Franca Valeri
1920 - 2020
Paris, My Love
Vittorio Caprioli
Franca Valeri, Vittorio Caprioli
Parigi O Cara is probably the most camp in the history of Italian cinema, certainly a favourite with the GLBT community who quote its lines by heart. Unique as it's the only film where Franca Valeri (now 90) is the unquestioned star, in the role of Delia, a snobbish, stingy prostitute who is moving to Paris looking for greener and more lucrative pastures. An anti-neorealist, amoral, almost abstract comedy, which anticipates Almodóvar, a ferocious, though gentle, non-moralistic portrayal of the 60's boom and its broken dreams. The dialogue between Delia and her brother (played by Fiorenzo Fiorentini), when he does (or does not) tell her he is a homosexual, is memorable, a primordial coming-out, a masterpiece of allusions. But what makes it one of the first examples of a film with a "gay point of view" is the approach: perceptive, non-conformist, caustically witty. A film ahead of its times, still unbeaten.
Paris, My Love
Il vedovo
Dino Risi
Alberto Sordi, Franca Valeri
Alberto Nardi is a Roman businessman who fancies himself a man of great capabilities, but whose factory teeters perennially on the brink of catastrophe. Alberto is married to a rich and successful businesswoman from Milan, Elvira Almiraghi who has a no-nonsense attitude and barely tolerates the attempts of her husband to keep his factory afloat with her money.
The Widower
Luci del varietà
Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada
Giulietta Masina, Peppino De Filippo
In Italy, Checco Dal Monte manages a troupe of traveling performers with plenty of heart but minimal talent. At a small town engagement, he encounters the starry-eyed, gorgeous Lily Antonelli, and hires her as a dancer on the show. Vivacious Lily quickly sells out crowds and earns the resentment of Checco's mistress, Melina Amour, but the fledgling performer has far bigger ambitions and soon sets her sights on a higher-profile role.
Variety Lights
Totò a colori
Steno
Totò, Mario Castellani
In the first Italian film to be shot in color, Totò portrays a musician named Antonio Scannagatti who strongly hopes to sell his composition, "Epopea italiana", to Tiscordi, who is one of the most important Italian impresarios.
Totó in color
Alberto il grande
Luca Verdone, Carlo Verdone
Alberto Sordi, Franca Valeri
Docu-film directed by Carlo and Luca Verdone realized on 2013 in occasion of the tenth anniversary from the actor’s death happened on 24th February 2003. Through this documentary Verdone’s brothers with deep respect towards the Roman actor trace an affectionate and sincere portrait not only about an Artist but, above all, about a man with his habits, his ideas, his tics, his vices and his virtues. And for the first time Mrs Aurelia – Alberto Sordi’s sister who is dedicated the documentary – opens the doors of the beautiful house of Via Druso where the actor has lived since 1958. In this way we are led by Carlo Verdone (a sort of Virgilio whose Dante Alighieri wrote about but we are not in the Hell but in the Seven Heaven where there is the source of the Italian Cinema) and on the tips and staying in silence we can go into the rooms of this wonderful house which reveals the true, authentic character of Alberto Sordi.
Alberto il grande
Un eroe dei nostri tempi
Mario Monicelli
Alberto Sordi, Franca Valeri
Alberto Menichetti lives with an aunt and an old housekeeper, Clotilde; he has a job in a firm and his boss is Mrs. De Ritis, a widow whose husband was killed during a wild boar hunt. She likes him but Alberto likes Marcella; she is under age and he is awaiting her birthday to declare his love. His greater traits are to be fearful of everything and to be selfish. This nature will get him into trouble..
A Hero of Our Times
