Giuliano Montaldo

Director

February 22, 1930 (93 years)

† September 5, 2023

Genoa, Liguria, Italy

Biography

Born in 1930 in Genoa. Still a young student in 1950 when director Carlo Lizzani gave him a role in the film Achtung Banditi!. Following this experience he traveled to Rome where, after acting in film and theatre, he became the Assistant Director of Lizzani, Gillo Pontecorvo, Sergio Leone, Francesco Rosi. In 1960 he made his debut as a Director with Tiro Al piccione, a film about the Partisan Resistance, on competition at the 1961 Venice Film Festival. In 1964 he directed La Moglie Svedese, an e…

Filmography

6.7

Marco Polo

The life of the 13th-century Venetian explorer who sought to connect the civilizations of China and Europe through trade.

6.3

A Genius, Two Friends, and an Idiot

Expert conman Joe Thanks teams up with half-breed Bill and naive Lucy to steal $300,000 from the Indian-hating Major Cabot. Their elaborate plan is full of disguises, double-crosses, and chases, but Joe always seems to know what he's doing.

7.7

Sacco & Vanzetti

Boston, 1920. Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are charged and unfairly tried for murder on the basis of their anarchist political beliefs.

6.1

Machine Gun McCain

After serving 12 years behind bars for armed robbery, tough guy Hank McCain finds himself the pawn of a ruthless mob runt's rebellion against a high level don. When McCain discovers that he's been betrayed and abandoned by his new employer, he retaliates with a high stakes Las Vegas casino heist that erupts into all-out war on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Neither blood, nor lust, nor wedding vows can come between McCain and his money ... or his machine gun.

6.4

Giordano Bruno

Fleeing from his enemies in the Catholic Church, the free thinking philosopher, poet and scientist Giordano Bruno has found some protection in Venice. But the Roman Inquisition, fearing his influence in Europe, wants to bring him on trial for 'heresy'.

6.8

Closed Circuit

At the local cinema, an audience watches a Spaghetti Western matinee. During the film's on-screen climactic duel, a bullet is fired into a patron. With no leads and a theater full of suspects, police investigators lock the doors, put everyone back in their seats, and run the movie again. But will this shot in the dark reveal the real killer?

7.0

A Dangerous Toy

A meek accountant buys himself a gun and finds out he's a natural marksman. After the friend who introduced him to shooting is killed by gangsters, he seeks revenge.

6.9

Kapo

Determined to survive at any price, Edith, a young Jewish woman deported to an extermination camp, manages to survive by accepting the role of kapo, a privileged prisoner whose mission is to ruthlessly guard other prisoners.

5.6

Control

An experiment of psychological effects under stressful conditions in a shelter. When fifteen strangers are put into a nuclear shelter to see how long they can survive without interaction with the outside, things work out fine.

6.2

The Gold Rimmed Glasses

A Jewish couple and a homosexual doctor fall to prejudice and scandal in 1938 Italy.

6.6

And Agnes Chose To Die

After the Nazis take her husband away, an illiterate old washerwoman joins the Resistance as a bike courier in the Central Italian countryside.

5.5

The Fifth Day of Peace

Based on a true story. Near the end of World War II, two German deserters are put in an Allied POW camp. When a rigid and militaristic German colonel learns about their desertion, he wants them court-martialed, even if the war is over. The uninterested Allied officers oblige him, and the two men face the firing squad on "the fifth day of peace".

7.1

Grand Slam

Professor James Anders is a seemingly mild-mannered teacher, an American working in Rio De Janeiro. Anders, bored with years of teaching, decides to put together a team to pull off a diamond heist during the Rio Carnival. Four international experts are brought together to carry out the robbery: a safe cracking expert, a master thief, a mechanical genius, and a playboy.

6.8

The Assassin

Suave antiques dealer Alfredo Martelli is picked up by the police with no justification. At the precinct, Martelli realizes what the investigation is all about-- that he is the main suspect in the killing of his wealthy ex-lover. Is he guilty, or is he just a sleaze?

7.2

Pigeon Shoot

Young man Marco Laudato, after the '8/9/1943's WW2 armistice, enlists in the Italian Social Republic army, attending the last days of the old regime in decay.

5.5

The Demons of St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg, 1860. After a member of the imperial family is assassinated, Fyodor Dostoevsky meets one of the conspirators, who reveals that his comrades are planning another attack to the Tsar's life. Plagued by debts and struggling to finish his latest novel, Dostoevsky must act fast to call off the plot.

4.9

Time to Kill

During the invasion of Ethiopia in 1936, a wounded Italian soldier ends up stranded in the desert after a truck wreck. He makes his way to the nearest army hospital, losing his sanity in the process.

5.3

The Entrepreneur

A small industrialist from Turin, who inherited the business from his father, finds himself facing a serious economic crisis with unease. This crisis is echoed by personal crises: misunderstandings with his wife and intemperance towards those around him.

8.5

Turandot

From the world famous Arena of Verona, an international cast perform one of Puccini's best loved operas. The cruel Princess Turandot, ruler of China, will only wed a prince who can answer correctly her three riddles. Those who fail are executed. Prince Calaf, son of the exiled king of Tartary, falls in love with Turandot as soon as he sets eyes on her, and despite the protestations of his friends and family sets out to pass her test.

6.3

The Wide Blue Road

Squarciò, a fisherman, lives with his family on a small island off the Dalmatian coast of Italy. Like his fellow villagers, Squarciò struggles against harsh living conditions, a scarcity of fish in nearby waters and exploitation by the local wholesaler. But while the other fishermen continue to use nets, he goes out to the open sea to fish illegally with bombs. But Squarciò borrows money, loses his boat, and in a moment of supreme desperation, has to bomb directly off-shore, causing the hatred and rejection of his fellow fishermen. Trying to save his family, Squarciò and his young sons sail their new boat out beyond the local waters and bomb-fish again. But this time, the sea exacts a terrible toll…