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Essential Italian Cinema

8½ (1963)
Federico Fellini · 95 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Shout! Factory TV, Plex · Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Vittorio De Sica · 75 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads, Amazon MX Player · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, Criterion Channel
Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
Gillo Pontecorvo · 71 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Shout! Factory TV, Plex · Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel, TCM
Paratrooper commander Colonel Mathieu, a former French Resistance fighter during World War II, is sent to Algeria to reinforce efforts to squelch the uprisings of the Algerian War. There he faces Ali la Pointe, a former petty criminal who, as the leader of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale, directs terror strategies against the colonial French government occupation. As each side resorts to ever-increasing brutality, no violent act is too unthinkable.
La Dolce Vita (1960)
Federico Fellini · 57 critic votes
Episodic journey of journalist Marcello who struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by his girlfriend, all the while searching for a way to become a serious writer.
L'Avventura (1960)
Michelangelo Antonioni · 52 critic votes
Free on Darkroom · Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
Claudia and Anna join Anna's lover, Sandro, on a boat trip to a remote volcanic island. When Anna goes missing, a search is launched. In the meantime, Sandro and Claudia become involved in a romance despite Anna's disappearance, though the relationship suffers from guilt and tension.
Once upon a Time in the West (1968)
Sergio Leone · 44 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Fawesome
As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life.
Journey to Italy (1954)
Roberto Rossellini · 43 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
Married for eight years with no children, Brits Katherine and Alex Joyce are driving to Italy, their ultimate destination just outside of Naples to sell the villa they have just inherited from his uncle, the villa where they will be staying during their time there. On the drive, they come to the realization that this trip marks the first time that they have truly been alone together, and as such don't really know one another in the true sense.
The Leopard (1963)
Luchino Visconti · 36 critic votes
As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life.
The Conformist (1970)
Bernardo Bertolucci · 35 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Kino Film Collection
A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
La Strada (1954)
Federico Fellini · 26 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
When Gelsomina, a naïve young woman, is purchased from her impoverished mother by brutish circus strongman Zampanò to be his wife and partner, she loyally endures her husband's coldness and abuse as they travel the Italian countryside performing together. Soon Zampanò must deal with his jealousy and conflicted feelings about Gelsomina when she finds a kindred spirit in Il Matto, the carefree circus fool, and contemplates leaving Zampanò.
The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 26 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Plex, Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads · Streaming on Kanopy, Fandor Amazon Channel, Hoopla
Along a rocky, barren coastline, Jesus begins teaching, primarily using parables. He attracts disciples; he's stern, brusque, and demanding. His parables often take on the powers that be, so he and his teachings come to the attention of the Pharisees, the chief priests, and elders. They conspire to have him arrested, beaten, tried, and crucified, just as he prophesied to his followers.
La Notte (1961)
Michelangelo Antonioni · 23 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel, AMC+
A day in the life of an unfaithful married couple and their steadily deteriorating relationship in Milan.
Eclipse (1962)
Michelangelo Antonioni · 23 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Vittoria is a beautiful literary translator living in Rome. After splitting from her writer boyfriend, Riccardo, Vittoria meets Piero, a lively stockbroker, on the hectic floor of the Roman stock exchange. Though Vittoria and Piero begin a relationship, it is not one without difficulties, and their commitment to one another is tested during an eclipse.
Amarcord (1973)
Federico Fellini · 23 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, TCM, HBO Max Amazon Channel
In an Italian seaside town, young Titta gets into trouble with his friends and watches various local eccentrics as they engage in often absurd behavior. Frequently clashing with his stern father and defended by his doting mother, Titta witnesses the actions of a wide range of characters, from his extended family to Fascist loyalists to sensual women, with certain moments shifting into fantastical scenarios.
Red Desert (1964)
Michelangelo Antonioni · 22 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
In an industrializing Italian town, a married woman, rendered mentally unstable after a traffic accident, drifts into an affair with a friend of her husband.
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
Sergio Leone · 22 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, YouTube Free · Streaming on MGM Plus, Kanopy, fuboTV
While the Civil War rages on between the Union and the Confederacy, three men – a quiet loner, a ruthless hitman, and a Mexican bandit – comb the American Southwest in search of a strongbox containing $200,000 in stolen gold.
Once upon a Time in America (1984)
Sergio Leone · 20 critic votes
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan over thirty years later, where he once again must confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 19 critic votes
Four corrupted fascist libertines round up 9 teenage boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of sadistic physical, mental and sexual torture.
Paisà (1946)
Roberto Rossellini · 17 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
Six stories unfold in various regions, from Sicily to the northern Po Valley as American military personnel interact with a variety of Italian locals over eighteen months in the push north during the Italian Campaign of WWII as German forces retreat.
Europe '51 (1952)
Roberto Rossellini · 17 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
A wealthy, self-absorbed Rome socialite is racked by guilt over the death of her young son. As a way of dealing with her grief and finding meaning in her life, she decides to devote her time and money to the city’s poor and sick. Her newfound, single-minded activism leads to conflicts with her husband and questions about her sanity.
Rome, Open City (1945)
Roberto Rossellini · 16 critic votes
Free on Darkroom · Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
During the Nazi occupation of 1944 Rome, Resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi is pursued by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a means of escape.
Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Federico Fellini · 15 critic votes
Streaming on Darkroom
Rome, 1957. A woman, Cabiria, is robbed and left to drown by her boyfriend, Giorgio. Rescued, she resumes her life and tries her best to find happiness in a cynical world. Even when she thinks her struggles are over and she has found happiness and contentment, things may not be what they seem.
