News

Prior to becoming an actor, Giancarlo Giannini, who on March 6 will be getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, studied electronic engineering, a skill he’s been known to put to good use even on movie sets.

“I was meant to start working on the first artificial satellites, or on the first computers at Ibm,” the Italian film and theater thesp recalls. But then Giannini enrolled in acting school and soon was given major roles, first by Franco Zeffirelli and then by Lina Wertmüller, with whom he went on to make nine movies that brought them both international fame.

“I owe it to Lina that I will be getting the star. The only other Italian actor who has one is Rudolph Valentino,” he notes.

Before traveling to Los Angeles, Giannini spoke to Variety about his career journey and what he learned from Anna Magnani, Marlon Brando and Marcello Mastroianni.

Arrow Offers Classic and Cutting Edge Cult Cinema June Lineup Highlights New Shorts, Genre Classics & Exciting Collections: "London, UK - Arrow Video is excited to announce the June 2021 lineup of their new subscription-based Arrow platform, available to subscribers in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The June lineup leads with a selection of short films curated by the creative team behind The Stylist, one of Arrow's most popular titles. The collection highlights the work of women in horror, in front of and behind the camera. These eight films include Tristan Risk's Reptile House, her take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Alchemia, Ticks and Connor Sandheinrich's deeply unsettling Unsafe Spaces.

The exciting new shorts are joined by the Arrow premiere of a number of classic titles for horror fans: Chopping Mall, Witchboard, Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre, Twins of Evil, The Quiet Earth and the Daimajin trilogy.

June 1 will...

Years Of Lead: Five Classic Italian Crime Thrillers 1973-1977 will be available on Blu-ray June 22nd from Arrow Video. The titles are: Savage Three (1975), Like Rabid Dogs (1976),, Colt 38 Special Squad (1976), Highway Racer (1977) and Highway Racer (1977),

The 1970s were a time of intense uncertainty and instability in Italy. Political corruption and widespread acts of left and right-wing terrorism, alongside a breakdown in social cohesion and a loss of trust in public institutions such as the government and police, created a febrile atmosphere of cynicism, paranoia and unexploded rage. Throughout this period, these sentiments found expression in a series of brutal, often morally ambiguous crime thrillers which tapped into the atmosphere of violence and instability that defined the so-called Years of Lead.

This box set gathers five films from the heyday of the “poliziotteschi” – the umbrella term used to describe this diverse body of films. In Vittorio Salerno’s Savage Three (1975) and...

Guest reviewer Lee Broughton returns with more vintage Spaghetti Westerns. Prolific Italo western star Anthony Steffen shoots first in Alberto Cardone’s gothic vengeance drama Blood at Sundown, and plays the revenge game straight up in Mario Caiano’s A Coffin for the Sheriff. The double bill disc also features appearances by genre stalwarts Gianni Garko, Erika Blanc and Eduardo Fajardo.

A Coffin for the Sheriff & Blood at Sundown

DVD

Wild East Productions

Color / Street Date January 8, 2014 / 19.95

Starring: Anthony Steffen.

Directed by Alberto Cardone & Mario Caiano

Reviewed by Lee Broughton

Blood at Sundown

1966 / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / 1000 dollari sul nero /

Starring: Anthony Steffen, Gianni Garko, Erika Blanc, Carlo D’Angelo, Sieghardt Rupp, Angelica Ott, Roberto Miali, Daniela Igliozzi, Gianni Solaro, Franco Fantasia, Carla Calo.

Cinematography: Gino Santini

Film Editor: Romeo Ciatti

Art Director: Amadeo Mellone

Original Music: Michele Lacerenza

Written by Ernesto Gastaldi, Vittorio Salerno

Produced by Marlon Sirko

Directed by...

German cult home video heroes Camera Obscura are at it again, rescuing an Italian gem from the dustbin of history. This time around it is director VIttorio Salerno's No, the Case is Happily Resolved from 1973, and it is a doozy that combines some of the best elements of the contemporary film scene in Italy at the time. As far as I can tell, this film has never had an English friendly release on home video, but this is definitely one to check out for fans of European thrillers of this era. Fabia Santamaria is going about his own business one day on a casual fishing trip to a local lake when he inadvertantly stumbles upon the brutal murder of a prostitute. As he's walking...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

German cult home video heroes Camera Obscura are at it again, rescuing an Italian gem from the dustbin of history. This time around it is director VIttorio Salerno's No, the Case is Happily Resolved from 1973, and it is a doozy that combines some of the best elements of the contemporary film scene in Italy at the time. As far as I can tell, this film has never had an English friendly release on home video, but this is definitely one to check out for fans of European thrillers of this era. Fabia Santamaria is going about his own business one day on a casual fishing trip to a local lake when he inadvertantly stumbles upon the brutal murder of a prostitute. As he's walking...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...