Discoveries from Italy World Cinema

Seven guests arrive for an exclusive performance inside a remote theatre, unaware that they are the show.

Just out of high school, Lavinia, Carla and Danila leave for a yachting holiday. Accompanied only by a skipper, the three of them sail along the Croatian coast at the start of a new stage in their lives. Full of dreams, free and laid-back, they are unaware that sharing everything on the social media is about to transform their holiday into a brutal rite of passage to adulthood in which nothing, especially their friendship, will ever be the same again.

Back from the hospital where he has been treated after a heart attack, Lorenzo is on his way upstairs to his top-floor apartment in Naples when he meets Michela. The charming young woman, who has just moved to the facing apartment, has forgotten her keys and finds herself locked out. Cynical and grumpy, the retired lawyer who has been living estranged from the rest of the world, should normally leave her to her fate but he mellows under her spontaneous charm. He helps her, becomes friends not only with her but with her husband Fabio and their two children. For once, the self-declared misanthropist seems to be experiencing the long forgotten feeling of empathy.

The Shadow Phoenix is trying to take over the Magic Dimension. He kidnaps Bloom and casts a spell on her to make her become evil so that he could use her powers to help him with his conquest.

Where do we come from and where do we go ? The eternal question of humanity which religions have tried to answer over the centuries - lt's the end of the year 2012. The Universe is about to undergo an imposing planetary alignment and a Total Eclipse will soon be upon Planet Earth. Great vibrational changes are imminent and set to disturb us. The eight members of the Galactic Council, led by Lord Ogmha (William Shatner), meet to discuss the effects of the imminent alignment. They are 8 creators (aliens) and each one of them governs a Planet. They are each responsible for the security and well-being of a 'LENS'. Together they balance the conflict and allegiance of the Universe. Treason puts Earth in danger and the LENS, the hard disc (crystal core) containing the recording of the entire history, DNA, memories and nucleus of mankind is hidden somewhere in Italy. Everyone is searching for it. If the Lens is opened and in the wrong hands it could reveal to the human beings the shocking

Stefano, a philosophy grad student without a future, tries to commit suicide after his girlfriend leaves him. He is saved by Giulio, a wisecracking plumber who takes him home and teaches him the tricks of the trade. When Lucia, a woman disappointed in both men and conventional jobs who has started to work as a prostitute, calls them to repair a sink, for Stefano it's love at first sight.

Valeria is a passive onlooker to her own life in Turin, and she grows so obsessed with the activities of her neighbor Massimo that when he moves to Rome she decides to follow him. There she meets and unexpectedly befriends Massimo's companion Flavia, and becomes enmeshed in both of their lives.

Under provincial Italian law at the time, once a roof is erected, the occupants cannot be evicted from a building. This comedy follows the efforts of a family to erect the roof on a house overnight so that a newlywed couple can have their own home.

A dramatic and penetrating examination of the intellectual and moral standards existing at Oxford University, England, in the early 1970s.

Ivanhoe returns from the Crusades to free the Saxons from oppression in 12th century England. He claims the hand of a beautiful lady and fights to rescue her from danger.

Three pirates are saved from a shipwreck and seize a galleon bound for Maracaibo, where they will save the governor from a conspiracy. Italian adventure movie directed by Steno.

Red-haired, sex-obsessed manchild Lucio lazes all day long with his friend Pino until he falls for the beautiful head of the local loony bin.

Pecos Martinez rides into Houston looking to settle an old score with gang leader Clane, who is after the money that disappearred from a recent robbery. The hunt for the loot and Pecos' quest become intertwined with the efforts of the locals to stay alive long enough for help to arrive.

Before finally entering the afterlife, the dead spend a period in a limbo from which they depart only when, among the living, there is no one who remembers them. Under the care of the salacious Domenico the visitors of a small cemetery recount how they arrived at eternal peace.