The Passenger (1975)
Michelangelo Antonioni · 15 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
David Locke is a world-weary American journalist who has been sent to cover a conflict in northern Africa, but he makes little progress with the story. When he discovers the body of a stranger who looks similar to him, Locke assumes the dead man's identity. However, he soon finds out that the man was an arms dealer, leading Locke into dangerous situations. Aided by a beautiful woman, Locke attempts to avoid both the police and criminals out to get him.
Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
Luchino Visconti · 14 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Criterion Channel
When a impoverished widow’s family moves to the big city, two of her five sons become romantic rivals with deadly results.
Suspiria (1977)
Dario Argento · 13 critic votes
Free on FlixHouse, Darkroom, YOW.tv · Streaming on Kanopy, Fandor Amazon Channel, Screambox Amazon Channel
An 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.
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
Ermanno Olmi · 13 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
On a turn-of-the-20th-century northern Italian farm, a group of sharecroppers eke out a threadbare existence. A priest advises Batisti and his wife Batistina that their young son Minec should be formally educated, so they sacrifice his help in the fields and send him to school. When Minec's wooden shoe breaks one day, Batisti--in an act of desperation--puts the family's future at risk to replace the clog.
Germany, Year Zero (1948)
Roberto Rossellini · 12 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
In the ruins of post-WWII Berlin, a twelve-year-old boy is left to his own devices in order to help provide for his family.
The Great Beauty (2013)
Paolo Sorrentino · 12 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
Jep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.
Umberto D. (1952)
Vittorio De Sica · 11 critic votes
Free on Darkroom · Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel, TCM
When elderly pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari returns to his boarding house from a protest calling for a hike in old-age pensions, his landlady demands her 15,000-lire rent by the end of the month or he and his small dog will be turned out onto the street. Unable to get the money in time, Umberto fakes illness to get sent to a hospital, giving his beloved dog to the landlady's pregnant and abandoned maid for temporary safekeeping.
Stromboli (1950)
Roberto Rossellini · 10 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
After the end of WWII, a young Lithuanian woman and a young Italian man from Stromboli impulsively marry, but married life on the island is more demanding than she can accept.
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
Giuseppe Tornatore · 10 critic votes
Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.
The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)
Roberto Rossellini · 9 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
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.
Teorema (1968)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 9 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A wealthy Italian household is turned upside down when a handsome stranger arrives, seduces every family member and then disappears. Each has an epiphany of sorts, but none can figure out who the seductive visitor was or why he came.
Death in Venice (1971)
Luchino Visconti · 9 critic votes
Free on YouTube Free
Composer Gustav von Aschenbach travels to Venice for health reasons. There, he becomes obsessed with the stunning beauty of an adolescent Polish boy named Tadzio who is staying with his family at the same Grand Hôtel des Bains on the Lido as Aschenbach.
Miracle in Milan (1951)
Vittorio De Sica · 8 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
Once upon a time a wise and kind old woman discovers a baby in her cabbage patch. She brings up the child and, when she dies, the boy, Totò, enters an orphanage. Totò leaves the orphanage a happy young man, and looks for work in post-war Milan. He ends up with the homeless and organizes them to build a shanty town in a vacant lot. But when greedy developers threaten the community’s land, Totò will need all the help he can get in order to find an impossible way out.
Il Posto (1961)
Ermanno Olmi · 8 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel
With his family mired in financial troubles, Domenico moves to Milan, Italy, from his small town to get a job in lieu of furthering his education. A lack of options forces him to take a position as a messenger at a big company, where he hopes to receive a promotion soon. There, Domenico meets Antonietta, a young woman in a similar situation as himself. The two form a tentative relationship, but the soulless nature of their jobs threatens to keep them apart.
Mamma Roma (1962)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 7 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
After years spent working as a prostitute in her Italian village, middle-aged Mamma Roma has saved enough money to buy herself a fruit stand so that she can have a respectable middle-class life and reestablish contact with the 16-year-old son she abandoned when he was an infant. But her former pimp threatens to expose her sordid past, and her troubled son seems destined to fall into a life of crime and violence.
Seven Beauties (1975)
Lina Wertmüller · 7 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Kino Film Collection
Pasqualino Frafuso, known in Naples as "Pasqualino Seven Beauties" is a petty thief who lives off of the profits of his seven sisters while claiming to protect their honor at any cost, Pasqualino is arrested for murder and later sent to fight in the army after committing sexual assault. The Germans capture him and he gets sent to a concentration camp where he plots to make his escape by seducing a German officer.
La Terra Trema (1948)
Luchino Visconti, Francesco Rosi, Franco Zeffirelli · 6 critic votes
In rural Sicily, the fishermen live at the mercy of the greedy wholesalers. One family risks everything to buy their own boat and operate independently.
The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 6 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A man and his son take an allegorical stroll through life with a talking bird that spouts social and political philosophy.
Last Tango in Paris (1972)
Bernardo Bertolucci · 6 critic votes
Streaming on Fawesome
A recently widowed American begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman.
Roma (1972)
Federico Fellini · 6 critic votes
A virtually plotless, gaudy, impressionistic portrait of Rome through the eyes of one of its most famous citizens.
Red Wood Pigeon (1989)
Nanni Moretti · 6 critic votes
Michele is an MP for the Italian Communist Party who loses his memory in a car crash, though hardly anyone around him seems to notice. During a crucial water polo match on the eve of election day, he gradually begins to remember his past life, revealing a man whose personal and political identity crisis mirrors that of Italian communism itself.
Salvatore Giuliano (1962)
Francesco Rosi · 5 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, TCM
Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano's bullet-riddled corpse is found facedown in a courtyard in Castelvetrano, a handgun and rifle by his side. Local and international press descend upon the scene, hoping to crack open the true story behind the death of this young man, who, at the age of twenty-seven, had already become Italy’s most wanted criminal and celebrated hero.
