Afterword - Italian Favourites
Favourite Italian films chosen by contributors to the Afterword blogsite.
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- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsGabriele FerzettiMonica VittiLea MassariA woman disappears during a Mediterranean boating trip. During the search, her lover and her best friend become attracted to each other.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMarcello MastroianniAnita EkbergAnouk AiméeA series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering tabloid journalist living in Rome.
- 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.
- 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.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsAnthony QuinnGiulietta MasinaRichard BasehartA care-free girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsCarlo BattistiMaria Pia CasilioLina GennariAn elderly man and his dog struggle to survive on his government pension in Rome.
- DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsDebra WingerJohn MalkovichCampbell ScottAn American couple travel abroad to revitalize their relationship. But as the trip drags on, their attempt at recovering what they once had seems futile.
- DirectorGillo PontecorvoStarsBrahim HadjadjJean MartinYacef SaadiIn the 1950s, fear and violence escalate as the people of Algiers fight for independence from the French government.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsAnna MagnaniAldo FabriziMarcello PaglieroDuring the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, the Resistance leader, Giorgio Manfredi, is chased by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a way to escape.
- 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.
- DirectorDario ArgentoStarsJessica HarperStefania CasiniFlavio BucciAn American newcomer to a prestigious German ballet academy comes to realize that the school is a front for something sinister amid a series of grisly murders.
- 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.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsBurt LancasterAlain DelonClaudia CardinaleThe Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860s Sicily.
- 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.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMarcello MastroianniAnouk AiméeClaudia CardinaleA harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.
- DirectorSergio LeoneStarsHenry FondaCharles BronsonClaudia CardinaleA mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMagali NoëlBruno ZaninPupella MaggioA series of comedic and nostalgic vignettes set in a 1930s Italian coastal town.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsGiulietta MasinaSandra MiloMario PisuVisions, memories, and mysticism all help a 40-something woman to find the strength to leave her cheating husband.
- DirectorShin TogashiStarsYûko TakeuchiHisashi YoshizawaTetsurô HasegawaWorking long hours in the emergency room, nurse Kana Aoshima befriends musician and frequent hospital patient Shogo Amami. Shogo's therapy visits for his muteness and blindness happen to frequently coincide with Kana's shift, which enables the nurse to get to know the handsome artist well enough to start falling in love with him. Fate intercedes, however, when Shogo is killed after being hit by a car -- a development that utterly crushes Kana's will to live. Shogo's spirit is transported to heaven, where it is given the chance to return to Earth to assist Kana through her grieving and to renew her sense of faith in the world -- with the only caveat being he cannot reveal his identity to Kana.
- DirectorMarco BellocchioStarsMaya SansaLuigi Lo CascioRoberto HerlitzkaThe 1978 kidnapping of politician Aldo Moro as seen from the perspective of one of his assailants: a conflicted young woman in the ranks of the Red Brigade.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsSophia LorenJean-Paul BelmondoRaf ValloneIn WWII Italy, a widow and her lonely daughter seek distance between themselves and the horrors of war.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsAlberto SordiFranco FabriziFranco InterlenghiA character study of five young men at crucial turning points in their lives in a small town in Italy.
- DirectorErmanno OlmiStarsLuigi OrnaghiFrancesca MoriggiOmar BrignoliPeasant life in a feudal farm in rural Italy at the end of the 19th century.
- DirectorNanni MorettiStarsNanni MorettiLaura MoranteJasmine TrincaA psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba-diving accident.
- 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.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsLuchino ViscontiAntonio PietrangeliAntonio ArcidiaconoIn rural Sicily, the fishermen live at the mercy of the greedy wholesalers. One family risks everything to buy their own boat and operate independently.
- DirectorRoberto BenigniStarsRoberto BenigniNicoletta BraschiPaolo BonacelliA kindhearted but bumbling idiot who likes to steal bananas, is passed off for a snitch hiding from the mob.
- DirectorRoberto BenigniStarsRoberto BenigniMichel BlancNicoletta BraschiAfter a series of bizarre actions, Loris is mistaken for a serial killer. Jessica, a policewoman in undercover, will try to induce him to commit a murder.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsRinaldo SmordoniFranco InterlenghiAnnielo MeleTwo shoeshine boys in postwar Rome, Italy save up to buy a horse, but their involvement as dupes in a burglary lands them in juvenile prison; the experience take a devastating toll on their friendship.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsAnna MagnaniEttore GarofoloFranco CittiAn ex-prostitute reunites with her son, but an extortion scheme threatens her aspirations for a decent life.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsFranco CittiFranca PasutSilvana CorsiniA pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiraling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsGiulietta MasinaFrançois PérierFranca MarziA waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finds only heartbreak.
