Shoeshine (1946)

In its homeland, this is called Sciuscià, a cognate, because that is what the shoeshiners say when trying to get customers. I guess post-WWII Italy had a pretty strong American presence. Regardless, shoeshine has vanishingly little to do with the plot. It's merely how homeless 15-year-old Pascuale (Franco Interlenghi) and younger housed but impoverished pal Giuseppe (Rinaldo Smordoni) make money early on, before things start happening. Perhaps the point is that they occupy a humble place in society. And/or that they soon come to wish they had stuck with their first job, which might have sufficed if they weren't saving up for a horse.

After unwittingly taking part in a scam, Pascuale and Giuseppe go to separate five-boy cells in juvie. Since one of the uncaught deliberate criminals is Giuseppe's older brother, Attilio (uncredited, like most of the cast), the duo agrees not to spill. This gets harder when Pascuale worries about Giuseppe's well-being, but Giuseppe is not apt to be grateful, or even forgiving, for being spared at the expense of Attilio. How well can friendship survive in this environment, even with the prospect of escape?

The Earrings of Madame de... (1953)

So much for my earlier decision not to see this. Eh, I have changed some in seven years. Anyway, yes, that is the entire title, tho it's just Madam de... in the original French. Whenever her surname would be given, it is completely drowned out, interrupted, or visually blocked. I still don't know the purpose -- maybe trying to convey that all sorts of women are like her? At least we know her first name, and the significance of her jewelry becomes apparent almost immediately.

In what I take to be the 19th century, Louise (Danielle Darieux) has been so profligate in her Parisian decadence that she sees fit to sell the earrings her husband, André (Charles Boyer), gave her for their wedding. To save face, she claims to have lost them, but the jeweler (Jean Debucourt) sells them back to André, who gives them to his mistress (Lia Di Leo), who sells them to pay off her own debts. Their next buyer, Fabrizio (Vittorio De Sica), just happens to run into Louise and fall for her....

Allegro Non Troppo (1976)

It's rare for me to take a movie suggestion from an anonymous online stranger, especially when I'm sure I won't have the same opinion. In this case, someone claimed that ANT is even better than Fantasia, which it openly mimics. I discovered that it's not available on Netflix but can be watched in its entirety for free on YouTube. And it's only 85 minutes.

To be honest, I didn't even watch all 85 minutes, because I skipped most of the live-action sequences, which run longer than in F. These sequences, depicting the filmmakers before and after the animations, are typically comedic, but they're certainly not the main draw (no pun intended). Just try finding those clips separate from the rest. As for the musical parts, well, they vary in mood as well as value. I'll review each in order of presentation.

Luca (2021)

Some folks got the impression that this was a remake of The Little Mermaid. It is a Disney cartoon movie about an adolescent human-fish combo from off a European coast who takes great interest in the surface realm, especially human culture, despite parental insistence that humans are too deadly (and doesn't know what to do with a fork). But that's about where the similarity ends.

The title character (Jacob Tremblay) is not a merperson in the usual sense. He looks more like a cute distant cousin to the Amphibian Man from The Shape of Water, except that any part of him that gets dry (which happens ridiculously fast) looks perfectly human. We don't know a term for his species besides "sea monsters," and since they tend to call humans "land monsters," I'd expect them to use another term for themselves.

Anyway, Luca stops merely daydreaming about the surface after he meets Alberto (Jack Dylan Grazer), a slightly older sea monster who encourages a more adventurous lifestyle. When Luca's parents (Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan) plan to send him to live with his deep-sea uncle (Sacha Baron Cohen), he and Alberto decide to hide in the fictitious Italian coastal town of Portorosso, where it appears to be the late '50s. They'd love to get their hands on a Vespa motorscooter, and a possible way soon presents itself: win a local junior triathlon. Of course, the swimming segment won't be so easy when there's a longstanding tradition of spearing sea monsters on sight....

