What's in a Title? Italian Cinema Volume II Quiz

Answer: Thaïs

"Thais" is believed to be the only Futurist film to have survived the ravages of time. Actually the version kept in Cinémathèque Française in Paris, which is thought to be the only one, is about 35 minutes long, rather than the original 70 minutes, and most of it is in terrible condition. Nevertheless, it's worth sitting through the vague, blurry, shadows that make up much of the film for the wonderful Futurist sets that dominate the final part of the film. The plot is very pedestrian, but it isn't the plot that matters.

Italian Futurism in cinema was a very brief period (roughly 1916 - 1919), and was dominated by Bragaglia who made a handful of films. Despite being short-lived, Italian Futurism was hugely influential, especially on German Expressionism and Russian Futurism in cinema, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Answer: Shoeshine

Giuseppe and Pasquale earn a living as shoeshine boys on the streets of Rome. Most of their customers are American soldiers and the boys' shouts of "sciuscià, Joe?" gave the film its original Italian title: "Sciuscià". They dream of owning the horse Bersagliere, so when they unwittingly help Giuseppe's brother and his cronies rob a fortune-teller, they don't ask themselves too many questions about the rights and wrongs of their actions.

The film is a wonderfully-told tale of ordinary people behaving as people in desperate situations do, without troubling themselves too much about morality. The boys are tricked by adults again and again, and the adults are all tricking each other too.

The portrayal of children and adults interacting in an unsentimental way is something of a trademark of Neorealism, and nobody does it better than De Sica.

"Shoeshine" is on the list of "100 Film Italiani da Salvare/100 Italian Films to Save".

Answer: Totò, Peppino, and the Hussy

The title refers to the two uncles (Totò and Peppino) who have it in for the girl, Marisa (played by Dorian Gray). The nephew is played by Teddy Reno, and the reference to the hussy comes when he is heart-broken and sings a song called "La Malafemmina".

"Totò, Peppino, and the Hussy/Totò, Peppino e... La Malafemmina" is my favourite of Totò's 100-odd films. This is thanks to a couple of classic scenes in which the hapless duo (Totò and Peppino) display all the stereotypes southerners, such as: turning up in Milan wearing bear-skin coats and hats as if they were on a trip to the North Pole; talking to a policeman in a hybrid of French, English and German; and the wonderful scene of them writing a letter to the "malafemmina" which becomes incomprehensible due to their misplaced and inaccurate pomposity.

Prince Antonio Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno De Curtis di Bisanzio Gagliardi, known by his stage name Totò, was one of that rare breed of comedians, like Charlie Chaplin, Eric Morecambe, and Groucho Marx, whose genius is blatantly obvious as soon as they enter the scene. Nevertheless, so much of Totò's comedy is based on idiosyncrasies which only those familiar with Italians would recognize that he is virtually unknown abroad. However, among Italians he is a national treasure and is one of the few things (along with football, pizza and a dislike for the French) that really unites the North and the South. Indeed, Totò is so well-loved that he came 5th in "The Greatest Italian of All Time" TV show, beaten only by Da Vinci, Verdi, Falcone and Borsellino, and Galileo, and beating such luminaries as Dante, Caravaggio, Columbus, Garibaldi, Giotto, Michelangelo, and Marco Polo.

Answer: Divorce Italian Style

The brilliance of "Divorce Italian Style/Divorzio all'Italiana" lies in making the viewer root for such a despicable man as the Baron. Furthermore, it's quite an achievement to get comedy out of statutory rape and honour killings, but Germi manages it, both belly laughs and something much darker.

Marcello Mastroianni plays the profligate uncle, and Stefania Sandrelli his Lolita-esque cousin. Not much of the film is really about their relationship since she is sent away to nunnery.

Marcello Mastroianni was apparently against divorce but had little time for fidelity either. He married Flora Carabella in 1950 and never divorced her despite having steady relationships with numerous other women, starting with Faye Dunaway in the late 1960s. He had a kid with Catherine Deneuve, and flings with Ursula Andress, and Claudia Cardinale amongst others. In the mid-1970s, he met Anna Maria Tatò and they stayed together, albeit probably not monogamously, until his death in 1996.

"Divorce Italian Style/Divorzio all'Italiana" is on the list of "100 Film Italiani da Salvare/100 Italian Films to Save".

Answer: Accattone

The title, "Accattone", refers to Vittorio's nick-name which translates as beggar or tramp. He points out to Stella when she calls him Vittorio that he prefers Accattone because "there are loads of Vittorios but only one Accattone".

