Furio Scarpelli
Based upon Vincenzoni's biography, "Pane e cinema", the documentary traces the story of the screen play writer who invented many stories that became blockbusters throughout the world.
La buona battaglia – Don Pietro Pappagallo is an Italian television miniseries based on the true story of Don Pietro Pappagallo, a Catholic priest and Italian anti-fascist who assisted victims of Nazism and Fascism in Rome during World War II and was arrested and executed in the Ardeatine Caves massacre on March 24, 1944. It was produced by 11 Marzo Cinematografica and Rai Fiction, directed by Gianfranco Albano, written by Stefano Gabrini and Furio Scarpelli, and stars Flavio Insinna as Don Pietro. It was first released in 2006 and is distributed by Radiotelevisione Italiana and RaiTrade.
Elba island, 1814. Martino is a young teacher, idealist and strongly anti Napoleon, in love with the beautiful and noble Baroness Emily. The young man finds himself serving as librarian to the Great Emperor in exile, whom he deeply hates, yet soon begins recording Napoleon's memoirs, getting to know and learning to value the man behind the myth. Among seductions and affairs, expectations and fears, he will craft a precise portrait that nevertheless will not manage to hide a final, inevitable, disappointment.
It's Christmas Eve in Naples. Little Rocco feels increasingly jealous due to the imminent birth of a baby brother. Three little devils sent to earth by Satan promise Rocco that if he will stop baby Jesus from being born, by saying the magic word OPOPOMOZ and thereby entering an elaborate Nativity scene his father built, then his brother will never be born and he will remain an only child.
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.
An evening at an Italian restaurant. Hosted by tolerant and relaxed Flora, various parties of middle-class people come in -- large and small, young and old, regulars and tourists, married and single -- to dine, converse, argue, celebrate, make confessions; to overhear other people's discussions, to interrupt them, to sing, listen to music, and enjoy life. The camera, just like the people, moves constantly from table to table, into the kitchen and the back room to observe the staff's petty jealousies and frustrations -- until two hours later it's time for everybody to go home.
In 1838 in the kingdom of Naples and the Two Sicilies, Malacarne, gamekeeper of Baron San Germano, kills the bandit Caruso, whose widow gives birth to Giovanni and at the same time becomes the nurse of Costanza, San Germano’s orphaned daughter. Thirteen years later, Giovanni and Costanza fall in love to the jealousy of her uncle, who shuts her in a convent, ordering Giovanni to be killed by Malacarne who has meanwhile become a bandit. Barely alive, Giovanni is taken away by Bourbon soldiers. After Garibaldi’s arrival in Sicily and its union with Italy, Costanza is freed from the convent and returns to San Germano. She is visited by Giovanni and although still loves him, rejects him since she wishes to become a nun. In the meantime, Giovanni kills Malacarne and takes his place. Costanza marries the rich Lo Turco and the next day departs for Naples, but during the journey the carriage is attacked by Giovanni’s band. Costanza flees with him and they leave for America.
Simple Italian postman learns to love poetry while delivering mail to a famous poet; he uses this to woo local beauty Beatrice.
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.
"The Family," an album with a velvet cover, is meant to touch the extended family of man. Formal portraits, bookends in this 80-year saga, enclose the central story, which opens with the baptism of Carlo, a baby in his grandfather's lap, and ends with Carlo as a grandfather with a baby in his arms. And never once do we get out of the house, whose rooms provide the film's structure. Comfort or passion? Carlo couldn't really decide until it was too late.
Claudio Scanna is a private in the Italian army: during his first night in a new military base he gets in a fight with senior recruits. Lieutenant Fili, Claudio's commanding officer, is denied a promotion because his superiors discover he was absent without justification during the night of the fight. Fili blames Claudio and vows to make his remaining months in the service a living hell...
Story about a doctor in a Libyan military hospital who is mad, but no-one wants to declare him unfit, and he becomes the captain of a fighting unit. Through him the Germans risk losing a truce with the British, and therefore kill him and give him a hero's funeral.
In this youth-oriented, standard romantic comedy-drama, Anna and Calogero are in love and living together in a low-scale apartment while going to the University of Milan. When Anna discovers she is pregnant, Calogero handles the situation like the moral coward he is.
