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Locked-Down Cinema
Film reviews of all the films I should have seen but didn't...
What do you do if you receive a Christmas present that is a membership to the British Film Institute when there's a pandemic on...?
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"The Organizer", Dir: Mario Monicelli, 1963
it features the actor in a very uncharacteristic role as a scruffy bespectacled academic in a film about 19th century Italian mill workers
Ravi Swami
Sep 11, 20243 min read
18 views
0 comments
Amarcord, Dir: Federico Fellini, 1973
"Amarcord" roughly translates as "I remember" and the film is a semi-autobiographical recounting of life in an Italian village...
Ravi Swami
Feb 25, 20238 min read
511 views
0 comments
"The Conformist", Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970
Bernardo Bertolluci's 1970 film "The Conformist, based on a novel of the same title by Alberto Moravia and available to rent on YouTube..
Ravi Swami
May 23, 20227 min read
174 views
0 comments
"C'eravamo Tanto Amati", Dir: Ettore Scola, 1974
Having discovered the Italian actress Stefania Sandrelli over my lockdown viewing I was curious to seek out other films she has starred in..
Ravi Swami
May 17, 202210 min read
274 views
0 comments
"Planet Of The Vampires", Dir: Mario Bava, 1965
Mario Bava's 1965 Italian-Spanish film "Planet of The Vampires" seems to have generated a considerable cult following..
Ravi Swami
May 8, 20224 min read
30 views
0 comments
"Il Bell'Antonio", Dir: Mauro Bolognini, 1960
"Il Bell'Antonio" (Eng: "Handsome Antonio") is included in a line-up of films either written /adapted by or directed by Pier Paulo Pasolini.
Ravi Swami
Mar 5, 20225 min read
212 views
0 comments
"The Red Desert", Dir: Michaelangelo Antonioni, 1964
Vitti was able to demonstrate her range as an actress in the preceding trilogy and her role in "The Red Desert" is no exception..
Ravi Swami
Feb 15, 20226 min read
24 views
0 comments
"Love In The City", Dir's: Various (Fellini, Antonioni), 1953
"Love In The City" (Italian: "Amore in Citta") uses a similar faux-documentary style broken down into chapters...
Ravi Swami
Jan 31, 20224 min read
31 views
0 comments
"Rififi", "Bob Le Flambeur", "Big Deal On Madonna St", Dir: Dassin, Melville, Monicelli, '55,'56,'58
As per usual, I watched these three films - all first-time viewings - out of chronological order...
Ravi Swami
Jul 26, 20216 min read
79 views
0 comments
"The 10th Victim", Dir: Elio Petri, 1965
The film opens with shots of modernist buildings in New York as a woman (Ursula Andress in a brown wig) is being pursued...
Ravi Swami
Jul 18, 20214 min read
23 views
0 comments
"Boccaccio 70", Dir: Fellini, De Sica, Visconti, Monicelli, 1962- Part#2
As promised in Part #1 of a review of "Boccaccio 70", and since I felt each film in the portmanteau deserved a separate review..
Ravi Swami
Jul 3, 20216 min read
129 views
0 comments
"Boccaccio 70", Dir: Fellini, De Sica, Visconti, Monicelli, 1962- Part#1
With a running time of over 3 hours, I would normally have given "Boccaccio 70" a wide berth..
Ravi Swami
Jun 29, 20214 min read
126 views
0 comments
"Cinema Paradiso", Dir: Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988
Giuseppe Tornatore's much lauded and garlanded film about a love affair with cinema, "Cinema Paradiso"..
Ravi Swami
Jun 4, 20217 min read
211 views
0 comments
"La Visita" / "The Visit", Dir: Antonio Pietrangeli, 1963
"La Visita" stars Sandra Milo as "Pina" - by this point a regular in Pietrangelo's films - with the French actor François Périer as "Adolfo"
Ravi Swami
May 29, 20216 min read
224 views
0 comments
"The Bachelor"/ "Lo Scapolo", Dir: Antonio Pietrangeli, 1955
I came across his 1955 "Commedia All'Italiana" film starring Alberto Sordi, an actor most associated with the genre...
Ravi Swami
May 29, 20213 min read
47 views
0 comments
"Les Amants", Dir: Louis Malle, 1958 & "Adua and Her Friends", Dir: Antonio Pietrangeli, 1960
There's nothing particularly thematic to connect these two films that I watched recently, one on BFI Player and the other via Amazon Prime..
Ravi Swami
May 23, 20219 min read
109 views
0 comments
"La Bella Di Lodi" / "The Girl From Lodi", Dir: Mario Missiroli, 1963
This time Sandrelli is cast as "Roberta", a young go-getter from a wealthy family with interests in agriculture and real estate...
Ravi Swami
May 11, 20215 min read
115 views
0 comments
"Il Bidone"- with commentary, Dir:Federico Fellini, 1955
That said, I watched "Il Bidone" - a film that could best be described as the least "Fellini-esque" of his work...
Ravi Swami
Mar 31, 20215 min read
25 views
0 comments
"Ieri Oggi Domani", Dir: Vittorio De Sica, 1963
Outside of Italy, Sophia Loren tends to be more well-known for a number of blousy, big-budget Hollywood films..
Ravi Swami
Mar 23, 20216 min read
107 views
0 comments
"Alfredo Alfredo", Dir: Pietro Germi, 1972
I was expecting a comic romp along the lines of "Seduced and Abandoned"..
Ravi Swami
Mar 13, 20215 min read
151 views
2 comments
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Thanks for your interest in Lockdown Cinema. For more information, feel free to get in touch and I will get back to you soon! - Ravi
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