Discoveries from Italy World Cinema

To get ahead after he answers a newspaper ad for a business proposition, Passaguai borrows the more impressive apartment of a retired actor and arranges an elaborate luncheon there.

Giorgio and Tito, father and son. A successful journalist and a lazy teenager apparently impossible to understand. Giorgio's dream is to take Tito to the Nasca Hill in Liguria, but Tito prefers to spend his entire day with his group of friends, eating, talking about nothing and playing video games. Until one day when he suddenly informs his father that he would join him in this trip. After a series of accidents and misunderstandings, at the end, somehow father and son will find the way to communicate … or at least they will try.

The adventures of three university students who live in the same boarding house. Ugo, the most serious one, is in love with Lea, daughter of the lodger. Aldo is a practical joker, Bartolozzi is the shiest. Ugo and Lea's love story becomes stormy because of Aldo.

Renzo and Lucia's love story is jeopardized by Don Rodrigo, a wicked nobleman, who is interested in Lucia. When she refuses his attentions he has her kidnapped and brought to a convent whose prioress is a nun as wicked as he is. The two youths will have to go through a lot of misfortunes before being reunited and being able to marry.

From the Opera House of Rome Il barbiere di Siviglia by Gioachino Rossini. Orchestra and Choir Of The Opera of Rome, conductor Daniele Gatti. Directed by Mario Martone.

A man discovers what real love is through the eyes of his sick mother

Set between 1802 and 1818, it is the epic true story of a Spanish army officer and genius conspirator. Missioned by Spain, Domingo Badia, alias Ali Bey El Abbassi will meet Lady Hester Stanhope, an English aristocrat, better known under the name of Meleki, and they will live together an extraordinary destiny which will upset the Middle East.

Three girls from Milan dreaming of a holiday in Rome arrive in the city by train and decide to pretend to be rich Danish girls to attract three nice guys... Three guys looking for easy-going girls offer them a guided tour through the most beautiful places of the city. The girls accept and make the guys spend a fortune, but one evening they get drunk and one of them incidentally reveals she's just from Milan. The guys get upset and set up a sort of revenge, but in the end they make it up.

A man goes out on New Year's Day and is greeted by everyone with "Happy New Year", in the hope of getting a tip. The fellow is so annoyed that he runs into trouble with the law and almost loses his mind.

“ Bird 100 ” , a tribute to Charlie Parker on the centenary of his birth ( Aug. 29, 1920). The story of Bird, the revolutionary musician and the man tormented by the “ evil of living, ” is told by Franco Maresco with the support of archival materials and the participation of pianist Salvatore Bonafede and alto saxophonist Orazio Maugeri.

1848, Tuscan countryside. Edo and Lupo are two peasants running away after having robbed their boss. Chased by mercenaries, they'll meet bandits, damsels in distress, eccentric nobles, and revolutionaries along the way.

Pasquale Lojacono moves into a large flat with his wife Maria following a special agreement with the owner: in exchange for free accommodation, Pasquale must dispel rumours that the house is haunted by ghosts. The protagonist begins to receive regular sums of money from spirits who, according to him, are particularly generous and supportive towards him. As time goes by, however, it turns out that the source of his fortune is a ghost who, having become Maria's lover, wants to silence him and plan an escape with her. Added to this unusual love triangle are the doorman, his sister and the lover's family, each of whom, in their own way, exploits the rumours of ghosts for their own gain under the gaze of Professor Santanna, who observes and comments on the inexplicable events with Pasquale from the window of the flat opposite.

A boy and girl, a hot July day, a railway station, an encounter.

Elena, a Sicilian mother of three, is murdered by her husband. Her cousin, Roberto decides to take the three orphans into custody. Together with his wife, Anna, he takes charge of the maintenance of the three nephews, who join the other two children of the couple. The adaptation of the three children to the new reality is complex and conflicting. The backlash on the family budget is heavy. Roberto and his wife make do to ensure that the children are supported, trying not to let them know how their mother died.

The diaspora of millions of Italian emigrants marked a strong nutritional influence of this nation on the American continent. The documentary collects the similarities and differences between the dishes adapted to the American taste and his native Italy.

A former gunman turned priest seeks vengeance on three bandits who are masquerading as law-abiding citizens.

