Lettere dalla Palestina
Ettore Scola
Mario Monicelli
Wilma Labate
Francesco Ranieri Martinotti
Giuliana Gamba
Fulvio Wetzl
Giuliana Berlinguer
Franco Angeli
Maurizio Carrassi
Roberto Giannarelli
Citto Maselli
Also Directed by Ettore Scola
Gianni, Nicola and Antonio become close friends in 1944 while fighting the Nazis. After the end of the war, full of illusions, they settle down. The movie is a the story of the life of these three idealists and how they deal with the inevitable disillusionments of life.
A businessman from the United States returns to Italy for the first time in four decades only to discover that an old girlfriend of his, along with her brother, have involved him in a massive hoax.
A police commissioner in a little town in the Italian Venetian province investigates a prostitution ring run by two pensioners; during his investigations he also learns that a former manicurist shacks up with ten students, the prefect's daughter prostitutes to keep her pimp, a famous doctor has sex with his young patients, a headmaster has his eyes on the pupils, a noblewoman organizes orgies in her villa, the local convent is run by a dyke and his actual girlfriend poses for a hardcore magazine. He wants everything to come out in the open but his superiors try to put obstacles in his way.
Enrico Berlinguer (Sassari, May 25, 1922 - Padua, June 11, 1984) was an Italian politician, general secretary of the Italian Communist Party from 1972 until his death.
On the 20th anniversary of Federico Fellini's death, Ettore Scola, a devoted admirer of the incomparable maestro, commemorates the lesser-known aspects of his personality, employing interviews, photographs, behind-the-scenes footage as well as his drawings and film clips.
Two linen fabric dealers with their shops close to one another, battle against each other for more and more costumers. Umberto constantly loses clients because of the tough competition brought by Leone, who offers the best prices in the neighborhood. But they leave differences aside when the rise of Fascism places Anti-Semitic politics which rigidly control business like the one conducted by the Jewish Leone, and those new regulations are viewed by Umberto as completely unfair. The long rivalry soon becomes a great friendship.
Serafina, Pulcinella and Isabella are three lusty, beautiful members of a traveling theatrical troupe touring the French countryside in the 17th century, leaving in their wake a crop of broken hearts. This picaresque romantic comedy is based on the 1863 novel Le Capitaine Fracasse by Theophile Gauthier. In the story, the company stops at a castle owned by the scruffy young Baron de Sigognac, who is deeply smitten with the charms of the middle-aged (and somewhat morose) beauty Serafina. He decides to travel with the company, and Serafina perversely tries to get him to woo the youngest of the company, the newly bereaved Isabella.
15 years after the monumental "I mostri" which was a great example of Italian sketch comedy, 3 of the greatest Italian directors ever (Risi, Monicelli, Scola) the best Italian writers ever (Age, Scarpelli) the best Italian actors ever (Tognazzi, Gassmann, Sordi) one of the most beautiful woman in the world (Ornella Muti) participate to this great tribute.
Two devils from Hell are sent to Earth to cause trouble. Belfagor and his faithful sidekick Adramalek must start a war between Rome and Florence in 1478.
Also Directed by Mario Monicelli
The artistic evolution of the great composer, whose work left an indelible mark in the history of Italian cinema. In this documentary Nino Rota's extraordinary musical production relives in the words of his friends and colleagues. His collaboration with Visconti and Fellini are truly memorable. His movie score and sequences of his performances in theaters all over the world hand us down a full and evocative outline of this outstanding artist.
Like every year, everyone is going back to the ancestral family's home for the Christmas holidays. But this time, the old folks have a surprise, a good surprise for them. They have decided to go living with one of their children and make him or her inherit the family house.
The four old friends meet on the grave of the fifth of them, Perozzi, who died at the end of the first episode. Time has passed but they are still up for adventures and cruel jokes, and while they recall the one they created together with the late friend, new ones are on their way, starting right there at the cemetery.
On New Year's Eve, an insecure, struggling actress (Anna Magnani) has nothing to do. When a colleague invites her to a New Year's party, she jumps at the opportunity. Accidentally she runs into an old acting acquaintance (Toto), who is helping a professional pickpocket (Ben Gazzara) steal from people during the hustle-bustle of New Year's Eve festivities. During the course of the evening, they have numerous crazy, humorous adventures all over Rome at different parties, restaurants, and even the Trevi fountain. Magnani's character (Tortorella) falls for Gazzara's character (Lello) without knowing what he's up to, while Toto tries to placate them both.
Four different directors present lighthearted stories about married Italian couples and their dilemmas with jealousy, sex and love.
After saving an infant of royal blood, knight Brancaleone forms a new army and sets out to return the baby to his father: a prince fighting in the Crusades.
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.
The adventures of a couple of scoundrels in the Spain of the 16th century.
Antonio Scaparro (Toto) is obsessed for women. He invents his own way to hide from them - in the attic of his house.
