Rosemarie Magdalena Albach, known professionally as Romy Schneider, was a German-French actress. She is regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time and became a cult figure due to her role as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the Sissi trilogy in the mid-1950s. She later reprised the role in a more mature version in Luchino Visconti's Ludwig (1973). She began her career in the German Heimatfilm genre in the early 1950s when she was 15. Schneider moved to France, where she made successful and critically acclaimed films with some of the most notable film directors of that era. Coco Chanel called Romy “the ultimate incarnation of the ideal woman.” Bertrand Tavernier remarked: “Sautet is talking about Mozart with regard to Romy. Me, I want to talk of Verdi, Mahler…”
Giancarlo Giannini is an Italian actor and voice actor. He won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in Love and Anarchy (1973) and received an Academy Award nomination for Seven Beauties (1975). He is also a four-time recipient of the David di Donatello Award for Best Actor.
Jennifer O'Neill is a Brazilian-born American author, model and former actress. Born in Brazil, and moving to the United States as an infant, she first came to prominence as a teenage model, as well as for her spokesperson work for CoverGirl cosmetics, which began in 1963 and spanned three decades. She made her feature film debut in the comedy film For Love of Ivy (1968), followed by a lead role in Howard Hawks's Western film Rio Lobo (1970).
Love and Anarchy is a 1973 Italian film directed by Lina Wertmüller and starring Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato. The story, set in Fascist Italy before the outbreak of World War II, centers on Giannini's character, an anarchist who stays in a brothel while preparing to assassinate Benito Mussolini. Giannini's character falls in love with one of the women working in the brothel. This film explores the depths of his emotions concerning love, his hate for fascism, and his fears of being killed while assassinating Mussolini.
Swept Away is a 2002 adventure romantic comedy film written and directed by Guy Ritchie; it is a remake of Lina Wertmüller's 1974 Italian film of the same name. The film stars Ritchie's then-wife Madonna and Adriano Giannini with a supporting cast featuring Bruce Greenwood, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Elizabeth Banks.
Red Desert is a 1964 psychological drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Monica Vitti and Richard Harris. Written by Antonioni and Tonino Guerra, it was Antonioni's first color film. Set in Northern Italy, the story follows a troubled woman who is unable to adapt to her environment after an automobile accident.
Ludwig is a 1973 English-language epic biographical drama film co-written and directed by Luchino Visconti. The film stars Helmut Berger as King Ludwig II of Bavaria and Romy Schneider as Empress Elisabeth of Austria, along with Trevor Howard, Silvana Mangano, Helmut Griem, and Gert Fröbe. It is the third and final part of Visconti's "German Trilogy", following The Damned (1969) and Death in Venice (1971).
Rocco and His Brothers is a 1960 drama film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori, Katina Paxinou, Roger Hanin, Paolo Stoppa, and Claudia Cardinale in one of her early roles. Set in 1960 Milan, it tells the story of a migrant family from southern Italy and its disintegration in the society of the industrial north.
The Leopard is a 1963 epic historical drama film directed by Luchino Visconti. Written by Visconti, Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Enrico Medioli, Pasquale Festa Campanile, and Massimo Franciosa, the film is an adaptation of the 1958 novel of the same title by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.
Mariangela Caterina Melato, sometimes billed as Maria Angela Melato, was an Italian actress. She is most remembered for her roles in films of director Lina Wertmüller, including The Seduction of Mimi (1972), Love and Anarchy (1973), and Swept Away (1974). In cinema, she also appeared in films of Claude Chabrol, Elio Petri and Vittorio De Sica, and on stage in productions by Dario Fo, Luchino Visconti and Luca Ronconi. Her roles in English-language films include the 1980 science fiction film Flash Gordon.
Franco Mannino was an Italian film composer, pianist, opera director, playwright and novelist.
Giuseppe Patroni Griffi was an Italian playwright, screenwriter, director and author.
A Night Full of Rain is a 1978 Italian American film directed by Lina Wertmüller and stars Candice Bergen and Giancarlo Giannini.
Glass Houses is a 1972 American drama-romance film released by Columbia Pictures in 1972, but it was filmed in 1970. It is of interest in film history because of the credentials of its key personnel.
Indian Summer is a 1972 Italian romantic drama film directed by Valerio Zurlini and starring Alain Delon, Sonia Petrovna, Renato Salvatori, Alida Valli, Adalberto Maria Merli, Salvo Randone and Lea Massari. The version released in France and West Germany runs less than the Italian cut.
Lili Marleen is a 1981 West German drama film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder that stars Hanna Schygulla, Giancarlo Giannini, and Mel Ferrer. Set in the time of the Third Reich, the film recounts the love affair between a German singer who becomes the darling of the nation, based on Lale Andersen, and a Swiss conductor, based on Rolf Liebermann, who is active in saving his fellow Jews. Though the screenplay uses the autobiographical novel Der Himmel hat viele Farben by Lale Andersen, her last husband, Arthur Beul, said the film bears little relation to her real life.
Rina Morelli was an Italian film and stage actress. She appeared in 34 films between 1939 and 1976. Her husband, Paolo Stoppa, was an Italian stage and film actor, as well as a renowned Italian language dubber for American film stars.
Specializing in the field of drama, with particular attention to the drama of its national heritage, the Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico has played a key role in the Italian film and theater scene and is currently headed by Professor Luigi Maria Musati. It has prepared artists such as Margherita Buy, Vittorio Gassman, Luigi Lo Cascio, Anna Magnani, Nino Manfredi, and Monica Vitti. Other former alumni include Antoniano, Manuela Arcuri, Mino Bellei, Carmelo Bene, Dirk van den Berg, Giuliana Berlinguer, Alessio Boni, Alberto Bonucci, Giulio Bosetti, Renato De Carmine, Ennio Fantastichini, Gabriele Ferzetti (expelled), Scilla Gabel, Domiziana Giordano, Michele Placido, Luca Ronconi, Gian Maria Volonté and Lina Wertmüller.
Black Journal is a 1977 Italian black comedy film directed by Mauro Bolognini. It is loosely based on real-life serial killer Leonarda Cianciulli, who killed three women between 1939 and 1940, and turned their bodies into soap and teacakes. It stars Shelley Winters, Max von Sydow, Renato Pozzetto and Alberto Lionello, with the latter three in a dual role as both the victims of the killer, in drag, and those who apprehend her.
The Intruder is an 1892 novel by the Italian writer Gabriele D'Annunzio. It is known as The Victim in the United States. It tells the story of the dandy Tullio Hermil who is habitually unfaithful to his patient and loving wife Giuliana, until the wife eventually does the same and becomes pregnant with another man's child. The book was published in English in 1897, translated by Georgina Harding.
