Young Florentines

Abbott & Costello: Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap [VHS]
$14.98
This film is set in Montana. A stagecoach stops 3 miles from Wagon Gap, a dangerous town. Two salesmen walk the rest of the way. Chester shoots his pistol. "Nice Shooting!" But things look bad until the Citizen's Committee intervene. There will be a trial in the saloon. Montana law said anybody who killed a man in a duel becomes responsible for the upkeep of the dead man's widow and children. "That's the way I'd have done it." The bread is passed around, then soup is served. [This must be one of the funniest scenes.] Can that dog spell? Can Duke win in a poker game? "He needs the rest."

Will a message be garbled in the retelling? Does anyone want Chester's job? Sheriff Wooley finds new power and respect. But there is a rumor about wealth for Widow Hawkins. Will there be a chase? Will the gold shipment be saved? Can the sheriff capture the gang? Will the townspeople unite to clean out the town? Does money make a person desirable? Would the Widow have a better choice? The ending is like a parody on the classic western films of the past.
What films will the boys parody next?

Alternate Routes Florence
$11.99

The Florentine
$9.99
This is a slice of life as the film examines the lives of a dozen blue collar working people in Philadelphia who, in one manner or another, are tied to The Florentine Bar, a local hangout run by Whitey (Michael Madsen appearing, uncharacteristically, in white hair) who inherited the bar from his father. The cast is exceptional, and there are two breath-taking scenes in this film that should be taught in every acting school - one is a soliloquy by Hal Holbrook on the "one who got away" and the other is a quiet study of Mary Stuart Masterson as she listen to her busband (Chris Penn) tell her of his plans to reform himself. Brief but effective appearances from Virginia Madsen (always beautiful and effective), James Belushi (as a bad guy!) and Burt Young help to round out the ensemble cast.

Co-produced by Francis Ford Coppola and Nick Stagliano in 1999, the film is directed by Nick Stagliano. This is only Stagliano's second film (as producer or director) and the pace is slightly off center, and perhaps lit a little too darkly. But with a cast such as this, it's hard to make many mistakes, and the little vignettes with Holbrook and Madsen, Penn and Masterson, Tom Sizemore and James Belushi, and Jeremy Davies and Maeve Quinlan are priceless.

Christo e Nato - Lauding the Nativity in Medieval Italy
$14.99
The small repertoire of surviving medieval Italian praise songs, or LAUDE , was first brought to modern attention in the late 19th century by the German scholar Friedrich Ludwig. Ludwig and Guido Adler both published selections from a beautifully copied collection of these songs, the Florentine Laudario. This collection and the Cortona Laudario are the only two large collections of laude that survive complete with their musical notation. This recording features selections from these vocal editions. To complement the laude, several instrumental works from late 14th and early 15th century polyphony, and from the Faenza codex, have been featured as well. TREFOIL is a trio of singer-instrumentalists long active in early music, with experience in such ensembles as Concert Royal, Les Arts Florissants, New York's Ensemble for Early Music, Pomerium, Clarion Music Society, Piffaro, My Lord Chamberlain's Consort, and other groups. The trio debuted in New York and Philadelphia early in 2000 with a program of 14th century French ars subtilior song. Trefoil has appeared in concerts and master classes at The Cloisters, Temple University, Vassar College, Middlebury College, the Vermont Millennium Arts Festival, the Museum Series of Providence, Boston College, the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH, the Nighborhood Music School in New Haven, the 2002 Amherst Early Music Festival, and the 37th Annual International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo. The trio has also amde a series of joint appearances with the Folger Concert in Washington D.C.