Fantastic five disc box set featuring the superb acting talent of LUCA ZINGARETTI, star of the hit TV detective show Inspector Montalbano Titles included are Cefalonia, Perlasca ,Calling Inspector Marotta, By The Light Of Day and Borsellino: The 57 Days
It was one of the most notorious atrocities of World War II - and inspired the bestseller Captain Corelli's Mandolin.8 September 1943 proved to be a fateful day for the Acqui Division, part of the predominantly Italian force occupying Cefalonia: it was the day the Allies concluded an armistice with Italy. Confusion now reigned between the Italian and German troops stationed on the island. The Italians longed to return peacefully to their homeland, but the Germans - now their enemies - feared that the Italians might use their munitions in a hostile act. As Nazi reinforcements invaded the island, the Italian troops did something extraordinary. Following a democratic referendum involving soldiers of all ranks, rather than surrender to the Germans they elected to fight.Their stance culminated with the siege of Argostoli. The Italians bravely held out, but the Germans prevailed. Now regarding their former allies as traitors, they inflicted a terrible reprisal on the Italians in a bloody, week-long massacre. Louis de Bernires' reflected this atrocity in his novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which was brought to the big screen in 2001in an adaptation starring Nicolas Cage and Penlope Cruz.Winner of the prestigious Magnolia Award for Best TV Film at the 2006 Shanghai International TV Festival, CEFALONIA is scripted by Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli (Romanzo Criminale, The Best of Youth) and directed by Riccardo Milani (The Soul's Place).
The Son's Room, which picked up the 2001 Palme d'Or at Cannes, marks a departure for writer-director Nanni Moretti. The films that made his name outside Italy, Dear Diary and Aprile, were both highly personal and politicised semi-documentaries, and a strong political sense underlies the half-dozen or so features he made before them. By contrast, The Son's Room is a subtle, intense study of a family cracking apart under the impact of grief, with no overt political element. For all that, it's the most moving film that Moretti's yet made. "It captured me" he says "more than any other [story] I'd worked on previously. It's a film in which the director shares his emotions with the audience, without imposing his own feelings." As usual, the director plays his own lead character. Here he's Giovanni, a successful psychiatrist in a provincial Italian city (Ancona on the Adriatic coast). He has a beautiful wife, happy in her own career, and two bright, good-looking teenage children, a son and a daughter. Then, out of nowhere, tragedy strikes and in its aftermath, the fissures begin to show in the idyllic façade. Giovanni in particular reveals the insecurities and neuroses lurking behind his tolerant, easy-going demeanour. Moretti homes in on his characters with clear-eyed compassion, never milking the tragedy for facile sentiment but sparing us nothing of the gut-wrenching grief they feel. Nor does he succumb to the temptation of a feel-good happy ending: we are left with a hint of hope for the future, but no more. This is intelligent, mature filmmaking that respects its audience. On the DVD: The Son's Room comes to disc with just the trailer--and the flabby US trailer at that. A commentary from Moretti would have been more than welcome. Still, the transfer, in the original 1.66:1 ratio, is impeccable, with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound to match. --Philip Kemp
Nanni Moretti ('Dear Diary') writes, directs and stars in this story of family grief and bereavement. Psychiatrist Giovanni (Moretti) lives happily with his family in a small Italian coastal town. One Sunday he is due to spend time with his son Andrea (Giuseppe Sanfelice), when he receives an anguished call from Oscar, one of his patients, and feels he must go and see him instead; however later that afternoon Andrea accidentally drowns in a diving accident. Over the following weeks, Giovanni, his wife Paola (Laura Morante), and daughter Irene (Jasmine Trinca), remain shell-shocked with grief; with Giovanni suspending his practice, and relations between himself and Paola becoming increasingly difficult. When a letter then arrives from a girl who Andrea had met the previous summer, who none of the family knew anything about, they all become curious to learn more about this person who meant so much to their departed son and brother. Extras: Interview with Nanni Moretti and Laura Morante - Cannes Film Festival 2001
A Z-grade movie producer is given a second chance in this Italian comedy drama.
Zavvi Exclusive Steelbook - Limited to 1000 copies. A gripping action-thriller from the director of Taken and the producer of The Matrix and Non-Stop, The Gunman stars Oscar-winner Sean Penn as a former military operative dragged into a deadly cat and mouse game. With Penn in his first action role, and a top-notch cast including Javier Bardem and Idris Elba, The Gunman is a high-octane must-see.
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