Notes Towards an African Orestes (1970)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 5 critic votes
The director presents takes and scenes filmed on location in Africa for a film-that-never-was, a black Oresteia.
Deep Red (1975)
Dario Argento · 5 critic votes
Free on Darkroom, Tubi TV, Pluto TV · Streaming on MUBI, Shudder, Kanopy
An English pianist living in Rome witnesses the brutal murder of his psychic neighbor. With the help of a tenacious young reporter, he tries to discover the killer using very unconventional methods. The two are soon drawn into a shocking web of dementia and violence.
From the Clouds to the Resistance (1979)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 5 critic votes
Two segments. The first one arranges six stories from Cesare Pavese’s «Dialoghi con Leucò», taken from classical mythology. The second segment is taken from Pavese’s novel «La luna e i falò»: after World War II the emigrant «The Bastard» comes back to his village in the Langhe (northern Italy) to find out that everyone he knew has died, and that the war has deeply changed relationships between people.
Sicilia! (1999)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 5 critic votes
Streaming on Fandor
A man returns to visit his native Sicily after living in New York for a long time. He learns about the Sicilian way of life from stylized conversations with an orange picker, his fellow train passengers, his mother, and a knife-sharpener.
Call Me by Your Name (2017)
Luca Guadagnino · 5 critic votes
In the summer of 1983, a 17-year-old Elio spends his days in his family's villa in Italy. One day Oliver, a graduate student, arrives to assist Elio's father, a professor of Greco-Roman culture. Soon, Elio and Oliver discover a summer that will alter their lives forever.
Happy as Lazzaro (2018)
Alice Rohrwacher · 5 critic votes
Streaming on Netflix, Netflix Standard with Ads
Purehearted teen Lazzaro is content living as a sharecropper in rural Italy, but an unlikely friendship with the marquise’s son will change his world.
Ossessione (1943)
Luchino Visconti · 4 critic votes
Free on Plex, Plex Channel
Gino, a drifter, begins an affair with inn-owner Giovanna as they plan to get rid of her older husband.
Il Grido (1957)
Michelangelo Antonioni · 4 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A sugar-refinery worker flees his Northern Italy town after a woman refuses his marriage proposal.
Il sorpasso (1962)
Dino Risi · 4 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Roberto, a shy law student in Rome, meets Bruno, a forty-year-old exuberant, capricious man, who takes him for a drive through the Roman and Tuscany countries in the summer. When their journey starts to blend into their daily lives though, the pair’s newfound friendship is tested.
For a Few Dollars More (1965)
Sergio Leone · 4 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, YouTube Free · Streaming on MGM Plus, Kanopy, fuboTV
Two bounty hunters both pursue the brutal and sadistic bandit, El Indio, who has a large bounty on his head.
The Great Silence (1968)
Sergio Corbucci · 4 critic votes
Streaming on MUBI, Kanopy, MUBI Amazon Channel
A mute gunslinger fights in the defense of a group of outlaws and a vengeful young widow, against a group of ruthless bounty hunters.
Satyricon (1969)
Federico Fellini · 4 critic votes
After his young lover, Gitone, leaves him for another man, Encolpio decides to kill himself, but a sudden earthquake destroys his home before he has a chance to do so. Now wandering around Rome in the time of Nero, Encolpio encounters one bizarre and surreal scene after another.
The Damned (1969)
Luchino Visconti · 4 critic votes
In the early days of Nazi Germany, a powerful noble family must adjust to life under the new dictatorship regime.
1900 (1976)
Bernardo Bertolucci · 4 critic votes
The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth century Italy, as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.
A Special Day (1977)
Ettore Scola · 4 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Two neighbours — a persecuted journalist and a resigned housewife — forge a strong bond on the day of Adolf Hitler's historic 1938 visit to Rome.
The Wonders (2014)
Alice Rohrwacher · 4 critic votes
In the Tuscan countryside, a family of traditional honey farmers struggles to make ends meet. The household consists of only daughters—four of them—led by the eldest, Gelsomina, who takes on the responsibilities of the family. When a small boy is sent to stay with them for rehabilitation, their routine is disrupted. As financial troubles threaten their home, Gelsomina sees an opportunity in a reality TV contest searching for 'Italy’s Most Traditional Family.' Willing to expose their secluded life for the prize money, she clashes with her father’s rigid ways in a bid to secure their future.
I Vitelloni (1953)
Federico Fellini · 3 critic votes
Free on Darkroom, Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
Five young men dream of success as they drift lazily through life in a small Italian village. Fausto, the group's leader, is a womanizer; Riccardo craves fame; Alberto is a hopeless dreamer; Moraldo fantasizes about life in the city; and Leopoldo is an aspiring playwright. As Fausto chases a string of women, to the horror of his pregnant wife, the other four blunder their way from one uneventful experience to the next.
India: Matri Bhumi (1958)
Roberto Rossellini · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Several stories depicting the landscapes and fauna of India are mixed with documentary footage.
A Difficult Life (1961)
Dino Risi · 3 critic votes
Silvio refuses to fight for the fascists and joins the resistance with Elena. After the war, his vitriolic newspaper articles cause him to be sentenced to imprisonment.
Accattone (1961)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 3 critic votes
Free on Mometu · Streaming on Criterion Channel
A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiralling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.
The Song of the Marshes (1961)
Cecilia Mangini · 3 critic votes
On a hot summer day, a group of boys of the Roman suburbs play and laugh in one of the many rivers that surround the city. The camera scrutinizes them, approaches them, reveals the gestures and glances, wraps them in a sort of visual dance, while the words of the commentary (entrusted to the poetic sensibility of Pier Paolo Pasolini) narrate the stories, desires, dreams, the future.
