Discoveries from Italy World Cinema

Intrigue at the Roman Emperor's court prior to its destruction by Vesuvius.

After a peaceful sailboat ride, four young people, including rich kid Bill, Joe, Fred and Jane, knock on the door of a secluded villa after their dune buggy runs out of gas. Earlier in the day, Bill had given the lovely Jane a pearl necklace with a supposedly paranormal history, and this later opens up a can of worms. They are invited to spend the night at the mansion, owned by Lord Alexander and Lady Alexander, who happen to be hosting a strange ceremony that night attended by a group of eccentrics in black robes. During the evening, Jane exits her sleep chamber, seemingly in some kind of trance, and is lured to a sacrificial alter where the robed houseguests are hovering over her. As a knife is about to be plunged into the young lady, her three friends come to the rescue, but they are also witness to a chaotic mass murder catastrophe in which they flee with feelings of guilt and uncertainty.

The tormented loves of the young Ottavio, first for the countess Gamiani and then for the writer Georges Sand.

The alliance of Malefics, formed by Mr. S., Perfidia, Viperiana and Serpe have convinced the world that He and Sophi are criminals and the two, in order not to be wanted, join other characters to prove their innocence and bring harmony back to the planet.

A young couple are building a life together in their new home. Andrea and Anna, whilst joking and fighting, plan their future. 'I have to tell you something...'. There are announcements that change everything and make bonds deeper, there are events however that destroy those bonds; like the loss of a child.

A love story cloaked in gypsy magic. Angel is a famous rock star. An idol for millions of teenagers who copy her "look" and adopt her language. She has everything a girl could wish for with the exception of a true love. Suddenly, her whole life crumbles; she is blackmailed with some videos where she is seen making love with Francisco, a gypsy boy he met on the island of Ibiza. Francisco, who is in love with Angel, admits that he had been paid to seduce her, but he did not know he had hidden cameras in the room. To prove his love, he decides to personally undertake the investigation leading him to unveil a surprising ending.

Ramon avenges his brother's murder and kills the Baxter Family. The surviving Slim Baxter joins for his revenge a troubled gang, which has also a lot to settle with Ramon. Source: SWDB www.spaghetti-western.net

Having just moved back in with his working-class parents, twentysomething on-and-off philosophy undergrad Walter navigates turn-of-the-millennium Turin and Gen-X ennui.

Documenting the making of Elisa's 2003 album 'Lotus'

Born Fernando de Bulhões, he was a precocious Portuguese youth, concerned with the suffering of the poor. Grown into a contemplative young man he renounces the world to join first the Augustinian Order and then the Franciscans order (where he takes the name Anthony) in his dedicated service to the faith.

Tearjerker about an estranged couple and their terminally ill son.

After scoring big in a high-profile bank robbery, a gang of Milanese criminals has to hide in a monastery.

A racewalking athlete Maria runs a petrol station with a takeaway shop in a desolate mountain village, she is almost 30 years old, she may have little chance to fulfill her lifelong dream of success but at what cost?

A father and his four sons during the 18th century have their lives thrown into turmoil with the arrival of a woman at their villa. She quickly takes on multiple roles of sister, mother, confidant and lover to all, plunging the men into confusion and leading to an almost mythic ending.

Riccardo, belonging to an upper-middle class family from Puglia, studies religion in a Swiss boarding school. He has an incomplete relationship with his half-sister Stefania, who one day announces his engagement and the next marriage. Riccardo, wearing his cassock below, desperately tries to conquer the now reluctant half-sister.

Anna was the maid of a lady who inherited an apartment in a building in the center of Rome.

Madonna Violante goes to Rome to find the three Armida daughters, Lorenza and Vanna, who she has not seen for many years; but first she stops by her friend Antonia from whom he learned many unseemly things about them.

A great Party is given by the rich family of Improta. Every kind of intrigue gets around this party. The purpose of every plan is to find a husband or a wife with a quality: wealth.

Fausto and Elena, two deaf teenagers from different backgrounds, meet and fall in love. As they push back against prejudice and silence – both societal and familial – their bond becomes a source of strength. Together, they navigate a world that misunderstands them and find the will to dream beyond imposed limits.

Philippe Malaiseau, writer and historian, died before completing his study of Charles le Témeraire, so the publisher sent Marc Lancelot, Malaiseau's “negro”, to Fontbonne in the Midi. There are five women in Fontbonne: Julie, a ravishing and very particular secretary who seduces Marc, Malaiseau's old mother, Marianne, the distant widow, Christine, the cousin, and Melisa, an Italian friend. The four women are all related to Malaiseau. Did he die in a simple accident?

UNESCO Memory of the World: Explore the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica’s new home with 25,000+ rare books on alchemy, hermetica & mysticism at the Embassy of the Free Mind museum, set in Amsterdam’s historic canal mansion, the House with the Heads.

