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...

An icon of 1970s Italian cinema, he poured himself heart and soul into every part he played. One of the most masterful actors of his generation, Gian Maria Volonté was born in Milan in 1933. He studied his craft at Rome’s National Dramatic Arts Academy. Upon graduating in 1957,  he found work right away in theater and television, quickly earning acclaim for his skilled and passionate performances .  In one of his early roles, he played Ramón Rojo under the stage name Johnny Wells opposite Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s 1964 Spaghetti Western, “A Fistful of Dollars.” A year later, he played the role of a Native American in Leone’s follow up, “A Few Dollars More.”   His breakout role came in Elio Petri’s 1970 “Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto” (Investigation Of a Citizen Above Suspicion) , a satirical film highlighting the corruption among officials in power.  After a newly promoted unnamed police chief (Volonté) murders his mistress (Florinda ...

If you were only to know Nando Irene on social media, you would come to know the three leading forces in his life- his family, his land and his work. He comes from the southern region of Basilicata. Born in Matera, he was raised in the nearby town of Salandra, a beautiful landscape bordered by the region’s signature calanchi mountains and olive groves as far as the eye can see. When he talks about Basilicata, he recounts the past when it was referred to as Italy’s shame and how it has grown through the years to become a major tourist attraction and film set for countless movies including Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and more recently Ben Hur and Wonder Woman .  Irene approaches his craft with the same passion and enthusiasm he has for his land. When he decided to pursue acting as a career, he picked up and moved to Rome. He stayed for nine years, taking numerous courses and making contacts in the industry. It was during those years that he landed his first jobs ...