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* TheBarnum:
** Joe, who tools around Sicily in his truck, convincing the desperate, gullible poor people of the countryside that he is a talent scout who will make them movie stars.
** Later, Joe gets his comeuppance when he is conned by a well-dressed couple claiming to be an ImpoverishedPatrician and his wife. They steal all the money that Joe has bilked from his customers.
** Joe, who tools around Sicily in his truck, convincing the desperate, gullible poor people of the countryside that he is a talent scout who will make them movie stars.
** Later, Joe gets his comeuppance when he is conned by a well-dressed couple claiming to be an ImpoverishedPatrician and his wife. They steal all the money that Joe has bilked from his customers.
Deleted line(s) 24,26 (click to see context) :
* ConMan:
** Joe, who tools around Sicily in his truck, convincing the desperate, gullible poor people of the countryside that he is a talent scout who will make them movie stars.
** Later, Joe gets his comeuppance when he is conned by a well-dressed couple claiming to be an ImpoverishedPatrician and his wife. They steal all the money that Joe has bilked from his customers.
** Joe, who tools around Sicily in his truck, convincing the desperate, gullible poor people of the countryside that he is a talent scout who will make them movie stars.
** Later, Joe gets his comeuppance when he is conned by a well-dressed couple claiming to be an ImpoverishedPatrician and his wife. They steal all the money that Joe has bilked from his customers.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_1189_5.jpeg]]
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* SexualEuphemism: Beata is desperate to go away with Joe. Offering him all sorts of sexual services, she says "I'll draw your milk" and reaches for his crotch. Joe refuses.
Changed line(s) 45,46 (click to see context) from:
* TerribleIntervieweeMontage: One scene is a montage of all the locals doing Joe's screen tests. A couple of farm boys confuse left and right when Joe asks for their profiles. A man takes his moment in front of the camera to deliver a fascist speech, and gets booed by the onlookers. Another man uses his moment in front of the camera to brag about how good he is in bed.
* UnusualEuphemism: Beata is desperate to go away with Joe. Offering him all sorts of sexual services, she says "I'll draw your milk" and reaches for his crotch. Joe refuses.
* UnusualEuphemism: Beata is desperate to go away with Joe. Offering him all sorts of sexual services, she says "I'll draw your milk" and reaches for his crotch. Joe refuses.
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* TerribleIntervieweeMontage: TerribleIntervieweesMontage: One scene is a montage of all the locals doing Joe's screen tests. A couple of farm boys confuse left and right when Joe asks for their profiles. A man takes his moment in front of the camera to deliver a fascist speech, and gets booed by the onlookers. Another man uses his moment in front of the camera to brag about how good he is in bed.
* UnusualEuphemism: Beata is desperate to go away with Joe. Offering him all sorts of sexual services, she says "I'll draw your milk" and reaches for his crotch. Joe refuses.bed.
* UnusualEuphemism: Beata is desperate to go away with Joe. Offering him all sorts of sexual services, she says "I'll draw your milk" and reaches for his crotch. Joe refuses.
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Changed line(s) 1,2 (click to see context) from:
''The Star Maker'' is a 1995 film from Italy directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.
to:
''The Star Maker'' (L'uomo delle stelle) is a 1995 film from Italy directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.
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* AbandonedArea: The rich lady and her husband give Joe a lift and take him to a deserted, bombed-out ruin of a town. The lady says that her husband is a prince and the whole town used to be his. They are lying and they routinely use bombed-out towns as the backdrops for their cons.
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** While Joe's camera never had any film in it, his audio recorder was real and actually worked. The film ends with a melancholy Joe pressing play on the tape player and listening to the audio of all the people who performed for his fake screen tests.
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* DistantFinale: The denouement takes place two years later, after Joe is released following a stint in jail.
* DownerEnding: Joe is released after a two-year prison term, and is absolutely penniless, with his truck but with absolutely nothing else. Worse, he learns that Beata went insane. He tracks her to an asylum and finds that she is locked in a permanent ThousandYardStare, unable to recognize him, believing that her Joe is dead.
* DownerEnding: Joe is released after a two-year prison term, and is absolutely penniless, with his truck but with absolutely nothing else. Worse, he learns that Beata went insane. He tracks her to an asylum and finds that she is locked in a permanent ThousandYardStare, unable to recognize him, believing that her Joe is dead.
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* FeetFirstIntroduction: Fancy high-heeled shoes as Joe is under his car trying to fix it introduce the princess, who offers to give Joe a lift and tow his car. She's a con artist.
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* SteppingOutForAQuickCupOfCoffee: Joe is being taken to jail by Marshal Mastropaolo when their car is stopped by the Mafiosi, who want revenge on Joe. After realizing that there's no way to get out of it, the marshal suggests to the detective with him that it might be good if they strolled over to the inn they just passed and get some coffee. Joe takes a brutal beating.