Caterina is in her 20s, her dream is to become a musician but she’s paralyzed by fear. One summer she meets her idol, the French singer Mia. It is the beginning of a complex and magnetic relationship that will accompany Caterina over the years and finally allow her to find home. Almost.

There's a reason why many consider Iggy Pop the godfather of punk - every single punk band of the past and present has either knowingly or unknowingly borrowed a thing or two from Pop and his late-'60s/early-'70s band, the Stooges, who reunited in 2003 and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. We welcome this outstanding artist, who is known for his outrageous and unpredictable stage antics, at the Baloise Session.

Women held in prison by the Nazi's in Italy during WW2.

A brilliant but sadistic safe-breaker; a beautiful seductress; an expert young hunter and an ace pilot with a shady past - this is the team that undercover operator Armo Shalik assembles to steal the priceless Borgia ring from millionaire Max Kahlenberg's closely guarded fortress in the remote and deadly African bush. But when Kahlenberg finds out they are coming, the gang's expedition turns into a strictly one-way safari - to slaughter.

The story of a general who is about to cut down an old forest for the sake of financial gain, but discovers that the forest is inhabited by invisible spirits.

This is a story full of feelings emotion, and generational conflicts... Two people meet again in the seaside town where they fell in love as adolescents 20 years earlier while spending their summer vacation there with their families. It could be a chance to rediscover each other and to lend continuity to a relationship that was interrupted, in his case at least, traumatically. But the disquieting presence of her 15 year old daughter insinuates itself between them. He transfers his feelings to the young girl and relives, in a kind of addendum the same feelings that were cut short by the abrupt separation. A three-way relationship is formed, colored by tensions, generational conflicts, and subtile psychological games. Each of the three will emerge from the rapport in their own way. Each will emerge, no doubt, changed.

Bespectacled pistolero Stan Ross comes to Canyon City and becomes involved with two feuding factions, after a clerk has been killed by the banker Jefferson during a botched holdup, while robbing his own bank.

Paul Blanc runs a butcher's shop with his Neapolitan wife, the vivacious Giulia. One night, thanks to sleeping pills received from his brother in Argentina, he dreams of horse racing and sees in his dream the order of arrival of the horses. Giulia praises her husband's gift at the local café. But the turfmen dissuade her from betting on the nags chosen by Paul, who they consider to be real losers! But her vision proves to be right. When her secret is discovered, everyone wants to buy this miracle medicine. But the product is no longer manufactured, as it is considered dangerous and has been banned by the authorities.

The six daughters of the mayor are not concerned with their six boyfriends because they are all infatuated with Claudio Villa. When this really comes to the village, everything happens, but as in Cinderella's fable, Claudio Villa falls in love with the seventh daughter, who is actually a child, and everything settles.

Four comic episodes based on betrayal. The main characters are a famous professionist that receives a girl as his anniversary present, a wife tired of her boring marriage, a look-alike of a dangerous wanted person and a very jealous husband. Fantastic Italian actors as Walter Chiari and Luciano Salce act in this beautiful movie.

A gunman and his sheriff companion are hired to deliver a million dollars in gold by traveling through gang-infested lands, while in disguise.

The Masters and the Cherokees living in relative peace until a key member of this tribe falls in love with a woman from the Masters family. From there the situation is complicated to unknown heights.

Sicily, 1865. Two peasants, Gramigna and his father are tricked by Baron Nardò and robbed of their field, which then the baron lets to Assunta, her daughter Gemma and her fiancé Ramarro. Determined to take revenge, Gramigna begins to hunt down Nardò's complicit mediators. Unbeknownst to Gramigna, Gemma, to escape her arranged marriage, goes after him. Love and violence will follow all till their desperate ends.

A double murder shocks a quiet town in Umbria. Father Claude, a French priest leading a community for troubled youths, becomes involved after a suspicious confession. An autistic boy finds the murder weapon, revealing new clues.

After the death of Octavian, the rebel populations of Illyria and Pannonia pose a grave threat to the Roman Empire. Tribune Marcus Ventidius is sent to subdue the uprising and, after a bitter battle, captures Pannonian chief Magdus together with a number of women hostages. These include Magdus's own daughter Helen, betrothed to cruel Illyrian warrior Batone who has killed many Romans. Julia, daughter of the Roman governor Messala, is in love with Tribune Marcus and, jealous of his sympathy for the barbarian girl, plots an escape by Helen and her father. Pursuing the fugitives, Marcus crosses a mountain pass where Batone has laid a trap.

In a wealthy Italian home, the daughter of the family is trying to cut her mother's apron strings. Not only is she having difficulty with this, for her mother is extremely protective, but she cannot even cut vegetables skillfully. Despite that, she wants to go out and party, mother or no mother.

