Umberto Contarello

Writing

Umberto Contarello

Born 1958-07-13 · Padova

Acting credits

Caro diario poster
7.3

Nanni Moretti recounts in his diary three slice-of-life stories marked by a dry, ironic gaze: in the first, he rides his Vespa through a deserted, sun-drenched summertime Rome; in the second, he visits a reclusive friend on an island, who ropes him into an impromptu journey between islets in search of quiet; and in the last, he finds himself grappling with an unknown illness.

Caro diario

1993

Il Divo poster
7.6

Italy, early '90s. Calm, clever and inscrutable, politician Giulio Andreotti has been synonymous with power for decades. He has survived everything: electoral battles, terrorist massacres, loss of friends, slanderous accusations; but now certain repentant mobsters implicate him in the crimes of Cosa Nostra.

Il Divo

2008

L'infinito poster
NR

An autobiographical bittersweet drama centered on Contarello’s rapport with his daughter.

L'infinito

2025

What Do You Know About Me poster
7.0

Until the 1970s, Italian cinema dominated the international scene, even competing with Hollywood. Then, in just a few years, came its rapid decline, the flight of our greatest producers, a crisis among the best writer-directors, the collapse of production. But what are the true causes and circumstances of this decline? In an attempt to provide an answer to this question, Di Me Cosa Ne Sai strives to depict this great cultural change. Begun as a loving examination of Italian cinema, the film transformed into a docu-drama that alternates between interviews with the great names of the past and fragments of cultural and political life of the last 30 years. It is a travel diary that shows Italy from north to south, through movie theatres; television-addicted kids; Berlusconi and Fellini; shopping centers; TV news editors; stories of impassioned film exhibitors and directors who fight for their films; and interviews with itinerant projectionists and great European directors.

What Do You Know About Me

2009

Bits & Pieces poster
5.0

Dive into the Eternal City – see Rome like you’ve never seen it before. Storefront robberies, bizarre murders, career dreamers, and cameos from Italy's foremost directors and actors feature in this star-studded omnibus tale about life and love.

Bits & Pieces

1996

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Bidoni

1995

Behind the camera

The Great Beauty poster
7.5

Jep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.

The Great Beauty

2013

This Must Be the Place poster
7.0

A bored, retired rock star living in Ireland sets out to find his dead father's tormentor, an ex-Nazi war criminal who is a refugee in the U.S.

This Must Be the Place

2011

Loro poster
6.7

Internationally released Director's Cut of "Loro 1" and "Loro 2", which were released separately as two movies in Italy. The film talks about the group of businessmen and politicians – the Loro (Them) from the title – who live and act near to media tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi in the years between 2006 and 2009.

Loro

2018

Loro 1 poster
6.8

"Loro", in two parts, is a period movie that chronicles, as a fiction story, events likely happened in Italy (or even made up) between 2006 and 2010. "Loro" wants to suggest in portraits and glimps, through a composite constellation of characters, a moment in history, now definitively ended, which can be described in a very summary picture of the events as amoral, decadent but extraordinarily alive. Additionally, "Loro" wishes to tell the story of some Italians, fresh and ancient people at the same time: souls from a modern imaginary Purgatory who, moved by heterogeneous intents like ambition, admiration, affection, curiosity, personal interests, establish to try and orbit around the walking Paradise that is the man named Silvio Berlusconi.

Loro 1

2018

Me & You poster
6.2

An introverted teenager tells his parents he is going on a ski trip, but instead spends his time alone in his mom's basement. But things didn't go as planned after his half sister joins him.

Me & You

2012

Wherever You Are poster
4.8

A doctor's life takes a mysterious turn when his ambulance plunges into a river.

Wherever You Are

2004

Vesna Goes Fast poster
6.1

Czech immigrant Vesna arrives in Italy and is forced into casual prostitution by poverty. The encounter with a kind construction worker could help change her situation.

Vesna Goes Fast

1996

L'infinito poster
NR

An autobiographical bittersweet drama centered on Contarello’s rapport with his daughter.

L'infinito

2025

L'infinito poster
NR

An autobiographical bittersweet drama centered on Contarello’s rapport with his daughter.