In 1900 in Rome, the poor carpenter Francesco, by a twist of fate, is recognized component of a noble family in the process of decay. Francesco knows the cynical and ruthless Prince Torquato Terenzi, disappointed by life and progress, and also falls in love with the beautiful Duchess Elisa. When Prince Terenzi dies, Francesco realizes that he's not enriched for nothing with the inheritance, because the noble family is broke; so he enlistes himself for the war in Libya, but quickly returnes to Italy, disgusted by the atrocities of the fighting. His dream is to be a singer, and so he goes to America with the Duchess Elisa.

An Italian immigrant tries to make a new life in Switzerland, taking on a series of increasingly menial jobs in order to do it. He attempts to fit into his new home and society but fails at every turn. Unable to go home again, will his tenacity and optimism be enough to live on?

The love story between Don Camillo's protégé and Don Violante's niece adds fuel to the rivalry between the two priests.

Returning home after a night of love spent in a woodman's hut with Orsola, Pietro is arrested by the police for a crime he did not commit. His mother and youngest sister, Rosaria, go to Orsola begging her to provide Pietro with the alibi that will clear him. But Rocco, Orsola's brother, dreading a family scandal, constrains Orsola to silence. Condemned despite his innocence, Pietro escapes from prison, but the police track him down and kill him, and his mother, before the eyes of Rosaria. Years pass, and one day Rocco stumbles upon a half-frozen young woman lying in the snow. He takes her home and confides her to the care of Orsola. Later, yielding to the pleas of Orsola, Rocco and Rocco's son, Salvatore, the girl stays on in the house, and Salvatore falls in love with the beautiful stranger, who is careful to keep the family members from learning she is Rosaria, the grown up sister of Pietro seeking revenge for the deaths of her brother and mother.

Eve is a jungle girl brought up by apes. She is captured with a number of apes by a mad scientist, conducting mind control experiments on them. Eventually she is liberated by a young explorer.

Chiara feels that there is something wrong. She has a strange feeling she cannot explain to her mother or sister. During the night, after overhearing a heated argument between her parents and witnessing something shocking, her world is overturned and her safety net crumbles. Reality and dreams start to blur and Chiara’s life will never be the same.

A brilliant young CEO from London contemplates the possibility of selling his invention to a mysterious Chinese billionaire. Before actually meeting his potential investor however our protagonist must face a number of challenges in the form of journeys, riddles and the exchange of clothes.

An outcast Confederate soldier protects a woman from bandits trying to steal her gold mine.

Three episodes. In the first episode Valerio is mistaken for a notorious criminal. Very beautiful journalists succeed to bring him to her house for an exclusive interview. She tries to seduce him. In the second episode Giuseppe, an unlucky and ugly man, gets a job as a maid. His mistress falls in love for him. In the third episode, Plinio is a taxi driver who loves his cab above all. But at one point he is involved with the kidnapping of a woman.

A Sicilian family deals with the arrival of a group of immigrants on their island.

Two cousins haven't spoken for almost twenty years, thanks to the enmity that their fathers feel toward one another. But an accident suddenly brings the cousins back together and thrusts them deep into the heart of the mafia.

Roccia and a band of fellow gladiators join forces with a patrician named Glaucus Valerius to replace Nero, (and his evil henchman, Tigelinus), with a new emperor: Servius Galba. During the course of this bloody struggle, the gladiators lose their mentor and trainer - Resius - and then must rescue Lidia, Resius' beautiful niece, from death on the cross.

Milanese policeman Peppino and Neapolitan florist Ambrogio celebrate Christmas in the same ski resort town along with their families. After they discover that both their sons are dating, but have never met their girlfriends in person, the parents embark on a private war against those dating apps that seem to have reached almost everything and everyone.

An impressionable young woman's relationship with an aging prostitute leads to a job as a maid at a brothel.

