Italy

  • Elio Ruffo – Una rete piena di sabbia (1966)

    1961-1970CrimeElio RuffoItaly
    Una rete piena di sabbia (1966)
    Una rete piena di sabbia (1966)

    Between mafia movie and social denunciation, it is the story of a journalist who makes a television report in a small town in Calabria on the election eve.
    Instead of illustrating the beauty of the place as the town’s notables would like, he interviews humble fishermen about their miserable living conditions.
    But the local mafia boss does not agree with this choice….Read More »

  • Beatrice Baldacci – La tana AKA The Den (2021)

    2021-2030Beatrice BaldacciDramaItaly
    La tana (2021)
    La tana (2021)

    A boy from the country, shy and naïf, falls in love with a mysterious and violent girl that introduces him to pain, building a relationship that will make them face together the secret she’s hiding: her mother’s illness.Read More »

  • Cristina Comencini – La bestia nel cuore AKA Don’t tell (2005)

    2001-2010Cristina ComenciniDramaItalyQueer Cinema(s)
    La bestia nel cuore (2005)
    La bestia nel cuore (2005)

    Sabina has a regular life. She is satisfied with her job and her love for Franco. Lately nightmares start disturbing her, and almost in the same time she discovers to be pregnant. Step by step she remembers her childhood spent within a severe middle-class family. But a big secret is hidden within her heart. Sabina wants to contact again her brother, a University teacher in the US, to try to understand what is happened in their past. What is the secret? She is determined to bring clarity and serenity in her life. She finally manages to free herself from her “beast inside the heart”.Read More »

  • Franco Piavoli – Al primo soffio di vento AKA At the First Breath of Wind (2002)

    Drama2001-2010ArthouseFranco PiavoliItaly
    Al primo soffio di vento (2002)
    Al primo soffio di vento (2002)

    Experimental film director Franco Piavoli’s Al Primo Soffio Di Vento (At the First Breath of Wind) is nearly a wordless, non-narrative account of a summer’s day as appreciated by the residents of an estate in Lombardy, Italy.

    The family, despite living in a idyllic mansion, live their lives very much apart from one another. The father (Primo Gaburri) is usually holed up in his study, while his wife aimlessly paces the grounds pining away after a former lover. Of the two daughters, the eldest plays sad tunes on the piano, while the younger explores the woods and struggles to understand her recent inklings of sexual attraction.Read More »

  • Andrea Segre – L’ordine delle cose AKA The Order of Things (2017)

    2011-2020Andrea SegreDramaItaly
    L'ordine delle cose (2017)
    L’ordine delle cose (2017)

    Corrado, a policeman for the European task force in charge of immigration control, is on a field assignment in Libya. During a night patrol in the desert, he meets Swada, a young Somaliwoman who left her war-ravaged country.Read More »

  • Luchino Visconti – Lo straniero AKA The Stranger (1967)

    1961-1970DramaItalyLuchino Visconti
    Lo straniero (1967)
    Lo straniero (1967)

    A man faces a trial for murder. The court is biased because of his personal qualities.Read More »

  • Michelangelo Antonioni – L’Avventura aka The Adventure (1960)

    1951-1960ArthouseDramaItalyMichelangelo Antonioni
    L'avventura (1960)
    L’avventura (1960)

    Quote:
    This ground-breaking film won a Special Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and established its director, Michelangelo Antonioni, as a major international talent. The plot concerns a yachting trip by a small group of jaded socialites, including Sandro (Gabriele Ferzetti), an aging architect who sold out for easy money long ago, his mistress Anna (Lea Massari), and her friend Claudia (Monica Vitti), who doesn’t fit in with the wealthy jet-setters’ dissolute ethics. When Anna disappears during a tour of a volcanic island, Claudia initially blames Sandro’s emotionally barren behavior toward her. As they search the island, however, Claudia and Sandro grow closer and — when it is apparent that Anna is gone forever — become lovers. Unfortunately, Sandro cannot find anything decent inside himself and betrays Claudia with a local prostitute. Caught in the act, Sandro has a heartrending breakdown on a desolate beach, but Claudia silently forgives him. L’avventura caught many audiences who were expecting a mystery by surprise; as in La notte (1961), The Eclipse (1962), and Red Desert (1964), Antonioni is interested less in developing a logical story than in exploring states of feeling and breakdowns in human connection.Read More »

  • Luciano Salce – Le ore dell’amor AKA The Hours of Love (1963)

    Luciano Salce1961-1970ComedyItalyRomance
    Le ore dell'amor (1963)
    Le ore dell’amor (1963)

    Gianni and Maretta live for three years a relationship that sees them happily in love. The decision to get married radically changes their lives, impacting negatively on their relationship. Cohabitation and daily routine stifle their passion and restrict the cultivation of their respective interests, fatally distant and irreconcilable.

    After clumsy attempts at betrayal, they both realize that mutual love is not gone, but it’s just suffocated by forced cohabitation, and so they save their relationship by resuming the menage as an engaged couple, made of amorous encounters that enrich their lives, but lived far apart, each one at his house.Read More »

  • Carlo Vanzina – La partita AKA The Gamble (1988)

    1981-1990Carlo VanzinaComedyItaly
    La partita (1988)
    La partita (1988)

    A young man joins a feisty runaway as he flees from the noblewoman who won him in a wager.Read More »

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