"The Roman Banquet, the golden glories, the unrivaled luxuries, the wine, the dance, the song, the beautiful women, the sumptuous splendors that taxed a barbaric world for a night of feasting and revel-- Re-created for your entertainment in the most colossal drama produced", reads an ad in the Daily Argus of New York. Unione Cinematografica Italiana's lavish production of the oft-told tale stars Emil Jannings as Nero.
Emil Jannings
Nerone
Elena Sangro
Poppea
Rina De Liguoro
Eunica
Lillian Hall-Davis
Licia
Andrea Habay
Petronius
Raimondo Van Riel
Tigellinus
Gildo Bocci
Vittelius
Gino Viotti
Chilone Chilonides
Alphons Fryland
Vinicius
"The Roman Banquet, the golden glories, the unrivaled luxuries, the wine, the dance, the song, the beautiful women, the sumptuous splendors that taxed a barbaric world for a night of feasting and revel-- Re-created for your entertainment in the most colossal drama produced", reads an ad in the Daily Argus of New York. Unione Cinematografica Italiana's lavish production of the oft-told tale stars Emil Jannings as Nero.
It was apparently more about finance than anything else that led to Emil Jennings being cast as Nero in this adaptation of the acclaimed Sienkiewicz novel about the rise of Christianity despite the best efforts of the Roman Emperor Nero. And lucky it did, for he turns in quite a decent performance in this quickly paced adaptation. The supporting cast work quite well too as the tale of decadence and depravity at the Imperial court gather pace. "Vinicius" (Alphons Fryland) - an erstwhile loyal soldier, falls in love with "Ligia" (Lillian Hall-Davis) but when she is discovered to be a Christian and invites the enmity of the Emperor he must use all his wits and guile to save her for from his megalomanic master who needs a scapegoat after he famously fiddled while Rome burned. The cinematography here is pretty good, the scenes flow well and the inter-titles are frequent and concise enough to support the clear narrative of the story. It's even got it's own chariot race - with a difference - at the end.
Rome. The 1980s. After the magnum opus The Art of Joy she has been working on for a decade is rejected by the Italian publishing world, writer Goliarda Sapienza commits a desperate theft that costs her her reputation and social position. Incarcerated in Italy’s largest female prison, she finds herself living alongside thieves, junkies, sex workers and revolutionaries. After her release, she continues to meet with these women and over the course of a sweltering summer, a life-changing relationship flowers – a relationship that will reawaken her the desire to live and to write.
Enrico Mattei helped change Italy’s future, first as freedom-fighter against the Nazis, then as an investor in methane gas through a public company, A.G.I.P., and ultimately as the head of ENI, a state body formed for the development of oil resources. On October 27, 1962, he died when his private airplane crashed during a flight to Milan. Officially, it is declared an accident, but many journalists explore other plausible reasons for Mattei's untimely death.
The last years of Bettino Craxi, one of the most important and controversial italian leader of the 1980's.
Taken into slavery after the fall of Jerusalem in 605 B.C., Daniel is forced to serve the most powerful king in the world, King Nebuchadnezzar. Faced with imminent death, Daniel proves himself a trusted Advisor and is placed among the king's wise men. Threatened by death at every turn Daniel never ceases to serve the king until he is forced to choose between serving the king or honoring God. With his life at stake, Daniel has nothing but his faith to stand between him and the lions' den.
In the years between WWI and the rise of Fascism, legendary thespian Eleonora Duse shocks everyone by getting back onstage at over 60 years of age. Struggling with the brutality of historical events unfolding and clinging to the possibility of utopia, she makes her art a revolutionary act, even at the cost of sacrificing health and affection—facing her final journey aware she could give up life itself, but not her own true nature.
The 1978 kidnapping and assassination of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by Red Brigades terrorists.
A Roman soldier becomes torn between his love for a Christian woman and his loyalty to Emperor Nero.
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, compassion, faith, and sacrifice. Gorgeously photographed to evoke the medieval paintings of Saint Francis’s time, and cast with monks from the Nocera Inferiore Monastery, The Flowers of St. Francis is a timeless and moving portrait of the search for spiritual enlightenment.
Young women toiling in a factory are exposed to hazardous material which takes a disastrous toll on their health.
The story of the descent into madness of Mussolini's secret first wife, Ida Dasler, who was seduced by his passion and vigor but blind to the fascist dictator's many flaws.