The Rose Tattoo (1955)

Well, what do you know: I didn't shy away from another adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play. Perhaps its Academy nomination for Best Picture told me to give it a try.

In small-town Mississippi, immigrant seamstress Serafina (Anna Magnani) copes especially poorly for three years following sudden widowhood and miscarriage. After hearing a rumor of late husband Rosario's infidelity, she has a public breakdown. Trucker Alvaro (Burt Lancaster) takes her home, and the two gradually fall in love. But Serafina still has enough pride to worry about people learning of them, especially her teen daughter, Rosa (Marisa Pavan), whose budding relationship with a sailor (Ben Cooper) has been met with strict maternal suspicion.

Ford v Ferrari (2019)

I took this long to get to this Academy Best Picture nominee because, apart from the DVD wait time, it sounded predictable. Another auto race flick, and judging from respective reputations, I could guess who won by virtue of underdog status. Still, it is nonfiction, however loaded with anachronisms and other errors, and has two highly watchable leads.

In the 1960s, Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts) is furious that his company has become something of a laughingstock. Who should answer his demand for a good idea but Lee Iacocca (Jon Bernthal), who taps former champion racer turned auto company founder Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) to design a car that might break Enzo Ferrari's (Remo Girone) winning streak at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Shelby makes controversial, job-threatening decisions in this effort, not least in insisting that the main tester and racer be broke mechanic Ken Miles (Christian Bale, in one of the few times I've heard him act with a British accent), who is excellent on both counts but hard to work with.

The Irishman (2019)

I knew I wasn't going to love this. Martin Scorsese fare is rarely even moderately enjoyable to me. But it is one of the most championed contenders for Academy Best Picture this year, and as a Netflix original, it's already available for streaming. I started early in the evening, because at 209 minutes, it's the longest mainstream feature in decades.

Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a Philadelphia trucker, gets into '50s organized crime, including "painting houses" with the blood of the homeowners, despite quiet disapproval by his wife and daughter (played in adulthood by Anna Paquin). After helping him escape a charge, his defense attorney (Ray Romano) introduces him to crime lord Russell Buffalino (an oddly placid Joe Pesci), who in turn connects him with Teamsters Union pres Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Sheeran and Hoffa stay close for about 20 years, which is not a particularly good thing when the latter is infamous....

Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019)

Ah, Quentin Tarantino, one of the directors I have the most mixed feelings about. As a rule, I take his name as a warning yet find his movies pretty good, if typically overrated. Why make this the second Best Picture nominee I see for the year? Well, it happened to be showing at a convenient time for me, I didn't trust either parent to want to watch with me, and I'd already watched the 1994 adaptation of Little Women twice.

Set chiefly in 1969, OUaTiH follows Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), former star of a western TV series; and Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), his buddy and former stunt double. The biggest contrast between them is in how they handle the decline of their careers: Rick cries at the realization of it and then struggles to recover, but Cliff is content to have become something of a butler to him. Also, Rick hates hippies while Cliff takes an interest in one of them -- until he discovers just how unruly she and her friends are. They are the Manson Family....

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)

As I predicted, I got around to seeing a second adaptation of the same Patricia Highsmith novel. I'm glad I waited, because I could no longer remember much of what happened before. Nevertheless, looking back over my review of Purple Noon, I noticed a number of differences, some of which reportedly hew closer to the source material.

In the '50s, a New York shipping magnate (James Rebhorn) mistakes master of fakery Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) for a former classmate of rebellious son Dickie (Jude Law) and hires him to fetch Dickie from a prodigal life in Italy. Tom becomes a friendly third wheel to Dickie and girlfriend Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow) but soon reveals his mission, which he utterly fails. This does not end Tom's welcome in Dickie's eyes, but when that does run out, the two have a physical fight and Tom kills him. Tom begins telling earlier acquaintances that Dickie is away somewhere and telling later acquaintances that he is Dickie. Offhand, I'd say it's his hardest con job yet. It could be funny if it weren't deadly serious.