Vittorio/Accattone is played brilliantly by Franco Citti in his screen debut. His brutal yet somehow attractive swagger gets that kind of character to a t, and I daresay many an actor (Al Pacino springs to mind) has learned a lot from Citti's moody prowling.

Pasolini was already an eminent poet and novelist when he made his debut film, "Accattone", and he had already worked in film when he collaborated on the screenplay of Fellini's "Nights of Cabiria" (1957).

"Accattone" is on the list of "100 Film Italiani da Salvare/100 Italian Films to Save".

Answer: Gold of Rome

The demand is for fifty kilos of gold to be collected and delivered by the following day, hence the title. Not everybody in the Jewish community agrees that they should even attempt the feat, some saying they should fight back and others that they should trust in God's providence.

"Gold of Rome/L'Oro di Roma" stars two French actors; Gérard Blain and Jean Sorel, the former of whom had starred in Lizzani's "The Hunchback of Rome" with Anna Maria Ferrero (the lead actress here), the latter of whom ended up as Ferrero's husband a couple of years later.

The film is based on the real events of October 1943 when the Nazis swept through the Roman ghetto. The Fascists had been persecuting the Italian Jews since the 1938 Racial Laws, but the Nazis went further and started deporting Italian Jews.

Lizzani brilliantly interweaves very human sub-plots without swaying from the awful truth or indulging in bathos. Lizzani had a fascinating career. He started out as assistant to Neorealist heavyweights such as Rossellini and De Santis, and as director made films of several genres (including a handful about World War II) and lots of documentaries. He was a prominent film scholar, critic and historian, often appearing on TV and at prestigious film festivals.

Lizzani committed suicide by jumping out of a window in 2013 aged 91, just three years after another Italian master of cinema, Mario Monicelli, had done the same thing at the age of 95.

Answer: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Good, played by Clint Eastwood, is "the man with no name", although he is referred to as Blondie in the film by The Ugly, played by Eli Wallach. The Ugly's full name is Tuco Benedicto Pacífico Juan María Ramírez, but The Good calls him The Rat. Finally, The Bad, played by Lee Van Cleef, is referred to as Angel Eyes.

"The Good, the Bad and the Ugly/Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo" is the third film in Leone's Dollars Trilogy. The legions of fans that the trilogy has garnered over the years are always keen to discuss which one is the best, and for my money it's this one. That might be because it was the first one I saw, but I reckon the scene where all three face off in the cemetery is amongst the best in cinema history.

All the red herrings are Sergio Leone films, and "A Fistful of Dollars" and "For a Few Dollars More" are the first two in the trilogy.

Answer: Violent City

"Violent City/Città Violenta" (aka "The Family") boasts an amazing opening sequence featuring romantic bliss followed by an incredible five-minute-plus car chase, and there hasn't been any dialogue yet! The film also boasts a fabulous soundtrack by Italian maestro Ennio Morricone, and sterling performances from Charles Bronson as the hit-man, and Telly Savalas as the crime boss who is after Jeff's services.

"Violent City/Città Violenta" is one of the classier Italian crime thrillers of the 1970s, and it doesn't quite fit into the Poliziottesco genre, partly because it doesn't feature any cops until near the end. Furthermore the setting is non-Italian (The Virgin Islands, New Orleans, and Ohio).

Answer: Cannibal Ferox

Many of the cannibal films, including "Cannibal Ferox", trade on the idea that the civilized white man has actually taught the harmless, innocent, native tribes-people about cruelty and murder, leading to cannibalism, which is of course a convenient premise to indulge in some grisly gore.

One of the more gruesome Italian exploitation booms was the cannibal film, of which "Cannibal Ferox" is one of the nastiest examples. Lenzi had actually anticipated the cannibal film boom, which really hit its stride in the late 1970s and peaked in 1980, with his film "Deep River Savages", aka "Il Paese del Sesso Selvaggio", aka "The Man from the Deep River", which was released in 1972.

Answer: Quo Vadis, Baby?

The title "Quo Vadis, Baby?" refers to a line from the film "Last Tango in Paris" which provides a vital clue to the case.

Critics weren't kind to Salvatores' "Quo Vadis, Baby?", and despite its obvious flaws, I found it a breath of fresh air after years of sickeningly smug Italian films, one such atrocity being Salvatores' breakthrough film, "Mediterraneo".

However, the flaws are there, such as the slightly unbelievable mass of video footage Giorgia's sister, Ada, recorded, and how candid she is in it. Furthermore, a true giallo needs a few more twist and turns than "Quo Vadis, Baby?" provides. Having said that, I enjoyed the dingy look of Bologna compared to the bright lights of Rome which the photography captures. I also quite like all the film references (including the title), although they could have been worked in with a tad more subtlety.