L'infinito

2025

Loro 2 poster
7.1

"Loro", in two parts, is a period movie that chronicles, as a fiction story, events likely happened in Italy (or even made up) between 2006 and 2010. "Loro" wants to suggest in portraits and glimps, through a composite constellation of characters, a moment in history, now definitively ended, which can be described in a very summary picture of the events as amoral, decadent but extraordinarily alive. Additionally, "Loro" wishes to tell the story of some Italians, fresh and ancient people at the same time: souls from a modern imaginary Purgatory who, moved by heterogeneous intents like ambition, admiration, affection, curiosity, personal interests, establish to try and orbit around the walking Paradise that is the man named Silvio Berlusconi.

Loro 2

2018

La passione poster
6.3

To avoid being sued, a film director reluctantly agrees to set up and direct the Good Friday celebrations in a small Tuscan town.

La passione

2010

Don't Waste Your Time, Johnny! poster
6.2

In 1976, Faustino, an aspiring guitarist wasting away his teenage years in a sleepy town, gets what could be his big break when he joins the summer tour of a washed-up maestro from the big city.

Don't Waste Your Time, Johnny!

2007

Il toro poster
6.7

After being fired from his bull breeding job without proper compensation, Franco steals a world-class bull from his former employer and smuggles it to Hungary, planning to sell it for a large sum of money.

Il toro

1994

Volare poster
6.6

The true story of Andrea and Franco Antonello, a father and autistic son who traveled by motorbike for three months between the United States and South America.

Volare

2019

Marrakech Express poster
7.3

After learning that an old friend of theirs has been arrested in Morocco on drug charges, four former college buddies set out for Marrakech to bail him out.

Marrakech Express

1989

Rino Gaetano - Ma il cielo è sempre più blu poster
6.7

No synopsis available yet.

Rino Gaetano - Ma il cielo è sempre più blu

2007

The Missing Star poster
6.8

Vincenzo, former head of maintenance of a steel plant that's been outsourced, travels from Italy to China to warn about a defective blast furnace.

The Missing Star

2006

Light of My Eyes poster
6.7

Antonio is a fallen angel, a rootless chauffeur who relates only to the lonely heroes in the science fiction novels he grew up with. Only through a chance meeting with Maria, a woman struggling to hold onto her daughter and her business, does he discover a hope that's been in his detached existence.

Light of My Eyes

2001

Holy Tongue poster
6.4

Two deadbeat friends see the opportunity of turning their fortune around after they come into possession of a precious stolen relic, the tongue of St. Anthony of Padua.

Holy Tongue

2000

The Slow Game poster
6.0

In an atmosphere between fiction and reality, a rugby game in the suburbs becomes the allegory of the daily struggle of an Italian family against the trials and tribulations of life.

The Slow Game

2009

The Vice of Hope poster
6.4

To support her family, Maria works as a trafficker of surrogate mothers, transporting them from place to place along a river — but when one disappears, Maria is left with the task of finding her and must enter deeper into a world she wishes to escape.

The Vice of Hope

2018

The Game Bag poster
7.5

In late summer 1991, three Italians reach a hunting reserve in Croatia with a station wagon. They go to deer, but, unaware of what's in store for months, they do not decipher the enigmatic signs that surround them. One of the three is suddendly wounded in the knee by a bullet of unknown provenance, and they end up in a hotel targeted by snipers night and day.

The Game Bag

1997

Casanova's Return poster
6.0

Leo Bernardi is a successful and acclaimed Italian director. He’s approaching the end of his career but he cannot accept his slow decline. He has just finished shooting his last movie and he’s deeply sad. The movie is inspired by the novel about Casanova written by Arthur Schnitzler, a character so similar to the director, even more than he could imagine. Schnitzler’s Casanova is aged, glory days are over: he lost his charm and his attraction to women, he’s broke and no more eager to travel through Europe. After a long exile, he just wants to go back to Venice, his homeland. While traveling home Casanova meets a girl, Marcolina. She reawakens his desire, lost for years. So, he tries to seduce her but that leads him to a tragic understanding: he’s an old man now. It’s not by chance that Leo Bernardi decided to tell this story right now, in a pivotal moment of his life and career. The destiny of both Casanova and his director leads them to a final confrontation.

Casanova's Return

2023

Missione di pace poster
4.0

No synopsis available yet.

Missione di pace

2011