Movieline Online

THE FLICKS: Italy might not be the cinematic cradle of life, but it’s produced enough influential auteur and films of record to fill up an opera house. Unfortunately, the name “Valerio Zurlini” often doesn’t even make the bill, let alone earn a standing ovation. With a much more modest output than contemporaries Fellini or Visconti (just 8 features over 20 years, as the DVD liner notes point out), the director is finally getting some exposure thanks to NoShame’s box set, featuring simply stellar prints of Violent Summer and Girl With A Suitcase. Odds are you’ve never heard of either film, so let’s start with Violent Summer, the more powerful film of the two (although Claudia Cardinale’s performance in the latter certainly earns some props). A younger man, mature woman love story with the usual complications – and its share of unusual, as well – Eleonora Rossi Drago is a 30-year-old WWII widow living an unfulfilling life of privilege. Jean-Louis Trintignant is an 18-year-old in the same...

THE FLICK: Steven Spielberg has often expressed his admiration for the career of John Ford, a director whose body of work encompassed over a 100 films and stretched through 5 decades. That kind of prolific output is all-but impossible in today’s Hollywood system, but Spielberg has certainly picked up the pace in the last few years, turning out A.I., Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can, The Terminal, and War of the Worlds in fairly quick succession. Intentional or not, the rather hectic schedule has seemed to reinvigorate him while many of his contemporaries are slowing down. And Munich, rushed into production immediately after the Tom Cruise sci-fi blockbuster, finds the director working with some high-profile political topics wrapped inside a ‘70s style thriller. It’s not always successful, but as with John Ford, there’s something to be said for a director who keeps himself busy. Using the incident at the 1972 Munich Olympics as a jumping off point, during which 11 Israeli athletes w...