Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
1860 (1934)
English Translation: Gesuzza the Garibaldian Wife
Run Time: 72 min.
The story is the harried attempt of a Sicilian partisan, as part of the
risorgimento, to reach Garibaldi's headquarters in Northern Italy, and to
petition the revered revolutionary to rescue part of his besieged land.
Along the way, the peasant hero encounters many colorful Italians,
differing in class and age, and holding political opinions of every type.
8½
English translation: N/A
Run Time: 138 min.
Guido is a film director, trying to relax after his last big hit. He can't get
a moment's peace, however, with the people who have worked with
him in the past constantly looking for more work. He wrestles with his
conscience, but is unable to come up with a new idea. While thinking,
he starts to recall major happenings in his life, and all the women he
has loved and left. An autobiographical film of Fellini, about the trials
and tribulations of filmmaking.
Accatone
English translation: Accatone: The Scrounger
Run time: 116 min
A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life
spiraling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Acqua e sapone
English translation: Water and Soap
Run time: 109 min
An Italian-born actress turned stage mother brings her daughter Sandy
to Rome for three months' work as a supermodel. Sandy, who's
between "soap and water" and womanhood, needs a tutor.
Aida
Run time: 160 Minutes
Verdi wrote AIDA in response to a request by the Khedive of Egypt for
an opera with authentic Egyptian flavor to open the Cairo Opera House in
1871. It is an ideal setting for the magnificent spectacle of the opera,
which combines so consummately with the drama of human emotion,
played out in Radames’ love for the slave girl Aida and the jealousy of
Amneris, daughter of the Egyptian king.
Alfredo, Alfredo
English Translation: N/A
Run Time: 97 min.
Alfredo, a timid young Italian, lusts after and woos the beautiful
Maria Rosa. But when he manages to marry her, he discovers life is
not nearly so blissful as he expected.
Allarmi Siam Fascisti
Run time: 113 Minutes
In a span exhibition that runs from the beginning of the twentieth century
to the events in Genoa and Rome in 1960, the causes of fascism near and
far, the support of the agrarian and industrial capitalism, the ramifications
in various European countries, the co-responsibility, the collusion, and
the errors of their opponents are presented.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Allegro Fantasma, L’ (1941)
English Translation: N/A
Run Time: 75 min.
A wealthy man, who is dying, decides that his last will much include
his children he had from an illegitimate relationship with a circus
horsewoman. The notary succeeds in identifying one of his children,
who is a vagabond. The situation, however, is complicated; there also
exists twins. The first is a songwriter of famous hit songs, and the
second is a juggler in the circus. After a series of mishaps and
disputes, the three come to an agreement of a fair distribution of
assets and patrimony between all the heirs.
Amarcord (1973)
English Translation: N/A
Run Time: 127 min.
A year in the life of a small Italian coastal town in the nineteen-thirties,
as is recalled by a director with a superstar's access to the resources of
the Italian film industry and a piper's command over our imaginations.
Un Americano a Roma (1954)
English Translation: An American in Rome
Run Time: 85 min.
Nando Moriconi is a young Italian living in the early '50s Roma. He is
completely crazy for everything that comes from the States.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Anno Uno
English Translation: Year One
Run Time: 118 min.
The film recounts the life and career of postwar Italian Christian
Democrat political leader.
The Agony and the Ecstasy
English Translation: In English
Run Time: 138 min.
Pope Julius is eager to leave behind works by which he will
be remembered. To this end he cajoles Michelangelo into
painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When not on the
battlefield uniting Italy, the Pope nags Michelangelo to
speed up his painful work on the frescoes.
America, L’
English Translation: N/A
Run Time: 116 min.
