Italian Cinema Today

Claudia Cardinale in a scene from   “Il magnifico cornuto” The world said goodbye to one of the last greats of Italy’s Golden Age of cinema and the commedia all’italiana genre when legendary actress Claudia Cardinale passed away in September at 87. She appeared in dozens of films throughout her career, which spanned six decades, and she worked with the likes of Federico Fellini , Luchino Visconti and Sergio Leone on iconic projects that have stood the test of time.  One of her greatest talents was comedy, and one of her best comedic performances was in Antonio Pietrangeli’s 1964 film “Il magnifico cornuto” (“The Magnificent Cuckold”), in which she plays a beautiful young wife married to a wildly jealous older man. The story centers on Andrea (played by Ugo Tognazzi ), a charming but often foolish man who unwittingly becomes tangled in a web of romantic and social misunderstandings created by his own deceit.   The couple is happily married until one evening, when And...

Born in 1931 in the southern region of Campania, Ettore Scola followed in the footsteps of his mentor, friend and colleague, Federico Fellini, getting his start writing for the Rome-based satire newspaper, Marc'Aurelio. He grew up reading the paper to his blind grandfather, with many of those sketches and jokes written by a very young Fellini. Scola joined the paper's staff after Fellini moved on, but the two met through mutual colleagues and became close friends. During his career as a writer and director, Scola won six David di Donatello’s (the Italian equivalent of the Oscar) and was nominated four times for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. He has dozens upon dozens of titles to his credit, but a few of the most popular are the 1974 ensemble masterpiece, "C'eravamo tanto amati" (We all loved each other so much), the 1965 "Lo conoscevo bene" (I Knew Her Well), directed by Antonio Pietrangeli, starring Stefania Sandrelli and the 1977 Academy Award...