Roberto Faenza

Director

February 21, 1943 (83 years)

Turin, Piedmont, Italy

Biography

Roberto Faenza (born 21 February 1943 in Turin) is an Italian film director. He received a degree in Political Science and a diploma at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. Faenza made his directing debut in 1968 with the international success, Escalation, a film that describes the different sides of power through the relationship between a middle-class father and his hippie son. Immediately after that he directed H2S, an angry apology of the 1968 movement, seized two days after its relea…

Filmography

6.6

The Soul Keeper

Zurich, 1905. Nineteen-year-old Russian Sabina Spielrein is put by her parents in a psychiatric hospital, suffering from a severe form of hysteria and refusing to eat. A compassionate doctor, Carl Gustav Jung, takes her under his care and, for the first time, experiments with the psychoanalytical method of his teacher Sigmund Freud. Thus is born a sweeping story of love and passion, of body and soul, soaring to the utmost heights, but also plunging to the darkest depths of the 20th century.

6.1

I Vicerè

In late 19th-century Sicily, the noble Uzeda family—whose lineage dates back to the ancient viceroys that ruled those lands—fights to preserve its waning power in the face of the newly unified Italian regime.

5.5

Anita B.

After World War II, Anita, a young survivor of Auschwitz, becomes involved in an intense and passionate affair that almost shatters her until she gains the strength to start a new life.

6.7

Marianna Ucrìa

In 18th-century Sicily, deaf-mute highborn Marianna Ucrìa is forced to marry at age 13, bearing three children before even turning 16, when she finally gives birth to a boy. Despite everything, she'll find a way to emancipate herself from the oppressive social conventions of the time.

6.7

Pereira Declares

Lisbon, 1938. Mr. Pereira is the editor of the culture section of an evening paper. Although fascism is on the rise in Europe, like in nearby civil war Spain or even inside Portugal itself in the form of Salazar's regime, Pereira only concerns himself with writing bios and translating French novels. Things change after he hires a young writer as his assistant, getting to know also his girlfriend – both opponents to the regime – and reluctantly helps them when they begin to get in trouble for subversive activities. Eventually, he's forced to take a stand...

4.9

The Case of Unfaithful Klara

In Prague, a musician is consumed by jealousy for his beautiful girlfriend. He hires a private eye to spy on her, but the plan backfires...

5.8

Copkiller

A NYPD officer imprisons and tortures an admitted cop-killer, but finds the tables turned when his victim refuses to break and in fact urges more punishment.

9.0

The Bachelor

In pre-WWI Austria-Hungary, a physician struggles with his decision about which woman will he marry.

8.0

Forza Italia!

Much-censored documentary encompassing thirty years of Italian politics under the governance of the Christian Democracy (DC), entirely composed of — occasionally dubbed — archival footage.

5.5

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You

Precocious yet sensitive teenager James has a deep perception of the world but no idea how to live in it. Finding no help from his divorced parents nor his older memoir-writing sister, he decides to reject the beliefs adults try to push on him, starting with the college career that is looming over his last summer in New York, and embarks instead on a search for wisdom through nontraditional means...

5.8

The Days of Abandonment

Olga's life is shattered when her husband leaves her. This makes her fall into a period of self-degradation and self-destructive behaviors.

5.9

H2S

Young student runs away from a 1984-esque dictatorship, lives for a while with a crazy girl in a surrealistic “igloo” in snowy wilderness and then returns to lead a revolution against the oppressive system. Sci-fi tale consistent with the political climate of May 68.

7.1

Come Into the Light

In 1990s Palermo, Pino Puglisi is a priest from the neglected Brancaccio neighborhood dedicated in helping kids to get off the streets and creating an embracing place of hope and solidarity in his church, which means trouble for the local Mafia. He continues his solitary fight until the bitter end.

6.5

Hill of Vision

Italy, WWII. After his anti-fascist mother is arrested, Mario spends his childhood on the streets. In 1947 they are miraculously reunited and start a new life in America. Based on the life of Mario Capecchi, 2007 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

N/A

Dopo il buio

Roberto Faenza's Nouvelle Vague-inspired graduation film at CSC, shot in 1964 with a then-unknown Raffaella Carrà in the lead role.

3.7

The Lost Lover

After their son dies, a Jewish family moves from London to Israel in an attempt to piece their lives back together. The mother finds a way out of her depression through a relationship with a younger man—which doesn't seem to bother her husband. Meanwhile, their daughter begins dating a Palestinian handyman.

6.5

Look to the Sky

A Jewish boy living in Amsterdam at the onset of World War II is taken to a concentration camp with his parents. Based on the memoir of Holocaust survivor Jona Oberski.

5.5

Il delitto di Via Poma

Rome, August 7, 1990. 20-year-old Simonetta Cesaroni is killed with 29 stab wounds in her workplace in broad daylight.

5.9

La verità sta in cielo

In 1983 an English journalist travels to Italy to investigate the mysterious disappearance of a young vatican girl.

7.0

Si salvi chi vuole

The daughter of a bourgeoisified Communist MP and a permissive housewife brings home her latest boyfriend, a Neapolitan scoundrel.