Gino and Fiore are Italian racketeers who come to Albania just after the fall
of the communists to set up a fictive firm and pocket the grants. They need
a stooge and choose Spiro Tozaj, an old man in prison, who turns out to be
an Italian veteran from World War II. Easily confused and utterly
impoverished, this elderly former political prisoner seems the perfect
choice, until he unexpectedly disappears.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Arlecchino Servitore De Due Padroni
Run time: 124 Minutes
Beatrice, a woman who has traveled to Venice disguised as her dead
brother in search of the man who killed him, Florindo, who is also her
lover. Her brother forbade her to marry Florindo, and died defending his
sister's honor. Beatrice disguises herself as Federigo, (her dead brother), so
that he can collect dowry money from Pantaloon (also spelled Pantalone),
the father of Clarice, her brother's betrothed.
Assunta Spina
English Translation: The Last Diva
Run Time: 62 min.
Assunta Spina, a silent film, is a tragedy set in Naples at the
beginning of the twentieth century. Assunta and Michele are in love
but others come between them. After finding himself interwined in a
battle, Michele is sent to prison for two years. Nevertheless, Assunta,
still madly in love with Michele, agrees to become Federigo’s
mistress only if he agrees to help her in freeing Michele. Michele is
released early from prison and finds Assunta with Federigo. He goes
mad and kills Federigo. When the police arrive, Assunta takes the
blame for Michele’s crime.
Baarìa
English Translation: N/A
Run Time: 150 min.
An autobiographic epic of three generations in the Sicilian
village of Bagheria where Tornatore was born.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Baci e Abbracci
Enlgish Translation: English Subtitles
Run Time: 105 min.
Mario, a local restaurateur with Salerno in Casale Maritime, recently
failed, and is mistaken for inspector of the region by a group of former
workers who have implanted in a farmhouse an ostrich farm and
waiting, the Region of course, funding. and so on.
Bambini ci Guardano
English Translation: The Children Are Watching Us
Run Time: 84 min.
A devastating portrait of the destruction of innocence. The Children
Are Watching Us, records the unintentional cruelties that shatter a
four-year-old boy’s vulnerable world.
Bandito, Il (1946)
English Translation: The Bandit
Run Time: 87 min.
A 1946 Italian comedy-film about a group of small-time thieves
and ne’er-do-wells who bungle an attempt to burglarize a staterun pawnshop called Monte di Peità in Rome. Macello
Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, Renato Salvatori, Carlo
Pisacane and Tiberio Murgia play the main roles.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Il Barbiere di Siviglia (1938)
English Translation: The Metropolitan Opera Presents: Il
Barbiere di Siviglia
Run Time: 93 min.
The most personality of any Barbiere; no film or telecast since has
come close. The voices are all at their peaks. The camera never
leaves the singers.
Bella Addormentata nel Bosco, La
English Translation: Sleeping Beauty
Run time: 72 min.
Adaptation of the fairy tale of the same name. Princess Aurora is
cursed by the evil witch Maleficent – who declares that before Aurora
reaches her 16th birthday she will die by pricking her finger on the
spindle of a spinning wheel. To try to prevent this, the king places her
into hiding, in the care of three goo-natured, – but not too bright –
fairies.
Berlitz Video: Italian For Travellers
Run Time: 90 Minutes
Berlitz Video for Travellers combines computer graphics with live action
and freeze frames to produce a new and exciting interactive language
learning system. Now you can make your trip more meaningful, more
interesting and more fun.
La Bestia Nel Cuore (Don’t Tell)
Run time: 120 Minutes
Sabina has a regular life. She is satisfied with her job and her love for Franco.
Lately nightmares start disturbing her, and almost in the same time she
discovers to be pregnant. Step by step she remembers her childhood spent
within a severe middle-class family. But a big secret is hidden within her heart.
Sabina wants to contact again her brother, a University teacher in the US, to try
to understand what is happened in their past. What is the secret? She is
determined to bring clarity and serenity in her life. She finally manages to free
herself from her "beast inside the heart".
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Birth of the Renaissance
Run time: 58 Minutes
The beginning of the Renaissance in Italy was like a great light going on.