Juliet of the Spirits (1965)
Federico Fellini · 3 critic votes
Free on Mometu · Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
Middle-aged Giulietta grows suspicious of her husband, Giorgio, when his behavior grows increasingly questionable. One night when Giorgio initiates a seance amongst his friends, Giulietta gets in touch with spirits and learns more about herself and her painful past. Slightly skeptical, but intrigued, she visits a mystic who gives her more information -- and nudges her toward the realization that her husband is indeed a philanderer.
Dillinger Is Dead (1969)
Marco Ferreri · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A man decides to cook for himself and finds a revolver (which may have belonged to John Dillinger) hidden in his kitchen.
The Mattei Affair (1972)
Francesco Rosi · 3 critic votes
Enrico Mattei helped change Italy’s future, first as freedom-fighter against the Nazis, then as an investor in methane gas through a public company, A.G.I.P., and ultimately as the head of ENI, a state body formed for the development of oil resources. On October 27, 1962, he died when his private airplane crashed during a flight to Milan. Officially, it is declared an accident, but many journalists explore other plausible reasons for Mattei's untimely death.
Love and Anarchy (1973)
Lina Wertmüller · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Kino Film Collection
Set in Fascist Italy before the outbreak of World War II, the story centers on Tunin, a farmer turned anarchist who stays in a brothel while preparing to kill Benito Mussolini.
Swept Away (1974)
Lina Wertmüller · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Kino Film Collection
A spoiled rich woman and a brutish Communist deckhand become stranded alone on a desert island after venturing away from their cruise.
We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974)
Ettore Scola · 3 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Three partisans bound by a strong friendship return home after the war, but the clash with everyday reality puts a strain on their bond.
Anna (1975)
Alberto Grifi, Massimo Sarchielli · 3 critic votes
A documentary ostensibly about Anna, a young drug addict taken off the streets by one of the filmmakers. Through her they attempt to explore the social issues from their hippie perspective, instead they create a revealing, uncomfortable self-portrait and inadvertently raise questions about documentary film-making.
The Beyond (1981)
Lucio Fulci · 3 critic votes
Free on Darkroom, YOW.tv, Fandor · Streaming on Shudder, Kanopy, Screambox Amazon Channel
New Yorker Liza Merril inherits an old hotel in Louisiana and invests her savings to reopen the place, unaware that the hotel houses the body of a dead painter murdered decades earlier, and that the location is about to become a gateway to Hell.
Dear Diary (1993)
Nanni Moretti · 3 critic votes
Streaming on MUBI, Kanopy, MUBI Amazon Channel
Nanni Moretti recounts in his diary three slice-of-life stories marked by a dry, ironic gaze: in the first, he rides his Vespa through a deserted, sun-drenched summertime Rome; in the second, he visits a reclusive friend on an island, who ropes him into an impromptu journey between islets in search of quiet; and in the last, he finds himself grappling with an unknown illness.
Life Is Beautiful (1997)
Roberto Benigni · 3 critic votes
Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, Paramount+ Amazon Channel
A touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a concentration camp during World War II. While locked up he tries to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.
Shoeshine (1946)
Vittorio De Sica · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
Two 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.
Senso (1954)
Luchino Visconti · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
A troubled and neurotic Italian Countess betrays her entire country for a self-destructive love affair with an Austrian Lieutenant.
Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958)
Mario Monicelli · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Best friends Peppe and Mario are thieves, but they're not very good at it. Still, Peppe thinks that he's finally devised a master heist that will make them rich. With the help of some fellow criminals, he plans to dig a tunnel from a rented apartment to the pawnshop next door, where they can rob the safe. But his plan is far from foolproof, and the fact that no one in the group has any experience digging tunnels proves to be the least of their problems.
Banditi a Orgosolo (1961)
Vittorio De Seta · 2 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Xumo Play · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A Sardinian peasant is implicated in the murder of a policeman and, although innocent, he doesn’t give himself up, lacking faith in the judicial system and fearing that he may lose his sheep while awaiting trial.
RoGoPaG (1963)
Roberto Rossellini, Ugo Gregoretti, Jean-Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini · 2 critic votes
Four short films by four different directors dealing with the principles of modern life.
Fists in the Pocket (1965)
Marco Bellocchio · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Criterion Channel
A deeply disturbed and epileptic young man benignly decides to murder other members of his dysfunctional family for altruistic reasons.
Misunderstood (1966)
Luigi Comencini · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Fandor Amazon Channel, Hoopla, Philo
The story of a widower and his two sons, focusing on their complex and sometimes difficult relationships.
Oedipus Rex (1967)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
In pre-war Italy, a young couple have a baby boy. The father, however, is jealous of his son - and the scene moves to antiquity, where the baby is taken into the desert to be killed. He is rescued, given the name Oedipus, and brought up by the King and Queen of Corinth as their son. One day an oracle informs Oedipus that he is destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Horrified, he flees Corinth and his supposed parents - only to get into a fight and kill an older man on the road…
Pigsty (1969)
Pier Paolo Pasolini, Sergio Citti · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Two dramatic stories. In an undetermined past, a young cannibal (who killed his own father) is condemned to be torn to pieces by some wild beasts. In the second story, Julian, the young son of a post-war German industrialist, is on the way to lie down with his farm's pigs, because he doesn't like human relationships.
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)
Elio Petri · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV
Rome, Italy. After committing a heinous crime, a senior police officer exposes evidence incriminating him because his moral commitment prevents him from circumventing the law and the social order it protects.