Also Directed by Wilma Labate
Inspector Sciarra, struggling with an identity crisis and Domenica,an orphan who would like to know about her mother, spend one day along the vicoli of Naples. It's Sciarra's last day of work and he must take Domenica to the morgue., to dentify a man who killed himself and might have raped her. To Domenica the inspector is a father she never had, to Sciarra the little girl is the daughter he couldn't have
A woman wants to graduate to the Italian Naval Academy in the 60s. She has to fight her family, her friends and a world not ready to accept her.
Italy, early 80's. A terrorist is being transferred from Sicily to northern Italy and during the journey a police officer tries to make him cooperate.
They are very young and come from all over the industrial districts of Tuscany, so different from the famous hills of Chianti: the steelworks of Piombino, the port of Livorno and the Piaggio factories in Pontedera. It is the red province of “houses of the people” and the Italian Communist Party. Getting away from this region is a dream for them, but this is 1968 and everything is possible! They receive an offer they can’t turn down, a tour in the Far East: Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore. Armed with musical instruments and a desire to sing, they set off hoping for success but find themselves in the middle of the Vietnam War. Fifty years later, Le Stars tell the story of their adventure amongst American soldiers, remote jungle bases and soul music.
Nadia is an apathetic girl living in Trieste.
Also Directed by Francesco Ranieri Martinotti
When a story ends and the two do not know how to say goodbye comes the classic excuse "I'm leaving you because I love you too" With this sentence Daniela says goodbye to Mariano and literally disappears. The friends try to help Mariano in the most classic ways, presenting other girls. But Daniela is always in his thoughts. Finally seems to portend the nail that will drive the nail in the guise of a beautiful Brazilian. But winning does not show up at all easy.
Antonio (Enrico Salimbeni) may not have been the most energetic waiter in the most popular restaurant in this unfashionable Adriatic tourist town, but that is no reason for his boss not to pay him. When he takes the wages that he is owed out of the till, not only does the owner throw him out, but he has him beaten up, to boot. Enzo (Mario Adorf), the owner of a restaurant so far off the beaten track it is widely known as Abissinia rather than being called by its true name, takes him in. The leisurely pace of everything that is done at the restaurant leaves Antonio with plenty of time to put together the story of its owner and the love of his life, and how he, too, fell from culinary glory to his present obscurity.
Also Directed by Giuliana Gamba
James Russo plays Vittorio, an American novelist teaching in Rome. He meets the beautiful [but damaged] Bianca and they rapidly fall into an urgent tempestuous affair. He is hesitant over their relationship since she seems to thrive on conflict and is constantly baiting him into physical altercation. Bianca gives Vittorio an exquisite leather belt as a gift; he knows immediately that she wants him to whip her with it. Driven by his craving for her, Vittorio complies to Bianca's desire. Their relationship escalates into a dark realm of S&M which becomes more and more self-destructive.
A wife escapes her pressure-filled marriage only to have her husband haunt her literally and figuratively.
Also Directed by Fulvio Wetzl
Mr. Rorret is the owner of a cinema called "The Peeping Tom" which shows a constant stream of horror films. Rorret dates women from the audience and then kills them, taking sadistic pleasure from their expressions of terror. This film is apparently a well-filmed homage to "Peeping Tom", with nods to "Psycho" and "Strangers on a Train".
The life and the work of the most important italian company of puppet theatre, during the performance of one of wonderful work, Aida: 250 marionettes, twelve artists, original music of Toscanini Aida. In front with children public, behind the curtain, from above...
The double meaning in french of film title MINEURS resume the sense of the film: mineurs as children and as mineworkers in the coalmines. Italy, at the beginning of the sixties. In a little village in Lucanie, little region in the south, four children live in a situation of absolute poverty, but with their plays in the street succeed in living in happiness. In the air the menace and, in the same time, the hope of a telephonic convocation by their relatives, already at work in coalmines in Belgie, in the mine district of Limburg. Two of our children leave with their families, to reach the numerous Italian community of Flandres. The children will have a lot of problems, in the school and with the language, to integrate in a hostile ambient, but, at the end the will succeed.
Also Directed by Giuliana Berlinguer
In this tragic story that has an unrealized potential to tug at the emotions, a woman in mourning for her two sons lost in World War I is the only one in her village determined to financially support a war memorial. The village poor have too little money, and the richer are tight-fisted. She has given a whole 15 years of savings -- yet the good priest, for whom she works as a maid, is not enthusiastic about her action because he is worried that the memorial will not remind the villagers of past horrors and suffering but disguise the human cost of war in rhetoric. As the memorial's advocates begin to sustain the day, flashbacks show how the woman's youngest son shot his captain, deserted the army, and came to die of fever while in his mother's care. The priest helped her as much as possible, yet he feels compelled to tell the authorities that her son was a deserter.