In this program, the camera travels to Florence, Siena, Pisa, Mantua, and
Padua to discover Renaissance masterpieces in these cities. We see the
paintings, the sculptures, the cathedrals by these masters – Alberti,
Brunelleschi, Luca della Robbia, Donatello, Michelozzo, Lorenzetti,
Martini, Giotto, and Masaccio.
La Boheme
English Translation: Subtitles
Run time: 111 min.
In 1830s Paris four artys types shiver in a garret, owing rent but
when one of their number, musician Schaunard, earns money
they are all set to buy a meal in a nearby restaurant.
Il Boom
Run time: 85 min.
During the economic boom of Italy a man tries
desperately to maintain a high standard of living for
his family.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Un Borghese Piccolo Piccolo
English Translation: N/A
Run time: 115 min.
When his only son is killed in an armed robbery, a meek
middle-aged man takes justice in his own hands.
Buongiorno, Notte (2003)
English Translation: Good Morning, Night
Run time: 105 min.
The 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.
C’era una Volta il West
English translation: Once Upon a Time in the West
Run time: 175 min.
Epic story of a mysterious stranger with a harmonica who joins
forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow
from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
C’eravamo tanto amati
English Translation: We All Loved Each Other So Much
Run time: 124 min.
Gianni, Nicola and Antonio become close friends in 1944 while
fighting the Nazis. After the war ends, full of illusions, they settle
down. The movie is a story of the life of these three idealists and how
they deal with the inevitable disillusionments of life.
Cabiria (1914)
English Translation: N/A
Run time: 123 min.
In this silent film, during the Punic Wars in the third century B.C.
the little girl Cabiria, and her nurse Croessa, are abducted during
the confusion caused by the eruption of Mount Etna. Cabiria is
sold in Carthage to be sacrificed in the temple of Moloch. Fulvio
Axilla, a Roman spy, and his slave, Maciste, rescues her and she
ends up in the care of Queen Sophonisba. Ten years later, after
many wars and alliances, Carthage falls to the Romans and
Cabiria returns home with Fulvio.
Caccia Tragica (1947)
English Translation: The Tragic Hunt
Run time: 80 min.
After World War II in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, a cooperative has been
founded by the peasants. War has destroyed the country. A group of
bandits, with former nazi-collaborator Daniela, known as Lili
Marlene, holds up the truck where the money of the cooperative is
traveling. All the peasants search for the thieves in a tragic hunt.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Cagliari: La Capital del Sole
Run time: 25 min.
The Bay of Angels, the "capital " of Sardinia reflects its hills on a sea
always been a crossroads of cultures more desperate. Works of art,
beaches, traditions of a vibrant enterprise and economy that draw
inspiration from its importance as a commercial center and clearinghouse
of tourist traffic.
Caiiman, Le
English Translation: The Caiman
Run Time: 112 min.
Summary: A skewering of Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi.
Il Capital Umano
English Translation: The Human Capital
Run Time: 106 Minutes
The 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
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Caravaggio e il Baroque
Run time. 53 min.
Caravaggio, Correffio, Lotto, Parmigianino, Tintoretto – new masters
find new, often deeply emotional, directions in art as the High
Renaissance gives way to the Baroque. In Venice we see the architect
Sansovino’s design for St. Mark Square as we know it today while
Palladio brings the country villa into being. In Rime, architects Bernini
and Barromini re-recreate the cry from graceful fountains to St. Peters’.
Caro Diario
Run time: 100 min.
Along with his TV addicted friends, Moretti hops on a boat that takes
them to the mystical, secluded islands of the blue Mediterranean.
Querying everyone they meet, they soon discover that the journey of
life itself is the answer … or is it the question … or is it both?
Casanova ’70 **
Run Time: 102 min.
Summary: The amorous adventures of Andrea RossiColombotti, an army officer who finds pleasure with beautiful
women in life-threatening situations.
Il Caso Moro
Run Time: 112 min.
On March 16 1978, the Red Brigade kidnap the Chief of the
Christian Democraty, the party in power in Italy since the end of
the war. fifty-five days later, his corpse was found in the trunk of
a red Renault. Moro was not only the victim of the brigadists but
also of the struggle for power between the Italian parties.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Catene
English Translation: Chains
Run Time: 90 min.