Short film selling Fiat Croma in different scenarios.

The story of a drug dealer from Romania and his son in Rome's suburbs.Roman is an immigrant from Romania arrived in Italy 30 years ago. He sells drugs and lives in criminal contexts. His dream is to see his child, Nicu, whom he raised without a mother, live a different and better life.

Scella Pezzata, daughter of the Indian chief Heavy Ball of the Cefaloni tribe, is betrothed to Cavallo Pazzo, but is in love with Arrapaho, son of the Indian chief Mazza Nera of the Arrapaho tribe, who is in turn the object of Luna Caprese's wishes of the Froceyenne tribe.

Giovanni Segantini rose from humble origins to become the most important of Italian pointillists, and one of the most important symbolist painters in the 19th century. This film focuses on his way of feeling nature as a source of artistic and spiritual inspiration.

A destroyer departs from the port of Taranto with orders to take a load of petrol to Tobruk at all costs.

At the age of three, little Wolfgang has lost his parents. Since then his uncle Eduard raises the boy. As a former concertmaster Eduard has recognized how gifted his nephew is and the boy learns the hard way. The 6-year-old must practice daily 6 hours at the piano and already impresses at famous music parties. When Eduard Fabricius breaks a leg after a concert in Lucerne and must go to the hospital, he can be persuaded by a pediatrician to grant some carefree vacation weeks in a manor for Wolfgang. The manor belongs to the young widow Elisabeth who soon grows very fond of the little boy. Wolfgang makes friends with 11-year-old Heidi and Jöggi, a boy his age who first saw a rival in him...

A well known judge comes back to his native region, Salentino in the South of Italy, to find out that his old friend is dead and the woman he loved is now working for a crime organization.

The extraordinary, complex, nuanced, restless, and rebellious personality of Walter Bonatti is recounted in a docufiction that traces the life of the greatest mountaineer of all time, without neglecting his overwhelming love story with movie star Rossana Podestà.

Now without Aramis, the Musketeers embark on a new mission.

Twenty-three years after L'Avventura (1960), Michelangelo Antonioni returns to Lisca Bianca Island. The rarefied atmosphere of Anna's (Lea Massari's) disappearance is recalled by some audio excerpts from the original movie.

Animated short film that contrasts the singular way of being Italian to the orderly and civilized system from the rest of Europe

A young girl, pursued by a band of conspirators, hides in a movie theatre where she watches the film Cabiria. She determines to seek the aid of that film's strongman, Maciste. When she locates him, he helps her overcome her enemies, but not without many thrilling and dangerous adventures.

A young girl witnesses a violent and ultimately fatal act between her mother and another man and it emotionally scars her for years to come. As a young woman, she takes a vacation with a more worldly girlfriend to Sardinia, and in doing so, attracts the attention of a young man in the village. Despite her interest in the man her haunted past prevents her from developing a normal relationship with him.

A young woman with psychic powers is obsessed with having a child. Even though she is unable to conceive, her desire to do so creates a supernatural force determined to fulfill her wishes

A bank clerk and his cousin, a "general", join forces to track down a Mexican outlaw.

Two twin brothers grew up and never met (due to the fact that the father with the couple would have had 13 children and therefore for superstition he closed one in an orphanage), the one goalkeeper of Juventus and the other employee at the state lottery.

An industrial worker from the mid-seventies encounters the stout daughter of a wealthy American businessman. The daughter falls in love with the worker and begins to pursue him.

Though he is near death, blind Rene, an elderly Italian-French intellectual, continues to make his annual conference abroad accompanied by his self-centered loyal, beautiful assistant Sibilla who may or may not be his lover. Rene's domineering mother strongly disapproves of Sibilla and his continual galavanting, but Rene disregards her and goes anyway. While in Spain, Sibilla falls for a handsome young toreador who also captures the interest of Rene, though it is hard to say whether his feelings for the bullfighter are fatherly or more romantic. It is also unclear as to whether Sibilla and the bullfighter are lovers either. Thus an enigmatic romantic triangle forms until Rene and Sibilla suddenly decide to wed. The character of Rene seems to be closely patterned after Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.

Presents life in 18th century Spain as the painter Francisco de Goya showed it to us.

The story is about Eva, a Ukrainian girl who has come to Milan to work as a model. As soon as she arrives in Italy she attracts the attention of the male world. All of the men that she encounters seem to be solely interested in exploiting her beauty: and so we have Luke, the stalker, who never stops tormenting her with text messages and phone calls; Airoldi, the shady television producer, who offers her various jobs in exchange for her sexual favours, and lastly, Tom, a vile photographer, who has no scruples whatsoever. After being raped at a party by Tom and two of his colleagues, Eva is invited by Cindy, her flatmate, to a sort of Sabbath, attended solely by women, in a place outside Milan. From that moment on, the gateway to success in the fashion world opens before Eva and, at the same time, a tremendous vendetta begins against the violent male world.

Inside a warehouse in Palermo, a group of people smashes a man’s arm to pieces with a wheelie bag packed with weights. This is the method used by an amateur criminal organization that fractures the limbs of its willing victims before staging fake accidents and raking in the insurance payouts. Vincenzo recruits the individuals from among the down-and-outs that haunt the city streets, where Luisa is a habitué, since she gets her crack there. Vincenzo’s problems suddenly get worse, though, after a series of mistakes shut him out of the gang, and Luisa is now his only chance: he convinces her to have her bones broken.

For Arturo, a forty-year-old actor, success has finally arrived: the TV series in which he plays a separated father is doing quite well. Unexpectedly, however, comes the flipside of his popularity: Mirko, a boy who recently lost his father, has replaced him in his imagination with the character of Arturo. The media is going wild, and the presence of Enrico, the actor's agent, becomes increasingly pressing.

Nicola Peccoli has always nurtured his niece Giovanna, an orphan since the age of two and now of age, but he does not look favorably on her beloved Mario because he is just a simple employee and a lower class of society.

Italy, 1997. When Clara and Irène, both 17, meet they are nothing like each other but get on marvellously well. They run away together to a faraway island off the coast of Sicily to live their summer freely, and to hide from a reality they want to forget.

A cop has a cousin who is a thief, and one day while he is chasing him he ends up in a room with a murdered man. The two are photographed at the murder scene and believed to be the assassins. The police however believe in their innocence and send the odd couple on the trail of the real murderer who is thought to be working in a circus.

Another imitation of "The Blue Lagoon", starring Don Monahan (from the "Porky"-movies) and Ingmar Bergman's daughter Anna as the young lovers.

Dino craft practice tattoos, Bruna is a beautician; their studies are facing each other. They learn of a mysterious treasure hidden in a chair that belonged to a woman now dead.

In a not-too-distant future in Naples, a young man illegally crosses the deserted city on a personal mission.

A documentary on the making of Pier Paolo Pasolini's MEDEA (1969) features rare behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew.

In the garden of a Baroque villa, a chamber orchestra is playing Mozart’s wonderful quartets and quintets, and everywhere is pervaded with echoes and references to the composer’s world. As if by magic or conjured by the imagination, figures emerge from the shadows of the labyrinthine garden: they are Mozart’s characters, and they play with – or perhaps make fun of – the guests at the party, embroiling them in their well-known amorous dalliances. This piece, in which the spectator encounters among the dreamlike medley many well-known protagonists from Mozart’s operas (including Figaro, Don Giovanni, and the Queen of the Night), is a full-length choreographic work by Massimiliano Volpini, who himself performed on stage for many years as a dancer with the Scala ensemble.

Achille Tarallo is an absent father and an unhappy husband. He drives buses in Naples for a living but his dream is to be a great crooner. In the meantime he sings at wedding parties with his best friend Café, waiting for their band manager Pennabic to make them famous. One day, Achille falls in love with the new caregiver of his mother, a kind woman from Eastern Europe very different from his nagging wife Elide.

TV-Movie on the life and accomplishments of Giovanni Falcone, the legendary Sicilian judge who boldly opposed the Mafia

Fiery, dark-haired Stella, an intense auto mechanic, and nervous, blonde Eleonora are young and in love. They operate a gas station peacefully, until Eleonora's mother appears and voices her disapproval of their romance.

Through rare archive footage, the documentary traces the forty years of Enver Hoxha's communist regime in Albania, revealing cinema as a weapon of power.

A young man, accused of murder and theft, escapes to Venezuela. His fiancée and her brother join him, only to find he had the loot with him. But was he guilty?