Filmographies - films at UST by Country: Italy

Guido Anselmi is a film director overwhelmed by a large production he is working on. He is hassled by producers, his wife, his mistress, and all while he is struggling to find the inspiration to finish his film. The stress eventually forces Anselmi into a psychological world where fantasy and memory overwhelm his present reality.

In Genoa, Agata runs her bookstore and, without meaning to, causes light bulbs and appliances to burn out. At the same time that a younger man declares his attraction to her, her brother Gustav, a morose architect, a distant husband, and an indifferent father, discovers that he was adopted and has a half-brother in the Po Valley. To Agata's great pain, she sees her young man with another woman - plus, Gustav cuts himself off from her and from his wife and son. Agata goes to the Po Valley, meets Gustav's brother and the brother's wife, and tries to reconnect.

Mero, a skilled shipyard worker, is a single father. His son Lorenzo, born from a relationship with an Albanian girl, is his only reason for living. The father dreams that the boy will become a champion boxer, to make up for his own anonymous career as an amateur in the ring. He puts him through a tough training program, teaching him day after day to throw punches and protect himself from life's low blows. The balance of this relationship is disturbed by the return of Lorenzo's mother Denisa and by the son's meeting with Ana. Mero's trials are not over and he must face up to pain, his prejudices and the remoteness of Italy's north east.

Thriller about a man who discovers that his best friend was not the person he thought he was. After a brilliant career as a fencer Paolo is now thirty-five and has become a sports journalist for a local newspaper in Vicenza. His friend Franz, the former fencing champion, took a different path and became a successful businessman. But one day Franz dies suddenly and unexpectedly, supposedly of a heart attack. Suspicious of the cause of death, Paolo sets out in search of an explanation and finds himself immersed in the unseemly practices of Franz's lucrative leather tannery, symbol of many tainted businesses in the illustrious Italian Northeast. Paolo's investigation exposes him to ever increasing risks as he comes closer and closer to the truth.

Artemisia Gentileschi is forbidden to fully pursue her own passion of painting. She convinces a renowned artist to tutor her. He not only liberates her into the world of art but initiates her into the world of sex and love.

The course of a lifetime reflects the evolution of a country as Peppino takes work as a shepherd to support his family in the Sicilian town of Bagheria, nicknamed "Baarìa" by its residents. During the next five decades he experiences the love of his life, undergoes a political awakening and discovers a destiny he could have never imagined.

Set in Rome, Italy, this film looks at the lives of Carlo, Giulia, and their friends some 10 years after the events of "L'ultimo bacio." Over the years since Carlo and Giulia were married, they had a beautiful baby girl, Sveva, but soon left one another after a series of betrayals and mutual resentments. Now Carlo is single, turning forty, and has difficulties having long-lasting relationships with women, while Giulia and her daughter live with a new boyfriend named Simone, a penniless actor. Adriano returns from a long journey, after serving two years in jail in Cuba for trying to smuggle cocaine into Italy. Now he intends to make up for lost time with his son, who has not heard from him for ten years and who lives with his mother Livia, who is romantically involved with Paul.

Assisted suicide made national headlines in Italy when the decision was made to end the life of Eluana Englaro, after she spent seventeen years in a vegetative state after a car accident. This drama, set suring the last six days of Englaro's life, affects the lives of four people struggling with their own beliefs. A senator, forced to vote for a law with which he profoundly disagrees, is torn between his conscience and his loyalty toward the leaders of his party. His daughter, a right-to-life activist, falls in love with an advocate for assisted suicide. A famous actress turns towards faith and miracle cures in the hope of bringing her daughter out of an irreversible coma. And Rossa is saved by the doctor Pallido and reawakens to life.

Alberto, a postmaster trying to secure a transfer to Milan to please his wife, attempts a subterfuge which results in his banishment to a small town south of Naples. Culture shock ensues.

A young woman, Chiara, moves into a new apartment with her husband. On the surface she lives a routine existence, but all is not as it seems. She conceals her true identity as a member of The Red Brigades, Italy's terrorist underground, which is currently planning to kidnap the Prime Minister. Passionate about a revolutionary utopia, Chiara's suspicions and doubts grow and she questions, both emotionally and ideologically, her commitment and acts.

After an eventful afternoon at the beach with his brother, Pietro, a successful executive, returns to his summer home only to discover that his wife has suddenly died. Devastated, he vows to be a source of stability for their ten-year-old daughter, Claudia, while trying to make sense of his loss. But in the meantime, his company is in the midst of a high-stakes merger, with Pietro's colleagues desperate to know which side he's on, and his volatile sister-in-law has unexpected news of her own.

It's 1914 and Italy is about to go to war. A group of young North Europeans has found on the island of Capri the ideal place for their quest for life and art. But the island has its own strong identity, embodied in a goatherdess named Lucia. The film explores the encounters between Lucia, the commune led by Seybu, and a young doctor from the island.

Set during the late Italian Renaissance in 17th-century Rome. Michelangelo da Caravaggio was rescued from the streets by the Catholic Church, in order to create Biblical paintings. However, Caravaggio did not adhere to his religious creations, but instead traveled among thieves and prostitutes, many of whom were his models, kept a deaf and mute child as a slave, squandered every penny he ever made, and ultimately killed a man in a brawl, eventually leading him to his life's own violent end.

Presented in three chapters, Moretti uses the experiences from travelling on his vespa, cruising with his friend around a set of remote islands and consulting a series of medical experts to cure his annoying rash in order to find peace so he can finish his film.

Caterina moves with her family from the small town of Montalto di Castro to Rome. The sensitive and intelligent young girl enrolls in the eighth grade in one of the most prestigious schools in the capital, where she finds her class totally divided between the snobbish, radical chic and reactionary, spoiled brats. Worse, her own father, a frustrated professor, begins to manipulate her as he sees in the parents of her new school acquaintances the possibility for him to achieve a long dreamed of writing career.

As part of a rehabilitative prison program, inmates at a high-security prison in Rome prepare for a public performance of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." As they rehearse, the prisoners find that the classic play has both a striking resonance and contrast to their confined lives.

After his best friend Mark dies, Jeff decides to meet Andrea, an Italian man who Mark has been internet dating. The two strangers quickly bond and develop a meaningful friendship that changes their lives forever.

A famous film director returns home to a Sicilian village for the first time after almost 30 years after receiving word from his aging mother that a mentor from his past has died. His return causes him to reminisce about his childhood at the Cinema Paradiso where his friend and mentor Alfredo, the projectionist, first brought about his love of films. Their bond was one that contained many highlights and tragedies, and shaped the way for a young boy to grow and move out of his rundown village to pursue a dream, which also meant leaving behind his teenage love, Elena.

Francis renounces his inheritance of wealth to live the Gospel and serve the poor and outcasts. Clare reads deep into his heart and decides to follow him, leaving her home and family to give herself as the bride of Christ. Both found major religious orders and together they inspire many to follow their radical call to live the Gospel, and their impact has even reached across the centuries to change the world.

Restless Silvio and his close friend Ponzi find themselves in a desperate search for life and love, or at the very least, sex. When student radicals occupy their high school, Silvio and Ponzi join the melee--not for the politics, but for the chance to score. Caught between parents, protest, and the blind rush of a generation eager to stake its claim on the world, Silvio and Ponzi will not only confront history, but also the future of their friendship.

A documentary featuring director Pier Paulo Pasolini asking questions about sex, love, and morality of a variety of people from all over Italy: he asks children where babies come from, young and old women if they are men's equals, men and women if a woman's virginity matters, how they view homosexuals, how sex and honor connect, if divorce should be legal, and if they support closing the brothels (the Merlina Act). It features interviews with psychologist Cesare Musatti and author Alberto Moravia.

Cora, an attractive, unstable girl in her teens with no stable job or home, is hired by a rich woman to follow her forgetful father throughout Rome and beyond. As the old man makes pointless trips across Italy, Cora unknowingly embarks on a journey of self-discovery, dealing with past memories and colorful encounters. Unable to deal with the old man's delirium, Cora wanders off on her own, becoming involved with various men and evading her low-life brother's plans to kidnap the old man for ransom. Lost in despair, Cora abandons the pursuit and returns to Rome, where an accidental encounter lifts her spirits.

A G8 meeting is being held at a luxury hotel where the world's most powerful economists are gathered to enact provisions that will influence the world economy. One guest is a mysterious Italian monk, Salus, invited by Daniel Rochè, the director of the International Monetary Fund. Rochè wants him to receive his confession--that night--in secret. The next morning, Rochè is found dead and Salus is now the main suspect in his death.

13-year-old Marta struggles to find her place in her new home in southern Italy by testing the boundaries of her religion and the unfamiliar city. Her only source of socialization is the local church, where she is sent to attend prep classes for confirmation. Eventually, Marta forges her own way of the cross, which turns out to have much less to do with God than with her own ascent into adulthood.

A married woman becomes involved in a heated affair with a married waiter, and as their neatly ordered world falls apart, they are faced with a life-changing choice which neither is entirely prepared to make.

Cosimo and Nicole are a young couple in love. She is french and he is Italian, they live in Genoa where they work for a concert organizer, Paolo. On day a clandestine man from Guinea falls on the ground while working on the stage construction. Paolo knows that if the police finds the body his whole business will be in trouble as he also finds himself to be in big debt with the banks. Therefore he decides to hide the corpse of the worker in an abandoned place, helped by Nicole and Cosimo. Nicole though, cannot forget what happened and obsessed by her sense of guilt decides to do something about it.

Two brothers emigrate to Turin to escape the poverty of their Sicilian hometown. The story unfolds over a period of six years. The older brother Giovanni, has the desire to see his brother, Pietro, become a school teacher. Giovanni makes tremendous sacrifices, unaware that Pietro is squandering his money and skipping school. When Giovanni's obsession with money transforms him into a labor boss, Pietro makes a sacrifice that will cost them both.

The story follows a real life anti-fascist intellectual, Carlo Levi, into his forced exile in small, isolated village in a remote region of Southern Italy. The village is populated by inhabitants who barely survive on the meager harvest of the unyielding land. Eboli, the closest train station, is the last outpost of civilization (such as it is) before entering a world that has changed very little since the Middle Ages. The movie title, after the book written by Carlo Levi, expresses all the sense of abandon, neglect, desolation and human despair. According to the local tales, even Christ, in his southward journey, went no further than Eboli.

Shy, ten-year-old Vittoria has a close relationship with her loving mother, Tina ... but their life is upset when the young girl discover that local party girl Angelica ... is her birth mother. When Angelica is forced to move away because of financial troubles, she asks to become acquainted with Vittoria. Tina agrees, knowing the woman will leave town soon, but Vittoria and Angelica soon spend more time together against Tina's will

After breaking up with her boyfriend, 30-year-old Stefania vacations on the Greek "Isle of Love", and reluctantly agrees to chaperone her precocious 15-year-old niece, Meggy. But Stefania doesn't know that Meggy plans to lose her virginity before the summer is over, and the guy she has her eye on is none other than Stefania's ex.

Ferdinando longs to marry his cousin Angela, but one obstacle stands in his way: his wife, Rosalia. His solution? Since divorce is illegal, he hatches a plan to lure his spouse into the arms of another and then murder her in a justifiable effort to save his honor.

In a seaside village on the outskirts of an Italian city, where the only law seems to be survival of the fittest, Marcello is a slight, mild-mannered man who divides his days between working at his modest dog grooming salon, caring for his daughter Alida, and being coerced into the petty criminal schemes of the local bully Simoncino, an ex-boxer who terrorizes the neighborhood. When Simoncino's abuse finally brings Marcello to a breaking point, he decides to stand up for his own dignity through an act of vengeance, with unintended consequences.

Don Matteo is a detective with a difference. He is the local Catholic priest in a parish of the town of Gubbio in Perugia, with a profound knowledge of the human psyche. Riding his bike through the countryside of Umbria as he cares for his parishioners, Don Matteo really cannot stay out of trouble. Whether it's catching a thief or bringing a murderer to justice, Don Matteo uses his disarming smile and twinkling blue eyes to put the guilty off their guard and bring the truth to light.

True story of the Franciscan priest and theologian who won a famous debate against the Dominicans in the 13th century in which he defended Our Lady's privilege of her Immaculate Conception, laying the groundwork for the Church to later define that as a dogma of the Catholic faith.

A portrayal of the life of Jewish philosopher, Catholic convert and Carmelite martyr, Edith Stein, capturing her interior struggles, as well as the great conflicts from her decision to convert to Catholicism. Influenced by the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, she joined the Carmelites and took the name of Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was put to death in Auschwitz in 1942, and canonized by John Paul II in 1998.

After a modern aristocrat falls off his horse, he believes that he is Henry IV, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. For years, everyone around him adapts to this fantasy, dressing and acting accordingly. Then one day, some friends try to cure "Henry."

Antonia and her husband Massimo have been happily married for the better part of 10 years when a sudden and tragic accident kills Massimo. While going through her husband's possessions, Antonia discovers that her beloved Massimo has had a secret life for the last seven years.

After an arranged marriage, King Ferdinando and Carolina discover that the one thing they have in common is sexual desire. The sovereigns begin to lapse in their reigning duties, oblivious to the tide of revolution threatening to tear France apart.

A young working-class wife and mother, Giovanna, has no time for the senile elderly man her husband has rescued from the streets. But as she uncovers the stranger's secrets, it unlocks a freedom within her heart she never expected; a freedom that will lead her to the arms of a neighbor she secretly adores, and to fulfillment her husband and family cannot provide.

The Benedetti family has been haunted by a curse for generations. On a long drive to visit their grandfather in Tuscany, Luigi Benedetti tells his children the mysterious story of their ancestors -- a tale filled with forbidden love, passion, vengeance, and betrayal.

Caterina, a beautiful young nun, is about to take her final vows. But her life changes when she takes in an abandoned baby. As she seeks the baby's family, she meets Ernesto. Together, they seek the truth about the baby, and re-evaluate their own lives.

A bio-pic about Galileo, the 17th century Italian who laid the foundations of modern science. Galileo made himself one of the world's first telescopes and discovered the moons of Jupiter. He supported Copernicus' theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun. This brought him into conflict with the Catholic Church. By threatening him with torture, the Church forced him to recant his views in front of a tribunal, and sentenced him to house arrest. However, Galileo's trials and theories inspired others like Newton and Kepler to prove that the Earth was not the center of the Universe.

12-year-old Edmund Koehler struggles for survival. Among the nine people he lives with are: a father, who is suffering from malnutrition and a fatal illness; a brother, who is a former Nazi soldier hiding to avoid arrest; and a sister, who has turned to prostitution. Scouring the rubble-strewn city for food, money, and cigarettes, he comes upon a former teacher, Herr Enning, who evinces a barely restrained sexual attraction to the boy while providing him with records of Hitler's speeches that can be bartered on the black market. He also drums into the boy a classic piece of Nazi propaganda about the importance of having the courage to let the weak be destroyed. Under his influence, the confused young protagonist heads down a tragic path.

A middle-aged retiree has become invisible to all the women of Rome, regardless of age or relation. He contends with a demanding mother; a patronizing wife; a slacker daughter; and a wild party-girl neighbor who uses him, as a dog walker. Watching his codger friends snare girlfriends on the sun-kissed cobblestones of Trastevere, Giovanni tries his polite, utterly gracious best to generate some kind of extracurricular love life--with both hilarious and poignant results.

Fellini's satirical attack on television in general and Italian TV in particular, portrays Amelia and Pippo, who wowed crowds with recreations of the dances of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers decades ago, reuniting for a nationwide TV special that features a list of guest stars that is both long and bizarre.

Well-to-do, sophisticated couple, Elsa and Michele, have a 20 year-old daughter, Alice, and enough money for Elsa to leave her job and fulfill an old dream of studying art history. After she graduates, however, their lives change. Michele confesses he hasn't worked in two months and was fired by the company he founded years ago. Elsa overcomes her initial shock by pouring extra energy into facing the crisis while Michele, exhausted by an unsuccessful job hunt, lets himself go, alternating between vivacity and apathy. The growing distance between them eventually leads to a break-up. Only when they part will they realize that they risk losing their most precious possession: the love that binds them.

Follows the sudden disappearance of Anna Lou, a 16-year-old girl from a small mountain village in the Italian Alps. Called to investigate the mystery is the enigmatic Detective Vogel ..., who soon realizes that this case is far from simple. Working against the clock and amidst an unprecedented and growing media frenzy, Vogel must make use of his unconventional methods to uncover the truth, in a town where motives are obscure, facts are distorted--and everyone could be a suspect.

Juliet lives in a beautiful house by the ocean. Her sisters, and especially her Mother overshadow her with their beauty. She is a spiritual, superstitious and naive woman. She visits a psychic seer who tells her she must follow the sex trade in order to be happy. Not long after she meets her eccentric and sexy neighbour, Suzy, who, by all counts appears to be a high class prostitute and encourages Juilet into sexual acts which make her guilty and nervous. A rare night when her husband is at home she wakes up to catch him talking to another woman on the phone. He calls out the name "Gabriella" while sleeping, but when she questions him he lies his way out of it. She finds out who Gabriella is and fears her husband will leave her. Juliet begins having visions who accuse and terrorize her. The pinnacle of the visions comes at the end where it is implied she realizes she would be better off without her husband and is ultimately emotionally emancipated.

Set in contemporary Naples, five interrelated stories of Italy's largest organized crime syndicate, the Camorra, intersect. The stories reveal how men, women and children are caught up in the mafia underworld, a corrupt system that transcends the housing projects and is run by Italy's political elite.

At the Vatican, following the demise of the Pope, the conclave to elect his successor settles on Cardinal Melville. Caught off guard and unwilling to take the job, Melville panics as the faithful wait for the new Pope's appearance in St. Peter's Square. To prevent a worldwide crisis, the Vatican calls in an unlikely psychiatrist to find out what is wrong with Melville and get him to take the position. While the world waits outside, inside the Vatican Palace the therapist works desperately with Melville to rid him of his fears and reaffirm his duty to God.

Recently dumped screenwriter Ezio is having trouble writing a story about two neurotic families whose paths cross when their teenage children, Filipo and Marta, decide to marry. Filipo's parents and Marta's parents arrange to have dinner to meet for the first time, with hilarious consequences. Ezio soon writes himself into his script, and into a love story, while the characters bother him about having bigger and better roles!

In Baghdad in the early 1900's, a woman rises up through the ranks of power in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire. She and a eunuch plan an elaborate scheme for the release of the female slaves.

Philippa a British teacher living in Turin, Italy, has watched helplessly as her husband and friends have fallen victim to drug overdoses. To compound her desperation, the police -- who are complicit in the actions of Turin's biggest drug dealer -- have completely ignored Philippa's repeated offers of information. So, with the unexpected help of a sympathetic police officer, Philippa feels she has nothing to lose by taking divine justice into her own hands!

A four-year-old boy, Pricò, is trapped in a loveless family, with his suicidal father, his adulteress mother, and inattentive relatives.

"One hundred steps" was the distance between the Impastatos' house and the house of Tano Badalamenti, an important Mafia boss, in the small Sicilian town of Cinisi. Based on the true story of Peppino Impastato, a left-wing activist, that in the late seventies repeatedly denounced Badalamenti crimes and the whole Mafia system using a small local radio station. In 1978 Peppino was killed by an explosion. The police archived the case as an accident or a suicide, which his friends never accepted.

Three different stories set throughout Italy. In the first vignette, a woman avoids jail time by pumping out babies with a willing accomplice; in the second, a pair of clandestine lovers are forced to work out their problems in a car; and in the third, a prostitute quits her best john for a wavering priest.

In the industrial North, Giovanni is a skilled Milanese factory worker offered a promotion if he'll go to Sicily for 18 months to assist in a new department. His impending absence strains his already nearly wordless relationship with Liliana, his fiancée. Across this distance, can anything bring about a breakthrough? Do they have a future?

Mere days after marrying Giovanna, Antonio is called to the Russian front to fight for the Italian forces. Years after Antonio is reported missing in action, Giovanna travels to Russia to learn what happened to him, only to discover he's alive. Their reunion is bittersweet, however, as Antonio has married another woman.

Hedge-fund manager Giovanni Bernaschi seemingly has it all. Meanwhile, real-estate agent Dino Ossola struggles to maintain his family's middle-class existence and faces even worse financial straits when his wife announces that she is pregnant with twins. Leveraging his daughter's relationships with Giovanni's son, Dino deceives the bank and manipulates his way into the Bernaschi hedge-fund. As the destinies of both families become further entwined, a fateful hit-and-run accident sets in motion a chain of events, triggering dangerous consequences that will change their lives forever.

An episode tale which mostly takes place in 18th century Italy. Giacomo Casanova is a modestly wealthy adventurer who leads a futile existence; his only strengths lie in seduction and sexual performance. His life becomes increasingly meaningless as lovers slip away. The film is loosely based off of the biography by Giacomo Casanova himself, although, like all of Fellini's literary adaptations (post 8 1/2), the film is decorated with a wreathe of absurdity.

In 1944, newly-orphaned sisters, Penny and Baby, come to live in the Tuscan villa of their aunt and uncle. Their uncle is a German-Jewish intellectual, and discourages the pro-Mussolini and fascist sympathies the girls inherited from their late father. Penny and Baby gradually make friends in their new surroundings and become somewhat smitten with their uncle; but as war rages around them, the family receives a warning from the local priest to flee to Switzerland as the Nazis make towards their town.

Detective Salvo Montalbano and his police squad solve crimes in the town of Vigata, crossing paths with Mafia dons, priests, housewives, liars, and saints. He also wages a personal war with his own demons, which fight against his professional ideals and personal commitment to his long-distance girlfriend, Livia.

A group of old friends rent an Italian seaside villa to spend the afternoon together. Their reunion changes, however, when Shary and Diego's son David shows up and attracts everyone's attention. Even happily married psychiatrist Matteo finds himself drawn to David, although he carefully hides this from his wife. Soon a dangerous tension builds up, although the friends pretend nothing is wrong. Before it ends, this vacation will indelibly mark all of their lives.

Boccaccio's classic tales of passion brought to the screen. Among the stories are a man's exploits with a gang of robbers, a flock of randy nuns who sin with a gardener, and a pupil of the painter Giotto working on a massive fresco.

Seven-time Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti's long career was dogged by persistent accusations of conspiracy, Mafia connections and state-sponsored terror. This film explores the political machinations and criminal underworld surrounding this controversial figure.

A selection of erotic stories from "The Thousand and One Nights". The film focuses on the book's more erotic tales, framed by the story of a man's quest to reconnect with his beloved slave girl.

Recounting the years of Italy's Risorgimento-when the aristocracy lost its grip and the middle classes rose and formed a democratic Italy. Contains the original Italian version with optional subtitles, the English-language version and special features.

Emanuele Bardone, a petty con man in wartime Genoa, fleeces his victims by posing as a colonel. Persuaded by the Nazis to impersonate a partisan leader they have killed, he assumes the admirable qualities of the heroic officer and the German plan backfires.

Set in Italy in 1938, when Mussolini's anti-Semitic edicts began to isolate the Jews from their communities. Among them were the Finzi-Continis, an aristocratic Jewish family forced for the first time to acknowledge the world beyond its fenced garden.

In this prequel series to Detective Montalbano, watch the genesis of the friendships, the rivalries and the romance as the players arrive to take their places in the Sicilian town of Vigata. These stories set the stage for the group's transformation from rookie cops to the experienced crime-solving ensemble they are now.

About an impoverished Spanish lad who becomes a famous bullfighter, known as Miguelín. He quickly rises to the top and is soon appearing before capacity crowds in the bullrings of Barcelona. Charting his rise and fall, the film places the viewer right in the thick of the ring's action, as close to death as possible.

A vicious serial killer is on the loose committing rape and murder. Landscape gardener and shop-window outfitter Loris is the prime suspect, due to his unfortunate habit of getting caught in compromising yet innocent situations. An undercover policewoman, Jessica, is assigned by eccentric police psychologist Taccone to watch the suspect and find evidence for his arrest.

Veleno, the son of a lawyer, makes friends with some street kids when he is drafted by their leader, Zazà, to be the goalie of their soccer team. The two friends become obsessed with Annalisa, after they witness her throw herself off the roof of the local church.

When Domenico ventures from the village of Meda to Milan in search of employment, he finds himself on the bottom rung of the bureaucratic ladder in a huge, faceless company. The prospects are daunting, but Domenico finds reason for hope in Antonietta. A tale of one man's stumbling entrance into the perils of modern adulthood.

Franco Elica is a dissolute movie director who slides into despair after being asked--to his horror--to make a film. Hoping to avoid a looming sexual-harassment scandal, Franco flees to Sicily where he hids out and meets a host of colorful characters: a man who makes his living shooting wedding films, a film director who is faking his own death to finally achieve fame, and a cultured prince. The menacing prince, a huge fan of Franco's movies, commissions him to shoot the wedding of his tempestuous daughter, Bona, with whom Franco quickly falls impulsively, dangerously in love and whose wedding he becomes driven to sabotage at all costs.

Silvana, the depressed wife of a provincial industrialist, convinces herself that Marie, their Romanian maid, is stealing from her. With no proof and against her husband's wishes, Silvana fires Marie without notice. After desperately wandering around, Maria goes to live with her former boyfriend, Ionut, who has just been released from prison. While co-habitating together, their long-extinguished passion reignites.

Tells the story of a 12-year-old Iraqi girl living in Rome, who finds herself rejected by both Italians and Arabs because of a secret in her past. Her story is revealed in a series of flashbacks, as told by Rahil herself, through the bars of a jail-cell from an undisclosed location. Despite her hardships, Rahil dreams of a life of a different adventure than the one she now has.

Roberto, a shy law student in Rome, meets Bruno, a forty-year-old exuberant, capricious man, who takes him for a drive through the Roman and Tuscany countries in the summer of 1962. They will spend two days together, meet both Roberto's and Bruno's family. The time Roberto spends with Bruno is a hilarious, but sometimes emotionally merciless accelerated maturization process. While Bruno's easy going "l'usage du monde" and societal success attract Roberto's great admiration, he also slowly realizes Bruno's hollowness, superficiality and unhappiness.

Grazia, a 17-year-old teenage girl, lives in a small town in the south of Italy. Her brother Pietro disappeared--emigrated to Germany--years ago; her father told her that he was dead and never wanted to talk about it. One night, after a fight, Grazia enters into the sea and sees a human figure whom she recognized as her brother. That night she decides to search for him, breaking the silence that her father has always held on to.

The birth, life, teachings and death on the cross of Jesus Christ presented almost as a cinema-verité documentary. Pasolini's second feature ... is an attempt to take Christ out of the opulent church and present him as an outcast Italian peasant.

An elderly priest is devastated when his church is deconsecrated, leaving him without a role in life. It is not long before a group of illegal immigrants find shelter in the "church" and give the priest a new role and set of responsibilities.

Nello is a shy and clumsy man devoted to the academic world. His lack of interest in women worries his father, who sends him to work at a school to find a wife. Nello finds himself at a dance where he meets and falls for a beautiful blind woman.

Inspector Federico Vivaldi is an old-school cop in a new world. His son, Stefano, is also a cop, and father and son make a good team solving crimes together in the northeastern Italian city of Trieste. Together, they investigate cases ranging from insurance fraud to murder and human trafficking. Their toughest challenge involves the murder of a math professor who had been solving some equations linked to a long-ago kidnapping and murder. When Federico's best friend and former colleague gets called in as a suspect in the same cold case, it seems as if his world has turned inside out.

A 14-year-old pretends to go on a ski trip, but actually spends the week in isolation in his basement, escaping society's pressure. When his 25-year-old half-sister enters the basement, a few emotional and confronting days and nights ensue.

While playing outside one day in a wheat field, nine-year-old Michele discovers Filippo, who is chained to the ground at the bottom of a hole. Michele witnesses town bad boy Felice nearby and suspects something bad is happening. Michele is unsure whom he should tell about his discovery, eventually spilling the tale to his closest friend. When Michele's parents learn of his discovery, they warn him to forget whatever he saw.

The Recchi family has undergone sweeping changes. Eduardo Sr. has named a successor to the reins of his company, and surprised everyone by splitting power between his son Tancredi and grandson Edo. But Edo had always dreamed of opening a restaurant with his friend Antonio. To make matters worse, the very foundation of the entire family may be totally shattered after Tancredi's wife Emma falls in love with Antonio and begins a love affair.

Shun Li works in a textile factory near Rome. She is suddenly transferred to work as a bartender at a pub in a small town along the Venetian Lagoon. The pub is the hangout of the local fishermen, including Bepi, a Slav immigrant nicknamed "The Poet." A friendship grows between them, but gossip soon threatens their innocent relationship; a bond that had once transcended two very different, yet not at all distant cultures.

A selection of stories from Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales". Shot in England, it offers an earthy re-creation of the medieval era. From the story of a nobleman struck blind after marrying a much younger and promiscuous bride, to a climactic trip to a hell populated by friars and demons.

Five men conspire to burglarize a small-time jeweler's safe. When the time comes to carry out the scheme, the men become hopelessly clumsy and have to eventually give up and go home.

This film details a year in the life of five young men lingering in post-adolescent limbo, dreaming of adventure and escape from their small town and struggling to find meaning in their lives.

Depicts a hope-filled view of the Holocaust from the perspective of a young Dutch boy, Jonah, who spends much of his childhood behind the bars of a Nazi concentration camp. Only through strength and perseverance does he emerge from the camp and grow.

Magic, drama, horror and humor are all evoked in this adaptive collection of five tales of Sicilian peasantry, based on short stories by Luigi Pirandello. In "The Other Son," a mother spends her life waiting for news from two sons, emigrated to America, while ignoring her third. "Moonsickness" tells the tale of a newly-wed girl who discovers her husband acts strangely every full moon. "The Jar" tells the story of a wealthy man's brand new olive jar, which is repaired with the craftsman inside. The fourth vignette, "Requiem," tells the story of villagers banding together against their landlord. An epilogue is included, which centers on Pirandello's journey home. Each of four vignettes examines a varied point of view to convey a sense of understanding and compassion for ordinary people and their extraordinary plights.

The story of a Jewish girl from Paris sent to a concentration camp during World War II and her struggle to survive by stealing another's identity and becoming a warden.

Details the life of three peasant families in 19th century Italy. Evokes the time and place rather than telling a narrative.

Set in Tuscany in 1936, this is the story of two lovers, Giovanni and Maria. Their first meeting, as teenagers, was a brief infatuation in the seaside town of Livorno, but it isn't until a chance encounter, years later, that their romance kindles. Giovanni, now settled in life as a bank worker with a wife and a young son, is transferred back to his hometown of Livorno, where he again meets Maria, who has always been in the back of his mind since their first encounter. They begin an affair, but the complications of their personal lives begin to take their toll on the relationship.

After becoming bored with his timid wife, a wealthy aristocrat begins an exciting affair. Upon learning that his wife is having a torrid affair of her own, he is tormented by her infidelity and descends into madness, commiting a cruel and horrifying act.

Filippo Costa rises through the ranks of the Financial Police via his own opportunity for corruption. But when he connects with an older widow, Filippo quickly becomes a part of Rome's social, financial, and political elite. In a nation that rewards ruthless ambition, what must one man ultimately sacrifice to build his own empire?

A portrait of an artist who is forced to reconcile with his own atheism after receiving a shocking appeal from the Church requesting his participation in the canonization of his "saintly" mother. If she is to be ordained, the Church must prove that her violent death, at the hands of the most unlikely person, culminated with a vow of forgiveness for her murderer. Ernesto's relationship to the murderer provides the Church with its last chance of uncovering the truth, but he is reluctant to succumb to his family's pressure and schemes to make him take part in the beatification. Overwhelmed by the fact that he didn't sense the conspiracy beneath him, Ernesto is set adrift on a surreal odyssey. His memory of his mother (especially her smile) opens up a gaping chasm that forces him to reconsider the past and live the present differently.

After Carlo's girlfriend, Giulia, announces to him that they're pregnant, Carlo realizes that he's just not ready to grow up and take on the responsibilities of a child, a wife, and a house. Carlo's life gets even more complicated when a younger woman, Francesca, begins to flirt with him. Through it all Carlo's three best friends, Adriano, Alberto, and Paolo, exhibit different stages of what it means to be an adult, helping Carlo along the way.

Renato Zucchelli is the last travelling shepherd left in Milan, and he has a dream: to lead his flock of sheep to the inaccessible city center to meet the children who have never seen him, showing them that dreams and freedom will always exist as long as there is still space to believe in a last shepherd.

When Sabina's father dies, she is left haunted by a terrible dream that becomes a living nightmare. She seeks out her only sibling, and discovers that their nightmares are shared and that life's intimacies are now met with fear and trepidation. When Sabina and Franco, her boyfriend, are surprised with news about their future, Sabina is forced to face her past.

Charts the life and relationship of Enzo and Mary, a couple living in the slums of the Italian city of Genoa. The unlikely romance begins in prison, where Enzo, a macho hardman serving a long stretch for shooting a police officer, meets Mary Monaco, a transsexual inmate serving time for prostitution, who works in the laundry repairing clothes. Falling for each other very quickly, Mary promises to wait for Enzo once she gets out of prison. When she is released, Mary finds a home for them to share, but in the meantime, she becomes addicted to heroin.

Divorced piano player Paolo meets and falls in love with a most beauteously busty woman, Francesca, who uses her special powers to turn the man into her sex slave. While he is completely taken by his desire for her, she eventually gets bored and decides to leave him. Unfortunately for Francesca, Paolo loves her and has no intention of letting her go.

n a railway coach, Snàporaz wakes from a nap and seduces a beautiful stranger. Then he follows her through a forest to a weird hotel where a feminist convention is being held. He is so unnerved by the vociferous hostility of the militants that he hides in the mansion of a female killer who has wooed and won a thousand hearts. Snàporaz will be forced to run the gauntlet before waking up and realizing that his adventure was only a crazy nightmare.

In the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear incident, Mariko becomes unable to sleep. She therefore decides to move to Sicily to stay with Rocco. There she discovers that she is able to sleep again, but only when driven around at night, nurtured by the lights of the unknown city. The day thus becomes a new invigorating domain for her, an opportunity to rediscover and reinterpret the signs and meanings of her life through her skills of photography.

The brutalized corpse of a prostitute is found in a Roman park, along the banks of the Tiber River. The police round up and interrogate a handful of possible suspects who were in the park that night. Each has to explain why he is there. One by one, each account brings them closer to the killer.

A young Italian boy, the son of a brutal kidnapper, is the only survivor when his family is killed by a rival gang. The boy flees, pursued by the police and the killers, and searches for a new life with a loving family unlike his own and an end to his family's history of criminal behavior.

Guido, a former cop, is a veteran of the speed-dating scene in Turin. But, much to his surprise, he meets Sonia, a chambermaid at a hotel. The two hit it off, and a passionate romance develops. After they leave the city for a romantic getaway in the country, things suddenly take a dark turn.

Simple story of an unemployed man and his family living in war devastated Rome. The father finds a job pasting up posters and signs, work requiring a bicycle on which to get around. When his bicycle is stolen the father and his son are forced to steal one in desperation and are caught. This version includes the original U.S. theatrical trailer.

Giovanni, a late adolescent with a flair for journalistic correspondence, attaches himself to a big city paper and agrees to cover events that transpire in his Po River Valley hamlet. Meanwhile, the arrival in town of teacher Mara turns more than a few heads, including Giovanni's and that of Hassan, a local immigrant mechanic from Tunisia. Mara herself just happens to be single, but finds a dearth of acceptable suitors in the community, except for Guido, a bus driver; problem is, he's already romantically involved with another. Mara then finds Hassan spying through her window one night; she manages to overlook this, however, and then--on an ill-advised note--begins a romance with the mechanic, without recognizing the extent of what she's getting herself into.

Set in 1970s Naples, bullied nine year-old Peppino is watching the world around him as his extended dysfunctional family change. Psychedelic flower power and hippie love is threatening the old traditional southern Italian family. Dad is having an affair and Mum has taken to her bed with depression. Super-mod brother and sister Titina and Salvatore take the boy under their wings, introducing him to demonstrations and love-ins, whilst caped superhero Gennaro visits Peppino even after being knocked down and killed by the number 12 bus.

The Lark Farm tackles the Armenian genocide. The story concerns the Avakian clan. An Armenian family living an affluent lifestyle and periodically shuttling back and forth between their two comfortable homes, the Avakians feel convinced that the rising tide of Turkish hostility on the horizon means little to them and will scarcely affect their day to day. Indeed, the Avakians ignore the warning signs, and set about preparing for a family reunion with the impending visit of two well-to-do sons - landowner Aram, who resides in Turkey, and Assadour, a physician living in Venice. Lo and behold, these illusions come crashing down when a Turkish military regiment crops up at the house, annihilates every male member of the family and forces the ladies to trek off into the Syrian desert, where they will be left to rot. Meanwhile, a handsome Turkish officer falls for Aram's daughter and makes an aggressive attempt to deliver her and her family from certain death, even as the circumstances surrounding him attest to the astounding difficulty of this goal.

A family saga set in Rome from 1966 through 2003 that details the lives of two brothers, Nicola and Matteo Carati, who go their separate ways after attempting to rescue a young girl, Giorgia from an abusive sanitarium. Set against the backdrop of contemporary Italian history, the film follows the characters through such major historical incidents as the flooding of Florence in 1966, the terrorist activities of the Red Brigades, mental asylum reforms, the student protests of 1968, Italy's elimination from the 1966 World Cup at the hands of Korea and its subsequent victory in 1982, and Tangentopoli and the consequent death of anti-mob judge Giovanni Falcone.

Beatrice is a motor-mouthed fantasist, a self-styled billionaire countess who likes to believe she's on intimate terms with world leaders. Donatella is a tattooed introvert, a fragile young woman locked in her own mystery. They are both patients at [Tuscany's] Villa Biondi, a progressive but secure psychiatric clinic. [This film] tells the story of the unpredictable and moving friendship that develops between the two women as they flee the mental institution in search of love and happiness in the open-air nuthouse--the world of sane people

This film looks at the aftermath of the German occupation of Italy during World War II and the equally difficult results of life during the Allied liberation

A tale of people at the margins of society who open their hearts to a stranger. In a run-down park on the outskirts of Rome, a two-year-old girl is discovered and taken in by a family of circus performers. A note from a desperate mother reveals little about who she is or why she was left. As the bond grows between the girl and her surrogate family, this film becomes a revealing and soulful portrait of courage and discrimination, and of loss and togetherness.

Follows a strong and optimistic mother raising her two children against all odds. Throughout grief and pain she teaches her family to remain open and loving and to cherish the little joys in life.

When a beautiful young girl is found murdered in an idyllic northern Italy village, Inspector Giovanni Sanzio is called in from the capital to investigate. But in a small town where nobody is what they seem, anyone could be capable of homicide and everyone may be hiding a dark secret... including Inspector Sanzio.

Alexandre decides to set off for Italy with the idea of completing his draft of a book on Borromini, and his wife Alienor comes along. Once there, they meet Goffredo, who is set to embark in architectural studies, and Lavinia, who is suffering from a nervous disorder. Alienor decides to stay to help Lavinia, and Alexandre continues on his travels with Goffredo. This separation for husband and wife will be the start of an inner journey for them both.

It's a story of the desperate search for one of Vigata's most upstanding citizens - a man who vanishes right after his appearance in the annual Passion Play. South collides with North as a local Sicilian carabiniere teams up with a Neapolitan police officer to unlock the mystery of his disappearance.

Irena is a mysterious Ukrainian woman with a secret who works her way into the lives of an Italian, affluent young family. She stops at nothing to become the couple's trusted maid and beloved nanny to their fragile young daughter. But deep cracks underneath Irena's dedication soon become apparent as her horrific past and chilling obsession are revealed.

When a judge and his bodyguards are brutally murdered by the Mafia, four reluctant young cops are assigned to protect the new prosecutor where the only thing that lies ahead of them is more danger. Based on a true story.

Dramatic retelling of the story of Rita Atria, a 17-year-old Sicilian girl whose father and brother were both Mafia members (and victims) who breaks the vow of silence that enshrouds that world, and gives evidence to famed anti-Mafia judge Paolo Borsellino. Her days are numbered from that moment on. She has only nine months to live.

Primary numbers can only be divided by one or by themselves. They are solitary numbers and are incomprehensible to others. Alice and Mattia are both "primary numbers", both persecuted by tragedies which have marked their childhoods: a skiing accident in the case of Alice, which has led to a defect in one leg; the loss of a twin sister in the case of Mattia. When as teenagers they meet in the school corridor, they recognize each other's pain. As they grow up their destinies interweave and they form a special bond, until Mattia, having graduated in Physics, decides to accept a job abroad. The two separate for many years and only a sequence of events will bring them back together, bringing back to the surface a number of emotions never confessed.

Set in modern day Rome. Valeria, a lonely interpreter, becomes obsessed with a man named Massimo, a doctor who lives in her apartment building. However, when Massimo moves to Turin, Valeria follows him, only to discover that he is involved with an older woman. Valeria eventually meets the other woman and the two form a close relationship, one that evolves into a love triangle with Massimo at the center of it.

Tragedy hits the family of a psychiatrist and they struggle with anger and grief until an unexpected visitor forces them to confront their feelings.

Gelsomina is sold by her very poor mother to Zampanò, an itinerant strongman. She follows him on the road ("la strada") and helps him during his shows. Zampanò ill-treats her. She meets "The Fool", a funambulist. She feels like going with him, but he puts confusion in her mind by pointing out that perhaps Zampanò is in fact in love with her.

In the poor Sicilian village of Aci Trezza the fisherman have been exploited for generations. Tired of the endless cycle of poverty, a young soldier returns home from war and convinces his family to strike out on their own. Tragically, his plan to change the system is met with a cruel blow that pushes them even further under water.

Soon after the start of hostilities in Iraq, Attilio heads to Baghdad when he learns from his friend that the woman he loves has been critically injured in a bomb explosion. Attilio does everything in his power to save her, risking his own life amidst the chaos of war.

Pina takes out an ad in the personal column hoping to find a man to take her away from the tiny Italian village where she lives. For months now she has been trying to find the right one--a man with a solid career, a family in mind, and plenty of stamina. Adolfo, a successful businessman from Rome, replies to Pina's ad, and the couple arrange to meet in the village where Pina lives. Incorporating flashbacks from both of their lives, the complexity of their characters is slowly revealed and when the two finally meet, Pina quickly concludes that Adolfo is the one.

A charming but bumbling waiter who's gifted with a colorful imagination and an irresistible sense of humor has won the heart of the woman he loves and has created a beautiful life for his young family. Then that life is threatened by World War II.

Gianni is reunited with Paolo, the 15-year-old son he has never seen, a son he abandoned at birth. The reunion is not Gianni's idea, but that of Paolo's doctor who hopes the connection will benefit the troubled boy. Gianni experiences a Pandora's box in Paolo, full of shocks and wonders, but the key to one's house are oftern found in the keys to one's heart.

The structure of power and the facade of democracy are explored in this political exposé of corruption in Naples. Following the fatal collapse of a tenement building, an investigation reveals that profits from municipal developments are going to city council members and developers in backroom negotiations.

Set in Livorno in the 1950s, Mario, a shy young man, meets a mysterious girl, Natalie, sobbing on a canal bridge. She tells him she loves a sailor who left on a long journey and promised to return in one year. The year is up and he hasn't arrived. Mario falls in love with her and has just persuaded her that the sailor will never return ... when he does in fact appear.

With little dialogue, this film is a meditation on the mysterious cycles of life. Set in Italy's mountainous region of Calabria, it traces the path of one goat herder's soul as it passes from human to animal to vegetable to mineral. Working as both a spiritual investigation and a documentary of Calabrian life, the film's surface hides a complex understanding of humanity.

Antonio, a youngish chauffeur who is a model of professional promptness and courtesy. He also possesses a vivid inner world dominated by images of other worlds and other planets. A chance near-accident introduces him to Maria), a struggling single mother trying desperately to keep her frozen foods store afloat and to keep her daughter from being taken away from her by the child's grasping grandparents. Even though Maria is extremely suspicious of Antonio's intentions, the two form a slow tentative relationship. When he learns Maria's dire circumstances, he selflessly tries to intercede at the expense of his own career. Antonio makes quiet deals with the sleazy gangster whom Maria owes money, drives the crime boss around on his various errands, and eventually participates in some of his shady dealings.

Yussouf is an African artist who is promised a job by his uncle in Italy. Unable to find his uncle once he gets there, Yussouf ends up in Castel Volturno, a city of African immigrants. There, he discovers the day-to-day struggles these people face, their mistreatment, and exploitation. He is also unfortunate enough to witness the activities of the criminal Camorra, a deadly Naples-based Mafia.

The story of growing up and falling in love in the Mafia-ridden city of Palermo. Seen through the eyes of Arturo, a child brought up in a fascinating yet terrifying city, the story spans twenty years of life filled with passion and laughter.

Nino is an auto-factory foreman who takes his wife and two daughters from industrial Milan to the antiquated, rural Sicily to visit his family and get back in touch with his roots. Nino gets more than he bargained for when he discovers some harsh truths about his ancestors and himself.

On the day that Italy enters World War II, Renato, a 13-year-old boy, gets his first look at Malèna, a young woman who has recently moved to Renato's small Sicilian village with her husband, Nico. However, once Nico is called off to war, Malè̀na becomes the center of the town's gossip. During the next few years, as Renato grows towards manhood, he witnesses Malèna's suffering, when Nico is reported dead, her poverty and search for work, and her final humiliations.

Examines three different couples united in their quest for love: Roberto, an ambitious lawyer is going to marry Sara. His whole life is perfectly planned out. Things get complicated when he meets Micol, a woman from a small village in Tuscany. Fabio, a famous anchorman, has been the perfect husband for 25 years. A one-night stand with Eliana proves to be more than what he bargained when she refuses to leave. Adrian, an American art history professor, has been living the loner life in Rome since divorcing his wife years ago. His limited and tranquil existence is disturbed when he meets his doorman's daughter.

Adapted from a 1909 novel by Jack London yet set in a provocatively unspecified moment in Italy's history, [this film] is a passionate and enthralling narrative fresco in the tradition of the great Italian classics. Martin is a self-taught proletarian with artistic aspirations who hopes that his dreams of becoming a writer will help him rise above his station and marry a wealthy young university student. The dissatisfactions of working-class toil and bourgeois success lead to political awakening and destructive anxiety.

In a moment of madness Clara has killed her baby. Found not bearing liability for her acts by the court, she is sent to a carceral psychiatric hospital. There, she shares a room with women who, like her, committed an act from which there is no going back. Clara and her roommates try to go on living with the weight of their sins on their shoulders, but consolation escapes their minds.

Domenico first meets 17-year-old Filumena in a Neapolitan brothel in the second World War. After the war they become lovers on and off for 22 years. Domenico eventually rents an apartment for Filumena and even lets her run his shop but is always chasing other women. When Domenico chooses to marry a young cashier instead of her, Filumena is furious, and resorts to a series of wild ruses to win back his hand.

In 1941, a small group of misfit Italian soldiers is sent to a tiny Greek island in the Agean for four months of lookout duty. Their relief ship is torpedoed and their radio destroyed. As they lose all touch with the world outside, they are absorbed into the life of the idyllic island.

Margherita is a film director who quickly finds out that her lead Hollywood actor is rather difficult to work with. If his demands weren't enough, her mother's health has recently declined and Margherita struggles to find the balance and harmony between work and family life.

Tommaso is about to reveal to his large, frenetic Italian family that he's gay. But he's beaten to the punch by his older brother, who is promptly disinherited by their furious father.

Set during Italy's violent political period of the 1960s. Two brothers, Accio and Manrico, attempt to distance themselves from each other by joining opposing political parties, but our ultimately tied to each other by their working-class family.

An Italian orphan, with the aid of a miraculous dove, combats power and wealth and succeeds in bringing happiness to the inhabitants of a Milanese hobo camp. Comedy, satire, and realism are combined in this fantasy about the social conceits of man.

Antonio and Paolo live happily together in Berlin and are finally getting married. They decide to celebrate in the small village in Italy where Antonio grew up. While his mother immediately supports his intentions, her husband Roberto, the town mayor, is much more reluctant. Paulo, who has not spoken to his conservative mother in a long time, must get her to the wedding as a condition of the marriage.

The series begins with an elderly woman discovering that her 'brilliant friend' seems to have disappeared without a trace. Beginning an epic tale that spans over 60 years, she writes about their tempestuous relationship that started in 1950, and tries to describe the mystery of her friend, who is--in a way--her worst enemy. Set in a dangerous and fascinating post-WWII Naples, Italy

The River Po dominates the region of Ferrara with its seasons, its power and its mystery. It nourishes the close-knit fishing communities who live on its banks, and it also hides their secrets. Secrets that are sometimes uncovered by people like police inspector Franco Soneri.

Timoteo is a successful surgeon and permissive father whose teenage daughter, Angela, has just had a life-threatening motorbike accident. Sitting in the hospital, wondering if his daughter will survive, Timoteo remembers back to a day 15 years earlier when his car broke down on a remote country road in the rain and a young woman, Italia, invited him into her home only to have him force himself upon her. Timoteo then returned home to his wife, Elsa. But unable to get Italia out of his mind, Timoteo returned again and again to her. They began to develop genuine feelings for each other. Elsa is reluctant to have children, despite Timoteo's wishes, so when he learns that Italia is pregnant, he has to decide to between his family and Italia.

A story about two brothers and their wives, and the relationships between them and their two high-school age children. When the kids get into serious trouble, tensions between the brothers and their families escalate. Will the parents protect their children, or will they force them to face the consequences of their crime?

Explore the classic problems teenagers face when passing from adolescence to adult age. Set in the summer of 1989, on the brink of his exams, Luca Molinari, a graduating student, insults his literature teacher, Antonio Martinelli, in a final act of rebellion. This act backfires when Martinelli states that he will be part of the judging panel in their grueling oral exam. At a party the same evening, Luca falls in love with Martinelli's daughter, Claudia.

A sequel to Notte prima degli esami, this movie is about the same high school teenagers from the original film, but transplants them from the 1980s to the Italy of 2006.

A portrait of two friends, both born on January 1, 1900--the son of a socialist farmer and the son of a fascist landowner. The two men pass through the upheavals of the modern world, as their personal conflicts become an allegory of the political turmoil of 20th century Italy.

A dark and riveting retelling of the classic Greek tragedy, 'Oedipus Rex'. Unknown to himself, Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother. When the truth is discovered, he puts out his eyes and Oedipus wanders the streets until he is found by his daughter, Antigone, a common blind beggar.

Living on the outskirts of society, an orange thief and some other country-wise ruffians steal fruit for sustenance and the sheer excitement of courting danger. After the thief ends up in jail, his life takes a turn when his bunkmate promises him a deal.

The story of the ill-fated love between Gino, a virile drifter, who arrives by chance at a roadside restaurant and filling station, and Giovanna, the wife of the man who owns the place. Gino leaves, only to return because he can't get her out of his blood. They kill her husband but his death haunts the guilt-ridden Gino.

The story of a son's development under an oppressive father. Gavino lives in solitude as an illiterate Sardinian shepherd. Finally he revolts against his father and his own illiteracy, studies and earns a degree and finds his identity through his newly-found ability to communicate.

When a harried housewife is accidentally left behind while on vacation with her family, she decides to take a holiday of her own in Venice. She becomes charmed by the city and her newfound freedom. She decides to extend her stay, finding a job in a flower shop, renting a room from a wistful waiter, and rediscovers her love for playing the accordion. But her solo journey does not sit well with her tyrannical husband, who hires an amateur detective to bring her back home.

"...blends drama and archival footage to paint an insightful portrait of Pope Paul VI (Fabrizio Gifuni), who confronted great challenges -- from student protests to terrorist attacks -- during his 15-year reign as pontiff. Ascending to the papacy in 1963, Paul VI initiated a dialogue among religions but also stirred up a continuing controversy with his strong positions on contraception and abortion."

The defense of honor, a strong value in Neapolitan society, and his effects on the life of everyman Pasquale Frafuso.

During a dinner party, seven friends decide to play a dangerous game. The attendees place their cellphones on the table and agree to make all texts and calls public in an attempt to prove that they have nothing to hide. Rapid fire and wildly entertaining, this film poses the question: how well do we really know those close to us?

The journey begins when the wooden puppet named Pinocchio comes to life! Then the curious Pinocchio opens the door to one adventure after another despite guidance from the Blue Fairy and his father, Gepetto.

A middle-aged man living with his elderly mother finds the best way to pay for their debts is to take care of the building manager's mother during the biggest festival of the year. Soon he finds himself with not two but four mothers to keep fed and happy.

One of the most popular saints of all time, St. Philip Neri was widely known for his great charity, deep prayer life, and tremendous humor. Hoping to join St. Ignatius of Loyola's new order of Jeuits and be a missionary to India, Philip was instead guided by Providence to seek out the poor and abandoned youth of Rome to catechize them in the faith and help them find a better life. He bacame the founder of the religious congregation, the Oratory, that worked with the youth and also labored to re-evangelize a decadent Rome.

Vittorio is looking for a woman who matches his ideal. Through a classified ad he meets Sonia, a sweet, pleasant, intelligent girl. However, she weighs 125 pounds -- which according to Vittorio is way too much. A goldsmith by trade, Vittorio is obsessed with the desire to shape Sonia's body and mind as he does gold with fire. Almost imperceptibly Sonia becomes a passive participant and the relationship grows into a reciprocal masochistic game. When the two lovers isolate themselves in a country house in the Veneto hills, they dangerously lose touch with reality and the rest of the world.

One night during a sailing trip through the Mediterranean, the only son of a wealthy Italian entrepreneur falls overboard. Although given up for dead, Sandro has been rescued by a fishing boat carrying illegal immigrants to Italian shores.

Luciano is a charming and affable fishmonger whose unexpected and sudden obsession with being a contestant on the reality show "Big brother" leads him down a rabbit hole of skewed perceptions and paranoia. So overcome by his dream of being on reality TV, Luciano's own reality begins to spiral out of control.

Grazia is a carefree mother of three, who soon becomes the focus of her neighbors' gossip. While her fellow Lampedusians work and live hard - oblivious to their native paradise - Grazia alone is courageous enough to blissfully embrace life's treasures. Her wild, sensual and free-spirited behavior reflects the unrivaled beauty of her heavenly seaside village. She is not understood or accepted by the social conventions of the town, nor its strict tribal rules. Brings to light the network of true affection inside the family.

Filmed on location in Italy, it tells the beautiful story of young Rita who fell in love and married a handsome knight from a violent family, whom she eventually succeeded in reforming, but then lost him to murder, and also lost their two sons to illness before she lived as an Augustinian nun for forty years. She is renowned for her prayer life, her role as a peacemaker, her service to the sick, and her stigmata. Countless miracles are attributed to her intercession and she is known as the patron of hopeless situations.

The story of four Italian brothers and their mother who leave their country home and move to Milan with hopes of improving their bitter fortune. The family is thrown into chaos when two of the brothers are torn apart by their love for the same woman and their struggles to succeed in a viciously competitive world.

Set in Rome, Federico Fellini reminisces about his childhood, living in the Italian countryside. In school Fellini studies the history of ancient Rome and is eventually exposed to the real thing, arriving in Rome during the beginning of World War II. Once there, through a series of chance encounters, Fellini reinterprets Rome's modern city life with that of Italy's history as a whole.

The loyalties of an impoverished mother-to-be and a parish priest are tested by the German forces which occupy their homeland during World War II.

On December 12, 1969, a huge bomb planted in a bank in Milan killed 17 people, a shocking crime that the Italian police first blamed on anarchists. This drama taken from real-life events chronicles the successive twists in the Piazza Fontana story.

A documentary-style drama chronicling the rise and fall of Salvatore Giuliano, a real-life Mob chieftain who rose to prominence in post-WWII Sicily. Filming in the exact locations and enlisting a cast of Sicilians once impacted by the real Giuliano, director Francesco Rosi harnessed the facts and myths surrounding the true story of the bandit's death to create an exposé of Sicily and the tangled relations between its citizens, the Mafia, and government officials.

This film focuses on contemporary 30- and 40-somethings trying to make sense of their lives in an age in which the old certainties have disappeared. Lorenzo and Davide make their lives together within a circle that includes married couple, Antonio and Angelica; Nerval and her policeman husband, Roberto; Davide's ex, Sergio; and a new arrival to the group, Paolo. When tragedy strikes, the boundaries and divisions among friends, acquaintances and even lovers become brutally apparent.

The true story of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, a courageous Irish priest working in the Vatican during the German iccupation. O'Flaherty devotes all his time and energy to hiding refugees and Allied POWs from the Nazis, building a network of hundreds of people to help him with his efforts. Colonel Kappler, the local gestapo chief, learns of O'Flaherty's activities. The priest has diplomatic immunity because of his Vatican post, but Kappler orders that he be captured or killed if seen outside the Vatican walls. Pope Pius XII remains aloof insisting on the church's neutrality. Working closely with a brave widow of an aristocrat, O'Flaherty uses disguises to slip in and out of the Vatican, continuing his dangerous mission until Rome is liberated, and saving thousands of innocent people from death.

In post-World War II Rome, Italy, Giuseppe and Pasquale, hoping to escape the harsh reality of poverty and violence, work on the street shining the shoes of American troops. But when the boys are falsely accused of a crime, they are sent to a brutal state juvenile detention center.

In Venice, during the spring of 1866, it is the last month of the Austrian occupation of the Veneto. The Italian government has forged a pact with Prussia, and another war of liberation in the ongoing Risorgimento is imminent. Countess Livia Serpieri, unloved by her collaborator-husband but sympathetic to the cause of freedom espoused by her patriotic cousin Roberto, meets Austrian officer Franz Mahler as she begs him to call off a duel with Roberto. She falls in love with the officer, the country marches to revolution, and her dedication to the cause wilts under her desire and obsession. Mesmerized by him, she betrays not only her husband and cousin, but the revolution, too, with tragic results.

The tale of a mysterious disappearance set in a little Sicilian village on the edge of a forest. Thirteen-year-old Luna, always dreaming, has a crush on her handsome classmate Giuseppe; they begin a tentative romance. But one day Giuseppe fails to show up at school. As the days pass with no sign of him, Luna tries to raise concern with family and friends.

The city of Siena, located in Tuscany, is referred to by some as the "Italian metropolis of the Gothic period." Its palaces, historic squares (like the Piazza il Campo), and churches such as the Duomo di Siena date back to the Middle Ages and create Siena's unique character.

Nello is an out-of-work former trade unionist who has been sent to run a cooperative of mental patients who were released from Italy's psychiatric hospitals when the government closed the hospitals down under the 1980's Basaglia Law. Nello doesn't like the over-medicated clients' way of life at the cooperative and he seeks to find a more beneficial life for them and possibly learn a profession to suit their capabilities.

On Linosa, an island near Sicily, fishermen are punished for saving illegal immigrants from the sea and, back on shore, letting them go, because this amounts to facilitating illegal immigration. Therefore a local, Filippo, does not allow them on his boat. Several die, and Filippo changes his mind about the matter: he helps a family consisting of a mother, a boy and a newborn baby, to get to the Italian mainland.

Enzo, a lonely and misanthropic small time crook, uses the superpowers gained after falling in the Tiber River to chase down a crazy gangster called "The Gypsy."

In this anthology film, an elderly businessman finds solace and a new insight into life when he meets a younger woman who arranges his train ticket after his flight is canceled. A young man is torn between an older woman who controls him and a younger one that attracts him. And three Scottish youths on their way to the football match of their dreams are forced to open their eyes and see the bigger picture when they meet an Albanian family. In each case, the train journey changes the course of all their lives.

A story about the lives and dreams of three brothers reunited in their small home town on the occasion of the funeral of their mother. In the sunlight of the Italian countryside, they face their connection to each other and to themselves.

Two segments: In the first one Felice, a baritone who has had to give up his career because of a heart condition and now works as an accountant at the Opera, inexplicably spends his nights laughing in his sleep. When his best friend, a cripple, takes his life and his wife abandons him Felice decides to die himself. In the second segment two kidnappings in Sicily, the second of which took place a century before the present one, are compared.

Sixteen-year-old Anna ... is on the run, escaping from a violent event so traumatic that she will no longer speak to anyone. Pursuing her is Manfredi ... an obsessed human trafficker who employed her father. On the road she is rescued by Basim ... a teenage orphan and illegal immigrant from the Ivory Coast, who also has been abused by life. Together the two adolescents embark on a perilous journey towards a new beginning, traveling through the ... landscapes of Sardinia

Josephine was born in 1869 in Sudan. As a child of 7 or 8, she was taken away by Arab slave traders and given the name "Bakhita," meaning fortunate, and then sold no less than five times between 1877 and 1883. She was subjected to beatings which left deep scars on her body. Finally in 1883 she was purchased by an Italian Consulate agent, Calisto Legnani, who was much kinder to her. Legnani returned to Italy in 1885, taking Josephine with him. There she was entrusted to the care of the Michieli family in Venice. When the Michielis went to the Sudan on business, Josephine stayed at the Catechumen Institute in Venice, run by the Canossian Sisters. It is here that she discovered the faith and learned that God, not man, is the true Master of every human being. When the Michielis came to take her back to Sudan, she chose to remain there, and her new life began.

An Italian man, Innocenti Totò, and his son, Innocenti Ninetto, are walking along the road of life when they suddenly meet a speaking crow who philosophizes with Marxist commentary on the passing scene. The two men are soon moved back 750 years in time, changed into monks, and sent by St. Francis to convert the hawks and the sparrows to Christianity.

Follow Umberto D., an elderly pensioner, as he struggles to make ends meet during Italy's postwar economic boom. Alone, except for his dog, Flike, Umberto strives to maintain his dignity while trying to survive in a city where traditional human kindness seems to have lost out to the forces of modernization.

A high-profile Italian politician is desperately seeking re-election, whilst attempting to fend off corruption charges and hold his crumbling family life together. Meanwhile, the politician's bodyguard, separated from his wife and family, begins to reach a psychological breaking point and embarks on a course of action fueled by depression and jealous anger.

Gina and Marco are living in the suburbs of Rome. The two meet on a very special day: their first day at work. Gina is about to realize her dream of becoming an actress, while Marco for the first time has found an opportunity that allows him to start dreaming: a job in a car rental company as a driver. They get to know each other since his first duty is to drive Gina to an appointment, and given a delay, they have to share the whole day. This journey will take them from the periphery to the center of the city.

Set on the Italian-Austrian front during World War I, a disastrous Italian attack upon Austrian positions leads to a mutiny among the decimated Italian troops.

In southern Italy, Rollo, a nearly mute, large, muscular young man, is part of a crime gang. He wants to go on "an escort," to smuggle a ten-year-old Moroccan boy into Switzerland where adoptive parents supposedly await him. The third person on this road trip is Mauro, a middle-aged nurse brought into the deal by his boss, a hospital physician, to make a quick buck. They head for Cannobio on what should be a one-day trip, but complications soon arise. Car trouble, a Bulgarian prostitute and her daughter, the boy's constant desire to play soccer, and Rollo's flashbacks to a troubled and violent childhood combine to challenge them in a world without conscience.

Professor Ludovico Bruschi is an elderly Communist whose desire is that of living in an orderly and socially just State. But disorder is just about to break into his life, first of all in the shape of his granddaughter Papere and then in that of Papere's mother Stella, his son's companion. The relationship between Oliviero, Bruschi's son, and Stella has come to an end perhaps because of the extreme youth of the two lovers. Now Professor Bruschi is obliged to come to terms with the gloomy, ignorant, offended Stella whose head is full of false and destructive ideals and who disturbs his way of living out daily life. The professor loses his patience and Stella leaves. He looks for her and finds her in hospital with a broken leg. The two of them begin to grow close and then, without realizing it, they come to love each other immensely. Stella's leg gets better and she goes off to look for new relationships, new experiences, while the Professor goes on waiting for her: and all this in the presence of Papere, too young to understand.

Irene is a critic of luxury hotels around the world. But while her lifestyle affords the freedom to jet around the globe at a moment's notice, Irene longs for personal fulfillment to match her professional life of luxury. With a potential romance on her doorstep, can Irene chart her own path to happiness?

This unusual and offbeat historical drama rests on a little-known conceit. Though seldom discussed in history books (and reportedly undisclosed for half a century), fascist dictator Benito Mussolini conceived an illegitimate son by a woman named Ida Dalser -- a son Mussolini allowed to be born, acknowledged, and then promptly denied for the duration of his life.

Set in the nineteenth century on a small island near Sicily, a woman takes on a masculine identity in order to maintain her relationship with another woman in a small community with very traditional views on gender roles.

To celebrate the centenary of Italy, the Italian government commissioned [Roberto] Rossellini to make a biopic of Giuseppe Garibaldi, one that would follow his exploits with 'the Thousand' and their role in the country's unification. Rossellini presents a spectacle-filled recreation of the period, while maintaining the approach of his earlier 'The flowers of St. Francis,' presenting his characters in neo-realist mode.

As the national election approaches, Enrico Oliveri has plummeted in the polls and his supporters and adversaries alike begin to acknowledge his impending downfall. Unwilling to face the failure of his party and his nation, Oliveri vanishes. In a desperate move, the party leadership seeks out Oliveri's look-alike twin brother, Giovanni Ernani, a prolific author and philosopher who is freshly released from an insane asylum.

A small mountain village in the Occitaine Alps is gradually dying out, its income and the livelihood of its aging population only maintained by the summer tourist season. Into this small, tight knit and conservative community comes a French shepherd, bringing his young family, his goats and his entrepreneurial skills as cheese-maker. Initially he is welcomed, if not with open arms, then at least with the sense that his arrival could reinvigorate village life. But the newcomer's experiences start to turn sour as misunderstandings multiply and the villagers begin to resent the intrusion his family and business cause to their oh so quiet lives.

The film centers on a family of beekeepers living in stark isolation in the Tuscan countryside. The dynamic of their overcrowded household is disrupted by the simultaneous arrival of a silently troubled teenage boy taken in as a farmhand and a reality TV show intent on showcasing the family. Both intrusions are of particular interest to the eldest daughter, who is struggling to find her footing in the world with an adolescent sense of wonder and confusion.

Describes the stereotypical roles and the personal struggles classic Afro-Italian and African diasporic actors face in Italian films and television programs, despite the racial diversity of modern-day Italy.

Journeying back to the dawn of Italian theater, this program unmasks the intriguing and often underappreciated tradition known as commedia dell' arte. Viewers will discover the history of Italian masked theater, the origins of commedia dell' arte and its various iterations, and the nature of its performers' improvised style. The program explains how the tradition's inspired characters, Pantalone, Colombina, Pulchinella, and many others, evolved and rose to prominence in the hearts and minds of 16th, 17th, and 18th-century audiences. It also illustrates how Italian masked troupes influenced countless other cultures as they performed across Europe, thus shaping the theatrical sensibility of western society as a whole.

Disc 1: Germans Raid Bari - One of the most disastrous bombing attacks against allied ships during the entire war took place at Bari, Italy, on December 2, 1943 / Bombing of Burma - Though considered a backwater, Burma, and the supply line that ran through it, was the key to keeping China in the war against Japan / Supplies for China by Air - Beginning in April 1942, pilots started flying the "Hump," a dangerous 530-mile long passage over the Himalayan Mountains / Bombing of New Britain - Rabaul, situated on New Britain Island in the Bismarck Archipelago, was the major Japanese naval and air base in the Southwest Pacific / Bombing of Berlin - Berlin was the chief urban center of Nazi Germany during the Second World War, and by late 1943, the target of countless bombing raids / Double-Header Marauder Operations - The Martin B-26 Marauder, a medium bomber, is sent against industrial targets in Germany.
Disc 2: Bombing Of Cassino - Cassino, Italy was the scene of the bloodiest of the Western Allies' struggles with the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War / South Pacific Action - Air superiority was crucial to the war in the Pacific, and the establishment of airfields for land based aircraft played a central role in strategic planning / Invasion - With Allied forces ashore after the D-Day invasion, the establishment of airfields on the continent was vital in sustaining the campaign / Attacks Against Italy - During the advance on Rome from southern Italy, enemy installations were continually harassed by Allied aircraft / Fighter Kills on D-Day - Gun sight aiming point cameras record fighter activity over occupied France on June 6, 1944 / Attacks Against Europe - From their bases in England, B-17 formations strike deep into the heart of the German homeland.

A presentation of the history of popular dance forms. This first of two segments features dance forms, period costumes and dance music from the 15th through 19th centuries from the courts of Italy, France, England and the grand ballrooms of America.

Dante first saw Beatrice in 1274 when he was nine years old, and she became the inspiration for his later poetic works. His best known work is the perennial classic, The Divine Comedy -- the poet's imaginary journey to hell and purgatory. This film, like each of the biographical profiles in this series, weaves together excerpts from the personal writings of the individual, dramatic artwork, expert commentary, and a narration focusing on the relevance of each pioneer to contemporary times.

This program examines the ancient battles that altered the course of history and shaped the modern world, providing a comprehensive account of the leaders and military tactics that changed history. Visit locations around the world to discover what is known of these historical encounters. Witness recreations of the battles of Rome, Cannae, Marathon, Thermopylae, and follow some of the greatest warriors of all time, including Hannibal, Spartacus, and Attila the Hun.

Within the icy slopes of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps, there exists a secret waterworld. In this program, scientists travel into these previously unexplored recesses to learn why, in 1892, one of Mont Blanc's hidden lakes burst forth, enveloping the villages below and killing 200 unsuspecting people.

Travels to Italy to discover more about its burgeoning contemporary art scene. Meet artist Patrick Tuttofuoco, who uses architecture as inspiration for his dynamic sculptures and il Padre of contemporary Italian art, Michelangelo Pistoletto. Their works are analyzed and discussed by art scholars and critics in their countries.

Presents a tour of historic and cultural areas of Italy.

Betrayal: Marlow begins by looking at depictions of The Last Supper including Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece, a 6th century mosaic and a modern interpretation by Chris Ofili. He then turns to interpretations of Jesus' betrayal and trial by artists including Bosch and Tintoretto. Finally, Marlow examines portrayals of Jesus' final judgement in work by Honore Daumier and Mark Wallinger.
Crucifixion: Marlow's exploration begins in Varallo, northern Italy, where the Stations of the Cross were carved into a series of sculptures and frescoes by a 15th century Franciscan friar. Marlow then looks at Tintoretto's enormous depiction of the crucifixion in Venice and Grunewald's harrowing image above the Issenheim altar. We also take a modern journey to the Philippines with Sebastian Horsley who, for the sake of his art, experienced a form of crucifixion for himself.
Resurrection: Marlow takes a look at works by Giotto, Michelangelo and Sam Taylor-Wood depicting the mourning over Jesus' body. He then compares interpretations of the resurrection and ascension in several contrasting treatments including work by Grunewald and Rembrandt and Stanley Spencer.

With over 10 million copies of her 'Neapolitan novels' sold in over 50 countries, Elena Ferrante is a global literary sensation. She was named one of 'Time Magazine''s 100 Most Influential People in the World and HBO recently turned the first book in the quartet, 'My brilliant friend,' into a miniseries hit with more seasons to come. The world-hopping documentary 'Ferrante fever' journeys between New York City's cultural hub and Ferrante's native Italy, exploring how an anonymous author's visceral tales of love and friendship gained such an enthusiastic following.

Rudy Maxa tours Florence and various hill towns of Tuscany and Umbria discussing popular tourist attractions, historical background, and practical information about traveling in Italy.

In a series of simple and joyous vignettes, director Roberto Rossellini and co-writer Federico Fellini lovingly convey the universal teachings of The People's Saint: humility, faith, and sacrifice. Gorgeously photographed to evoke the medieval paintings of Saint Francis' time, and cast with monks from the Nocera Inferiore Monastery.

Francis Bernardone, son of a wealthy cloth merchant, after hearing the voice of Jesus speak to him, had a radical conversion from a worldly man of adventure to a life devoted to Christ lived in Gospel simplicity and service to the poor.

Samuele is twelve years old and lives on an island in the middle of the sea. He goes to school, and loves shooting his slingshot and going hunting. He likes land games, even though everything around him speaks of the sea and the men, women, and children who try to cross it to get to his island. But his is not an island like the others: its name is Lampedusa and it is the most symbolic border of Europe, crossed by thousands of migrants in the last twenty years in search of freedom.

This is the story of the brilliant Italian astronomer and mathematician who dared to challenge the accepted teachings of his day. Galileo's work brought him to the attention of the Inquisition and one of history's greatest minds was forced to work his last years under house arrest. Featuring atmospheric specially-filmed dramatised depictions and rare contemporary images, this program vividly recreates Galileo's life and work. It also includes expert comment and interpretation by the eminient historians Les Prince and Joel Roderick.

Examines Ginevra de Benci, the first portrait by Leonardo da Vinci. Utilizing the potential of x-ray analysis, infrared reflectography and the power of computer technology, this film delves beneath the surface of the painting to unveil fascinating stories about both Ginevra and Leonardo... The film provides answers to questions such as: who Ginevra was and how Leonardo came to paint her; why the panel is painted on both sides; how it was drastically cut-down; why it was sealed in the safety of a wine cellar; and what mysterious chain of events brought it to the National Gallery of Art--the only Leonardo in the Western hemisphere.

The Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower, the central cathedral of Florence, was constructed over eight centuries. Generations of Florentine artists and architects dedicated their lives to the project, setting in stone changes in the aesthetic ideals of the time and advances in engineering. In this program, the biography of Filippo Brunelleschi--who introduced the technique of one-point perspective and designed the cathedral's dome as well as machinery necessary for its construction--is intertwined with the story of the cathedral and the city itself.

Pompeii, the lost Roman city buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. has long been a source of fascination to archaeologists. Its sister city Herculaneum, buried in the same eruption but to a much greater depth, reveals an even more complete picture of Roman life. The high temperature of gases that engulfed Herculaneum perfectly preserved much of the ancient city. This film tells of the scientific advances in our knowledge of the two cities. The Herculaneum Conservation Project works with vulcanologists and forensic scientists to piece together the mystery of how the Herculaneans lived and died. Analysis of skeletons discovered in the 1980s show that death came swiftly, at temperatures of 500 degrees. Pompeii and Herculaneum now face a double threat: the cities are crumbling for lack of resources to conserve them, and Vesuvius is on course to erupt again.

After a brief history of the founding of St. Petersburg and a biographical sketch of Peter the Great, the viewer is taken on a tour of the galleries of the Hermitage Museum housing masterpieces from ancient China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to the 20th Century.

This program tracks Dante's allegorical journey through the underworld while providing background on the visionary poet, life in the Middle Ages, and Inferno's influence on the arts and pop culture. Interviews with Inferno translator Robert Pinsky, Dante scholars Ronald Herzman and William Cook, the Reverend Stephen Happel, of The Catholic University of America, and others are featured, as are readings by three-time Poet Laureate Pinsky and dramatizations of scenes from Inferno and Dante's life.

Since the days of the Roman empire, the numerous eruptions of Italy's Mount Vesuvius have devastated whole cities and towns, also destroying Pompeii and Herculaneum in A.D. 79. Describes how the volcano affects the lives of some two million people who now live in its shadow.

This documentary reveals the unique and distinctive qualities of the Italian-American experience, and how these qualities, over time, have shaped and challenged America. At the turn of the 20th century, many Italian immigrants came to these shores to work, earn money for their families, and eventually return home. But those who remained in the United States had to also struggle to maintain a distinct Italian culture that was guided first by a powerful ideal of the family. This source of strength also bred suspicion, popularized in the media as a dark, criminal element--a culture clash that echoed through generations of Italian Americans as they entered positions of political, social, and cultural influence. Through extensive archival materials and interviews with scholars and notable Italian-Americans, this program describes the story of those who played vital roles in helping to shape a unique Italian-American identity.

A look at the contributions Italians have made to American culture and society. This film honors the monumental and historical accomplishments of Italians in America. History is brought to life through interviews with diverse celebrities.

Venice: Serene, Decadent and Still Kicking: Sorting through the monuments of magical Venice, Rick drinks in the art of Titian, Bellini, Donatello, and the Doge's Palace. He luxuriates in a venerable cafe on St. Mark's Square, and enjoys calamari with locals in a canal-side pub.
Venice Side-Trips: The Best of Veneto: Pulling on hip boots, Rick settles into the muck of the Venetian lagoon. Back on the mainland, he checks out a chapel restoration in Padova, Palladian-style streets and villas in Vicenza, romance in Verona, and dazzling mosaics in Ravenna.
Milan and Lake Como: In Milan Rick takes a peek at Italy's highest fashion, fanciest delis, grandest cemetery and greatest opera house... and Leonardo's The Last Supper. Then he cruises along Lake Como, settling down in the lakeside village of Varenna, where Italy meets the Alps.
Florence: City of Art: Rick looks into the eyes of Michelangelo's David, learns tricks for touring the Uffizi art gallery, and climbs the amazing cathedral dome that kicked off the Renaissance. Then he chases the sunset on a Vespa, and sleeps serenely in a converted monastery.
Caesar's Rome: Rome welcomes the new millennium spiffed up as never before. Rick tours Rome's ancient sights from the Forum and Colosseum to the glorious Pantheon. Then, after hiking the Appian Way and exploring the catacombs, he tracks down the best gelato in Rome.
Rome: Baroque, After Dark: After a pilgrimage to Michelangelo's Pieta, Rick climbs to the top of St. Peter's Basilica. At the Borghese Gallery, he vies exquisite sculptures by the master of marble, Bernini. Then he takes an after-dark stroll, lacing together Rome's Baroque and bubbly nightspots.
Naples and Pompeii: Naples is Italy in the extreme. Rick prowls backstreet fish markets, dodges fast-moving Vespas, and dines on pizza where it was invented. He climbs to the top of Mount Vesuvius, then wanders through the amazing ruins of Pompeii, the Roman town it destroyed.

Cinque Terre: Italy's Hidden Riviera: In these five idyllic port towns, Rick samples village life: fishing for anchovies at midnight, savoring the best pesto, picking grapes, and strolling the "walkway of love." Rick side-trips to Carrara's quarries, where Michelangelo got his marble.
Siena and Assisi: Italy's Grand Hill Towns: In red-bricked Siena, Rick tours the town's innovative medieval hospital and lavish cathedral. Exploring the Chianti region, Rick sips Brunello di Montalcino--with its makers. In Assisi, he follows the footsteps of St. Francis.
Tuscany's Dolce Vita: The villages and countryside of Tuscany give Rick a healthy dose of the "sweet life" as he hunts for truffles in a forest, nibbles through an artichoke festival, shares a farmhouse feast, and rides a classic convertible through the cypress groves of Mona Lisa's back yard.
Italy's Great Hill Towns: Italy's quintessential charms survive in its classic hill towns. From San Gimignano's medieval towers, to Cortona's charming lanes, to Orvieto's papal intrigue, to Civita di Bagnoregio's cliff-hanging vistas... all sit on lofty stone perches that seem to protect them from the modern world.
Italy's Amalfi Coast: Just south of Naples Rick experiences the breath-taking Amalfi Coastline, the trendy resort of Positano, the limoncello charms of Sorrento, the ancient Greek temples at Paestum, and the iridescent Blue Grotto hidden beneath the enchanting isle of Capri.
The Best of Sicily: After going fishing with El Presidente off Cefalu, Rick lands in rough-and-tumble Palermo. Marveling at the eerie skeletons in a Cappuccin crypt, airy mosaics of Monreale, enchanting ruins of Segesta, and the fiery rim of Mount Etna, he enjoys the best of Sicily.

Two teams of scientists explore the geologic story of Italy: the continuously erupting volcanoes, the violent earthquakes, the clash of tectonic plates, and the rising of the mountains that produced Michelangelo's famous marble. If they can determine if the northern Apennines are still alive and growing, they might better understand where future earthquakes might strike this highly unstable land.

Luca and Gustav are two Italians who over the past few years have witnessed the exodus of many of their friends to Berlin, London or Barcelona. They're fed up with the high cost of living, the lack of job security, the feudal university system, the generally reactionary attitudes and indifference to human rights, the clear sense that you don't get anywhere just on merit. Tired of a country that appears to be mired in quicksand, can they find a reason to stay?

Jounrey through the heart of the picturesque country of Italy: a land stretching from the snow-capped peaks of the Alps to the sun-baked semi-desert of Sicily. Over the course of one year, follow the lives and loves, trials and tribulations, and the hopes and dreams of a group of people who exemplify what it is to be Italian. Spanning the length and breadth of Italy, this film combines stunning location footage of its famous monuments and its hidden jewels. The latest computer graphics will propel you through the Italian landscape, while personal insights unravel the stereotypes and hidden secrets of what makes the nation tick. Combining stunning location footage with the latest computer graphics, this narrative propels viewers on a ride through the Italian landscape, while providing personal insights into the lives of real Italians.

1930s' Poland, a 10-year-old Karol Wojtyla has dreams, many dreams. One by one they are shattered, first, by the loss of his beloved mother and brother. Then, by the outbreak of the war and the death-fleeing human exodus which ensued, and finally, by the first signs of the Jewish persecution. These events will mark the start of Karol's long journey from worker, to poet and teacher. A journey full of encounters that eventually leads him to become a priest and finally, in 1978, to become the man we all now know, a man who has marked an era, a man who has made history as Pope John Paul II.

The program visits Rome, Spain, and England to explore the diversity and unity of the Catholic religious experience.

The program visits Rome, Spain, and England to explore the diversity and unity of the Catholic religious experience.

In 2009, a team of marine archaeologists carrying out a sonar survey of the seabed around the remote Italian island of Ventotene made an astonishing discovery. The wrecks of five ancient Roman ships were found in pristine condition, each one fully laden with exotic goods. Remarkably, much of the cargo remained exactly as the ancient Roman crews had loaded it, suggesting that these ships had not capsized but had gone to the bottom of the sea intact and upright.

Show segment from 60 minutes television program which examines a growing phenomenon in Italy of well-educated, employed bachelors who still live with and are taken care of by their mothers.

A tale of one family's ambition and of Europe's struggle to emerge from the ravages of the Dark Ages. The Medici used charm, skill and ruthlessness to garner unparalleled wealth and power, ruling Europe for more than 300 years.

From the ships of Carthage to the theatrics of Athens, Metropolis explores the details civilization's dawning in the first major cities. All seven episodes of the series are included in this set, featuring remarkable re-enactments and computer generated images of early life in Venice, Paris, and many others.

This documentary revisits the circumstances surrounding the execution of Italy's Prime Minister, Benito Mussolini, during World War II, making the case that he was not killed by Italian partisans, but by two British secret agents acting on orders from Winston Churchill. This claim is supported by Churchill's desire to prevent the surfacing of secret letters between himself and Mussolini, written over the span of ten years offering Italy a separate peace agreement during the war. With never before seen footage of the final days of the war and an interview with the actual assassin, Bruno Lonati, this film reveals the unknown side of England's involvement in World War II.

From the 12th century to the 15th, women thoughout Europe dedicated their lives to God by founding communes, becoming anchoresses, and even leading armies. In the course of doing so, many challenged the medieval Church and its male hierarchy, and as a result, some were recognized for their contributions while others were labeled as heretics. This six-part series presents the legacy of medieval women who challenged society through their visions, teachings, and writings, and who continue to provoke discussion today.

One of the most acclaimed directors of our time, Academy Award nominee Martin Scorsese ... , directs and narrates this remarkable in-depth look at the careers of great Italian filmmakers and their profound influence on him. ... Scorsese takes the viewer on a fascinating journey highlighting the classics of Italian cinema, from the neorealism of postwar Italy through its transition into opulent period drama and surrealist fantasy. Illuminated by insightful movie clips and his own impassioned commentary, Scorsese's deeply personal observations offer not only an absorbing lesson in the history of Italian film, but its direct connection to the best in contemporary filmmaking as well.

Rudy Maxa tours Rome, Naples, and the Amalfi coast, discussing popular tourist attractions, historical background, and practical information about traveling in Italy.

Deprived of his sight at an early age, Wolfgang Fasser turns to his ears for access to a world he once feared would be closed off forever. Awed by the restorative powers of sound, Fasser established a physical therapy retreat for disabled children where they use music and noise to communicate with others and gain control of their own bodies. As they embrace the physicality of sonic vibrations, the children's bodies slowly begin to move in harmony with the world around them.

The film details the life of Padre Pio, now known as Blessed Pio of Pietrelcina as a result of his beatification. Using his own writings and interviews with friends and fellow monks, the film tells the story of this Capuchin friar whose endless devotion would manifest itself in the appearance of stigmata wounds for over fifty years. Saint Padre Pio was responsible for a series of religious miracles that many sited as proof of God's existence in an era where spiritual skepticism was at an all time high.

The Palio is the oldest horse race in the world, and turns the Italian city of Siena into a high-stakes battleground. "Palio" follows the legendary maestro Gigi Bruschelli, winner of 13 races and master of the intrigues that surround the Palio, and his former protégé Giovanni Atzeni, a contender driven by a fearless passion to become number one. This documentary exposes the closed world of this ancient race.

In this tape, viewers are taken on a detailed tour of the interiors and exteriors of Palladio's greatest architectural triumphs, from his early Basilica in Vicenza to the majestic villas he built in the Venetian countryside and great Venetian church of San Giorgio Maggiore.

One of a ten-part series, this is the story of Saul of Tarsus. The documentary guides the viewer through Israel, Syria, Turkey, Greece, and Italy to better understand the life, ministry, and sufferings of Paul the Apostle.

Surrounded by the hills of Tuscan Crete are the rooftops and towers of Pienza, a small town with 2,500 inhabitants. The town's history is indelibly associated with Pope Pius II, who had a unique influence on what was also his birthplace. As head of the Roman Catholic Church, he decided to transform his home village into a perfect town of the Renaissance. The Cattedrale di Pienza (Pienza Cathedral) is one such outcome of this transformation, with its several paintings created by numerous master artists of Siena, one of whom was Lorenzo di Pietro, who is also known as "Il Vecchietta." And yet despite numerous renovations instigated by Pius II--ideals never fully realized by the pope--the character of the majority of the town's houses, streets and old alleyways has been retained to the present day.

Recreates the greatest natural disaster of the ancient world--the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, almost 2000 years ago in AD79.

In the winter of 1945, Primo Levi, one of the century's great writers, was liberated from the Auschwitz concentration camp. With the war still underway, he embarked on a thousand-mile journey to his home in Turin, Italy a strange, beguiling odyssey memorialized in his book, "The Reawakening." Sixty years later, director Davide Ferrario set out to follow in Levi's footsteps. Retracing his historic trip, the film weaves a path through a modern Europe that has both changed and remained eerily the same from democratic rallies in the East to neo-Nazi demonstrations in the West.

A study of Niccolo Machiavelli's book, "The prince." Written nearly 500 years ago when Italy was emerging from a state of anarchy, "The prince" was designed as a guidebook for a single, forceful leader who would unify the country. It has come to be seen as synonymous with cynical manipulation. This video compares the crumbling of medieval order of Machiavelli's time with modern politics and includes interviews with Henry Kissinger and Senator Gary Hart.

John Turturro takes audiences on a haunting, intimate journey to his maternal homeland of Sicily. There, while exploring the island's vanishing traditions, he is taken under the wing of one of the puppet theater's few remaining practitioners, Mimmo Cuticchio, who instructs him in the distinctively Sicilian art of puppetry. Filmed during preparations for the Sicilian Day of the Dead, this film is an homage to the art of storytelling and a portrait of a Sicily little known to the outside world.

Reluctant Saint shows how Saint Francis was transformed from a wealthy playboy, soldier, and businessman into a preacher, defender of the poor, mystic and--later--an inspiration to lovers of nature and the earth. Francis' time was one of violence, color, mystery, and full of crisis; and out of this, Francis craved for reform and for a deeper, simpler, more personal faith.

The glories of Ancient Rome are explored in ROMAN CITY, based on David Macaulay's acclaimed book. This animated and live-action video recounts life in Verbonia, a fictional city in Gaul. A well-planned town with all modern conveniences, it is threatened by conflict between conquerors and conquered. Macaulay also visits Pompeii, Herculaneum, Ostia, Nimes, Orange, and Rome, to view actual Roman architecture and engineering greatness.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was one of the most enigmatic of all English Painters. Born into a brilliant family of Italian exiles, he announced his ambitions at the age of twenty. A romantic medieval flavor infused Rossetti's work.

This 6 part series presents the complete history of Rome, from its primitive beginnings to the height of its glory and its eventual decline, as well as its legacies for today. Filmed in 10 countries, Rome: Power & Glory combines location footage of ancient monuments, detailed re-enactments, period art and writings, and insights from scholars and public figures to bring the ancient world to life.

The ring road around Rome, the Grande Raccordo Anulare is the most extensive urban highway in Italy and the locale for Gianfranco Rosi̕s intriguing concept of a documentary, Sacro GRA. Punning on the Sacro Graal, or Holy Grail, this follow-up to Rosi̕s American-set Below Sea Level takes a neutral look at intriguingly disparate lives near the highway̕s edge, yet neglects to demonstrate why they should all be in one film.

The film explores the conversion story of one of the most significant figures in church history, St. Augustine of Hippo. Travel back to the fourth century and discover how Augustine became a "voice for all generations."

For centuries the historical records of the Inquisition have been locked away to become the subject of legend. In 1998 the Vatican opened these archives for the first time ever. Secret Files of the Inquisition unveils the incredible true story of the western world's most potent religion and its determination to maintain power at any cost. From the pages of secret documents hidden in European archives comes a tale of faith and fervor, of torture and courage, of the fight for human rights and religious tolerance.

This film tests theories regarding the architectural achievements of ancient civilizations. Based on archaeological evidence, scientists conduct physical reconstructions of these theories to see if they would have actually worked. Disc 1: Colosseum & Stonehenge: Archaeologist Julian Richards, stonemason Roger Hopkins, and engineer Mark Whitby analyze the massive 4,500-year-old monument, Stonehenge, by constructing a small-scale version using Stone Age techniques. In Colosseum, engineers and architects test theories on how the ancient Romans constructed giant, retractable canopies that protected people from the sun in amphitheaters like the Colosseum. Disc 2: Inca: theories are tested regarding the ancient world of Machu Picchu in Peru. Topics covered in this episode include present-day people building bridges out of grass fiber and how the ancient Incas built walls made of huge blocks of stone with such precision that each block fits tightly with the next. Disc 3: Pyramid & Obelisk: theories about how ancient civilizations cut, moved, and constructed giant stone obelisks are tested. Scientists travel to Aswan, where these obelisks were cut from the quarries, to attempt to reconstruct the process with a 35-foot-long hunk of rock using what they think may have been the same techniques used by the ancients. Scientists also construct a small pyramid near the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Rudy Maxa tours the regions of Emilia-Romagna and Veneto in northeastern Italy, discussing popular tourist attractions, historical background, and practical information about traveling in the country.

After the Fall of the Roman Empire, an Eastern Roman province of Venetia survived the conquest by the Franks. It gradually grew to become a crucial trade center between the Byzantine Empire and Europe. Saint Mark's Basilica was built in place of an older church and from the very start became a symbol of the economic and political power of Venice. The design, a mix of Eastern and Western basilica, its ornaments--an imposing display of Byzantine mosaics and altar pieces, Gothic sculptures and lavish treasures stripped off the buildings of the old empire. The famous bronze Horses taken from Constantinople's Hippodrome stood for centuries as symbols of Venice's unruly defiance, and a legend of empires falling whenever they were moved, grew around the monumental sculptures. The Most Serene Republic of Venice fell to Napoleon's conquest, and the Basilica has had to face the challenges of age, negligence and tourism.

Vol. 2: Greece: 500 years before the birth of Christ, the small city-states of Greece began a period of cultural excellence, and none was more advanced than Athens. Discover the architectural, intellectual and artistic achievements of the period, and the elements that led to the end of the glorious "moment of excellence." China: Study the "dynasties of power" from the 2nd century B.C. through the rise of the first emperor to discover the achievements of ancient China. While uniting a vast land the Chinese built the 2,600-mile Great Wall, invented paper, printing, the compass and the world's first system of justice. Rome: Rome developed from a town on the Tiber River to a formidable power that dominated the world as it was known. See what researchers have discovered about life in ancient Rome, from the harsh life of a legionnaire on guard at Hadrian's Wall to the gladiators in the Colosseum.

The central Italian region known as Tuscany is lauded in myriad books and films for its landscape and beautiful cities. This video presents a tour of the region's rustic, old houses hiding among the hills, the vineyards and olive gardens, where one can buy good wine, olive oil, honey, and fine cheese. Tuscany is also the birthplace of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Petrarca, Puccini, and many other famous artists. This video also gives an overview of the medieval cities of Florence, Siena, Pisa, Arezzo, Cortona, San Gimignano, and Montecatini Alto.

In this documentary the viewer discovers the daily relaity of the Vatican and discovers how, throughout the centuries, it has managed to find the perfect balance between thousand-year-old traditions and the modern world. The Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums are presented together with other exceptional images such as the oldest Bible existing in the world ("Codex B"), and scenes of the Vatican's day-to-day life: the printers at work in its printing press, the Internet office's technology, the "back stage" of the official visits, the exquisite precision of the calligraphy of the official parchments. Finally, we are presented with a unique image of the Pope, in his own apartment, having dinner with Bishops.

An in-depth tour of the art, architecture, music, and theatre of Venice. Exploring private palazzos, churches, and winding alleyways, Ackroyd also discovers the truth beneath the artifice, where terminal decay is masked. He interviews preservationists now working to rescue the city from the ravages of time and the sea.

This richly textured film traces the personal life and struggles of the first non-Italian pope in over 450 years. Based on George Weigel's book of the same title, this film is a complete and intimate portrait of an extraordinary leader.

Through actual film footage, depicts the horror and heroism of World War II.