TV Guide: Giancarlo Giannini

Listing: Casino Royale

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:40:00 -0400

Thu Oct 16 09:40 AM TMCe

Listing: Once upon a Crime

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:10:00 -0400

Wed Oct 15 06:10 AM IFC

Video: Blood Red

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:35:43 -0400

Siblings Eric Roberts and Julia Roberts appear in this old-fashioned saga about oppressed Sicilian wine-growers in 19th-century California. Giancarlo Giannini stars as Sebastian Collogero, the robust Italian patriarch who is battling with railroad mogul William Bradford Berrigan (Dennis Hopper) to prevent his land from being taken over by the rail company. Sebastian's spirited son, Marco (Eric Roberts), is in love with Angelica (Lara Harris), the daughter of a rival wine-grower's clan. Marco is not very concerned about the warfare about to erupt between the wine-growers and the railroad until Berrigan's thugs torture and kill Sebastian in front of his daughter Maria (Julia Roberts). Marco then gets his friends together and organizes a revolt against Berrigan and his railroad empire. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide.

Video: Fever Pitch

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:26:34 -0400

Writer-director Richard Brooks' final film features a weak script and poor acting but high energy direction in a tale of compulsive gambling in Las Vegas. Ryan O'Neal stars as Taggart, a sports reporter obsessed with gambling. As Taggart gets deeper and deeper into debt, he compounds his problems with assorted loansharks and gambling operators. Taggart has already lost his wife because of his compulsive gambling, but he takes up with big-timer Charley (Giancarlo Giannini), hoping to make a killing and settle the score. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide.

Video: Seven Beauties

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:57:41 -0400

Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmuller directs the black comedy Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties). During WWII, Pasqualino Frafuso (Giancarlo Giannini) ends up lost in a dense forest along with fellow army deserter Francesco (Piero De Orio). After they witness a mass execution by German soldiers, Francesco admits his moral opposition to the Nazis and Pasqualino reveals his criminal past in a series of flashbacks. Back in Naples, he was known as Pasqualino Seven Beauties, a petty thief who lived off the profits of his seven sisters while claiming to protect their honor at any cost. When Totonno (Mario Conti) pimps out his sister Concettina (Elena Fiore), Pasqualino kills him, chops up his body, and mails each piece across the country. He is then arrested and sent to a mental institution, where he commits sexual assault against another patient. Kicked out of the asylum, he is sent to fight in the army. The Germans capture him and he gets sent to a concentration camp. He then plots to make his escape by demor

Video: Swept Away

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:43:13 -0400

The Mediterranean sea is the backdrop for this social drama from director Lina Wertmuller. While vacationing on a yacht, the wealthy capitalist Raffaella (Mariangela Melato) shouts out orders in between spouting off political opinions amongst her friends. She is especially confrontational to the deck hand and servant Gennarino (frequent Wertmuller leading man Giancarlo Giannini), by demanding that he appear more presentable. Gennarino grows increasingly frustrated by her demands and develops contempt for her independence. When it is nearing dark, Raffaella has Gennarino take her out in the dinghy for a swim. The two find themselves stranded after the motor seizes up and a current sends them drifting out to sea. Eventually finding land, they end up on an uninhabited island and their small boat deflates. Removed from the trappings of society, Gennarino and Rafaella engage in a passionate power struggle fueled by sexual tension and basic survival. Their desperation develops into a strange and cruel love affair t

Video: Cq

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 06:10:15 -0400

The feature debut of Roman Coppola (son of Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola) centers around an international film crew making a low-budget, Barbarella-like feature in Paris in 1969. The film is called Dragonfly and is being directed by Andrzej (G rard Depardieu), who wishes to make a revolutionary work rather than the tacky fluff it is becoming. He is soon fired by the film's Italian producer Enzo (Giancarlo Giannini) when he can't produce a satisfactory climactic scene. After briefly replacing Andrzej with an American horrormeister named Felix DeMarco (Jason Schwartzman), the film's editor and second-unit director, the job is finally handed to Paul (Jeremy Davies). Paul is pleased with the offer, but more devoted to his 16 mm filming of his diary of daily life. He eventually begins to fall for the leading lady (Angela Lindvall), but must retrieve footage of the feature stolen by Andrezej and try to keep the troubled production together. CQ features Billy Zane, Massimo Ghini, and Dean Stockwell in