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* UnusualEuphemism: Beata is desperate to go away with Joe. Offering him all sorts of sexual services, she says "I'll draw your milk" and reaches for his crotch. Joe refuses.
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* BeardOfSorrow: Joe has a beard after he's released following two years in jail.
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* TheMafia: Some real Sicilian mafiosi dragoon Joe into taking picures of their deceased Godfather at his wake. Later, when they find out that Joe's a con man and his camera is empty, they beat him badly.
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* ShamefulStrip: Beata has to pull her dress up and let the gross tax man see her naked so she can get the money for Joe's screen test. She later tells Joe that it's not the first time she's done it.
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** Joe has an encounter with three bandits, the Badalamentis, who tell him about how they're bent on revenge against the Mafia and everyone else who wronged them and killed their other brothers. Later he sees the Badalamentis being taken away in another car, in handcuffs. One says "We'll meet in Rome! Six months later, we'll kill them all!"
* CockADoodleDawn: How does the audience know that Joe stayed up all night playing poker? Because it's light outside and a crowing rooster can be heard.
* GirlsWithMoustaches: Beata is introduced shaving the upper lip of an elderly nun. Her life is not a happy one.
* LettingHerHairDown: Joe can already tell that Beata is gorgeous but he is really bowled over when he unpins her hair, prior to her screen test, and her long locks fall down.
-->'''Joe''': You have a whole bucket full of hair!
* RefugeInAudacity: Joe is ambushed by three bandits, the Badalamentis, who demand his money and his stuff. Not only does he talk his way out of it by giving them screen tests, he manages to get them to pay him 1500 lira!
-->'''Joe''': You have a whole bucket full of hair!
* RefugeInAudacity: Joe is ambushed by three bandits, the Badalamentis, who demand his money and his stuff. Not only does he talk his way out of it by giving them screen tests, he manages to get them to pay him 1500 lira!
Changed line(s) 30 (click to see context) from:
* TerribleIntervieweeMontage: One scene is a montage of all the locals doing Joe's screen tests. A couple of farm boys confuse left and right when Joe asks for their profiles. A man takes his moment in front of the camera to deliver a fascist speech, and gets booed by the onlookers. Another man uses his moment in front of the camera to brag about how good he is in bed.
to:
* TerribleIntervieweeMontage: One scene is a montage of all the locals doing Joe's screen tests. A couple of farm boys confuse left and right when Joe asks for their profiles. A man takes his moment in front of the camera to deliver a fascist speech, and gets booed by the onlookers. Another man uses his moment in front of the camera to brag about how good he is in bed.bed.
* TheVoiceless: Joe gives a screen test to a ShellShockedVeteran who has not spoken for over a decade, since he came home after fighting for the Republicans in the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar. The man struggles to get words out, then delivers a patriotic poem, in Spanish, about his old regiment.
* TheVoiceless: Joe gives a screen test to a ShellShockedVeteran who has not spoken for over a decade, since he came home after fighting for the Republicans in the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar. The man struggles to get words out, then delivers a patriotic poem, in Spanish, about his old regiment.
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Changed line(s) 3,4 (click to see context) from:
Joe Morelli is a talent scout for an Italian film studio. At a date which seems to be the early 1950s (the production of 1951 film ''Literature/QuoVadis'' is mentioned), Morelli is criscrossing Sicily, looking for fresh new faces for the movies. He stops in small towns that were already poor before the war and are even poorer now, giving screen tests with the camera he carries in the back of his truck. Anyone who wants to try out can memorize a few lines from ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' and get a chance at stardom--for the low, low price of 1500 lira (Joe has to get the film negative developed, after all).
to:
Joe Morelli is a talent scout for an Italian film studio. At a date which seems to be the early 1950s (the production of 1951 film ''Literature/QuoVadis'' is mentioned), Morelli is criscrossing Sicily, looking for fresh new faces for the movies. He stops in small towns that were already poor before the war and are even poorer now, giving screen tests with the camera he carries in the back of his truck. Anyone who wants to try out can memorize a few lines from ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' and get a chance at stardom--for the low, low price of 1500 3000 lira (Joe has to get the film negative developed, after all).
* BadBadActing: Many examples of professional actors playing characters who are bad actors giving hammy performances.
* CallBack
** The bureaucrat who stamps Joe's permit early in the film later auditions. Still later, Joe sees him on the bus, in handcuffs; it turns out the bureaucrat had a mentally challenged son, whom he murdered.
** Some Mafioso get Joe to take film of one of their Godfather, at his funeral. They pop up again later after Joe is exposed as a fraud, and beat the hell out of him, leaving him with a permanent limp.