The Traitor (2019)

Thanks partly to a late start on my part, I didn't connect with the Meetup group that invited me to this showing, even afterward. Still, I overheard many people discussing it as they left, so I got a good sense of prevailing emotions. It's not the kind of movie you can be quiet about once you've seen it.

Based on a true story and spanning decades, it begins when Tommaso Buscetta is already established as Don Masino, "the Boss of Two Worlds." When he's served a fair amount of time for drug trafficking in Brazil and lost far too many relatives to infighting in the Sicilian Mafia (or Cosa Nostra, as they prefer to call it), he decides to spill all kinds of secrets to the legal authorities. This is almost unprecedented at the time, and you can guess how dangerous it is, especially in areas where Cosa Nostra is actually popular.

Seven Beauties (1975)

Oh, hello, another downer about oppression in Europe. This one stands out first and foremost for making Lina Wertmüller the first woman (of only five to date) to garner an Academy Best Director nomination. If no one had told me, I would not have guessed that a woman directed it.

Pasqualino "Settebellezze" (Giancarlo Giannini) starts as a smooth criminal who will defend his sense of honor in defiance of the law, but as soon as he kills his sister's wretched boyfriend, his life is largely a series of cowardly decisions to maximize his chances of life at the cost of honor. This includes pleading insane, volunteering for the army in World War II, and deserting at the first opportunity. When he ends up in a concentration camp, he puts his ladies' man wiles to the test, hoping to win mercy from the ice-cold commandant (Shirley Stoler).

Purple Noon (1960)

None of my sources explain the English title. I can see how the native French one, Plein soleil, "Full Sun," wouldn't carry over; but I noticed no literal purple, nor do any characters mention it, at least in the subtitles. In any event, it's the first screen adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Master forger Tom Ripley is not exactly a friend to aristocrat Philippe Greenleaf, but they enjoy a bit of mischief together in Italy. Philippe must sense jealousy of his fiancée, Marge, because he grows mean to Tom—until Tom kills him. Tom does a good job of hiding Philippe's body and assuming his identity (except around prior acquaintances), but even a genius doesn't have an easy time keeping up a charade indefinitely....

Tulipani: Love, Honour and a Bicycle (2017)

Dad and I had tentatively planned on seeing several entries in a European showcase at AFI, but we put it off. Tonight was the last night, so we got the initiative just in time. To my slight surprise, Mom came too.

This is one of those rare stories to include flashbacks within flashbacks. In the "present" of 1980, Anna, who has lived mostly in Canada, finds herself and two acquaintances explaining a suspicious death to an Italian policeman. From one standpoint, her relevant story begins only nine days prior, when she sees fit to take her adoptive mother's ashes to the village of Puglia; from another, it starts in 1953, when Gauke, who would become her father, wanders from flooded Holland to Puglia. (Anna learns the story from her acquaintances only within those nine days.) Most of what we see is about Gauke's not-so-uneventful life as a tulip farmer in the area.

Rush (2013)

My idea of fun auto racing is the Mario Kart series; the real thing is even less on my radar than most sports popular in the U.S. So I was in no, eheh, rush to see a movie about it. But given Rush's awards and nominations, not to mention its place in the IMDb top 250, I decided to give it a shot.

Based largely on true events, it depicts two Formula 1 racers who were big in the 1970s. James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) is a party animal and ladies' man. Engineering genius Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl, convincing enough to wow the real Lauda) abandons his aristocratic Austrian business heritage and prefers not to project a congenial air; he is to be feared. By some chance, from their first race together, they form an intense personal rivalry -- but those have a way of growing to resemble friendship, especially when one of the two men has a crisis....

The Big Red One (1980)

I had put this film off, because it runs 162 minutes. How serendipitous that I should get around to it on Memorial Day weekend.

The title's emphasis falls on "One," as in the numeral 1, sported in red by the 1st Infantry Division of the U.S. Army in World War II. Writer-director Sam Fuller was a veteran, which may explain why the narrator, Pvt. Zab (Robert Carradine), says he enlisted in order to get book material. His squad has the curious distinction of five men who never die or get badly wounded while the replacements drop like flies.

