Days of Glory
An Italian WWII documentary by a group of neorealists.
Marcello Pagliero
Luchino Visconti
Mario Serandrei
Giuseppe De Santis
Also Directed by Marcello Pagliero
Le Havre, France, in 1949. In a town that still shows the scars of war, several friends meet up in Albert's café. One of them, Laurent, has lost his job on the docks and his marriage to Madeleine is falling apart. He knows that his wife wants to start an affair with friend, Jean Sauviot. Jean is a lonely man who is attracted to Madeleine but doesn't want to commit himself to the wife of a friend. On the day that Madeleine tells her husband that she is seeing Jean, Laurent goes looking for Jean to find an explanation. Arriving on the docks in the evening, he attacks an American sailor who looks like Jean, but the man fights back and runs away after killing Laurent accidentally. Madeleine thinks that Laurent was killed by Jean and believes that she can start a new life with her lover. The police have other ideas...
Steve McAllister, an Australian official for The New Guinea Administration, gets orders to investigate an oil discovery by Ned 'Shark-Eye' Kelly in the interior. He selects his native policeman, Sergeant-Major Towalaka, to accompany him on his "walk into hell" and then finds that a French lady doctor, Louise Dumurcet, is to go with them part of the journey. They find the malaria-stricken Jeff Clayton in a deserted village and he joins the trek. They are captured by jungle-natives but are released after Dr. Dumurcet cures the fever-stricken children of the chief.
Jean Michaut is a bargeman who lives nearby an old barge cemetery named "Bras-Mort". He is in love with Monique, the daughter of a wealthy boat owner. The girl returns his affection but runs her head against the wall of her family's class prejudices. Her "nearest and dearest" prove indeed prepared to do everything to separate the two lovers. But Monique will not buy in. On the contrary, she leaves her intolerant family to live with Jean among simple, more tolerant bargemen.
An Italian drama based on the play by Luigi Pirandello.
A woman struggles to make a living after her husband is mistakenly presumed dead.
Three stories, very different in space and time. Lysistrata, a dancer from ancient times, Jeanne d'Arc, medieval warrior and Elisabeth, American war widow who comes on pilgrimage in Italy.
During World War II, the Frenchman Léon Garros and Boris Vaganov escape from the Nazi concentration camp. After 15 years, Léon, who became a journalist, and his friends came to the USSR to make a report and find Boris in the meantime. In Moscow he doesn't found, and for the sake of meeting with a friend, Garros has to travel around the country by car... The foreigners are accompanied by Nikolai, the translator, who, in turn, is looking for his brother's runaway bride, Natasha.
The Brothers Jacques, who were to sing that night at "The Red Rose", are failing.
In a post-war Rome (1946) a cat burglar inadvertently saves the life of a would-be suicide man who returns from the war to find that he has been betrayed by his fiancée while fighting in the war. From that moment the thief takes the ex-soldier under his wing. They leave house together for a night full of misadventures. In a streets of Rome they meet the struggling typist who can’t pay her rent and opts to street life; a wandering amnesiac who lost his memory and keeps asking everyone “Do you recognize me?”. Thieves, gamblers, hookers, policemen, soldiers and endless chain of cigarette-smoking and alcohol/espresso-drinking.
Also Directed by Luchino Visconti
In the early days of Nazi Germany, a powerful noble family must adjust to life under the new dictatorship regime.
A lonely city transplant, and a sheltered girl haunted by a lover’s promise, meet by chance on a canal bridge and begin a tentative romance that quickly entangles them in a web of longing and self-delusion.
An anthology of four adult tales: a young couple tries to hide their marriage and the wife’s supposed pregnancy from their place of employment; a billboard photo of a scantily clad woman comes to life to torment the local censor; a lottery is held in which the prize is to spend the night with a beautiful woman; an aristocratic couple comes to terms with life and marriage after the domineering husband is caught visiting sex workers by the press.
Documentary on Luchino Visconti's travels and auditions in search for a young actor to portray the role of Tadzio in his adaptation of Thomas Mann's novella "Death in Venice", finally choosing Swedish actor Björn Andrésen.
Composer Gustav von Aschenbach, travels to Venice for health reasons. There, he becomes obsessed with the stunning beauty of an adolescent Polish boy named Tadzio who is staying with his family at the same Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido as Aschenbach.
In rural Sicily, the fishermen live at the mercy of the greedy wholesalers. One family risks everything to buy their own boat and operate independently.
Five portraits of actresses in their "common" life, seen as women rather than movie stars.
Tullio Hermil is a chauvinist aristocrat who flaunts his mistress to his wife, but when he believes she has been unfaithful he becomes enamored of her again.
Sandra comes back to Volterra, in Tuscany, the little town where she spent her childhood. She is with her American husband, Andrew. She wishes to pay homage to her father who died in Auschwitz where she was still a little child. In Volterra, Andrew meets for the first time Gianni, Sandra's brother. He soon realizes that Sandra and Gianni have a secret since their childhood. (IMDb)
Also Directed by Giuseppe De Santis
The story of 5 girls among 200 who answer a wanted ad for a modest secretarial position, which leads overcrowding in the building and a tragic accident.
Set amongst the Italian peasantry of WW2, Caccia Tragica (Tragic Chase) is set in motion when a truck loaded with money targetted for farming projects is stolen by bandits. The local villagers set aside their petty political and personal differences, banding together to capture the outlaws and recover the loot. The story takes a romantic detour by concentrating on the romance between two young people caught in the middle between the pursuers and the pursued. At the time of its release, Caccia Tragica was perceived as a Communist tract (it was produced by the left-leaning National Association of Italian Partisans). This didn't prevent the film from winning an award at the 1947 Venice Film Festival, quite a coup for first-time director Giueseppe De Santis.
On the Don, when there was a turning point in World War II, the Italians were at the center of events, they had to defend themselves and retreat. Together with the great German army, they advanced at the beginning of the war east, to Moscow. The Germans did their best to save the situation, throwing more and more reserves, not sparing the Italian soldiers. They treated them as unnecessary animals, leaving them off the road, leaving them without food and warmth. Among the retreating was the foreman Gabrielli — the main character, he will no longer be destined to see his homeland, he will freeze in the field.
A building instructor cheats on his wife with a young fashion model.
Anna Zaccheo is a beautiful young woman from a working class Neapolitan family. Her main concern is to find herself a suitable husband. She meets a young sailor Andrea one day and gets engaged to him. But while she is waiting for Andrea to return from the navy she gets raped by her boss. Her life suddenly takes a downward spiral.
Francesca and Walter are two-bit criminals in Northern Italy, and, in an effort to avoid the police, Francesca joins a group of women rice workers. She meets the voluptuous peasant rice worker, Silvana, and the soon-to-be-discharged soldier, Marco. Walter follows her to the rice fields, and the four characters become involved in a complex plot involving robbery, love, and murder.
A 1954 Italian comedy film directed by Giuseppe De Santis, winner of the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
italian movie
Italian director Giueseppe DeSantis was the creative force behind this Yugoslavian "slice of life" drama. The title translates as The Year-Long Road; accordingly, the plot concerns a joint, voluntary effort between Italy and Yugoslavia to construct a highway along the countries' Naturally, this animosity wreaks havoc on the various Romeo-Juliet romances in the region. All is resolved when oil is discovered on one of the islands. An American oil company is finally able to establish détente between the warring factions, smoothing the path for the long-delayed marriages of three young couples.