Discoveries from Italy World Cinema

A slacker switches up his cleaning job by pretending to be a mental coach's assistant and consults an injured ice skater who has lost her confidence.

Dramatizing of the many shocking highs and lows of Argentine soccer hero Diego Maradona, an extraordinary athlete and arguably the greatest player in the history of the sport.

Peppino, a diminutive taxidermist with a reputation for sleaziness, meets Valerio, a handsome if artless much younger man fascinated by the trade. Peppino offers him a large salary to be his assistant—the job burgeoning into a budding friendship he mistakes for something more. When Valerio gets a girlfriend, their fledgling romance will be threatened by an insanely jealous third wheel.

Set in a small catholic town in Italy, 15-year-old Gaia tries to navigate her sexual fantasies while completing her confirmation.

A young man who has lost his memory, escapes from prison with three other convicts. The other men help him find back bits of his past, until they arrive at a village where two warring families recognize him. Apparently he has a reputation for being a fast gun, and he has been paid to kill a man - who says he is his father. His younger brother is jealous of the attention the prodigal son receives, and things come to a dramatic end.

A young man hatches a plan to sleep with another man's infertile wife. Based on the play by Machiavelli.

In the summer of 1942, during the Second World War, a group of young paratroopers from the Folgore Division, after having been subjected to a long and tiring training in Italy, was transported by air to the Libyan desert to cover the Italian-German front.

A film of Enrico Berlinguer's funeral in Rome, briefly tracing his career as leader of the Italian Communist Party.

A valuable ruby ​​disappears during an earthquake. Professor Ferlach is tasked with excavating the buried temple. Mysterious things are happening during the excavation and strangers are trying to stop them. The archaeologist Prof. Ferlach gets unexpected help from the animal catcher Larry Stone and his daughter Helga, who actively help with the research and excavations.

World-renowned director Martin Scorsese narrates this journey through his favorites in Italian cinema.

Brazil, the 1920s. The sadistic colonel Minas massacres the hometown of a famous cangaceiro (a kind of revolutionary bandit). The only survivor is a young farmer called Espedito; he is nursed back to health by a hermit who thinks he has been sent by God and therefore baptizes him the Redeemer. Espedito/The Redeemer forms his own gang of cangaceiros but doesn’t really understand what he’s doing until he befriends the proverbial European intellectual, a Dutch Oil prospector, who introduces him to important people. Espedito is hired by the Dutchman and a corrupt local governor, but then the Dutchman changes sides …

Cormack, the lawman most feared by the rugged pioneers at the turn of the century, has a mysterious bond with "Caribou," an outlaw whom he has jailed. When Caribou escapes from prison, he returns to seek revenge.

An acid portrait of Italian youth at the time, I DELFINI follows a dreary season of discontent and viciousness in the lives of a thoroughly unpleasant group of mostly rich youngsters in a small Adriatic coast city.

Doc McGregor, former surgeon become player, is wrongly accused of murder and pursued by Slade, a bounty hunter. In his escape he finds Larry Kitchener's corpse and decides to impersonate him. But his problems get worse as Kitchener was a famous gunslinger hired as sheriff for the people from Baldosas to stop Reyes, a Mexican bandit who has terrorized them.

In 16th century Italy, mercenary Marco is hired by cruel duke Astolfo whose unjust reign is threatened by the notorious outlaw the Red Mask.

Police Comissioner Datti is investigating the murder of a female doctor whose murderer seems to be a thirty-fivish year old man. Soon another murder follows: Pianist Robert Dominici's girlfriend is found killed. The killer also challenges Datti on the phone and says he can't be caught since he has a secret which makes him invulnerable. In the meantime the clues seems to point in strange directions...

A high school student falls in love with the provocative substitute, but she prefers the gym teacher.

Dino and Anna are a couple in their forties. Their relationship is hardly conventional: in fact, it is unconsummated. Dino gets out of it, gratifying himself with prostitutes and swingers. He reaches his nadir when he looks up Anna’s old boyfriends to ask about their sexual relations with her, and even begs them to take her back, as a way to end their relationship. Anna can’t find a way out herself; she can’t bring herself to end this one-of-a-kind, tormented love affair. In the end, Dino’s angst is what makes her feel loved, feel unique. No solution seems to be waiting in the wings.

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.

Teenage problems intertwine during the occupation of a high school in Rome. Silvio—much like his peers desperate to lose his virginity—wants to make his move on the girl he likes, despite her being already his friend's girlfriend and not knowing that her best friend harbors feelings for him—while clashing also with his parents, onetime Sixties radicals who look down on the kids' aimless political commitment.

