Feodor Chaliapin Jr.

The Name of the Rose

14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.

Buffalo Bill, Hero of the Far West

Colonel William Cody, alias Buffalo Bill, intends to put an end to the dishonest relations between a gang of white swindlers and the Indian, Yellow Hand. So he goes to the chief of Yellow Hand's tribe, Wise Fox, and tries to convince him to sign a peace treaty with the Federal troops. In order to avoid this, Yellow Hand abducts Wise Fox's daughter, pretending that the soldiers have done it.

Moonstruck

37-year-old Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini believes she is unlucky in love, and so accepts a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Johnny, even though she doesn't love him. When she meets his estranged younger brother Ronny, an emotional and passionate man, she finds herself drawn to him. She tries to resist, but Ronny, who blames his brother for the loss of his hand, has no scruples about aggressively pursuing her while Johnny is out of the country. As Loretta falls for Ronny, she learns that she's not the only one in her family with a secret romance.

Max & Jeremie

Even among bombers and murderers, there is a social ladder, a hierarchy to climb. Jeremie is a mere bomber who blows up people and places for mobsters in Paris. He may not look it, scruffy lad that he is, but he is a sensitive fellow, and he feels his lowly status keenly. If only he could graduate to the ranks of hitmen, who are honored in his world, perhaps then he would feel more like somebody. He finally gets his chance when he receives instructions to kill the eminent hitman Max, who knows too much to be left alive. Instead of planning a cool and distant hit, Jeremie gets to know his quarry personally and thereby gets entangled in a mass of conflicting allegiances. Max has one more assignment and has asked Jeremie to help him with it. The hero-worshipping boy can't bring himself to knock of this classy guy. However, just having such an inept apprentice as Jeremie around is enormously dangerous for the soon-to-be-retired killer.

Black Velvet

Crystal, a wealthy, scorned woman living in a massive Egyptian palace with her daughter Magda, finds commiseration in a dried-up Hollywood expat who surrounds himself with singing children.

Rossini! Rossini!

An funny, witty and bright biopic by the master of italian comedy Mario Monicelli about the famed italian composer Gioacchino Rossini, here portrayed in a wonderful way by famed actor and later director Sergio Castellitto.

Petersburg Elegy

The story about the life of Shaliapin’s family, and an emotional generalization of the life of people in modern Leningrad.

Inferno

A young man returns from Rome to his sister's satanic New York apartment house.

The Seesaw and the Shoes

This short shows how two objects led to important discoveries. Children playing with a seesaw inspire French physician Rene Laennec to invent the stethoscope, and a pair of shoes made of caoutchouc lead Charles Goodyear to discover the process for vulcanizing rubber.

The Inner Circle

Life changes for a Moscow worker when he's made Stalin's personal film projectionist but cannot tell his bride.

Catacombs

In the 17th century, an order of monks in Italy capture and entomb a demon that has possessed a member of their group. 400 years later, school teacher Elizabeth Magrino visits the monastery in order to do some research. What she and the current monks do not realize is that the evil hiding within the catacombs has unwittingly been released.

Paganini

Legendary "devil violinist" Niccolo Paganini sets all of 19th century Europe into frenzy.

The Mask

A debauched nobleman offers himself to a beautiful woman, but she is repelled by his advances. He dons a mask and tries again, and this time is more successful. But the mask cannot conceal the evil in his soul.

Modì

The life of Amedeo Modigliani, a painter and a genius.

The Ship of Lost Men

A young doctor gets stuck on a ship after treating an injured first mate. Later, he rescues a woman from plane wreckage, and with the help of the cook, he hides her away from the rowdy and dangerous crew.

Sodom and Gomorrah

Lot leads his people to a fertile valley adjacent to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, hotbeds of vice and corruption ruled by the merciless Queen Bera. When Lot orders a dam to be busted in order to prevent the destruction of the cities by the attacking Helamites, the queen, in gratitude, allows Lot's people to settle in Sodom. Soon, however, the veneer of civilization begins crumbling as Lot and the Hebrews become corrupted by the Sodomites.

The Gamble

When Francesco returns home with the assumption that his father's wealth will be there to keep him content, he discovers that his father has lost everything to a German countess while gambling.

The Cossacks

Set in the 1850s in Czar Alexander II's Russia, this drama and adventure film focuses on the strife between the Circassian Muslims, led by Shamil and Czar Alexander.

The Church

In a Gothic cathedral built on the mass grave of a Teutonic purge, an ancient discovery by the new librarian will release an unholy maelstrom of madness, violence, and demonic vengeance.

Transplant

To satisfy his wife, an elderly man has to have a penis transplant and is willing to pay a lot to do so. Three men are selected, who, for different reasons, are forced to accept; but giving up one's manhood can be more complicated than expected.

Stanley & Iris

An illiterate cook at a company cafeteria tries for the attention of a newly widowed woman. As they get to know one another, she discovers his inability to read. When he is fired, she takes on trying to teach him to read in her kitchen each night.

