Great Italian Directors Collection (4-Disc Set) (DVD)

DISC 1: BOCCACCIO '70: SPECIAL EDITION (1962) A summit meeting of great Italian directors of the era, Boccaccio '70 is an antipasto platter of vintage sex symbols and naughty material starring Sophia Loren (Yesterday Today & Tomorrow), Anita Ekberg (La Dolce Vita) & Romy Schneider (The Trial). Cooked up and bankrolled by Carlo Ponti and American producer Joseph E. Levine, the four-part film was meant to tap the international smash of Fellini's La Dolce Vita, which gave audiences some refreshingly, you know, "mature" subject matter. Four directors were hired to create segments ostensibly based on the tales of Boccaccio: Federico Fellini (in the lull between La Dolce Vita and 8-1/2), Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica, and Mario Monicelli. DISC 2: CASANOVA '70 (1965) Marcello Mastroianni (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) portrays the handsome lover Casanova pitted against a thoroughly modern woman in this classic film from two-time Academy Award Nominated writer / director Mario Monicelli (For Love and Gold, The Organizer). "Casanova" is a legendary hero often depicted in movies, but this time he is portrayed with a slightly different problem - the only time he's "in the mood" is when he feels that he is in danger. His job as NATO officer offers plenty of opportunity for his sexual arousal problems to be assuaged. DISC 3: STORY OF A LOVE AFFAIR: SPECIAL EDITION (1950) From acclaimed two-time Academy Award Nominated director Michaelangelo Antonioni (Blow-up, The Passenger)! Paola (Lucia Bose) is the beautiful and jealously-guarded younger wife of a shady factory owner, Enrico Fontana (Massimo Girotti). In order to investigate her romantic history he hires a private detective, which ironically brings Paola back into contact with former lover Guido, with whom she resurrects a lost passion. Dogged by the suspicions of their respective mates, they are drawn closer to each other in the face of adversity, and begin to plot Enrico's demise. But when the challenge of being together falls away, will the passion start to wane?