Film Works

SYNOPSES of FILM WORKS
by Franco D'Alessandro

ITALIAN LESSONS - A Wall Street hotshot has long suspected a family secret… A chance meeting with a beautiful Neapolitan woman- is pure fireworks! He follows her to Italy where they uncover the fatal scandal that rocked Naples 35 years ago and unwittingly has drawn them together. A love story hinges on a karmic phenomenon. ©1996/2000
Screenplay.

THE VILLA OF A THOUSAND YESTERDAYS - As the Nazis are driven out of Rome in 1944, Chiara, an Italian woman, loses both her husband and only child. 25 years later the Vietnam War is ending, Matthew, a young man goes to Italy to study and he encounters the reclusive Chiara. The story of an ageless woman, tormented by time…The loner, just back from war…and the mysterious villa, hidden in the hills outside of Rome which brings them together. ©2000, 2003
Treatment (screenplay available August 2004)

CHIAROSCURO - A group of artists struggles in post-war Florence and unwittingly get caught up in the politics, love, intrigue, and betrayal of the time. An American painter falls in love with a young Italian woman, who is an unwitting pawn in the new political game. Her success, years later comes, at a high price. © 1993/2000.
Screenplay

OPEN SEASON - An 'odd couple' forge an unlikely friendship: A 49 year old gay Italian-American District Attorney works with a 29year-old straight hot headed Irish American detective to solve a murder. The unidentified body in the morgue holds the key to this mystery, which has roots in a neo-nazi club. ©1998/2000
Treatment (Draft of Screenplay)

ROMAN NIGHTS - The turbulent and inspirational friendship of legendary actress Anna Magnani and the great playwright Tennessee Williams is brought to life in this dramatic, funny, tragic and revealing story of a 25 year relationship between an artist and his muse. ©1991/1999
Screenplay and Treatment (based on the acclaimed Off-Broadway play) * In pre-production

MOTHERS' DAY (HALF THE STORY) - Three widows (Italian, Jewish and African-American) spend the weekend with their gay sons. These formidable women are all at different stages of their lives and different phases in their relationships with their sons. It is a weekend of family revelation and reconciliation. ©1995/2000
Screen/Teleplay (based on the play) *Under Option

In Development:

HADRIANUS (aka: THE LONELY EMPEROR) - The story of one of the most complex of Roman emperors. Openly homosexual, masculine, intellectual at times brutal…the loss of his young lover Antonius to crocodiles in the river Nile, left the man who held the world in the palm of his hand, lonely and lost. Hadrian was the central figure of Rome's 'five good emperors,' the one most responsible for changing the character and nature of the Empire. Famed historian Edward Gibbon concluded in The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, that the period of Hadrian was the happiest and most revolutionary of mankind's history…Hadrian was also one of the most remarkable and talented individuals Rome ever produced. ©2003, 2004

CLARA (aka: SISTER MOON) - She loved a man who gave up money and power to pursue the most humble of paths. His sheer and unwavering devotion to the true message of Christ stunned the decadent world of Medieval Italy, and moved -if not won- her heart. This is the story of Santa Clara (St. Claire) who loved, followed and inspired the man known as San Francesco of Assisi. © 2001, 2004

MAXIMUM HAPPINESS - Three couples struggle in their marriages before and after 9-11-01. Trips to Venice both save and destroy these relationships. Secrets and betrayals slowly emerge as six people deal with the loss of one man's fiancée and a woman's brother. Repression and anguish explode amidst the romantic backdrop of Venice. Both a soul searching and searing look at modern American relationships and the current plague of opulence and dissatisfaction so many are experiencing. © 2003
Based on the play / Screen adaptation available soon

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Contact (Professional Matters): franco@francodalessandro.com