Blaise Pascal (1972)
Roberto Rossellini · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
In this evocative, atmospheric biography, Roberto Rossellini brings to life philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal, who, amid religious persecution and ignorance, believed in a harmony between God and science.
Revolver (1973)
Sergio Sollima · 2 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Plex, Amazon Prime Video Free with Ads · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Full Moon Amazon Channel, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
An Italian prison official's wife is kidnapped, and the kidnappers demand that a notorious prisoner be released in order for the man to get his wife back. He gets the man released - but then kidnaps him himself, in order to ensure that the man's colleagues don't kill his wife. Enraged, the gang sets out to free their compatriot and kill the man who took him.
Conversation Piece (1974)
Luchino Visconti · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla
A retired professor of American origin lives a solitary life in a luxurious palazzo in Rome. He is confronted by a vulgar Italian marchesa and her lover, her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend, and forced to rent to them an apartment on the upper floor of his palazzo. From this point on his quiet routine is turned into chaos by his tenants' machinations, and everybody's life takes an unexpected but inevitable turn.
The Night Porter (1974)
Liliana Cavani · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel, HBO Max
A concentration camp survivor discovers her former torturer and lover working as a porter at a hotel in postwar Vienna. When the couple attempt to re-create their sadomasochistic relationship, his former SS comrades begin to stalk them.
Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979)
Francesco Rosi · 2 critic votes
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.
Seeking Asylum (1979)
Marco Ferreri · 2 critic votes
A new teacher introduces radical ideas at a nursery school and it leads to various reactions from the students and the parents.
Inferno (1980)
Dario Argento · 2 critic votes
Free on Tubi TV, Pluto TV, Fandango at Home Free · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Kanopy, Fandor Amazon Channel
A young man returns from Rome to his sister's satanic New York apartment house.
Blue Planet (1982)
Franco Piavoli · 2 critic votes
A look at the passage of time through the changing seasons, human evolution and everyday life.
And the Ship Sails On (1983)
Federico Fellini · 2 critic votes
Streaming on Criterion Channel
In 1914, a cruise ship sets sail from Naples to spread the ashes of beloved opera singer Edmea Tetua near Erimo, the isle of her birth. During the voyage, the eclectic array of passengers discovers a group of Serbian refugees aboard the vessel. Peace and camaraderie abound until the ship is descended upon by an Austrian flagship. The Serbians are forced to board it, but naturally they resist, igniting a skirmish that ends in destruction.
From the Pole to the Equator (1986)
Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci-Lucchi · 2 critic votes
The title Dal polo all'equatore was first used by the pioneering documentary maker, Luca Comerio, for a compilation film of 1925; it was used again by Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi for their film of 1985. Much of the original has been re-worked: the 'found footage' has been re-shot, slowed down, tinted, and re-edited with a sound track of minimalist composition. As a result, the exotica of colonial travel and sport take on new and sinister meanings. The acts of violence, especially those of hunting, recur in patterns that suggest visually that war is a logical development. A close examination of the work, starting with the opening sequence of a railway journey, explores the centrality of questions of memory and history to this remarkable and influential film.
Good Morning, Night (2003)
Marco Bellocchio · 2 critic votes
The 1978 kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, president of the most important political party in Italy at the time, Democrazia Cristiana, as seen from the perspective of one of his assailants -- a conflicted young woman in the ranks of the Red Brigade.
Oh! Man (2004)
Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi · 2 critic votes
After Prisoners of the war and On the Heights all is Peace, this film concludes Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi's trilogy on the first world war. From the emblem of totalitarianism to individual physical suffering, the directors use this representation of man's rampaging violence to draw up an anatomical inventory of the damaged body and examine the consequences of the conflict on children, from 1919 to 1921. From the deconstruction to the artificial reconstruction of the human body, they try to understand how humanity can forget itself and perpetuate these horrors.
Messina Earthquake (1909)
Luca Comerio · 1 critic vote
Documentary on the Messina earthquake
Lea and the Ball of Yarn (1913)
Cines · 1 critic vote
Bess is busy reading a book when her folks come in and command her to spend more time at work. They give her a ball of yarn, a crochet needle and set her to work. She is left alone and while moving around in her chair she loses track of the ball of yarn. It happens to have been caught in her belt at her back and out of her own view. Being a girl of quick temper and strong in athletics, the home is in so much of a turmoil when her parents return that Bess has not been subjected to work since. (Moving Picture World)
Cabiria (1914)
Giovanni Pastrone · 1 critic vote
Free on JustWatch TV, Fandango at Home Free · Streaming on Fawesome
Young Cabiria is kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave in Carthage. Just as she's to be sacrificed to Moloch, Cabiria is rescued by Fulvius Axilla, a good-hearted Roman spy, and his powerful slave, Maciste. The trio are broken up as Cabiria is entrusted to a woman of noble birth. With Cabiria's fate unknown, Maciste punished for his heroism, and Fulvius sent away to fight for Rome, is there any hope of our heroes reuniting?
Yes, Madam (1941)
Ferdinando Maria Poggioli · 1 critic vote
Directed by Ferdinando Maria Poggioli.
L'Amore (1948)
Roberto Rossellini · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel, Fawesome
L'Amore ('Love') is a 1948 Italian drama anthology film that consists of two parts, The Human Voice (Una voce umana), based on Jean Cocteau's 1929 play of the same title, and The Miracle (Il miracolo), based on Ramón del Valle-Inclán's 1904 novel Flor de santidad.
Bitter Rice (1949)
Giuseppe De Santis · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Francesca and Walter are two-bit criminals in Northern Italy, and, in an effort to avoid the police, Francesca joins a group of women rice workers. She meets the voluptuous peasant rice worker, Silvana, and the soon-to-be-discharged soldier, Marco. Walter follows her to the rice fields, and the four characters become involved in a complex plot involving robbery, love, and murder.
