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At the heart of Blood Brothers is an impossible friendship. On one side is Nicola (Franco Nero), who returns to Naples during the 20's to become a lawyer. He clashes with Don Gaetano Fungillo (Fabio Testi), the leader of the "Guappi", the local Camorra. This sectarian organisation is deeply rooted in the life of the city. Nicola studies law to change the system from within. Don Gaetano, in turn, lands on the other side of the bars. Both are of course also divided by a woman, embodied by Claudia Cardinale. About ten years ago I bought all relevant DVD releases from Koch Media. Among them the jewelry version of Blood Brothers with a thick booklet and cardboard box. When I recommend the Mafia epic to customers of our video store, I always compare it to the works of Visconti. And director Pasquale Squitieri adds a political note to the action by fading in images from the 60s at the end. Nothing has changed. 

Film List on CINEGEEK.DE Claudia Cardinale 

Claudia Cardinale, THE female film star of post-war Italian cinema and certainly of her era, has died at the age of 87. Raised in Tunis in a family with Sicilian roots, she came to film in 1957 after winning a beauty contest in Tunis. She had to be dubbed for her first roles, as she grew up speaking French. Those familiar with her biography know that she became pregnant at an early age in an abusive relationship. For years, she passed her son off as her little brother. He was born in 1958 and grew up with his grandparents. By 1963 at the latest, she was internationally famous thanks to Fellini's 8 1/2 and Visconti's The Leopard (in whose epic Rocco And His Brothers she appeared in 1960). These films paved her way to Hollywood; Blake Edwards' Pink Panther was also made in 1963, followed by Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West in 1968. You will surely notice that she appeared in four of the best films of all time in a short period of time! In the early 1970s, however, she suffered a career setback when she separated from producer Franco Cristaldi. Cristaldi called for a boycott of Cardinale. At the end of the 1970s, she appeared in a mini-series by Franco Zeffirelli, Jesus of Nazareth, and in 1982 in Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo (and that makes five of the best films of all time!). Unlike Brigitte Bardot, for example, we are familiar with Cardinale's films. In this sense, she is not a star, but above all an ACTRESS who also had a theater career. What we know about Cardinale as a person is that she stood for the independent, free-spirited women of her time and appeared at a meeting with the Pope wearing a miniskirt. Later, she turned almost entirely to the theater, where she achieved great success. In 2002, she visited us in Berlin and was honored for her life's work—a life that, according to Cardinale, encompassed more than 150 lives! 

Film List on CINEGEEK.DE Robert Redford 

Robert Redford was an actor, director, mentor, and activist. He was both approachable and larger than life. He was more handsome than most Hollywood stars, yet we never felt distant from him. He founded the Sundance Film Festival, forever changing the landscape of indie film. FILM would certainly not be the same without Robert Redford, because thousands of people are in the business today thanks to Sundance. He used his power for good causes. Since 1967, since Barefoot in the Park and especially since Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the film that appeals to every audience. Take a look at the list and you'll get an overview of American filmmaking as a whole!

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This superficially beautiful film adaptation does not have much in common with F. Scott Fitzgerald's prose. But that is probably true of most literary adaptations, because although the film remains faithful to the original in terms of the external plot, it does not capture the mood and spirit of the original. Many believe that Fitzgerald, who came from the Midwest, IS Gatsby: a man who simply replaces his humble roots with a new personality. And yet something always remains out of reach for him: the lost love of his youth. In fact, if you read contemporary film reviews, there were even concerns about whether the late Robert Redford could embody Gatsby at all. Was Redford too masculine, too handsome, too self-confident? Or do you think Redford is the romantic man doomed to failure? As far as I understand the novel, Gatsby remains the romantic from the Midwest despite his crooked dealings. But his idealism is doomed to failure by his ruthless wealth. Does that come across in the film? I think that without having read the novel, you'll hardly be able to penetrate the mystery of Gatsby. And his great love, Daisy Buchanan? In the novel, Gatsby doesn't understand that Daisy is simply not good enough for him. In the film, thanks to Mia Farrow's nervous performance, we don't understand why Gatsby thinks Daisy is good enough for him at all. 

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Peter Bogdanovich's film about the Great Depression is like a tribute to the filmmaking of the time. We experience the story of Addie, a little girl. Addie sees the world just as it is and that's probably why she almost never smiles (although she can't get down either!). Paper Moon starts at her mother's grave, whose interests certainly weren't for her daughter. A photographer tells us that Addie's mother was the worst kind. Addie herself looks like a tomboy in a flannel shirt with a cap. During the funeral, an ancient car approaches at the last minute with a Bible salesman who could possibly be Addie's father. His name is Moses and he is played by Ryan O'Neil. Both sell Bibles to widows who allegedly ordered the deceased men, and Addie does even better than her teacher. The Bible deception is used by Bogdanovich on the one hand as a game that joins the two together - but on the other hand it is also deeply moving.