Mario Bonnard
Directing
Biography
Mario Bonnard (24 December 1889 – 22 March 1965) was an Italian actor and film director. Bonnard was born and died in Rome. He began his cinematic career as an actor becoming a popular romantic lead in numerous silent films made before World War I. In 1917, he ventured into film directing for the first time. Before the arrival of sound films he worked for a period in Germany in films directed by Luis Trenker. Back in Italy in 1932, he became a prolific director working with the major stars of the time as: Assia Noris, Elsa Merlini, Amedeo Nazzari, and Luisa Ferida. Il feroce Saladino (1937) was the most popular of his films of the 1930s. During the war he continued to work. In the post World War II period his films, ranging from comedies to period dramas enjoyed much success. However, today he's no longer well known. One of his last films was The Last Days of Pompeii (1959). An illness made him leave production early, so the film was completed by Sergio Leone. His brother was the composer Giulio Bonnard, who frequently wrote film scores for Mario's productions.
Known For
Glaucus, a demobilized centurion returns home to Pompeii to find his father murdered by a gang of black-hooded Christian robbers that terrorizes the city and he decides to investigate the matter while the nearby volcano threatens to erupt.
The Last Days of Pompeii
Brigitte Bardot stars in this romantic thriller about love and high treason in WWI-era Italy. Matinee idol-turned-filmmaker Mario Bonnard directs this opus.
Night of Love
During the period between world wars, vaudeville sketches were popular before film showings.Gastone is one of the characters played by the famous Ettore Petrolini who figures in these sketches.
Gastone
The construction of great temple dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite, followed by new and high taxes and the arrival of a plague, create discontent in the population, and threatens the love between a sculptor and a slave.
Aphrodite, Goddess of Love
During the absence of her husband, who left for a fishing cruise in the seas of China, Carmela falls under the spell of Vito, a young fisherman.
The Promise
No description available.
Satan
A scientist combines two brains during an operation to create one perfect mind.
Stasera sciopero
Struggle for the Matterhorn (German: Der Kampf ums Matterhorn) is a 1928 German-Swiss silent drama film co-directed by Mario Bonnard and Nunzio Malasomma and starring Luis Trenker, Marcella Albani, and Alexandra Schmitt. The film is part of the popular cycle of mountain films of the 1920s and 1930s. Art direction was by Heinrich Richter. Based on a novel by Carl Haensel, the film depicts the battle between British and Italian climbers to be the first to climb the Matterhorn. Trenker later remade the film as The Challenge in 1938.
The Fight for the Matterhorn
The leader of a gang of Spanish mercenaries falls for a beautiful princess. Thing get dicey, however, when an imprisoned leader is freed and comes calling.
Rome, 1585
The city of Pola is being evacuated after the peace conference of 1947 decided to assign the sovereignty to Tito's Yugoslavia. However the main character decides to stay, thinking that Communism might bring him a better future. Life turns to be hard for him and his family until he changes his mind, but he is killed before he can leave the country.
City of Pain
Based on a Victor Hugo play, and scored with music from the later opera by Giuseppe Verdi, the film tells about a hunchbacked clown whose beautiful daughter falls in love with the lecherous king.
The King's Jester
While Rodolfo tries to become a lyric singer, his lifestyle deeply annoys his father-in-law.
Mi permette babbo!
A witty tram driver helps out a jobless girl in wartime Rome.
There's Room Up Ahead
Peppino, a fishmonger on Campo de' Fiori, a famous Roman marketplace, works alongside Elide, a greengrocer, who has a soft spot for him, despite the fact they argue all day long... But neither Peppino, nor his friend Aurelio, the barber, are interested in getting married. Until he meets the beautiful Elsa...
The Peddler and the Lady
No description available.
Jeanne Doré
Cesare Mancini is a tram driver who lives in Bologna. One day he accidentally hits a woman on a bicycle, the accident costs Cesare the relegation to a ticket seller.
They Stole a Tram
An eccentric millionaire brings together four men who, under different circumstances, wanted to commit suicide. The proposal made to them is the following: they will travel to an islet that, according to legend, emerged from the sea when Atlantis sank and that houses a fabulous treasure buried by the Incas. But that territory is populated by the worst band of pirates and evildoers the world has ever known.
The Golden Abyss
No description available.
Frine cortigiana d'Oriente
A married woman hits a pedestrian with her car who requests that she must perform a particular punishment as a penance.
30 Seconds of Love
After an argument with her husband, an unsatisfied wife suffers from selective amnesia. She doesn't recognize the man she married and calls her doctor husband instead.