The Mill on the Po (1950)
Alberto Lattuada · 1 critic vote
In the Po Valley during the 19th century, a rich girl engaged to a well-to-do farmer ends up penniless and is forced to work for her fiancé’s relatives. Peasant unrest, carried to extremes by both workers and landowners, leads to violence and tragedy.
Bellissima (1951)
Luchino Visconti · 1 critic vote
Free on Plex, Plex Channel
Film director Blasetti is looking for a little girl for his new movie. Along with other mothers, Maddelena takes her daughter to Cinecittà, hoping she’ll be selected and become a star. She is ready to sacrifice anything for little Maria.
The White Sheik (1952)
Federico Fellini · 1 critic vote
Free on Darkroom
In Italy, small-town newlyweds Wanda and Ivan Cavalli embark on their honeymoon in the big city of Rome. Ivan dutifully wants to keep appointments with family and church, but Wanda is only interested in meeting her favorite photo-strip star known as "The White Sheik". While Wanda impetuously sneaks away to locate the object of her affections, disconsolate Ivan tries his hardest to keep up appearances with the couple's relatives.
Fear (1954)
Roberto Rossellini · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Irene Wagner, the wife of the prominent German scientist Professor Albert Wagner, had been having an affair with Erich Baumann. She does not disclose this to her husband, hoping to preserve his innocence and their "perfect marriage". This fills her with anxiety and guilt. However, Johanna Schultze, Erich's jealous ex-girlfriend, learns about the affair and begins to blackmail Irene, turning Irene's psychological torture into a harsh reality.
Golden Parable (1955)
Vittorio De Setta · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Filming amid the flaxen wheat fields of Sicily, Vittorio De Seta documents the everyday rituals of farmers during harvest time.
Il bidone (1955)
Federico Fellini · 1 critic vote
Free on Darkroom · Streaming on Criterion Channel, TCM
Aging small-time conman Augusto works with two younger men: Roberto, who desires to become the Italian Johnny Ray, and Carlo, nicknamed Picasso. Through a series of mishaps and personal entanglements, things go badly for Augusto.
Mimbre (1958)
Sergio Bravo · 1 critic vote
Shows the visual impressions aroused when entering the workshop of a wicker craftsman known as 'Manzanito' in the late 50's Santiago, Chile.
Unknown to the City (1958)
Cecilia Mangini · 1 critic vote
The life, the problems, the hopes of the ragazzi of the suburbs of Rome. Ignored by the city, these young men spontaneously express their vitality, their violence, their willingness to put themselves at risk. They are at the center of "Ragazzi di vita", the first novel by Pier Paolo Pasolini, author of the text of this documentary.
Black Sunday (1960)
Mario Bava · 1 critic vote
Free on FlixHouse, YouTube Free, Shout! Factory TV · Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Shudder, Kanopy
A vengeful witch, Asa Vajda, and her fiendish servant, Igor Jauvitch, return from the grave and begin a bloody campaign to possess the body of the witch's beautiful look-alike descendant: Katia. Only a handsome doctor with the help of family members stand in her way.
Hungry for Love (1960)
Antonio Pietrangeli · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy
When a brothel closes because of new laws, four of the prostitutes decide to go into business running a restaurant. They discover they cannot escape their past.
Stendalì: Still They Toll (1960)
Cecilia Mangini · 1 critic vote
A unique 1960s documentary on the traditional dirge sung by women in Griko, an ancient dialect of Salento, so old that it originates from the ancient Greeks who once colonized that part of southern Italy.
Sweet Delusions (1960)
Alberto Lattuada · 1 critic vote
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.
Two Women (1960)
Vittorio De Sica · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, Cineverse, Mometu · Streaming on Kanopy, Fawesome
A young widow flees from Rome during WWII and takes her lonely twelve-year-old-daughter to her rural hometown but the horrors of war soon catch up with them.
Girl with a Suitcase (1961)
Valerio Zurlini · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Cultpix
Lorenzo, who's 16 and born to a wealthy family in Parma, tries to make things right toward a showgirl, Aida, whom his older brother has mistreated. In extending kindness and standing up for her, he comes of age. But, is there anything he can do that will alter Aida's situation or her prospects?
On the Tiger's Back (1961)
Luigi Comencini · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Giacinto Rossi, a poor driver up to his neck in debt, is imprisoned for simulated crime. He finds himself in a cell with Tagliabue, an unscrupulous murderer; Sorcio, an elderly thief; and Papaleo, an honor-obsessed intellectual who murdered his fiancée's lover. Giacinto is forced by the three men to make a daring escape from prison.
Family Diary (1962)
Valerio Zurlini · 1 critic vote
Enrico is a struggling journalist in the Rome of 1945. He receives a phone call informing him that his younger brother Lorenzo has died. Enrico recalls their long and difficult relationship; he was brought up by their poor but warm-hearted grandmother, Lorenzo was raised as a gentleman by a wealthy local aristocrat. Reunited in the Florence of the 1930s, Enrico becomes his spoilt brother's keeper, forever haunted by a sense of guilty responsibility towards a man he both hates and loves.
Smog (1962)
Franco Rossi · 1 critic vote
An ambitious Italian attorney has his flight delayed in Los Angeles. The vapid lawyer goes to some parties with some Italians living there and has a brief affair with a beautiful Italian expatriate.
Sunday Evening (1962)
Franco Piavoli · 1 critic vote
Young peasants come together to dance in the evening. The girls arrive by bike; the boys get ready for them by doing their hair. The less shy amongst them begin to dance. Then, some of them go home, singing as they go, delighted to have obtained a promise. Others take advantage of the dark to make love.
