The Best Italian films
“Three Italians sitting around a kitchen table without food or drink is a sure sign of trouble.”
― A.A. Freda, Goodbye, Rudy Kazoody
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43 titles
- DirectorMarco Tullio GiordanaStarsLuigi Lo CascioAlessio BoniJasmine TrincaAn Italian epic that follows the lives of two brothers from the 1960s to the 2000s.
- DirectorErmanno OlmiStarsSandro PanseriLoredana DettoCorrado AprileBursting with big dreams and plans, an Italian teen goes to Milan to work in a big impersonal corporate office, where he becomes disillusioned and drained of all his individualism.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsAnthony QuinnGiulietta MasinaRichard BasehartA care-free girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.
- DirectorGillo PontecorvoStarsBrahim HadjadjJean MartinYacef SaadiIn the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.
- DirectorMichael RadfordMassimo TroisiStarsMassimo TroisiPhilippe NoiretMaria Grazia CucinottaA simple Italian postman learns to love poetry while delivering mail to a famous poet, and then uses this to woo local beauty Beatrice.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsLamberto MaggioraniEnzo StaiolaLianella CarellIn post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen, endangering his efforts to find work. He and his son set out to find it.
- DirectorMarco Tullio GiordanaStarsLuigi Lo CascioLuigi Maria BurruanoLucia Sardo"I cento passi" (one hundred steps) was the distance between the Impastatos' house and the house of Tano Badalamenti, an important Mafia boss, in the small Sicilian town of Cinisi. The movie is the story of Peppino Impastato, a young left-wing activist who in the late seventies (when almost nobody dared to speak about the Mafia, and several politicians maintained that the Mafia did not even exist) repeatedly denounced Badalamenti's criminal activities and the whole Mafia system, by using a small local radio station to broadcast his political pronouncements in the form of ironic humour. In 1978 Peppino (30 years old) was killed by an explosion. The police archived the case as an accident or a suicide, but his friends never accepted this conclusion. Note: This is a true story. More than twenty years after Peppino's death, the case has been re-opened. Tano Badalamenti, meanwhile, has been convicted in the USA for drug trafficking.
- DirectorGabriele SalvatoresStarsDiego AbatantuonoClaudio BigagliGiuseppe CedernaIn WW2, an Italian Army unit of misfits occupies an isolated non-strategic Greek island for the duration of the war.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsPhilippe NoiretEnzo CannavaleAntonella AttiliA filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsFrancesco SciannaMargareth MadèLina SastriBaaria is Sicilian slang for Bagheria where Tornatore was born and this is an autobiographic epic of three generations in the Sicilian village where he was born.
- DirectorEttore ScolaStarsSophia LorenMarcello MastroianniJohn VernonTwo neighbors, a persecuted journalist and a resigned housewife, meet during Hitler's visit to Italy in May 1938.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsGeoffrey RushJim SturgessSylvia HoeksVirgil Oldman, a wealthy art auctioneer, takes the help of a young artificer, Robert, to understand and woo Claire Ibbetson, a young heiress, who hires him to auction off an antique collection.
- DirectorSergio LeoneStarsClint EastwoodEli WallachLee Van CleefA bounty hunting scam joins two men in an uneasy alliance against a third in a race to find a fortune in gold buried in a remote cemetery.
- DirectorNanni MorettiStarsNanni MorettiLaura MoranteJasmine TrincaA psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba-diving accident.
- DirectorAntonello GrimaldiStarsNanni MorettiValeria GolinoIsabella FerrariA look at the strange bereavement behavior of an Italian executive. Based on a novel by Sandro Veronesi.
- DirectorGabriele SalvatoresStarsAitana Sánchez-GijónDino AbbresciaGiorgio CarecciaA young boy accidentally discovers a deep hole in the ground, where another boy is kept prisoner.
- DirectorPaolo SorrentinoStarsToni ServilloAnna BonaiutoGiulio BosettiThe story of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, who has served as Prime Minister of Italy seven times since the restoration of democracy in 1946.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsTim RothPruitt Taylor VinceMélanie ThierryA baby boy discovered on an ocean liner in 1900 grows into a musical prodigy, never setting foot on land.
- DirectorPaolo SorrentinoStarsToni ServilloOlivia MagnaniAdriano GianniniAn introverted man's life changes completely when he finds himself attracted to a young barmaid.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsAlain DelonRenato SalvatoriAnnie GirardotHaving recently been uprooted to Milan, Rocco and his four brothers each look for a new way in life when a prostitute comes between Rocco and his brother Simone.
- DirectorMatteo GarroneStarsGianfelice ImparatoSalvatore AbbruzzeseToni ServilloScampia Vele is the Corbusian architecture which has become a stronghold for Mafia of Naples, Italy.
