Rare Italian Movies
- Sergio Leone's final Western, "Duck, You Sucker" arrived in theaters in 1971. It followed his 1969 classic "Once Upon a Time in the West." Leone rose to fame in the 1960s with his trilogy of spaghetti Westerns starring Clint Eastwood, "A Fistful of Dollars, "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Leone's final film would be 1984's "Once Upon a Time in America," an epic gangster film starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. Subsequent to achieving notoriety in the film world, "Duck, You Sucker" remains the least recognized and publicized of his motion pictures.
- Bernardo Bertolucci's 1981 film "Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man" starred Ugo Tognazzi and Anouk Aimee. The plot of the film centers on a kidnapping. It is still only available on VHS in the U.S. It was the last film Bertolucci made before 1987's "The Last Emperor," which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Carlo Di Palma, who worked with Woody Allen on numerous movies, did the cinematography for the film. The score was written by famous Italian film composer Ennio Morricone.
- Still not available on DVD in the United States, "The Lady Without Camelias" was one of Michelangelo Antonioni's first films. Released in 1953, it starred Lucia Bose. It tells the tale of a working-class girl who is transformed into a famous actress. Antonioni would go on to achieve worldwide acclaim with such films as "Red Desert" and "Blow-Up."
- "Love in the City" is a 1953 Italian movie featuring a number of vignettes or separate stories, directed by various filmmakers. One of the stories is directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and another by Federico Fellini. The film is available on DVD only in Europe. The participation of both Antonioni and Fellini is significant, because two iconic filmmakers worked on the same film early in their directorial careers.