Peter and Rosa have been married for several years and love each
other; their house is enlivened by the presence of two little sons.
One day, Rose meets a former boyfriend, who, many years before
left without informing Rose. He attempts to seduce Rose, but she
refuses. After being set up, Peter arrives to the meeting place
Cavalleria Rusticana
English Translation: Fatal Desire
Run Time: 70 min.
Early on Easter morning, Turiddu sings about his former beloved,
Lola, now the wife of a wine carter, Alfio. As the town stirs,
Santuzza, Turiddu's neglected sweetheart, comes looking for the
handsome youth at the tavern of his mother, Lucia.
Cenerentola, La
English Translation: Cinderella
Run Time: 164 min.
When Cinderella’s cruel stepmother prevents her from attending the
Royal Ball, she gets some unexpected help from the lovable mice Gus
and Jaq, and from her Fairy Godmother.
** Only VHS original is available. Please make advanced
arrangements with the Department Assistant in order to view this
tape.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Cento Passi, I
English Translation: 100 Steps
Run Time: 114 min.
The movie is the story of Peppino Impastato, a young left-wing
activist that in the late seventies repeatedly denounced Badalamenti
crimes and the whole Mafia system using a small local radio
station, with the arm of irony. In 1978, Peppino was killed by an
explosion. The police archived the case as an accident or a suicide,
but his friends never accepted this thesis.
Cesare Deve Morire
English Translation
Run Time: 74 min.
In Rebibbia Prison in Italy, its inmate theatre program puts on a
well received production of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
The film goes back several months earlier as the coordinators
announces the play as the program's production of the year.
Ciao, Professore!
English Translation: Hello, Professor!
Run Time: 93 min.
Marco Sperelli is a teacher, he is divorced and his is sent to
work in Corzano, a town near Naples. A life in which only
power and violence are worth respecting, Sperelli tries to teach
something different but he gets their respect only by slapping a
student.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Ciclone
English Translation: The Cyclone
Run Time: 97 min.
Living a dull life in Tuscany, Levante has no idea that soon enough
a bus full of six Spanish flamenco dancers will soon twist the dull
life he has lived in.
Cielo Cade, Il
English Translation: The Sky is Falling
Run Time: 102 min.
The weight of the world in on the shoulders of Penny, a 10 year-old
orphan, and who must watch over her little sister when they go live
with their uncle and aunt. Penny, a catholic, worries about her Jewish
uncle. He can be stern at times, but he is devoted to his family. After
the Allied forces land in Sicily and the Germans begin to retreat,
Penny starts to worry about her uncle’s life.
Cinema Paradiso
English Translation: Cinema Paradise
Run Time: 174 min.
Told in a flashback, the film tells the story of the return to his native
Sicilian villages of a successful film director Salvatore for the funeral
of his old friend Alfredo, who was the projectionist at the local
“Cineman Paradiso.” Ultimately, Alfredo serves as a wise father figure
to his young friend who only wishes the best to see him succeed, even
if it means breaking his heart in the process.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Ciociara, La
English Translation: Two Women
Run Time: 129 min.
Set in battle scarred, wartime Italy, Sophia Loren plays a young widow
struggling to survive with her teenage daughter. Both women share
romantic feelings toward a young man at the beginning of the film;
however, this conflict is disrupted by the violence of WWII. When a
tragedy occurs, the two women are
Come Te Nessuno Mai
English Translation: But Forever In My Mind
Run Time: 88 min.
Silvio has no interest in the student-rebellion taking place at his
high school. His fascination lies with Valentina, the prettiest girl in
the school, however, Valentina already has a jealous boyfriend,
Martino. After Silvio finally has a moment alone with Valentina, he
makes the mistake of telling his gossipy best friend, Ponzi. By the
end of the day the entire school knows about the kiss, including a
very angry Martino and Claudia, a young classmate who has a big
crush on Silvio.