Curd Cheese (1963)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 1 critic vote
Pier Paolo Pasolini's contribution to the omnibus film "RO.GO.PA.G" casts Orson Welles as a director attempting to make a film of the crucifixion of Jesus-all while he, the cast, and crew behave in the most un-Christlike ways imaginable.
Hands Over the City (1963)
Francesco Rosi · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Prior to a city council election, the collapse of a building leaves a land developer and his political backers defending themselves against a scandal.
The Lizards (1963)
Lina Wertmüller · 1 critic vote
The uneventful lives of three young men who live in a small, poverty-stricken village in southern Italy.
The Organizer (1963)
Mario Monicelli · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
In the late 19th century, a former high school teacher turned unionist tries to organize workers laboring with inhuman conditions at a textile factory in Turin, Italy.
The Virgin of Nuremberg (1963)
Anthony M. Dawson · 1 critic vote
Free on Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Troma NOW
Women are being tortured to death with various devices in the dungeon of an old castle by a mysterious, hooded figure who may be a notorious executioner from medieval times.
Verifica incerta - Disperse Exclamatory Phase (1964)
Gianfranco Baruchello, Alberto Grifi · 1 critic vote
A short film containing a collection of clips from various Hollywood movies.
Essere donne (1965)
Cecilia Mangini · 1 critic vote
This documentary is one of the earliest film enquiries on women's condition in Italy, seen in its different aspects: social, economic, psychological. Starting from an analysis of the feminine role models proposed by the cultural industry, the film finds its protagonists among all kinds of women.
I Knew Her Well (1965)
Antonio Pietrangeli · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
A young woman from the Italian countryside experiences the dark side of the business after she moves to Rome to become a star.
Africa Addio (1966)
Gualtiero Jacopetti, Franco E. Prosperi · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV
A chronicle of the violence that occurred in much of the African continent throughout the 1960s. As many African countries were transitioning from colonial rule to other forms of government, violent political upheavals were frequent. Revolutions in Zanzibar and Kenya in which thousands were killed are shown, the violence not only political; there is also extensive footage of hunters and poachers slaughtering different types of wild animals.
Django (1966)
Sergio Corbucci · 1 critic vote
Free on Darkroom, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV · Streaming on Fandor, Kanopy, Fandor Amazon Channel
A coffin-dragging gunslinger and a prostitute become embroiled in a bitter feud between a merciless masked clan and a band of Mexican revolutionaries.
Caprice Italian Style (1967)
Mauro Bolognini, Mario Monicelli, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Steno, Pino Zac, Franco Rossi · 1 critic vote
The film consists of six short stories created by different directors, but all the stories share one thing: a warm irony to current events.
The Witches (1967)
Mauro Bolognini, Vittorio De Sica, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Franco Rossi, Luchino Visconti · 1 critic vote
Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.
A Quiet Place in the Country (1968)
Elio Petri · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, The Roku Channel · Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
A painter facing a creative block arranges to spend the weekend in the country at his mistress's villa. While staying there, his sanity begins to disintegrate.
Danger: Diabolik (1968)
Mario Bava · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy
International man of mystery Diabolik and his sensuous lover Eva Kant pull off heist after heist, all while European cops led by Inspector Ginko and envious mobsters led by Ralph Valmont are closing in on them.
Our Lady of the Turks (1968)
Carmelo Bene · 1 critic vote
To the protagonist, an intellectual so feverish that he seems pathologically unrecoverable, a confused memory resurfaces of a massacre carried out by the Turks in Otranto. Immersing himself in one of the victims, in the unconscious desire to eviscerate himself, a woman appears to him, Margherita, who, in the guise of Santa Maria d'Otranto, treats him with compassionate love. In the hallucinating succession of memories intertwined with historical events, the protagonist finds himself in contact with his environment, his land, his country.
Medea (1969)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel
Based on the plot of Euripides' Medea. Medea centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed her for another woman.
The Laughing Woman (1969)
Piero Schivazappa · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV
Beautiful PR woman, Maria finds herself trapped in the home of the sinister and troubled Dr. Sayer, where she is subjected to a series of increasingly bizarre, terrifying, and degrading sex games. Sayer admits that he has murdered several women after the same ordeal, always killing them at the point of orgasm. But all is not what it seems, and through a series of twists and turns, the whole situation is slowly turned on its head.
Venus in Furs (1969)
Jesús Franco · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Night Flight Plus, Midnight Pulp, Philo
After a jazz musician finds a woman's corpse washed up on the beach and remembers that he witnessed her murder at a party the previous night, a woman who bears a strong resemblance to her begins to exact revenge on the murderers.
Ostia (1970)
Sergio Citti · 1 critic vote
Two anarchistic brothers live by petty thievery and try to recover from their Catholic upbringing. Bandiera and Rabbino were children when they pushed their drunk of a father out of a window for killing their pet sheep. When a girl is raped by her father, she is brought by young "rescuers" to the home of the two brothers who then watch their friends take advantage of her sexually. The brothers take her in, and the three live happy and celibate if not uneventful lives until the brother's are sent to jail for stealing.
The Clowns (1970)
Federico Fellini · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy
Fellini exposes his great attraction for the clowns and the world of the circus first recalling a childhood experience when the circus arrives nearby his home. Then he joins his crew and travel from Italy to Paris chasing the last greatest European clowns still live in these countries. He also meets Anita Ekberg trying to buy a panther in a circus.