Matewan (1987)

I've reviewed political movies before, but this felt a little harder to approach. Part of it comes from having seen a special screening with a loudly pro–labor union audience, where writer-director John Sayles showed up with a lot to say. Still, I decided not to write it off for others right away. If you're like me, then you don't have to agree with a film's message to find it worth watching.

The title is the name of a West Virginia town, whose citizens pronounce it "mate-wan," because they have no regard for tribal origins. In 1920, union organizer Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper in his first silver-screen role) comes to town and finds the coal miners disgruntled but rather weak in resistance to company pressures, particularly in the form of gunmen from the Baldwin–Felts Detective Agency. Upon word that a "red" has arrived, Agents Hickley (Kevin Tighe) and Griggs (Gordon Clapp) take up temporary residence in the same boarding house to throw their weight around, not very daunted by the legalistic sheriff (David Strathairn) and mayor (Josh Mostel). Kenehan makes a name for himself within the budding union, but they don't always cotton to his pacifism, especially under C.E. Lively (Bob Gunton)....

Like Crazy (2016)

AFI’s European Union Film Showcase kicked off with this movie, so my parents figured it was one of the most promising entries and came with me. The Italian title literally translates to “The Crazy Joy,” which we all liked better.

It begins and ends at a mansion converted into a Catholic women’s mental institution, where Beatrice, an aristocrat who used to live there with dignity, is now an involuntarily committed patient. The story gets underway when she takes interest in newly arrived younger mess Donatella, who becomes her roommate. Donatella doesn’t welcome the attention at first, but Beatrice seems to awaken something in her. For pretty much the second half, the two of them run away and attempt to enjoy themselves as long as they can, whether by spending like millionaires despite low funds or by reconnecting with family members and former lovers on the outside.

Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958)

Rififi is my overall favorite film noir. Thus, when a popular Italian movie is advertised as a satire of it, I pay attention. Bonus points for inspiring a Bob Fosse production.

If you've seen one, you can guess what the other's about: a team of safecrackers. Oh, we don't get a half hour without dialog this time; that's even harder to pull off in a comedy. What we do get is one act of incompetence after another, generally by the crooks. Familiar actors include Vittorio Gassman (Bruno in Il Sorpasso) and Claudia Cardinale as a subplot love interest.

Le Notti Bianche (1957)

This is the second foreign romantic drama based on a Dostoevsky novel that I've seen, in this case White Nights. It reportedly takes a number of key liberties with the source material, but that doesn't stop fans of the book from enjoying the movie.

In an unspecified city in winter, lonesome outsider Mario (Marcello Mastroiani) takes interest in stranger Natalia (Maria Schell, impressively shedding her Austrian accent) after seeing her stand on a bridge crying. She gives him highly mixed signals. At first I thought she was just painfully shy, but it turns out that she's been waiting night after night for an unnamed love interest (Jean Marais) whom she half-believes will never return. That rather complicates the decision of how much of a chance to give Mario, who turns down other suitors for her.

Il Sorpasso (1962)

At first I figured that the title translated to "The Overpass." It's actually "The Overtaking," which refers to the many times that the main driver speeds to pass another, and I suspect a metaphorical second meaning. In the English-speaking world, the film is sometimes advertised as "The Easy Life."

On a literal Roman holiday, driver Bruno can't get standard service, so he asks the first stranger he can find to help him phone some friends he plans to meet. That stranger, Roberto, is painfully shy and studying for a law exam, but when it's apparent that the meeting won't happen, he accepts Bruno's spontaneous invitation to do something more holidayish: drive around and pretty much do whatever promises to be fun. Roberto can hardly explain to himself why he's leaving his comfort zone, but Bruno's extremely different personality -- boisterous, cheerful, motor-mouthed, rude without provocation, unruly, mooching, arrogant -- clearly intrigues him.