Concerto di Natale
English Translation: Christmas Concert
Run Time: 80 min.
Concerto di Natale is the first of a concert series commissioned by
Pope John Paul II and the Vatican for the Celebration of the
Jubelium 2000. Jose Carerras performs along with the Dell’
Emiglia Romagna Symphonic Orchestra.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Conformista, Il
English Translation: The Confromis
Run Time: 111 min.
A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad
to arrange the assassination of his older teacher, now a political
dissident.
Corona di Ferro, La
English Translation: The Iron Crown
Run Time: 92 min.
A crown, supposedly made from a nail out of the Cross of
Christ and the metal of Roman swords, becomes a legend and
a symbol of justice.
Costruzione dello stato totalitario, La
English translation: The Construction of the Totalitarian
Italian State
Run time: 30 minutes
The history of Italy in the 20th century is narrated in this film by
Valerio Renzo and directed by Folco Quilici.
Cristo si e fermato a Eboli
English Translation: Christ Stopped at Eboli
Run Time: 145 min.
In the fascist Italy of 1935, a painter trained as a doctor is exiled to a
remote region near Eboli. Over time, he learns to appreciate the beauty
and wisdom of the peasants, and to overcome his isolation.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Cumae
English Translation: In English
Run Time: 41 min.
The history and archelology of Cumae and its surrounding territory.
Cuore Altrove, Ill
English Translation: The Heart is Elsewhere
Run Time: 107 min.
A sensitive film on relationships, romance, love and heartache.
Set in a beautiful Italian environment, the film compares
selfishness with self-sacrifice and adjustment.
Dangerous Beauty
English Translation: In English
Run Time: 112 min.
In 16th century Venice, courtesans enjoy unique privileges:
dressed richly in red, they read, compose poetry and music, and
discuss affairs of state with the men who govern the Republic.
When Veronica Franco comes of age, she cannot marry Marco
Venier, whom she loves, because she is well born but penniless.
Her choice: cloister or courtesan.
Decameron
Run time: 111 min.
The Decameron is a 1971 film by Italian director Pier Paolo
Pasolini, based on the novel Il Decameron by Giovanni
Boccaccio. It is the first movie of Pasolini's Trilogy of life, the
others being The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Del Monaco: Il Vulcano Cantando
English translation: Del Monaco: The Singing Volcano
Run time: 37 min.
What gives Del Monaco’s sound its elemental excitement? Ring,
ping, what the Italian’s call “squillo.” The following have squillo:
Bergamaschi, Cerquetti and Christoff,
Divo, Il
English Translation: The Divo
Run Time: 110 min.
The story of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, who has
served as Prime Minister of Italy seven times before the
restoration of democracy.
Divorzio all’italiana
English Translation: Divorce Italian Style
Run Time: 104 min.
A married Sicilian baron falls in love with his cousin and vows to wed
her, but with illegal divorce he must concoct a crime of passion to do
away with his wife.
Dolce Vita, La
English Translation: The Sweet Life
Run Time: 174 min.
A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering
paparazzo journalist living in Rome.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Don Camillo
English Translation: Mr. Camillo
Run Time: 109 min.
In a village of the Po Valley, where the earth is hard and life is
miserable, a priest and a communist mayor are always fighting to be the
head of the community. Though in secret they admire each other.
Politics separate both the country and the two men.
Don Carlo
Run time: 213 min.
Metropolitan opera orchestra and chorus
Don Giovanni
English Translation: Mr. Giovanni
Run Time: 176 min.
Don Giovanni, the infamous womanizer, makes one conquest after
another until the ghost of Donna Anna's father, the Commendatore,
(whom Giovanni killed) makes his appearance. He offers Giovanni
one last chance to repent for his multitudinious improprieties.
Famiglia, La
English Translation: The Family!
Run Time: 120 min.