My Brother Anastasia

Don Salvatore Anastasia, a priest in a seminary in Tropea, Calabria (Italy), gets a ticket to visit his brother in New York. He has never known him, because the brother emigrated illegally in the U.S.A. years before. Upon his arrival in America, he is greeted with much respect, as well as his brother, also from the Italian-American community of Little Italy. Enthusiastic of that, he decided to stay on as assistant pastor in the church of Saint Lucia and bring it to a new shine. Accompanied in New York, his last name, Anastasia, commands respect and, above all, opens the door hitherto locked: his brother, really, is the infamous mob boss Albert Anastasia.

Blood of the Executioner

Set in medieval Venice, this swashbuckler chronicles the courage of an executioner and his godson as they attempt to show that the Grand Inquisitor is in league with murderous pirates.

Balalaika

A Russian prince disguised as a worker and a cafe singer secretly involved in revolutionary activities fall in love.

The Lion of St. Mark

In 1620 pirates are terrorizing the Adriatic coast. Our hero sets out to defeat them.

Herod the Great

Angry at his wife and defeated in battle, the king of Judea is taken prisoner. After being spared by the Romans, King Herod comes to believe he's been a victim of court plotting.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Spain in the 1930s is the place to be for a man of action like Robert Jordan. There is a civil war going on and Jordan—who has joined up on the side that appeals most to idealists of that era—has been given a high-risk assignment up in the mountains. He awaits the right time to blow up a crucial bridge in order to halt the enemy's progress.

The Eroticist

Senator Pupis feels a strong and uncontrollable urge to grab women's bottoms, a habit than can lead to embarrassment, especially if the woman in question is head of another state and the occasion a state visit. In his desperation Pupis turns to the clergy for spiritual and psychological help.

My Life with Caroline

A man thinks his high-spirited wife is cheating on him.

Roma

A virtually plotless, gaudy, impressionistic portrait of Rome through the eyes of one of its most famous citizens.

Salomé

John the Baptist, the prophet of Israel, is imprisoned by Herod, governor of Judea for protesting Herod's marriage to his brother's wife. Jealousies rage and Herod's step-daughter and niece Salome seduces Herod by means of a torrid dance to give her the head of the prophet - but then tries to save the life of the man she has thus condemned. Updated to a WWII setting

La colonna infame

Historical drama, based upon the novel by Alessandro Manzoni.

Three Russian Girls

Another of a wartime cycle of Hollywood films lauding the praises of America's Soviet allies, Three Russian Girls is a remake of Russia's The Girl From Stalingrad. Set just after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the film stars Anna Sten as Natasha, a Red Cross volunteer who is dispatched to a field hospital located in an old pre-revolution mansion. American test pilot John Hill (Kent Smith), who'd been in Russia on a goodwill mission, is wounded in battle and brought to the hospital. As he slowly recovers from his wounds, Hill falls in love with Natasha. A last-act crisis develops when the hospital personnel are forced to move immediately to Leningrad as the Nazis advance.

Mission to Moscow

Ambassador Joseph Davies is sent by FDR to Russia to learn about the Soviet system and returns to the US as an advocate of socialism.

Exile Express

When her scientist-employer is murdered, a female legal immigrant suddenly finds herself being deported via a train full of criminal aliens, g-men, reporters - and foreign agents trying to smuggle her off and into the hands of the murderous gang.

Lost in a Harem

Two bumbling magicians help a Middle Eastern prince regain his rightful throne from his despotic uncle.

A Royal Scandal

Catherine the Great falls in love with an army officer who is plotting against her.

Moonstruck: At the Heart of an Italian Family

Documentary highlighting the development of the screenplay into a film with the desired cast. It also describes the closeness among Italian families, which comes from the kitchen, and how a real Italian father is the source of believability for the film.

Stream Line

Rome, October 16, 1943. The Germans deport the relatives and friends of the little Giacomo Treves who fortunately escapes capture. The child is entrusted by a priest, Don Luigi.

The Seventh Victim

After young Mary Gibson discovers that her older sister Jacqueline has disappeared, she leaves her boarding school and heads to New York City to track down her sibling. But Mary gets drawn deeper into the mystery.

Call of the Blood

Three friends meet a woman on their holiday from city life. Things turn ugly pretty fast.

The Abbey of Crime: Umberto Eco's 'The Name of the Rose'

A German TV documentary that chronicles the daily rehearsals, the filming and all the behind the scenes of Jean-Jacques Annaud's classic "The Name of the Rose". From actors perspectives to the ideas used by the director to produce an impeccable international epic adaptation of Umberto Eco's best selling novel, the film presents the obstacles behind the creation of a production of such large scale and also the making of the many difficult scenes, most of the ones presented here are the characters' murders inside the mysterious abbey.

The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse

The evil Dr. Mabuse develops a death ray with which he threatens the world.

The King's Whore

Set in the 17th-century, an Italian nobleman weds an impoverished countess, who is wooed by the King of Piedmont and faces pressure from his entire court to succumb to his wishes.

An Oral History of: The Name of the Rose

An oral history of the 1986 film adaptation of "The Name of the Rose", gathering together the memories of several members of the surviving cast/crew.