The Return of Cagliostro

The Return of Cagliostro

2003 · 100 min · ★ 7.6 · Comedy

In the Sicily of the late 1940s, two brother sculptors, tired of selling madonnas to the local churches, finally realize their dream, and set up a Sicilian production company, thanks to the help of a local bishop. They start producing one box-office failure Z-movie after the other, all with terribly bad local non-pros as actors. Covered in debts, they finally have their great chance, when a local nobleman obsessed by magic decides to invest all his wealth in the making of a movie about Cagliostro, just one year after Orson Welles' Black Magic (1949). They hire a famous American actor (Robert Englund) and start shooting "The Return of Cagliostro".

Directed by Franco Maresco · Written by Daniele Ciprì

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Cast

Robert Englund Erroll Douglas
Luigi Maria Burruano Carmelo La Marca
Franco Vito Gaiezza Vincent Cusumano
Pietro Giordano Cardinal Sucato / Pino Grisanti
Davide Marotta Dwarf
Franco Scaldati Salvatore La Marca
Mauro Spitaleri Baron
Gino Carista
Giacomo Civiletti Onorevole Porcaro
Carlo Giordano
Tatti Sanguineti Self
Gregorio Napoli Self

Make it a double feature

3h 13m together

The Return of Cagliostro

Toto Who Lived Twice

Both from Franco Maresco.

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The program consists of clips featuring interviews conducted by the two directors with alienated, crazy, and squalid characters against the backdrop of a desolate Sicily. A characteristic feature is the black and white footage. The subjects are all strictly male: there is no place for femininity in absolute squalor and desolation.

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The Italian duo Ciprì & Maresco, known to be cynical deconstructionists, weave a fascinating film around memories of a decadent Sicily. Ruins, memories of ruins - memories are ruins. This thoroughly surrealist piece unfolds like a dream, with no clear direction but the haunting feeling of familiarity and the ready acceptance of otherness as oneness.

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