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)
Vittorio De Sica · 1 critic vote
Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM+ Amazon Channel
In 1930s Italy, a wealthy Jewish family tries to maintain their privileged lifestyle, hosting friends for tennis and parties at their villa. As anti-Semitism intensifies under Fascism, they must ultimately face the horrors of the Holocaust.
Spell – Dolce mattatoio (1971)
Alberto Cavallone · 1 critic vote
A small town in Italy is about to celebrate their patron saint. The city is full of people with different problems. A Communist in existentialist crisis that also must take care of his mentally ill wife. A woman who is tired of her husband's inability to show emotions and therefore more and more often slips into the world of dreams. A perverse butcher engaged in sex with the meat he sells when he's not peeping on young girls. A girl who became pregnant after having sex with her father. In this town a mysterious stranger show up and who turns on several of the inhabitants lives.
The Decameron (1971)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV
Adapted from Boccaccio's Decameron, a collection of interwoven stories offers a bawdy, comic portrait of human desire across medieval society.
The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971)
Elio Petri · 1 critic vote
After losing a finger in a work accident, an Italian worker becomes increasingly involved in political and revolutionary groups.
They Have Changed Their Face (1971)
Corrado Farina · 1 critic vote
Free on FlixHouse, Bloodstream, Tubi TV · Streaming on Fandor Amazon Channel, Hoopla, Troma NOW
A mid-level automotive company employee is summoned to the mountain villa of owner Giovanni Nosferatu, only to discover a glossy netherworld where capitalism is the new vampirism, and escape may be impossible.
Don't Torture a Duckling (1972)
Lucio Fulci · 1 critic vote
Free on Darkroom, Tubi TV, Fandango at Home Free · Streaming on Shudder, Screambox Amazon Channel, Shudder Amazon Channel
A reporter and a promiscuous young woman try to solve a series of child killings in a remote southern Italian town rife with superstition and a distrust of outsiders.
History Lessons (1972)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 1 critic vote
Set in contemporary Rome, the film shows through a series of encounters with “ancient” Romans, how the economic and political manipulation by ancient Roman society led to Caesar’s dictatorship. - British Film Institute
Indian Summer (1972)
Valerio Zurlini · 1 critic vote
In Italy, the gambler and professor of poetry Daniele Dominici arrives in the seaside town of Rimini and is hired to teach for four months in the local high school replacing another teacher. His relationship with his partner Monica is in crisis and he spends most of the time with his new acquaintances and gamblers Giorgio, Marcello and Gerardo. In classroom, he meets the gorgeous nineteen years old student Vanina Abati, who is Gerardo's girlfriend.
Salome (1972)
Carmelo Bene · 1 critic vote
Salome is the daughter of the second wife of King Herod. The King is infatuated with her and, after she fails to seduce the prophet John The Baptist, she dances for the King in order to ask for his execution.
The Age of the Medici (1972)
Roberto Rossellini · 1 critic vote
This is an exposition of the social and political history of renaissance Florentine history, told through dramatized conversations between the main participants, Cosimo de Medici and Brunelleschi.
Ludwig (1973)
Luchino Visconti · 1 critic vote
Historical evocation of Ludwig, king of Bavaria, from his crowning in 1864 until his death in 1886, as a romantic hero. Fan of Richard Wagner, betrayed by him, in love with his cousin Elisabeth of Austria, abandoned by her, tormented by his homosexuality, he will little by little slip towards madness.
Arabian Nights (1974)
Pier Paolo Pasolini · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free · Streaming on MGM Plus, fuboTV, MGM Plus Roku Premium Channel
The final part of Pasolini's Trilogy of Life series is rich with exotic tales of slaves and kings, potions, betrayals, demons and, most of all, love and lovemaking in all its myriad forms. Mysterious and liberating, this is an exquisitely dreamlike and adult interpretation of the original folk tales.
My Friends (1975)
Mario Monicelli · 1 critic vote
Four inseparable friends try to face their midlife crisis with daytrips and pranks at the expense of their families and the people around them.
The Messiah (1975)
Roberto Rossellini · 1 critic vote
Rossellini takes numerous liberties with the original source material, rearranging and omitting events at will, presenting everything in a highly undramatic fashion. The film begins in the time of the Old Testament, allowing Rossellini to present the story of Jesus in its ancient, historic context.
Down and Dirty (1976)
Ettore Scola · 1 critic vote
Giacinto lives with his wife, their ten children and various other family members in a shack on the hills of Rome. Some time ago he has lost his left eye while at work, and got a consistent sum of money from the insurance company, which he keeps hidden from the rest of the family. His whole life is now based on defending the money he sees as his own, while the rest of the family tries to kill him.
Fortini/Cani (1976)
Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet · 1 critic vote
The film is a sort of presentation of Franco Fortini's book 'I Cani del Sinai'. Fortini, an Italian Jew, reads excerpts from the book about his alienation from Judaism and from the social relations around him, the rise of Fascism in Italy, the anti-Arab attitude of European culture. The images, mostly a series of Italian landscape shots, provide a backdrop that highlights the meaning of the text. - Fabrizio Sabidussi
The Innocent (1976)
Luchino Visconti · 1 critic vote
Free on Plex, Plex Channel · Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Fawesome
Tullio Hermil is a chauvinist aristocrat who flaunts his mistress to his wife, but when he believes she has been unfaithful he becomes enamored of her again.
Orchestra Rehearsal (1978)
Federico Fellini · 1 critic vote
An orchestra assembles for a rehearsal in an ancient chapel under the inquisitive eyes of a TV documentary crew, but an uprising breaks out.
Beyond the Darkness (1979)
Aristide Massaccesi · 1 critic vote
Free on JustWatch TV, Tubi TV, Filmzie · Streaming on Screambox Amazon Channel, Night Flight Plus, