Italy

  • Giulio Antamoro – Pinocchio (1911)

    1911-1920FantasyGiulio AntamoroItaly

    Synopsis (thanks IMDb user jsanchez)
    The old carpenter Geppeto manufactures in his workshop a wooden puppet that will soon come alive. For an hour the doll will live a thousand and one adventures: he will be judged, hanged, swallowed by a whale, taken prisoner by the Indians, saved by Canadian soldiers and, even, returned home mounted on a cannonball that flies through the sky.Read More »

  • Giuliano Montaldo – Dio è con noi AKA 5th Day of Peace” (1970)

    1961-1970DramaGiuliano MontaldoItalyWar

    Italian anti-war movie, a real case.
    Bud Spencer has a minor role.Plays the role of Corporal.Read More »

  • Marco Bellocchio – Il Sogno della Farfalla AKA The Dream of the Butterfly (1994)

    Drama1991-2000ArthouseItalyMarco Bellocchio

    The third and final collaboration between Marco Bellocchio and controversial pyschotherapist Massimo Faggioli following Il Diavolo in Corpo (1986) and La Condanna (1991). Despite being selected as an official entry in Cannes, some award nominations (which it won for its cinematography) and admiration in a few quarters, the film was condemned by the majoriry of critics who lamented Bellocchio’s talents being wasted by the pretentious Faggioli. Usually considered Bellocchio’s worst film, Il Sogno della Farfalla is undeniably well made and does contain some haunting imagery. Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – Il Casanova di Federico Fellini (1976)

    1971-1980ComedyDramaFederico FelliniItaly

    Quote:
    The incomparable Federico Fellini (La Dolce Vita) directs this visually stunning portrait of Casanova, the infamous Italian womanizer, adventurer, author and libertine. In a remarkable performance, Donald Sutherland (MASH) portrays the great seducer not as an amorous anomaly, but an everyday man living in extraordinary times. Featuring dazzling European settings (although it was filmed entirely in Rome), an unforgettable musical score by Nino Rota (The Godfather), and Academy Award®-winning costumes, Fellini’s Casanova is a cinematic experience to fall in love with.Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – Otto e mezzo aka 8½ [+ commentaries] (1963)

    1961-1970DramaFantasyFederico FelliniItaly

    Quote:

    8 1/2 weaves fluidly through the visually intoxicating landscape of Federico Fellini’s subconscious, seemingly to seek inspiration and validation for his life and work. In an opening scene that symbolizes much of Fellini’s films, a suffocating man, trapped inside his car, inexplicably begins to float into the skies, only to be abruptly tugged back to the ground. But it is also an indelible image that shatters any preconceived illusion of “typical” elements in a Fellini film. The film, 8 1/2, literally marks Fellini’s work on 8 1/2 feature films (the “1/2” derived from collaborative direction films), and proves to be a transitional film in his artistic career.Read More »

  • Stefano Sollima – Suburra (2015)

    2011-2020CrimeDramaItalyStefano Sollima

    Quote:
    The Suburra quarter in ancient Rome was the quarter populated by taverns and brothels, where noble senators met with criminals in secret to do business and make money. Two thousand years later, not much seems to have changed in the Italian capital, politics and criminality continue to do business and the real world is governed by laws drawn up by corrupt politicians, through brokers without scruples in the shadow of an ambivalent Vatican. These were the findings of a recent judicial inquiry by the name of Mafia Capitale, which has now been brought to the big screen by Stefano Sollima’s new film, Suburra, at a time when Rome has just seen the resignation of its mayor, and is being plagued by ungovernability and the chaos of the upcoming Jubilee.Read More »

  • Marco Bellocchio – Vacanze in Val Trebbia (1980)

    1971-1980DocumentaryItalyMarco BellocchioTV

    Synopsis
    Documentary-fiction about the director and his family’s holiday in his homeland. The journey is a means to confront the past, memories, one’s own origins, but it is also the radiography of an era.
    A semi-unknown masterpiece by Marco BellocchioRead More »

  • Silvio Amadio – Alla ricerca del piacere AKA Amuck! (1972)

    1971-1980ExploitationGialloItalyQueer Cinema(s)Silvio Amadio

    Greta, a beautiful young American woman, travels to Italy and is hired as a secretary by Richard Stuart, a wealthy author. Her secret motive for taking on the job is to look for Sally, her missing lover. Richard’s very attractive wife becomes sexually interested in the beautiful Greta and lets her know it. One evening while viewing of a porn movie, Greta is stunned to see the film stars her missing love, Sally. Greta also discovers a deadly secret about Richard and his wife and they learn Greta’s real motive and decide to have some fun with her! Starring two of Italy’s most beautiful starlets; Barbara Bouchet and Rosalba Neri. It’s a classic and worthy giallo with great killings and lots of nudity.Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – Amarcord (1973)

    Drama1971-1980Federico FelliniItaly

    Quote:
    Federico Fellini returned to the provincial landscape of his childhood with this carnivalesque reminiscence, recreating his hometown of Rimini in Cinecittà’s studios and rendering its daily life as a circus of social rituals, adolescent desires, male fantasies, and political subterfuge. Sketching a gallery of warmly observed comic caricatures, Fellini affectionately evokes a vanished world haloed with the glow of memory, even as he sends up authority figures representing church and state, satirizing a country stultified by Fascism. Winner of Fellini’s fourth Academy Award for best foreign-language film, Amarcord remains one of the director’s best-loved creations, beautifully weaving together Giuseppe Rottuno’s colorful cinematography, Danilo Donati’s extravagant costumes and sets, and Nino Rota’s nostalgia-tinged score.Read More »

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