The New York Ripper (1982) Italy
6. Lust of the Vampire (1957) Italy

7. Burial Ground (1981) Italy



Around half of this walking dead flick curiously plays out in the daytime, which might sound less scary, but since the zombies look pretty great (with worms crawling around their faces) there is actually a benefit to seeing them in broad daylight. There are also some very grisly moments as various body parts are impaled and ripped off, plus there is a woman whose leg gets caught in a bear trap while outrunning zombies. There's little in the way of story or character development though. The film mostly feels like a repetitive catalogue of zombie attacks while a creepy man-child is the only distinct human character.

[Traveller]

06. The Laughing Woman (1969) - 6/10

[FilmWalrus]

1. Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988), 7.5
2. Lust of the Vampire (1957), 6.0
3. Four Steps in the Clouds (1942), 9.0
4. Torso (1973), 4.5

[sortile9io]

La mandragola
3. Alberto Lattuada, 1965, 101 min
A film adaptation of the eponymous play by Niccolò Machiavelli that is a pleasure to watch (photography, costumes, filming locations) and has several memorable scenes (hot springs, ancient statue unearthed, visit to the crypt, etc.), the plot is driven by an erotic motif —a bold French man pursuing the beautiful wife of a notary in Florence— but there is also a significant satirical background aimed mostly at the clergy —avid for money and filling people with terror—, bourgeoisie —silly and too concerned about social prestige— and doctors —superstitious and inefficient—. 8/10

Una storia d'Italia

1. LE SOLDATESSE · Zurlini, 1965
2. DON CAMILLO E L'ON. PEPPONE · Gallone, 1955
3. LA MANDRAGOLA · Lattuada, 1965

[Traveller]

07. Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981) - 3/10
08. I'm Starting from Three (1981) - 2/10

[FilmWalrus]

The title got me thinking back to my film atlas project. I've seen films from Italy, Malta, and the Holy See. Is there anything out there that is unambiguously a San Marino feature?

[DudeLanez]

1. The Bigamist (1942, Alessandro Blasetti) 7/10
2. Lamerica (1994, Gianni Amelio) 6,5/10
3. The Macaluso Sisters (2020, Emma Dante) 6,5/10

[Tngy]

2. La Maschera del Demonio Black Sunday (1960) 5.0 - Italy

Spoiler

1. L'Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) 6.0 - Italy
2. La Maschera del Demonio Black Sunday (1960) 5.0 - Italy

[maxwelldeux]

1. Phenomena (1985, Italy)
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