- DirectorMarco Tullio GiordanaStarsValerio MastandreaPierfrancesco FavinoMichela CesconA chronicle of the 1969 bombing at a major national bank in Milan and its aftermath.
- DirectorErmanno OlmiStarsLuigi OrnaghiFrancesca MoriggiOmar BrignoliPeasant life in a feudal farm in rural Italy at the end of the 19th century.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsMonica BellucciGiuseppe SulfaroLuciano FedericoAmidst the war climate, a teenage boy discovering himself becomes love-stricken by Malèna, a sensual woman living in a small, narrow-minded Italian town.
- DirectorFerzan ÖzpetekStarsMargherita BuyStefano AccorsiSerra YilmazAfter a deathly car accident, Antonia starts dating her husband's friends and finds the truth about his life.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsEmma GramaticaFrancesco GolisanoPaolo StoppaAn open-hearted, unrelentingly energetic orphan struggles to make the best of his life on the streets of Milan.
- DirectorKim Rossi StuartStarsAlessandro MoraceKim Rossi StuartBarbora BobulovaA young father and his two children struggle to find harmony after his wife leaves them for another man.
- DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsJeremy IronsLiv TylerCarlo CecchiAfter her mother commits suicide, a young woman travels to Italy in search of love, truth and a deeper connection with herself.
- DirectorDamiano DamianiStarsBette DavisHorst BuchholzCatherine SpaakThe son of a dead Italian nobleman and a wealthy American woman forgets the disappointment of finding he has no talent for being a painter by succumbing to the sexual advances of an amoral model who believes in indiscriminate love affairs.
- DirectorFrancesco RosiStarsGian Maria VolontèLuigi SquarzinaPeter BaldwinAn Italian industrialist died in a plane crash. An accident or an assassination?
- DirectorVittorio De SetaStarsMichele CossuPeppeddu CuccuVittorina PisanoSardinian shepherds Michele, Peppeddu encounter bandits. Michele evades police, sheep perish. Wrongly charged with murder, impoverished, Michele turns outlaw. He resorts to violence, banditry for survival, fueling a lawless spiral.
- DirectorGianni Di GregorioStarsValeria De FranciscisMarina CacciottiMaria CalìBroke, and armed with only a wry sense of humor, middle-aged Gianni lives with his mother in their old apartment. The debts are mounting, but if Gianni looks after the building manager's mother during the Ferragosto, all will be forgiven.
- DirectorDino RisiStarsVittorio GassmanAlessandro MomoAgostina BelliA young private is assigned to accompany a blind captain. It soon becomes clear that they are both complex personalities.
- DirectorMario MonicelliStarsMarcello MastroianniRenato SalvatoriGabriella GiorgelliA former high school teacher turned unionist tries to organize workers laboring with inhuman conditions at a late 19th Century textile factory.
- DirectorMatteo GarroneStarsMarcello FonteEdoardo PesceNunzia SchianoA timid dog groomer living in a poor suburb sells cocaine on the side and stays out of trouble, while trying to deal with his unstable, violent acquaintance who is a menace to the whole neighborhood.
- DirectorEttore ScolaStarsNino ManfrediVittorio GassmanStefania SandrelliThree partisans bound by a strong friendship return home after the war, but the clash with everyday reality puts a strain on their bond.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsMarcello MastroianniMichèle MorganValeria CavalliMatteo decides to take a trip across Italy to go visiting his five children.
- DirectorGianni AmelioStarsEnrico Lo VersoMichele PlacidoPiro MilkaniImmediately after the fall of communism in Albania, two Italians go there to embezzle investment money by creating a fake company. As the chairman/fall guy, they pick a former political prisoner who turns out to be more than meets the eye.
- DirectorGianni AmelioStarsGian Maria VolontèEnnio FantastichiniRenato CarpentieriA principled judge faces a case that society demands capital punishment for.
- DirectorGianni AmelioStarsEnrico Lo VersoValentina ScaliciGiuseppe IeracitanoAntonio, a policeman (carabiniere), has an order to take two children (Rosetta and her brother Luciano) from Milan to Sicily to an orphanage. Their mother has been arrested for forcing Rosetta (11 years old) to work as a prostitute. First the relation between Antonio and the children is tough, but it relaxes so they become temporary friends.
- DirectorMatteo GarroneStarsAniello ArenaPaola MinaccioniLoredana SimioliLuciano is a charming fishmonger whose unexpected and sudden obsession with being a contestant on a reality show leads him down a rabbit hole of skewed perceptions and paranoia.
- DirectorErmanno OlmiStarsNatale RossiRoberto SevesoPaolo QuadrubbiTwo workers at an isolated Alpine dam grow closer when an avalanche traps them in their hut without power or contact.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsAnna MagnaniEttore GarofoloFranco CittiAn ex-prostitute reunites with her son, but an extortion scheme threatens her aspirations for a decent life.