Two brothers, Bull and Jonathan Bullivan, witness the murder of bandit Black Boy who had been terrorizing Golden City. The bandit had been put in place by the city mayor, who wants the local residents to leave so that he can keep their land, where there is oil. The two brothers eat a chicken that has been fed with a strong tonic and they become sort of invincible for a few minutes. The mayor, pressured by the villagers, appoints the Bullivan Brothers as sheriffs and tasks them with the arrest of Black Boy.

A fitness instructor marries a traumatized, crippled woman who suffers from PTSD and is tormented by a traumatic event that happened in her past. What is even more unfortunate is that her marriage is part of her maniac husband's evil scheme to kill her for her money. It isn't long before the formula is put into action and the gory body count starts to mount.

The œuvre of poet Raffaello Baldini (1924-2005) through the words of those who knew him, the poems he himself read, the fragments of his monologues, his beloved Romagna landscapes.

Three men consider selling their souls to Satan in order to possess a beautiful woman.

A respectable lawyer finds out his son is a heroin addict. Heartbroken, he'll do anything to help his only child, even if it means sharing his hell.

A family on the brink of crisis decides to escape the city and take refuge in an old farmhouse in the countryside, convinced that returning to nature is the only real solution. But the bucolic dream soon turns into an exhilarating struggle for survival. Escaping the city is easy. Running away from yourself, a little less.

The Beggar's Opera is one of the earliest examples of a Musical in the history of theater (from which Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill drew inspiration for the Threepenny Opera). A crowd of thieves and prostitutes, fences and swindlers, speaking various dialects with Peppe Servillo as the shady fence, Angela Baraldi (the wife), Marco Alemanno and opera singer Borja Quiza Martinez (Captain Uccello) directed by Lucio Dalla. New translation and dramaturgical version by Giuseppe Di Leva of John Gay's play transported from the slums of 18th-century London to the Bologna of today.

After the war, Aldo and his men became gangster. But now the times are changing and Aldo decides to became a policeman to help better his men in crime. He meets Giovanna and falls for her. But he begins liking his new job and after their first robbery, Aldo tries to leave his old accomplices...

The narrative concerns the barbaric exploits of Attila The Hun and yet none of the characters ever leave the remote seaside stretch of land on which the film is set or do much of anything – with the ensuing moralizing interrupted only by the occasional (and equally obscure) music-infused rites.

The young Antonio wants to participate in a reality show and leaves Naples for Milan with his best friend Eugenio.

Four sixty-something disgraced comedians - who used to work together - find themselves in a retirement home. They'll join forces again, this time to save the place from bankruptcy.

Back home after his wife's death, a migrant labourer faces a dilemma between a high-paying job overseas and one last chance at reconnecting with his son, who sees him only as a stranger because of all his years abroad.

In 1976, when he was just 19 years old, Massimo Carlotto was accused of a murder of which he was the sole witness. As a result of this accusation, he faced 11 trials, spent 6 years in prison, and 5 years on the run. His legal ordeal lasted 18 years and ended in 1993 when the President of the Republic granted him a pardon.

The engineer Furio Cicerone came up from nothing and entered the circle of the great industrialists; he is married to Clara, but has a series of adventures with other women. Gianni is part of the powerful from birth and is used to having everything he wants and wants Clara. But Clara does not want him. Then there is an opportunity: Furio wins an important foreign contract, but needs to have immediately 500 million while the bank can not give it to him before five days. Gianni will lend him money, without interest for five days but for every day of blackberry Furio will have to give him Clara. Furio and Clara accept the contract.

Libero Burro, a former lout from Italy's center-south, dreams of getting rich and takes over a downtown gambling joint in need of a complete overhaul.

Moscow, the years of perestroika. The quiet life of Eduard and Pavla turns into a nightmare one day. Edward accidentally kills his attacker while protecting his comrade in a fight. Both go to jail, and his friend commits suicide. Suddenly, the hero of the film is offered a deal to get him out of prison. The task seems to be simple - you need to deliver a mysterious suitcase. Soon, Edward realizes that he is becoming a participant in a terrorist attack...

The second of Castellani's trilogy dealing with the less-than-smooth course of young love in postwar Italy (it was filmed just after Sotto il sole di Roma and just before Two Cents Worth of Hope). Leading man Mario Angelotti, loving not wisely but too well, quickly discovers that the penalty for bigamy is two wives. Between his tempestuous Sicilian bride, played by Elena Varzi and his sedate Milanese missus (Irene Gemma), the poor man barely has time to take a breath.

Five teenagers decide to steal money from someone who could not accuse them of the theft. Panini, a well-known stockbroker who uses to illeg ally pass money from Italy to Switzerland, is the perfect victim.