The Unknown Woman / Cinema Paradiso

THE UNKNOWN WOMAN (LA SCONOSCIUTA), 2006, Outsider Pictures, 118 min. Director Giuseppe Tornatore reunites with composer Ennio Morricone and actress Xenia Rappoport for this suspenseful film noir. Rappoport plays Irena, a Ukrainian immigrant with a tortured past who gets a cleaning job in a bustling Italian city. She develops a pathological fixation on the Adachers, the family for whom she goes to work as maid and nanny, and before long it becomes quite clear that something isn't quite right about the devoted housekeeper. As Irena's violent past reveals itself, shocking connections between her and the Adachers come out in a manner that threatens to destroy them all.

CINEMA PARADISO (NUOVO CINEMA PARADISO), 1988, Miramax, 123 min. A young Sicilian boy who loses his father to war strikes up a friendship with an aging projectionist; eventually the boy takes over his mentor's job and becomes a filmmaker himself, but he loses the love of his life along the way.