* ChekhovsGunman: Brigadiere Mastropaolo, the policeman who stops Joe on the road and at first seems to be suspicious, but then asks for a screen test. Near the end of the film Mastropaolo, who has been promoted to Marshal, pops up again, and arrests Joe for fraud.
* ClickHello: How Joe is greeted by three bandits, with a rifle stuck to the back of his head as he's taking a pee.
** The bureaucrat who stamps Joe's permit early in the film later auditions. Still later, Joe sees him on the bus, in handcuffs; it turns out the bureaucrat had a mentally challenged son, whom he murdered.
** Some Mafioso get Joe to take film of one of their Godfather, at his funeral. They pop up again later after Joe is exposed as a fraud, and beat the hell out of him, leaving him with a permanent limp.
* ChekhovsGunman: Brigadiere Mastropaolo, the policeman who stops Joe on the road and at first seems to be suspicious, but then asks for a screen test. Near the end of the film Mastropaolo, who has been promoted to Marshal, pops up again, and arrests Joe for fraud.
* ClickHello: How Joe is greeted by three bandits, with a rifle stuck to the back of his head as he's taking a pee.
* {{Gayngst}}: Joe notices that Vito, the man sitting in front of his camera, has put on lipstick for the screen test. Vito then pours out his soul, telling Joe how much it sucks to be a gay man in small-town 1950s Sicily. Later there's a call back when Joe meets Vito on the bus and Vito says that Joe gave him the courage to leave his village and go to the big city.
* LargeHam: Several of Joe's victims. Brigadiere Mastropaolo, the cop who dreams of stardom and claims to have translated ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' into Italian, gives a particularly hammy recitation of some lines from Dante's ''Inferno''.
* SexForServices:
** A mother wants Joe to give her daughter Anna a screen test, but she has no money to pay him, so she has sex with him instead. It gets even darker when the mom says that if Joe can get Anna a movie contract, "[[NatureAdoresAVirgin I'll let you be her first]]."
** Beata offers Joe this, saying that she'll service him sexually if only he will get her out of her backwater town and make her an actress. EvenEvilHasStandards, though, and Joe refuses.
* LargeHam: Several of Joe's victims. Brigadiere Mastropaolo, the cop who dreams of stardom and claims to have translated ''Theatre/{{Othello}}'' into Italian, gives a particularly hammy recitation of some lines from Dante's ''Inferno''.
* SexForServices:
** A mother wants Joe to give her daughter Anna a screen test, but she has no money to pay him, so she has sex with him instead. It gets even darker when the mom says that if Joe can get Anna a movie contract, "[[NatureAdoresAVirgin I'll let you be her first]]."
** Beata offers Joe this, saying that she'll service him sexually if only he will get her out of her backwater town and make her an actress. EvenEvilHasStandards, though, and Joe refuses.
Changed line(s) 17,18 (click to see context) from:
** Joe claims to have an autographed photo from Creator/VittorioDeSica.
* StunnedSilence: A public square in a small town is filled with bustle and noise, even as Joe, using the megaphone on his truck, promises them a chance at fame and riches. When he says that movie stars make "a hundred million" (lira) a year, the square goes silent as everyone turns to look at him.
* StunnedSilence: A public square in a small town is filled with bustle and noise, even as Joe, using the megaphone on his truck, promises them a chance at fame and riches. When he says that movie stars make "a hundred million" (lira) a year, the square goes silent as everyone turns to look at him.
to:
** Joe claims to have an autographed photo from Creator/VittorioDeSica.
Creator/VittorioDeSica. He also claims to have worked on the film ''Film/LaTerraTrema''.
* StunnedSilence: A public square in a small town is filled with bustle and noise, even as Joe, using the megaphone on his truck, promises them a chance at fame and riches. When he says that movie stars make "a hundred million" (lira) a year, the square goes silent as everyone turns to look athim.him.
* TerribleIntervieweeMontage: One scene is a montage of all the locals doing Joe's screen tests. A couple of farm boys confuse left and right when Joe asks for their profiles. A man takes his moment in front of the camera to deliver a fascist speech, and gets booed by the onlookers. Another man uses his moment in front of the camera to brag about how good he is in bed.
* StunnedSilence: A public square in a small town is filled with bustle and noise, even as Joe, using the megaphone on his truck, promises them a chance at fame and riches. When he says that movie stars make "a hundred million" (lira) a year, the square goes silent as everyone turns to look at
* TerribleIntervieweeMontage: One scene is a montage of all the locals doing Joe's screen tests. A couple of farm boys confuse left and right when Joe asks for their profiles. A man takes his moment in front of the camera to deliver a fascist speech, and gets booed by the onlookers. Another man uses his moment in front of the camera to brag about how good he is in bed.
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Changed line(s) 11 (click to see context) from:
* ConMan: Joe, who tools around Sicily in his truck, convincing the desperate, gullible poor people of the countryside that he is a talent scout who will make them movie stars.
to:
* ConMan: ConMan:
** Joe, who tools around Sicily in his truck, convincing the desperate, gullible poor people of the countryside that he is a talent scout who will make them moviestars.stars.
** Later, Joe gets his comeuppance when he is conned by a well-dressed couple claiming to be an ImpoverishedPatrician and his wife. They steal all the money that Joe has bilked from his customers.
* EpicTrackingShot: A scene early in the film starts with a man getting a bath as he practices the lines from ''Gone With the Wind''. The camera then goes on a three-minute tracking shot through the snaking streets of the town, into and out of the main square, into and out of a barbershop and other places, ending in another square where the old men are freely ad-libbing fanciful dialogue from the movie.
* ShoutOut
** Joe gives his marks lines from ''Gone With the Wind'' to memorize for their screen tests.
** Joe claims to have an autographed photo from Creator/VittorioDeSica.
* StunnedSilence: A public square in a small town is filled with bustle and noise, even as Joe, using the megaphone on his truck, promises them a chance at fame and riches. When he says that movie stars make "a hundred million" (lira) a year, the square goes silent as everyone turns to look at him.
** Joe, who tools around Sicily in his truck, convincing the desperate, gullible poor people of the countryside that he is a talent scout who will make them movie
** Later, Joe gets his comeuppance when he is conned by a well-dressed couple claiming to be an ImpoverishedPatrician and his wife. They steal all the money that Joe has bilked from his customers.
* EpicTrackingShot: A scene early in the film starts with a man getting a bath as he practices the lines from ''Gone With the Wind''. The camera then goes on a three-minute tracking shot through the snaking streets of the town, into and out of the main square, into and out of a barbershop and other places, ending in another square where the old men are freely ad-libbing fanciful dialogue from the movie.
* ShoutOut
** Joe gives his marks lines from ''Gone With the Wind'' to memorize for their screen tests.
** Joe claims to have an autographed photo from Creator/VittorioDeSica.
* StunnedSilence: A public square in a small town is filled with bustle and noise, even as Joe, using the megaphone on his truck, promises them a chance at fame and riches. When he says that movie stars make "a hundred million" (lira) a year, the square goes silent as everyone turns to look at him.
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Added DiffLines:
''The Star Maker'' is a 1995 film from Italy directed by Giuseppe Tornatore.
Joe Morelli is a talent scout for an Italian film studio. At a date which seems to be the early 1950s (the production of 1951 film ''Literature/QuoVadis'' is mentioned), Morelli is criscrossing Sicily, looking for fresh new faces for the movies. He stops in small towns that were already poor before the war and are even poorer now, giving screen tests with the camera he carries in the back of his truck. Anyone who wants to try out can memorize a few lines from ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' and get a chance at stardom--for the low, low price of 1500 lira (Joe has to get the film negative developed, after all).
Joe is, of course, a con man. There isn't even any film in his camera, which is eventually revealed to be stolen. But the desperately poor people of Sicily flock to him anyway, including Beata, a heartbreakingly gorgeous teenager who thinks Joe will make her dreams come true.
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!!Tropes:
* BaitAndSwitch: The first shot of the film has a nervous young man being brusquely ordered to turn his head for a left profile and a right profile, then a full facial shot. Is he being booked after arrest? No, he then recites a dramatic monologue--he's doing a screen test for Joe.
* ConMan: Joe, who tools around Sicily in his truck, convincing the desperate, gullible poor people of the countryside that he is a talent scout who will make them movie stars.
Joe Morelli is a talent scout for an Italian film studio. At a date which seems to be the early 1950s (the production of 1951 film ''Literature/QuoVadis'' is mentioned), Morelli is criscrossing Sicily, looking for fresh new faces for the movies. He stops in small towns that were already poor before the war and are even poorer now, giving screen tests with the camera he carries in the back of his truck. Anyone who wants to try out can memorize a few lines from ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' and get a chance at stardom--for the low, low price of 1500 lira (Joe has to get the film negative developed, after all).
Joe is, of course, a con man. There isn't even any film in his camera, which is eventually revealed to be stolen. But the desperately poor people of Sicily flock to him anyway, including Beata, a heartbreakingly gorgeous teenager who thinks Joe will make her dreams come true.
----
!!Tropes:
* BaitAndSwitch: The first shot of the film has a nervous young man being brusquely ordered to turn his head for a left profile and a right profile, then a full facial shot. Is he being booked after arrest? No, he then recites a dramatic monologue--he's doing a screen test for Joe.
* ConMan: Joe, who tools around Sicily in his truck, convincing the desperate, gullible poor people of the countryside that he is a talent scout who will make them movie stars.