Traces events in the life of Carlo, from his christening in 1906,
where his grandfathers reminds his father that Carlo means
“free man,” to his 80th birthday party. The film principally
explores his relationship with younger brother Guilio, with wife
Beatrice, and with her sister Adriana, whom Carlo loved as a
young man.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Fati Ignoranti, I
English Translation: His Secret Life
Run Time: 106 min.
AIDS doctor Antonia’s husband is killed in a car crash. Following
her newly born curiosity for life, she does to see her husband’s
lover, Michele, and finds a huge apartment that he shares with
gay and transgendered friends, including a Turkish immigrant and
a prostitute.
Ferdinando e Carolina
English Translation: Ferdinando and Carolina
Run Time: 108 min.
Summary: On his deathbed in the 1820’s, King Ferdinando I
of Naples tries to escape the ghosts of his bloody kingship by
remembering his younger days. After he was obligated to
marry Mary Caroline of Austria, daughter of Empress Mary
Theresa, unexpectedly they fall in love, but are later forced to
separate.
Finestra di Fronte, La
English Translation: Facing Windows
Run Time: 106 min.
Overburden 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 life, she turns to the man who lives
across from her.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Florence a Portrait of a City
Run time: 55 min.
This 55 min tour is a beautiful introduction to Florence as well
as a valuable and interesting guide for those already familiar
with the city.
Francesca & Nunziata
Run Time: 120 Min.
At the beginning of the century, in Italy, a wealthy
woman named Francesca, adopts a poor little girl named
Nunziata. The years pass, Nunziata falls in love with
Federico, her adoptive brother and Francesca’s son.
Gattopardo, Il
English Translation: The Leopard
Run Time: 190 min.
The Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity,
tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social
upheavals of 1860’s Sicily.
Gassman legge Dante, Parts 1-3
Run time: 3 parts
This three-part series explores a classic work of Dante, La
Divina Commedia.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Generale Della Rovere, Il
English Translation: The Oak General
Run Time: 132 min.
Victorio Bardone, a petty con man, is arrested by the Gestapo and
coerced into impersonating a partisan leader in order to expose
another resistance organizer.
Germania Anno Zero
English Translation: Germany Year Zero
Run Time: 71 min.
In 1947, an ordinary German family fights to survive in a wrecked
Berlin after the World War II. When Edmund, a young boy, meets his
former teacher, he misunderstands his Nazi speech about the survival
of the stronger and leads the hopeless boy to a desperate final
solution.
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Run Time: 90 min.
In the late 1930s, in Ferrara, Italy, the Finzi-Continis are one of the
leading families. They are wealthy, aristocratic, and urbane; they are
also Jewish.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Ginger e Fred
English Translation: Ginger and Fred
Run Time: 128 min.
Masina and Mastroianni play ex-dancers Ginger and Fred. Forty
years ago they made their living imitating the incomparable
graceful Rogers and Astaire in Italian dance halls. Now, thirty
years later, they are reunited for a nostalgic TV variety show,
part of a bizarre cast that includes dwarfs, transvestites,
necromancers, and a retired admiral.
Giordano Bruno
English translation: Giordano Bruno
Run time: 115 min
The film chronicles the last years of life of the philosopher
Giordano Bruno from 1592 to his killing in 1600.
Giornata Particolare, Una
English translation: A Particular Day
Run time: 110 min.
Two neighbors, a persecuted journalist and a resigned
housewife, meet during Hitler's visit in Italy in 1938.
Il Giovane Favoloso
English Translation: The Fabulous Young
Run Time: 137 min.
Based upon the short but fruitful life of illnessracked Italian poet and philosopher Giacamo
Leopardi.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Gomorrah
English Translation: N/A
Run Time: 137 min.
An inside look at Italy’s modern-day crime families.
La Grande Bellezza
English Translation: The Grand Beauty
Run time: 135 min.
The main character is an aging socialite, Jep Gambardella, who once
wrote a famous novel in his twenties, only to retire into a comfortable
life writing cultural columns and throwing parties in Rome. During
his luxurious life in Rome, he is surrounded by many influential
people including politicians, members of the mafia, noblemen, artists
and intellectuals with whom he shares only surface level
relationships.
Grande Guerra, La
English Translation: The Great War
Run Time: 118 min.
Giovanni Busacca and Oreste Jacovacci, two small-time wheeler
dealers from Milan and Rome respectively, find themselves
thrown into grudging camaraderie on the frontline trenches of the
First World War.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Grandi Magazzini, I
English translation: The Department Store
Run time: 85 min.
Several customers parade departments and speakers with some
curious stories. The director of the beautiful shopping center is a
depressed man, but he is forced to smile and pretends to be
optimistic with his business; an overseer naive fails to stop a gang
of thieves, although the man feels himself bully and reliable; an
actor depressed and alcoholic does not know whether to abandon
his stage career to risursi acting in squalid advertising.
Hands Over the City
Mani Sulla Citta, Le
English Translation: Hands Over the City
Run Time: 101 min.
A ruthless Neapolitan land developer and elected city councilman,
Edoardo Nottola, manages to use political power to make personal
profit in a large scale suburban real estate deal. However, after the
collapse of a residential building, the Communist councilman Da
Vita initiates an inquiry on Nottola’s possible connection to the
city.
The Hawks and the Sparrows
Italian Translation: Uccellacci e Uccellinii
Run time: 88 min.
On an empty road, an old man is walking with his son. They
meet a crow that can speak. They are changed into monks and
Saint Francois sent them to preach for hawks and sparrows.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Henry IV
English Translation: N/A
Run Time: 95 min.
Marcello Mastroianni stars a modern aristocrat who begins a life of
fabrication and fantasy after he falls from a horse. Now believing
himself to be Henry IV, Emperor of the Roman Empire. A series of
friends join him, reveling in his fantasy as they all dress in costumes
and assume the roles of historical figures. When friends of Henry arrive
to cure him, they realize that his insanity may not be able to be
separated from his happiness.
Ieri, Oggi, Domani
English Translation: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Run Time: 120 min.
Ieri, Oggi, Domani is a 1963 comedy anthology film by Italian
director Vittorio de Sica. It stars Sophia Loren and Marcello
Mastroianni. The film consists of three short stories about
couples in different parts of Italy.
Incoronazione De Poppea, L’
English Translation:
Run Time: 151 min.
One of the first operas to use historical events and people, it describes
how Poppaea, mistress of the Roman emperor Nero, is able to
achieve her ambition and be crowned empress.
Indagine su un Cittadino al di Sopra di Ogni Sospetto
English Translation: n/a
Run Time: 112 min.
A chief of detectives, homicide section, kills his mistress and
deliberately leaves clues to prove his own responsibility for
the crime.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Isola del Ferro e del Fuoco, L'
Run time: 98 min.
Mariangela Melato stars as Signora Bolk, a self-made
tycoon interested in ecological preservation. She is fed up
with the terrorists who poach Italy’s rich beauty.
It’s All Family – Knock on Wood
Run time: 24 mins.
Orlando Furioso is a five foot tall performer living
in brooklyn, and is made of wood. Fifty years ago
he was carved from oak and given a suit of armor
by Papa Manteo and his children, and yet
Orlando’s sword still flashes on stage
Italy Contemporanea
Run time: 90 min.
This exciting, authentic video will enhance any Italian
class or labrotory program. It consists of interview with
ordinary people speaking italian – among them a farmer,
a mechanic , neaurologist, a journalist, a nurse, and a
sectetary.
The Italian Americans
Run time: 242 mins.
Simmers with the vital ingrediants of family,
tradition, and amore – the essence of the Italian
American experience. Vintage film footage, famiy,
photos, and warm rememberances from celebrities,
business leaders, politicians, educators, and many
others.
Italian Movie Summaries- Titles A-I
September 1, 2015
Italy Revealed
Run time: 102 min.
Prepare to meet the world With panoramic high-definition
photography and intimate storytelling, Discovery Atlas
shows you a new way to connect with the world.