Walter is a non-commissioned officer of the Navy, while Raf is a ship's cook. They become great friends but unfortunately they fall in love, without knowing it, with the same girl Sonia.
London. Three black robbers break into an Italian restaurant. Bittersweet comedy with political morality, inspired by a news story written by Peter Barnes, Age and Scarpelli.
Sandro is a Roman adrift in Venice during Carnival. As he enters midlife, he argues with his wife of sixteen years more often than they laugh or make love. She's had enough of his moods, so they separate so he can sort out his mind. His first night away, he sees a photograph of a nude; the image resembles his wife. He searches for the model, whose name is Riri. He finds her, and she looks exactly like his wife, except that Riri is a gaily attired prostitute and Laura is a self-contained antiquarian bookseller. Are they two women, are they one, and in the masquerade of Carnival, what is real?
A couple of young movie makers have secretly filmed for over a year what was going on in a hotel room, trying to realize a "live act" of common people living their life. They get in touch with old and money-tight producer Mengaroni to edit their movie, but while they contact the accidental actors for gathering authorization, he starts to manipulate their work.
Drama about the difficulties of a group of people trying to change their lives. A group of people gathers in a terrace in Rome . Some are friends, some know each other and others just meet for the first time. All are intellectual and belong to the middle class.
Police Inspector Bruno Baldassarre hears someone screaming from an old palace and finds two dead bodies on the stairs: the owner, Prince Prospero Dell'Orso, and electrician Romolo Colasanti; both were electrocuted. What is apparently an accident soon turns out to be murder. Bruno interrogates the suspects: Anna Dell'Orso, actress and recipient of a large life insurance, and screenplay writer Henry Hermann. Meanwhile, Baldassarre gets to know lovely young Teresa, Colasanti's niece. After more deaths and attempted murders, Bruno realizes that Teresa is Dell'Orso's natural daughter and only heir of his immense riches: she is the murderer's next intended victim...
An episodic satire of the political and social status of Italy in the seventies, through the shows of one day of a television channel. An English language lesson turns into a killing of a black dignitary of an embassy by a CIA agent and then into his own killing by another colleague. In a television film, the police are befooled by a fake bomb and put a real one in order not to be derided by the public. In a film inquisition show, the bishop of Naples speaks highly of the importance of the family, but a child who lives a miserable family life kills himself. In the debate that follows it is proposed that they should eat the children, as Swift had said. In the next episode, a general who is in the toilet is called for the NATO parade, but the flasher breaks and in his effort to fix it, he dirts allover and kills himself. In a children's show an inspector finds excuses and delays the arrest of a powerful man...
Three episodes of casual erotic character: a porn scriptwriter and his secretary, a man locked up among homosexuals, and a shy man who decides to hire a prostitute over the phone.
Police commissioner Santamaria is investigating the murdering of the ambiguous architect Mr. Garrone. The investigations soon drive him into the Torino's high society. Santamaria suspect Anna Carla and at the same time falls in love for her. Lello is the lover of Massimo, a homosexual platonic friend of Anna Carla. He is following another direction in order to find out the truth, and his results are confusing the Policeman. But another murdering happens...
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.
Teresa (Monica Vitti) gets her first taste of crime -- and its consequences -- when, during World War II, she is nabbed for robbing an apartment. But being poor and perpetually starving, the pretty petty thief doesn't give up her quest for ill-gotten gains and soon turns to pick-pocketing. Despite her questionable thieving skills, the bumbling crook tries scheme after scheme, pilfering from strangers and dodging the law as she searches for a way to fund an adequate meal.
Italy 1973. Giuseppe Tritoni (Ugo Tognazzi) is an ultra-right-wing congressman that doesn't agree anymore with his fascist party policy. He contacts many Italian Army officers and built a net of relationship in order to organize a Coup d'Etat (Golpe). Something goes wrong and the Interior Minister (Home Secretary) Mr. Li Masi (Lino Pugliesi) got the all information about the attempted Golpe. So the Minister organizes a counter-Golpe. Tritoni desperately, to save his project, kidnaps the Italian Republic President (Claude Dauphin) that immediately dies for heartache. Now Minister Mr. Li Masi is free to lay down the law to the rest of the country, realizing basically the actual Golpe! Tritoni surrenders and will spend rest of his time trying to sell his ideas about managing Golpe in Africa!
Released from the orphanage at the age of thirty, a man dreams of finding his mother.
An obscure Italian magistrate suspects that a well-known industrialist commited murder, and decides to investigate him, and bring him to court, whatever it takes. But - will the magistrate have it in him to go against impossible odds, in the name of the Italian people he represents?
The film consists of twelve episodes, all with Monica Vitti as the protagonist.
Construction worker Oreste and young fiancee Adelaide meet Nello, cook in a pizzeria. This love triangle often go to communist rallies, and enjoy the filthy beach of Ostia. Will the hostile environment leave a way to jealousy?
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.
In WWII, a commando was sent in a secret mission in Sicily. They had a reluctant Italian prisoner of war to help them.
When Marino goes to Rome for an event, he certainly does not imagine meeting Marisa, who will become the love of his life. But once love is found, it is a matter of spreading it and here the difficulties begin: first the father who opposes it; then, after the death of his father, the gossips who make Marino believe that Marisa was a little good, so much so that Marisa runs away. Repentant, Marino searches in vain and then, almost by accident, finds her again, Mrs. Ciceri. But love admits no obstacles, not even that of a deaf and dumb husband.
A rich businessman is fed up with work, family, society, and goes with his accountant to Africa, in search of his brother-in-law who had vanished there in mysterious circumstances. They will find him alright - as a tribal chief, surrounded with lots of topless, shapely wives. They are going to return to civilisation, but will their friend come with them?
Comedy-drama about a middle-aged Italian businessman Vittorio Gassman who is married to Eleanor Parker and is innocently introduced one day to a schoolgirl with pigtails named Carolina. Years later, that young schoolgirl has become a vivacious young woman (Ann-Margret), and she pursues him, luring him into an on-again-off-again romantic tryst where she pulls the strings and holds all the cards.
Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.
A group of rogues steal a scroll granting its bearer the property of the land of Aurocastro in Apulia (south of Italy). They elect a shaggy knight, Brancaleone from Norcia, as their leader, and decide to get possession of this supposedly wealthy land. Many adventures will occurr during the journey.
While the Civil War rages between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hit man and a Mexican bandit – comb the American Southwest in search of a strongbox containing $200,000 in stolen gold.
An anthology film that presents three storylines, all set in the Italian town of Treviso. In the first story, a husband pretends to be impotent as a cover for having an affair. In the second, a bank clerk abandons his wife for his mistress, but the rest of the town's husbands become jealous and unite to conspire against them. In the third, men of the town all seduce a promiscuous teenager, but her father eventually reveals that she is underage, and they face prosecution for statutory rape.
Sandro is a well-known journalist and he is conducting a survey on human selfishness. Every man and every woman he meets turns into a theme for his inquiry. Even his own wife, Titta.
The amorous adventures of Andrea Rossi-Colombotti, an army officer who finds pleasure with beautiful women in life-threatening situations.
The film presents the tale of Agnese Ascalone, daughter of prominent miner Vincenzo Ascalone, and takes place in a small town in Sicily. Agnese is seduced by her sister Matilde's fiance, and has a tryst with him for which she confesses and tries to repent, only to be discovered by her mother and father. The film is a dark satire of Sicilian social customs and honor laws, and is very similar to Divorce, Italian Style.
Professor Sinigaglia (Marcello Mastroianni) is the title character in this darkly comedic Italian drama about mistreated factory workers in the city of Turin. Toiling away in appalling conditions in a textile mill, these employees have no one to stand up for them until Sinigaglia puts his academic career on the line by helping them to start a strike. Although the teacher comes under scrutiny by unsympathetic authorities, he maintains his dedication to the workers' cause.
Primary school teacher Mr. Mombelli, nevertheless satisfied with his life, is driven by his wife to resign and starting a new activity. He invest all his goodwill setting up a footwear little factory.
March on Rome (Italian: La marcia su Roma) is a 1962 comedy film by Dino Risi with Vittorio Gassman and Ugo Tognazzi, aimed at describing the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini's black shirts from the point of view of two newly recruited, naïve black shirts
Popular Italian comic Alberto Sordi does an excellent job of creating a bumbling yet effective police inspector by the unlikely name of Dante Lombardozzi, in this entertaining comedy-murder mystery by director Luigi Comencini.
An inept thief wants to escape prison and return to his family, but two of his prison mates also want out.
During World War II, a plane full of RAF fighter crashes in the Ethiopian desert and they are met upon by an enemy Italian patrol that allows them to go free. But, when the Brits are given orders to attack the Italians, lots of problems ensue.
When Italy surrenders to the Allies, part of the Italian army is dispersed and soldiers begin to return to their homes.
Gerardo, an aspiring actor, trying unsuccessfully to cross over from comedy to tragedy, is involved, due to his ability to mimic dialects of Italy, in a scam concocted by Lallo against a rich cloth-merchant.
Italy, 1916. Oreste Jacovacci and Giovanni Busacca are called, as all the Italian youths, to serve the army in the WWI. They both try in every way to avoid serving the army.
Ugo meets the 18-year-old Renata in the hostel where she is staying. He falls in love with and leaves with her for several romantic places until the money ends. Ugo will try to get the girl engaged on a local TV station, but Renata falls in love with a manager.
Francesca and Sandro meet, falls for each other and get married. But the differences between them are too many and the separation is around the corner.
Best friends Peppe and Mario are thieves, but they're not very good at it. Still, Peppe thinks that he's finally devised a master heist that will make them rich. With the help of some fellow criminals, he plans to dig a tunnel from a rented apartment to the pawnshop next door, where they can rob the safe. But his plan is far from foolproof, and the fact that no one in the group has any experience digging tunnels proves to be the least of their problems.
Assola is an imaginary village on the border between Italy and France and the borderline crosses the village itself. The French customs agent Ferdinand is always trying to catch the Italian smuggler Giuseppe. Giuseppe discovers that Ferdinand was actually born in Italy and therefore he can't be a French customs agent.
Italy, mid '60s. Three guys from a poor neighbourhood try to get rich by printing fake money using the fact that one of them works as a typographer. The story unravels around their embarrassed efforts to spend the money, their little family issues and ends with a surprise.
A traveling salesman is sent to prison after being accused of bigamy, while his wife and son are forced to consider leaving him permanently.
A newlywed couple wins the lottery and the prize is a mink fur which maybe will change their life forever.
The penniless Duke decides to participate in "Lascia o raddoppia", a TV quiz show, in order to win five million lira. Then two gangsters bet between themselves on his success and, alas, the Duke is kidnapped.
Peppone, hardened mayor in Brescello, the small village on the Po river, aspires to become senator. Neither before or after WWII, where he fought against the Germans and fascists, he never went seriously to school, so he needs (at least) a diploma. Believe it or not, don Camillo helps Peppone to pass the examination (with the forecast of moving to Rome) prompting him the solution of geometry's problem. As implicit reward, Peppone writes a composition about "A man I'll never forget": obviously don Camillo, when Peppone was a resistant in WWII, and don Camillo the young military chaplain. Getting the diploma was the first step. The election campaign just started and the two big parties - Christian-democratic and Communist, forgetful of respective favors, settle down an electoral "war of the words", mean tricks (culminating with the famous horny Peppone/Lucifer) and easy propaganda.
As soon as he graduated from the Naples Conservatory, Vincenzo Bellini meets Maddalena Fumaroli and immediately falls in love with her.
A series of comical sketches featuring a doctor, a travelling salesman and some posh gents.
'Totò a colori' was the first Italian movie to be shot with a colour film, but the sensitivity was very low (6 asa!) so the actors had to act under a very strong lighting and high temperature.
Carlo wins some money and decides to go to Rome to celebrate, but he gets his money stolen on the train. He tries to find a friend of his for a loan. Unfortunately, he is at his wedding at the church. When Carlo goes there he met his runaway bride...
The Milanese Luigi Pizzigoni, photographer, and the Neapolitan barber Peppino Avallone, resident in Milan, are opponents in the sports field. The first is a proud Inter supporter, while the second is from Napoli.