- DirectorFrancesco RosiStarsGian Maria VolontèPaolo BonacelliAlain CunyA doctor in Fascist Italy is exiled to a remote village for his political views.
- DirectorFrancesco RosiStarsPhilippe NoiretMichele PlacidoVittorio MezzogiornoThree men face their mother's death.
- DirectorFrancesco RosiStarsFrank WolffSalvo RandoneFrederico ZardiThe unclear and complicated twists between governal powers, independentist party and Mafia in the Sicily of the '40s culminate with the death of Salvatore Giuliano.
- DirectorFrancesco RosiStarsGian Maria VolontèLuigi SquarzinaPeter BaldwinAn Italian industrialist died in a plane crash. An accident or an assassination?
- DirectorFrancesco RosiStarsLino VenturaTino CarraroMarcel BozzuffiAn investigation of the judges' assassinations reveals a political background.
- DirectorJulien DuvivierStarsFernandelGino CerviVera TalchiA determined priest and a Communist mayor develop a grudging friendship in spite of their official rivalry.
- DirectorLadislao VajdaStarsRafael RivellesAntonio VicoJuan CalvoMarcelino is an orphan who grows up in a monastery. One day when he eats his small meal in a room full of old things, he gives a piece of his bread to an old wooden Jesus figure--which actually takes the bread and eats it. Getting a wish granted for his donation Marcelino wishes to see his mother.
- DirectorFrancesco RosiStarsGian Maria VolontèVincent GardeniaSilverio BlasiBiopic of Mafia boss Lucky Luciano, covering his life from 1946 to 1962 with occasional flashbacks.
- DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsJean-Louis TrintignantStefania SandrelliGastone MoschinA weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
- 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.
- DirectorBernardo BertolucciStarsRobert De NiroGérard DepardieuDominique SandaThe epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth-century Italy as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.
- DirectorSergio LeoneStarsRod SteigerJames CoburnRomolo ValliA low-life bandit and an I.R.A. explosives expert rebel against the government and become heroes of the Mexican Revolution.
- DirectorEttore ScolaStarsSophia LorenMarcello MastroianniJohn VernonTwo neighbors, a persecuted journalist and a resigned housewife, meet during Hitler's visit to Italy in May 1938.
- 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.
- DirectorLuca GuadagninoStarsTilda SwintonFlavio ParentiEdoardo GabbrielliniEmma left Russia to live with her husband in Italy. Now a member of a powerful industrial family, she is the respected mother of three, but feels unfulfilled. One day, Antonio, a talented chef and her son's friend, makes her senses kindle.
- DirectorRoberto BenigniStarsRoberto BenigniWalter MatthauStefania SandrelliDuring an exorcism, father Maurice meets a little devil named Giuditta, who refuses to return to hell and decides to discover the world.
- DirectorGiuliano MontaldoStarsPhilippe NoiretRupert EverettValeria GolinoA Jewish family and a homosexual doctor suffer persecution in Fascist Italy. Based on a novel by Giorgio Bassani.
- DirectorGiuseppe TornatoreStarsGérard DepardieuRoman PolanskiSergio RubiniOnoff is a famous writer who hasn't published any new books for quite some time and has become a recluse. When he is picked up by the police one stormy night, without any identification, out of breath and running madly, without clear memory of recent events, the Inspector is suspicious. Through interrogatory dialectic, the head of this lonely, isolated, broken-down police station tries to establish what has happened, by delving into the mind of his writer-hero, and clearing up a mysterious killing.
- DirectorSergio RubiniStarsDamiano RussoMichele VenitucciFrancesco CannitoSouther Italy in the 1970s. The arrival of three beautiful girls from the north wreaks havoc among the youngsters of a small town.
- DirectorAlessandro PivaStarsDino AbbresciaMino BarbaresePaolo SassanelliA couple of criminals look for a little box full of drug, all around Bari
- DirectorPaolo TavianiVittorio TavianiStarsVincent SpanoJoaquim de AlmeidaGreta ScacchiAfter the bankruptcy of their father's stonemasonry firm, Nicola and Andrea emigrate to America to restore their fortunes. After many adventures and near-disasters, they end up in Hollywood designing sets for D.W. Griffith and marry beautiful actresses, but tragedy strikes with the arrival of World War I, which finds the brothers fighting on opposite sides...
- 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.
- DirectorMarco RisiStarsMichele PlacidoClaudio AmendolaFrancesco BenignoA teacher discovers his calling. Marco relocates to Palermo from Milan and takes a job teaching in a reform school while he waits for a high school position. He tries to understand and motivate his handful of students, reading them colloquial poetry, encouraging them to stand up for their rights, finding out about their histories. Natale, in for murder, enamored of the Mafia, the King Rat within the group; Mery, a drag queen, arrested for assault when defending himself, in love with Mario and, in daylight, rejected by all; Pietro, illiterate, muscular, believing his destiny is set; the callow Claudio, vulnerable, learning to harden himself. What can Mario learn and do in such a short time?
- DirectorMaurizio NichettiStarsMaurizio NichettiCaterina Sylos LabiniFederico RizzoA movie resembling Bicycle Thieves (1948) is shown on TV, but the real-life world gets muddled with the film and the TV commercials.
- DirectorMassimo TroisiStarsMassimo TroisiMarco MesseriJo ChampaSet during the '20s, a barber is in a wheelchair because of a psychosomatic illness after he lost the woman he loves.
- DirectorDario ArgentoStarsDavid HemmingsDaria NicolodiGabriele LaviaA jazz pianist and a wisecracking journalist are pulled into a complex web of mystery after the former witnesses the brutal murder of a psychic.
- 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.
- DirectorRicky TognazziStarsCarlo CecchiEnrico Lo VersoClaudio AmendolaA dedicated, tightly-knit group of bodyguards take on additional duties while safeguarding an honest judge designated to investigate official corruption in Sicily.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMartin PotterHiram KellerMax BornA series of disjointed mythical tales set in first-century Rome.
- DirectorGiuseppe De SantisStarsVittorio GassmanDoris DowlingSilvana ManganoTwo criminals on the run end up working in a rice field and decide to recruit other workers for their next robbery.
- DirectorPietro GermiStarsMarcello MastroianniDaniela RoccaStefania SandrelliA married Sicilian baron falls in love with his cousin and vows to wed her, but with divorce illegal he must concoct a crime of passion to do away with his wife.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsAnna MagnaniWalter ChiariTina ApicellaA woman from the lower class desperately tries to get her daughter into the movies.
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsEdmund MoeschkeErnst PittschauIngetraud HinzeA young German boy faces the problems of the tough life in the immediate post-WWII Berlin.
- DirectorGianni Di GregorioStarsGianni Di GregorioValeria De FranciscisAlfonso SantagataGianni is a retiree who has become invisible to most everyone around him. In response, he tries his best to generate some kind of extracurricular love life.
- DirectorMichelangelo AntonioniStarsJeanne MoreauMarcello MastroianniMonica VittiA day in the life of an unfaithful married couple and their steadily deteriorating relationship.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsClara CalamaiMassimo GirottiDhia CristianiGino, a drifter, begins an affair with inn-owner Giovanna, and they plan to get rid of her older husband.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsDirk BogardeRomolo ValliMark BurnsWhile recovering in Venice, sickly composer Gustav von Aschenbach becomes dangerously fixated with teenager Tadzio.
- DirectorMichele SoaviStarsRupert EverettFrançois Hadji-LazaroAnna FalchiA cemetery man must kill the dead a second time when they become zombies.
- DirectorAntonio MargheritiRuggero DeodatoStarsReg ParkMireille GranelliEttore ManniHercules battles an evil sorceress who turns men into werewolves.
- DirectorNanni LoyStarsLeo GullottaFrancesco AlloccaGaetano AmatoOut-of-work actor Fortunato Assante agrees to take a job teaching drama at a reform school.
- DirectorPaolo TavianiVittorio TavianiStarsMargarita LozanoOrazio TorrisiCarlo CartierFive stories by Luigi Pirandello set in turn-of-the-century Italy.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsHugh GriffithLaura BettiNinetto DavoliPasolini's artistic, sometimes violent, always vividly cinematic retelling of some of Chaucer's most erotic tales.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsFranco CittiNinetto DavoliJovan JovanovicAn adaptation of nine stories from Boccaccio's "Decameron".
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsDonald SutherlandTina AumontCicely BrowneGiacomo Casanova uses his sexuality to find his place in life amid eccentric and strange characters.
- DirectorFederico FelliniAlberto LattuadaStarsPeppino De FilippoCarla Del PoggioGiulietta MasinaA beautiful, ambitious young woman joins a traveling troupe of third-rate vaudevillians and inadvertently causes jealousy and emotional crises.
- DirectorCristina ComenciniStarsGiovanna MezzogiornoLuigi Lo CascioAlessio BoniSabina has a regular life. She is satisfied with her job and her love for Franco. But nightmares start disturbing her, at almost the same time she discovers that she's pregnant. Little by little she remembers her childhood in a severe middle-class family, but a big secret is still hidden in her heart. Determined to bring clarity and serenity to her life, she considers contacting her brother, a University teacher in the U.S.A., to try to understand what happened in their past. What is the secret? Will Sabina finally manage to free herself from the "beast inside her heart"?
- DirectorRoberto FaenzaStarsJean-Hugues AngladeJuliet AubreyJenner Del VecchioAmsterdam, 1942: four-year-old Jonah and his parents are deported to the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in Germany where the child learns to cope with an incomprehensible world of war, brutality and persecution.
- DirectorFrancesca ArchibugiStarsSergio CastellittoAnna GalienaAlessia FugardiAn epileptic 12-year-old girl, Pippi, is hospitalized in the psychiatric ward instead of the neurological ward, due to an administration error. Out of this mistake begins the difficult journey towards being cured.
- DirectorErmanno OlmiStarsChristo JivkovSergio GrammaticoDimitar RachkovThe history of the first victim of modern artillery and its moving agony, amidst conspiracies and betrayals of the powerful. Life and death of Giovanni De' Medici, a young brave captain in the war of Charles V against the Pope, in the first half of 1500.
- DirectorGianni AmelioStarsKim Rossi StuartAndrea RossiCharlotte RamplingMeeting his disabled son for the first time, a young father attempts to forge a relationship with the teenager.
- DirectorGabriele SalvatoresStarsAitana Sánchez-GijónDino AbbresciaGiorgio CarecciaA young boy accidentally discovers a deep hole in the ground, where another boy is kept prisoner.
- DirectorFerzan ÖzpetekStarsGiovanna MezzogiornoMassimo GirottiRaoul BovaOverburdened and stuck in a greying marriage, Giovanna takes to caring for the Jewish Holocaust survivor her husband brings home. As she begins to reflect on her life, she turns to the man who lives across from her ...
- 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.
- DirectorRoberto BenigniStarsRoberto BenigniNicoletta BraschiGiorgio CantariniWhen an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.
- DirectorMarco BellocchioStarsSergio CastellittoJacqueline LustigChiara ContiA celebrated painter receives a visit from a cardinal's assistant, who informs him that his mother could become a saint.
- DirectorDaniele LuchettiStarsElio GermanoRaoul BovaIsabella RagoneseClaudio works in the suburbs of Rome. He is in love with his wife who is pregnant with their third child. A dramatic event upsets his life. Claudio fights against an injustice. Love and support from his friends will help him to get by.
- DirectorPaolo VirzìStarsFabrizio BentivoglioMatilde GioliValeria Bruni TedeschiThe destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.
- DirectorEttore ScolaStarsFrancesco AnniballiMaria BoscoGiselda CastriniFour generations of a family live in a shantytown in the outskirts of Rome. The household engages in various forms of sexual idiosyncrasies, land swindles, incest, drugs and adultery.
- DirectorGabriele SalvatoresStarsLudovico GirardelloValeria GolinoFabrizio BentivoglioMichele is thirteen year old, shy, unpopular at school, and in love with Stella. After wearing a costume for a Halloween party, he finds out that he's invisible.
- DirectorPaolo GenoveseStarsGiuseppe BattistonAnna FogliettaMarco GialliniSeven long-time friends meet for dinner. They decide to share their text messages, emails and phone calls. Secrets are unveiled. Harmony trembles.
- DirectorSydney SibiliaStarsEdoardo LeoValeria SolarinoValerio ApreaA university researcher is fired because of budget cuts. To earn a living, he decides to produce drugs and recruits his former colleagues, who are living at the margins of society despite their skills.
- DirectorMichele VannucciStarsMirko FrezzaAlessandro BorghiVittorio VivianiAt 39 years of age Mirko has just left prison. In the outskirts of Rome, a new future waits for him. When he is elected president of the homeowners' committee, he realizes he can dream of a different kind of existence.
- DirectorGennaro NunzianteStarsChecco ZaloneEleonora GiovanardiSonia BergamascoChecco was born into privilege in a small Italian town with a guaranteed job as a public servant. When a new reformist government vows to cut down on bureaucracy, Checco is forced to accept worsening conditions.
- DirectorMatteo RovereStarsStefano AccorsiMatilda De AngelisPaolo GraziosiGiulia is a young promise of GT racing. When her life falls apart, her only hope is her brother, a drug addict and former rally champion.
- DirectorPaolo VirzìStarsValeria Bruni TedeschiMicaela RamazzottiValentina CarneluttiTwo quite different women escape a mental institution to see Tuscany in a stolen car and get to know each other.