Video: Hannibal

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:52:32 -0400

Based on the controversial sequel novel of the same name, Hannibal is the much-anticipated follow-up to the Oscar-winning The Silence of the Lambs (1991). Anthony Hopkins returns as Dr. Hannibal Lecter, one of the world's most cunning and feared serial killers, who resurfaces after a decade in hiding to toy with FBI agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore). As Starling's career flounders thanks to a drug bust gone wrong, Lecter attempts to elude a greedy Italian police detective (Giancarlo Giannini) who's willing to alert the authorities to his presence in Florence for a price. In the meantime, a maimed but wealthy former victim of Lecter's named Mason Verger (Gary Oldman) plots to get his revenge on the doctor in a most unusual and grisly fashion. The novel by Thomas Harris was adapted for director Ridley Scott by David Mamet and Steven Zaillian. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide.

Video: Once Upon A Crime

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:36:09 -0400

The murder of a millionaire has unexpectedly humorous results in this farcical comedy. When Phoebe (Sean Young) and Julian (Richard Lewis), two Americans on a tour of Europe, discover a lost dachshund, they learn that a $5,000 reward has been posted for the dog's return. Phoebe and Julian head to Monte Carlo to return the pet and claim the money, but they find that the dog's owner has been murdered -- and suddenly, they're suspects in the killing. As hapless detective Inspector Bonnard (Giancarlo Giannini) investigates the crime (imagining that the maid and butler must somehow be involved), he grills several other American tourists he believes are likely suspects, including gambling addict Augie Morosco (John Candy) and loud-mouthed suburbanites Neil and Marilyn Schwary (James Belushi and Cybil Shepherd). George Hamilton appears as an unusually opportunistic gigolo; former SCTV star Eugene Levy directed. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide.

Video: Arabella

Video Detective — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:22:46 -0400

Apparently in the Italy of the 1920s, the only way to keep your home out of the maws of the tax collector was to steal and cheat from everyone in sight -- and the dupes you'd swindle wouldn't know the difference since all their attentions would be focused upon cheating you. That little bit of homespun philosophy is the only conclusion to be drawn from Arabella, a broad sex-farce enlivened with British comic Terry-Thomas appearing in a quartet of roles, and the sexy Virna Lisi as the title character, who is compelled into chicanery in order to prevent her mother's home from being taken away by the tax man. To raise funds, Arabella rooks money from Terry-Thomas, in various fake beard incarnations as a general, a duke, a hotel manger, and an insurance agent. But while she is busy conning the four Thomases, she steps on the toes of an equally tricky burglar (James Fox) and two young lovers -- Giancarlo Giannini and Melina Vukotic. Arabella ultimately becomes attracted to the burglar. Now she must hold her base an

Video: Dracula's Curse

Video Detective — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 23:45:22 -0400

Dracula's Curse is a television miniseries directed by American filmmaker Roger Young, based on the famous novel by Bram Stoker. Set during contemporary times, the story involves American investment banker Jonathan Harker (Hardy Kr ger Jr.) who lives in Budapest with his Italian fianc e Mina (Stefania Rocca). In order to secure a lucrative real estate deal of Carfax manor, Harker is called to Romania to visit the creepy Count Vladislav Tepes (Patrick Bergin). Looking to recruit more vampires, Tepes moves to Budapest and starts biting all of Harker's colleagues. Research scientist Dr. Enrico Valenzi (Giancarlo Giannini) tries to stop the vampires. Dracula's Curse was broadcast on Italian television in 2002. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide.