Sergio Amidei

At a track near Rome, shoeshine boys are watching horses run. Two of the boys Pasquale, an orphan, and Giuseppe, his younger friend are riding (imdb)

Rome, 1944. Giorgio Manfredi, one of the leaders of the Resistance, is tracked down by the Nazis. He goes to his friend Francesco's, and asks Pina, Francesco's fiancée, for help (imdb)

Karen, a young woman from the baltic countries, marries fisherman Antonio to escape from a prisoners camp. But the life in Antonio's village, Stromboli, threatened by the vulcano, is a tough one and Karen can not get used to it. (imdb)

Six vignettes follow the Allied invasion from July 1943 to winter 1944, from Sicily north to Venice.

In June of 1791, a group of passengers in a stagecoach find themselves caught up in the events of the French Revolution, when they find themselves in the city of Varennes when revolutionists arrest the fleeing King Louis. (imdb)

Half soused, with a 2 a.m. shadow and street urchin rags, Serking waltzes through the scummiest neighborhoods of the City of Angels, soaking up booze, poetry, and copulation, and lounging in flophouses and on grimy public buses. His bedmates are a midget, a string of seedy whores, and various earthy L.A. denizens... (AllMovieGuide)

A meek middle-aged man takes justice in his own hands.

A magnetic Vittorio De Sica is Bardone, an opportunistic rascal in wartime Genoa forced by the Nazis to impersonate a dead partisan general in prison to extract information from fellow inmates. (criterion.com)

An old prince (Eduardo De Filippo) lives in his ancient palace in Rome together with the ghosts of his ancestors; he proudly rejects a huge offer for the palace by a real estate group seeking a place to build a department store; but the prince suddenly dies (and joins the ghosts!) and his nephew (Marcello Mastroianni), just back from the States, sells the palace for a much lesser price. (imdb)

In the thirties, during the Fascist Dictatorship, an insurance broker, Omero Battifiori, reaches a small country town from Rome seeking for new customers. The main authorities, expecting an incognito inspection from the Fascist Party of the capital, suspect him to be the inspector and a very important member of the Party. The misunderstanding leads to a number of equivocals... (imdb)

In this emotional war drama set in Nazi-occupied Rome, a beautiful bootlegger (Giovanna Ralli) gives sanctuary to three escaped POWs - an American pilot, a Russian sergeant and a British major. By taking them in, she tragically jeopardizes the safety of her Communist lover while the confinement of the trapped prisoners brings their uneasy alliance to a boiling point, symbolizing the chaos of the world around them. (dvdbeaver.com)

Sunday, august 7th. Various people from Rome, poor and rich ones, spend their Sunday at the beach in Ostia.

Epic tale of Garibaldi's quest for Italian reunification.

Children on the brink of growing up, roaming the working-class San Giovanni neighborhood south of Rome's Stazioni Termini, experience the small tragedies and triumphs of adult life in Castellani's enjoyable and finely tuned portrait. A contemporary reviewer noted in 1949, "Definitely an authentic tranche de vie--yet lacking in the tiresome moral bind of the naturalists, the dreary political aims of the populists." (National Gallery of Art)

In 1925 the young florentine typographer Mario moves to via del Corno to be near his girl-friend Bianca. Here he becomes friends with Maciste, his landlord, and Ugo, anti-fascists both of them. (imdb)

Pietro, a young champion of natural childbirth, is in love with a nurse; they keep their affair secret until she falls pregnant. Worried that marriage will affect his career, she participates in breathing exercises, physical training and lectures explaining the physiology of parturition. (en.wikipedia.org)

It is Summer. It is the right time for love, especially in a most romantic place as Golfo del Tigullio. Different stories: Dorina looking for a rich lover; Clara who takes a fancy to the young Walter while her daughter Lina tries to save her; Aristarco who gave up his career to follow Ada's, but who likes Jacqueline; Renata who is offered by her husband to Ferrari to get money; Marcello who, extraditing Micheline to France, misses the train and falls in love with her. (imdb)

Trying to make a career into the Italian medical system, young doctor Guido Tersilli has sometimes to bend the rules of ethics.

Mario De Santis, seller of toothpaste and regularly married with Valeria, gets accused of being a bigamist.

Three beautiful seamstresses from one of the fashionable dress salons near the Piazza de Spagna in Rome gather on the steps of the square to eat lunch and talk of their love lives. (imdb)

Giuseppe Di Noi, an Italian land surveyor who has lived in Sweden for the past seven years, goes to his native country with his Swedish wife and children for his holidays. At the border he is however jailed for no apparent reason. He thus begins a nightmarish kafkian experience while he's moved from one prison to another, subject to any humiliation and violence. Written by Salvatore Santangelo (imdb)

Doctor Guido Tersilli, previously involved in a series of shady deals, becomes head of Villa Celeste, a luxurious clinic owned by his father-in-law. Driven by an excessive desire to make money, he provokes a revolt by his colleagues in the clinic. (wordlcat)

This anthology film is made up of three short tales, loosely connected by the theme of women during wartime. The stories include a widow's journey during World War II, the struggles of Joan of Arc, and an adaptation of the classic Greek play Lysistrata. (allrovi.com)

A comedy drama about a troupe of third-string variety-act performers who tour Italy's provinces putting on shows in decrepit movie theatres. (worldcat)

Racconti Romani is a fast-paced comedy based on short stories related in the first person by men of the Roman working class. (worldcat)

The famous and beautiful park in downtown Rome is the ideal place for romance, greatly attended by all sorts of couples in search of a little privacy... meeting point of young maids and soldiers; the perfect frame for a compromising picture with blackmailing purposes; theater of jealousy scenes when secret love affairs come to light; sentimental "ambiance" for a blind date... and the prostitutes' favorite "walking" area! (imdb)

Story of a Sicilian professor who goes to Rome to obtain Govt. approval on the production of a new medicine. (bfi)

Aldo Piscitello, a minor government clerk, is forced in 1934 to join the Fascist party. When the war comes, he finds himself able only to talk ineffectually in secret against Mussolini, even as his own son Giovanni is sent into battle. By the end of the war, Aldo has found the courage to stand up for his beliefs, but by then it is too late. (imdb)

A demon bestows on a self-righteous working photographer's camera the power to smite from the Earth "evil-doers". Naturally, the indignant photographer turns his new weapon on, one by one, his entire village, beginning with the wealthy or illustrious. Soon, the poor he is so supposedly so enamored of become his victims too, so rife with impatience and contempt is he, that the slightest flaw is cause for smiting. Inevitably, he embarks on a task to destroy everyone. (imdb)

The plot of the film continues in parallel, three stories all under the hot climate of the Rio's carnival. The film uses extensive landscape shots that Rio de Janeiro is rich, and some sequences made ​​taking pictures of the carnival in 1962. There is some interior view of the famous Copacabana Palace hotel, where two-thirds of the film's characters stay during the carnival period. (wikipedia)

A young man saying goodbye to his girlfriend on a station, recalls the failures of his life while waiting for his wife and son. (bfi)

The exploits of man completely without any sense of obligation or responsibility with women and property dealings. From the Pirandello play. (bfi)

Parigi e Sempre Parigi was the second feature-length effort from famed Italian documentary director Luciano Emmer and tells the story of DeAngelis, an italian that has heard so much about "naughty Paree" that he's determined to experience that naughtiness first hand. (mubi)

The Marquis of Roccaverdina falls for a peasant, Agrippina, and they begin a love affair. To keep up appearances, the Marquis has her marry Rocco, a farmer. The participants in this arrangement soon begin to doubt one another's intentions, however, and jealousy begins to arise.

Dante Fontana is an antique dealer of Perugia, and is infatuated with British culture. But he is always thwarted by his wife and relatives, who see him as a silly dreamer who gets lost in stories rather than doing serious work. But Dante does not lose hope, and plans a vacation to London to learn more about the habits of the British. (Wikipedia)

Grace Peterson works in department stores "Tutto per Tutti", along with many other young people. His employment contract entitling them to live in a boarding house built specifically for them by the company but on the other hand, forbid them not fall in love or marry under threat of dismissal. Still, Grace falls for Phil Golder, a violinist penniless. The director of the residence will notice and the best friend of the girl impersonate violinist girlfriend to try to save Grace dismissal.

Young love is threatened by warring families.

The story of a love triangle between a devoted lawyer, his neglected wife and his best friend.

A series of intrigues at the Madrid court of Charles V in the 16th century.

Follows the life of Catholic Priest John Bosco (1815-1888).

A poor Spanish nobleman fights a duel against a cruel captain to save a boy's life. Since a royal edict forbids duelling during Holy Week, the nobleman is sentenced to death by hanging, but he eventually manages to escape this injustice.

The Marquis of Roccaverdina loves the beautiful peasant girl Agrippina, but can not marry for reasons of social class. Not to give up on her, he decides to marry her to one of his subjects, making them swear that the marriage will never be consumated.

All during a quiet Sunday in August. On a beach on the Lazio coast, courtships, misunderstandings, consummated love stories and even small daily tragedies meet. It seems the end of the world but with the sunset everything returns as before.

A modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew shot in wartime Italy.

Background Information: Padre Salvatore Gabriele Anastasio (Anastasia) arrived at Santa Lucia Church in an Italian-American section of the North Bronx in 1951. (imdb)

1859: Capotosta, an Italian thug, is being chased by the cops. When some fellas kidnap a young girl, they pretend to be part of his gang.

The evolution of Picasso's painting up to his «pink phase».