André Laroche, an industrialist, has just passed away. Face to his grave, as he is being buried, Anne de Vierne, the wife of a magistrate, confesses to her son François that Laroche was in fact Lupin and that he is his natural child. But he is not the gentleman thief's only offspring! Lupin had indeed another son by a housemaid, Gérard Dagmar, a dancer, magician and - occasionally - burglar. Which complicates the task of François who, to respect the last wishes of the testator, has gone in search of the treasure of Poldavia. For he keeps finding Gérard on his way and his efforts are constantly thwarted by his half-brother. Will Gérard prevent François from becoming the worthy successor to their father or will the two young men decide to join forces? That is the question.

In the past few days Rome has been the scene of a singular event: when it rains, the manholes exhale a dense steam whose origin and composition is unknown. No one can imagine that whoever breathes in the mysterious substance will have to deal with what he/she represses, their darkest instincts, their anger. Not even the Morel family.

At 19, David has his diploma (the first in his family), a job at a car wash, and little else. His family is broke and argues constantly. So, unannounced, David leaves Turin for his uncle's farm in Polesine. Here he learns many life lessons over the course of a summer while hanging out with Bosnian drug dealer Alem and Patrizia, an older woman who's an addict.

A green mare makes the fortune of her owner, the horse dealer Haudouin. Shortly after his death, war broke out in 1870. One day, his neighbor Zèphe Maloret denounces Honoré, Haudouin's son, a maverick, to the Prussians. Following this denunciation, their non-commissioned officer enters the Haudouin home and rapes the mother while Honoré is hidden under the bed. The resentment already existing between the Haudouin and Maloret families turns to hatred... A letter recalling the events is lost, which doesn't help matters.

It's 1790 and British Naval Commander Redway is driven by greed for money and will stop at nothing to get it. His second in command, David Robinson, questions his allegiance when Redway kills his father and takes his brother prisoner. In order to save his brother and avenge his father's death David must join forces with a band of pirates, led by Captain Bernard, hunt down and kill Redway.

Alberto, a newspaper man, tries a one-time shot of living the good life with the help of his penniless mentor.

Five searches for love unfold in interconnected stories in which fathers, daughters and male suitors try to perfect love matches based on astrology.

A pimp named Horny Hector operates a brothel on property coveted by Cardinal Giove. The Cardinal comes up with a plan to force Hector into selling him the land by kidnapping Helen, triggering a small gang war.

Marco, a television journalist, reads "red lies" on his teletext system in order to gather material on the homosexual world for a story he's working on. Unfortunately, he is implicated in a series of murders in which the victims are all gay. Marco becomes a suspect and is forced to investigate the crimes himself in order to prove his innocence.

The wife of a financially struggling businessman is blackmailed by a mysterious man into having a sadistic relationship with him, or he will release damning evidence that suggests that her husband is a murderer.

A study of the friendship between a Chinese woman and a fisherman who came to Italy from Yugoslavia many years ago, who live in a small city-island in the Veneto lagoon.

Principessa is a homeless woman who lives in a dilapidated van in a suburban parking lot. She scrapes together small amounts of money through prostitution, abuses alcohol and drugs, but remains a fragile woman with a good heart. Her sweet but precarious balance is shattered when the “Piccolo Circo” arrives at the place she loves so much: the parking ban, the arrival of the police, the seizure of her vehicle, and the awareness, albeit unclear, that she must leave that maternal womb forever.

The 1978 kidnapping and assassination of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by Red Brigades terrorists.

Martino is a young child who claims to have an invisible friend called Luca. His parents assume it is just a game, but strange things start to happen.

Eduardo accidentally discovers that he is adopted. His real father is dying, but before his death he said that his mother was the "Queen of England", failing to clarify that this is the nickname of Italian prostitute. But Eduardo is already rushing to the capital of England...

During the annual Christmas gathering at the family home, the parents surprise their children by announcing their decision to move in with one of them and pass on the house.

In a small western town the ineffable judge Roy Bean metes out justice in his own special way. A cargo of gold is ambushed by the outlaw Black Bird who fails in the attempt and then rides into town.

There are a number of inheritors to a fortune who are getting killed by a mysterious somebody whom we do not see. Each death is novel, but not terribly graphic. Who did it?

Elementary school teacher Michele Cortese is about to start a whole new life. After 40 years of teaching in the metropolitan Roman jungle, he had to move to a village in Central Italy, to teach in a tiny school with just a few children aged 7-10. Struggling to overcome his urban inadequacy, he finds a friendly face in vice-principal Agnese and gradually manages to fit in, thanks to her and their spirited pupils. As everything seems to be falling into place, unwelcome news comes through: the school has failed to meet its student quota for the next year and will soon be shut for good.

The Mighty Crusaders (Italian: La Gerusalemme liberata) is a 1957 film about the First Crusade, based on the 16th-century Italian poem Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso. This film was directed by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia.

The twins of the recently departed Marcus Aurelius fight it out to see who will become emperor of Rome.

A drama based on the life of 18th century Italian lyricist Lorenzo da Ponte, who collaborated with Mozart on his "Don Giovanni" opera.

Bertone is a moderately honest homicide cop. Unfortunately, the court system is so inept and corrupt that many more-or-less honest policemen have begun taking the law into their own hands. Between his efforts to thwart the growth of crime and to control his vengeful co-workers, homicide-chief Bertone has his hands full

1760 Spain provides the setting for Giacomo Casanova's romantic escapades, every woman he encounters unable to resist his disarming charm, be they single, engaged, or even married.

A short film containing a collection of clips from various Hollywood movies.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a junior resident takes an interest in a newly-arrived patient, a young Italian woman who has mysteriously developed schizophrenia. To identify the causes of her condition, he employs psychoanalytic methods to dig into her sexual past, despite objections by the old-fashioned chief physician.

A murderous drug dealer breaks his partner out of police custody. An undercover cop is assigned to track down the two killers and bring them in.

Released from captivity in Vietnam, two American Army officers return to civilian life and discover they have acquired an insatiable taste for human flesh. A city is terrorised... as they stalk the inhabitants to satisfy their primitive appetites.

Franco Lucci is an entrepreneur on the verge of bankruptcy. The salvation of his company hangs on a large public contract that he could obtain thanks to the intervention of a minister who has become a friend and whom he has invited to dinner. Together with Michele, his partner and brother-in-law, Franco has organized the perfect evening: in addition to paying him a large bribe, the two arrange for him to find a girl willing to sleep with him in exchange for a recommendation. All under the eyes of Rita, Franco's wife, who tries to indulge her husband in his last desperate attempt to obtain the million-dollar contract. Because of the girl, the evening takes an unexpected turn.

Alvaro is been in jail and so he consider himself the most fit to lead his three friends Mario, Otello and Spartaco. The four young men decide to start a business. They need only a van to start a transport company. But they lack the money. How can they get it?

A woman and her 10-year-old son face, in their own way, the mourning for the death of the husband and father, which took place in a factory, while the waiting and the recollection for the day of the funeral grow all around.

Maurizio Merli takes up a familiar role as Commissioner Berni; a cop who puts his life on the line to transport a witness from Corleone to New York City in order to testify against a mob boss on trial for murder. Along the way, Berni and his prisoner face a series of traps set up by the Mafia.

A man and a woman would like to get married, but lack the necessary funds for the traditional "big" wedding. Thus they plan to escape to the countryside and "live in sin".

The police send an unemployed classically-trained musician—under the cover of a trashy wedding singer—to infiltrate the entourage of an elusive Mafia boss.

In Dublin, the acid-scarred, razor-slashed corpse of a young woman is discovered in the boot of the Swiss Ambassador's limousine. The Ambassador, his family and employees all become immediate suspects. Faced with the problem of diplomatic immunity, the police officer in charge of the case brings in John Norton, an ex-Inspector known for his brutal methods, to carry out an "unoffical" investigation. While Norton develops a relationship with the Ambassdor's attractive daughter, several more gruesome murders occur...

Italian immigrant Joe is hired by mobster Vince to kill a witness before he can testify against him. Joe dresses up as a policeman to be able to get close to his victim, but he's mistaken for a real cop by everyone and will reluctantly have to enforce the law to avoid blowing his cover.

The story of a leading political man, suddenly telling “all the truth” after a serious illness and therefore overwhelming lifes of anyone surrounding him…

Paola, a modern woman used to the hardships of modern life, takes her chance to make things right for herself.

Francesca, a seventeen-year-old Roman, is finally sure she has found love. Almost sure. She spends the day observing other lovers' behaviors and considering whether she is ready to jump. Her age notwithstanding, this movie is more about coming of age than about improper or illegal romantic relationships.