Police commissioner Lo Gatto is in charge of the local Italian police station within Vatican State. During an investigation, following the murder of a Vatican priest, he decides to question the Pope! For this reason Lo Gatto is sent to a Sicilian remote island Favignana. There is very little for the commissioner to do on the quiet island, so Lo Gatto decides to investigate the vanishing of a tourist which quickly becomes a very complicated affair.

While visiting his favorite resort village during winter, a writer investigates the apparent suicide of a woman he was infatuated with.

A team of researchers investigates a European castle that was used for sadistic tortures during the inquisition, as well as horrifying and abominable Nazi experiments on innocent people. Riddled with history, the demonically possessed castle overtakes the crew turning their nightmares into a terrifying reality.

Four petty criminals pretend to be friars escaped from communist Hungary and go and live in a Sicilian convent

Country bumpkin Frank runs into a gangland shooting, driving the victims to the gang's headquarters. He soon earns a place in Erik's mob. Syndicate head Big John wishes to unite the four gangs in Chicago, but Erik defies them, wishing to remain independent. An assassination attempt forces him to reconsider, and his gang isn't impressed with what they take for his cowardice. This is the point that allows the ambitious Frank to muscle in on Erik's mob, and his moll, Lucie. Frank's first move is to hire outside pros, and shoot up a casino of Big John's, challenging the entire syndicate. Erik, meanwhile, harbors feelings of revenge.

The film shows how Italy's historic national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi (embodied by Renzo Ricci) leads a military campaign known as Expedition of the Thousand in 1860 and conquers Sicily and Naples. When the Bourbon monarchy has left Southern Italy, he supports Victor Emmanuel II of Italy who achieves a lasting unification under the aegis the House of Savoy. Roberto Rossellini has said he was prouder of this film than of any other film he ever made.

A seventeen-year-old girl is the sole survivor of a plane crash in the Amazon.

Renzo Tramaglino and Lucia Mondella are two poor farmers who are in love, but they are hampered by the wickedness of the powerful Don Rodrigo, who secretly loves Lucia. The two run away from Lake Como where they live, and take refuge inland.

When Marino goes to Rome for an event, he certainly does not imagine meeting Marisa, who will become the love of his life. But once love is found, it is a matter of spreading it and here the difficulties begin: first the father who opposes it; then, after the death of his father, the gossips who make Marino believe that Marisa was a little good, so much so that Marisa runs away. Repentant, Marino searches in vain and then, almost by accident, finds her again, Mrs. Ciceri. But love admits no obstacles, not even that of a deaf and dumb husband.

Sexy nightclub dancers get trapped in a dark, creepy castle for the night.

A thief and a priest end up magically transported in the year 0's Palestine, where they'll have to make sure that the Nativity will follow its course.

Franco and Ciccio are the directors of a driving school. They suffer the theft of the only car they have, and their new car is prone to going completely out of his control.

After being hired to free a landowner's kidnapped daughter, a bounty hunter double-crosses his employer and joins the kidnapper's gang.

Inspector Betti (Maurizio Merli) is transferred to Naples and immediately after his arrival receives a warm welcome from The Commandante (Barry Sullivan), the city's crime lord. Betti then goes on a personal mission against corruption and organized crime, and tries to force the syndicate out of town with any means necessary.

Dashing through the streets of Venice, slipping from the clutches of the law, darting across Europe in search of new challenges, Giacomo Casanova races through life with irrepressible energy. Violinist, writer, soldier, spy, gambler, adventurer - it is as a lover that he unbridles the full force of his energy. A charmer and seducer, he, too, is charmed by the beauty of women, seduced by their passion, intrigued by their mystery.

Ugo Conti, charismatic Italian aristocrat and influencer, arrives in Mexico where he seduces the Mexican high society. When he meets Frida Becker again, the love of his past, he will end up in the center of a struggle for political power.

In Lazio, four young people named Riccetto, Girasole, Lallo and Tombarolo try to make a living by stealing what they find in the tombs of the rich buried. Being inexperienced, they often find themselves in trouble or pursued by the police.

In a not so fictional Italy trying to solve the N.Ε.Ε.Τ. problem, the government decides to reintroduce compulsory conscription for one million young people under 30 who are not studying, working or looking for work, who will have only one month to find real employment and thus avoid the entire year of conscription. Facing this doom four guys try to cheat the system by growing hemp and meanwhile really discovering themselves.

A loving young couple discover they're expecting a child, but the man isn't too keen on introducing her girlfriend to his family. Is it because he has a vampire father, a witch mother, a ghostly grandma, and a zombie uncle?

The film covers the last year of Pier Giorgio Frassati life, son of the family that owned the newspaper La Stampa, who lived between 1901 and 1925 and was beatified in 1990.

Forced to support herself, her children, her physically incapacitated husband and her obtrusive brother and mother, a downtrodden working woman contracts tuberculosis. She is granted a brief vacation at a health spa, where a whole new world — and potential new life — is opened up to her.

An American journalist works for a French newspaper. He is writing an article about the reaction against people with AIDS, without knowing he is infected too. Once he finds out, he decides to cut off himself leaving his wife and daughter.

After spending many years as husband and wife, the architect Andre discovers that his partner Francesca is cheating on him with Ernesto, his best friend. Andre decides to forgive them, but as time passes he realizes that he wants to win Francesca back and decides to play all his cards during his rival's absence.

A bourgeois family man falls in love with an uninhibited hippie girl who just wants to have fun and enjoy a libertine lifestyle. She makes him suffer and gives herself to everybody but him. He is so madly in love with her that he even gets in trouble with the police.

A brave scientist has been studying thousands of cases related to alien abductions. By placing abductees under hypnosis, he arrives at the unsettling discovery that for thousands of years, a variety of extra-terrestrial races have been installing their active memories in abducted people's brains. These alien races exploit a powerful source of energy that only humans have: the Soul.

In time of war, a man must survive to make a journey to fulfill a promise made and discover the truth. After a terrible battle, a man sees his great friend perish, leaving him one request – that he visit the king, father of the deceased, to give him the news of his death. Tied promise on his deathbed friend, the warrior part for the meeting with the monarch, an old man and convalescent, who lost his only heir. The king demands that the warrior’s serve, but the man is tired of war and want a place to live in peace. When the warrior goes in search of tranquility, his path crosses that of a beautiful young woman, chased by soldiers. He saves her and discovers she is a witch. With the Inquisition coming to the kingdom and a new love in his chest, the warrior must regain their weapons to prevent more blood from the people he loves spill.

A deep insight in the life of 7 women: journalists, costume designers, actors and so on: Rosita Missoni founder, with Ottavio, of fashion house Missoni; Rula Jabreal, Palestine journalist, Patricia Field costume designer for "Sex and the city" and "The devil wears Prada"; Bethann Hardison, first Afro-American top model and civil rights activist; Susanne Bartsch and Alba Clemente, newyorkies artists and Fran Dresher, lead actress in the cult TV series "the Nanny". A tale of troubles and rewards, dreams and passions, the private journey of these incredible women told by their own honest voice.

Joe Dallesandro plays a hungry young buck who aspires to be a career criminal. He starts out working at a warehouse for a gangster where he helps to relocate illegal contraband, and because of his ruthlessness and dependability he begins to ascend the ladder of organized crime. Of course, the more powerful he becomes, the more "Climbers" come out of the shadows to take his place.

A look at the extraordinary achievements and contemporary legacy of Oscar Micheaux, a pioneer of the African-American film industry.

An Italian Air Force officer is pursued and captured by the Allied police and is charged with the bombing of a hospital ship. Through the efforts of his sweetheart, a witness is found who proves the bombing was not intentional but the result of being hit by enemy fire. A four-way romantic involvement is also part of the mix that includes an Allied officer and Viennse beauty Lida. The latter was once in love with the accused and has a child by him.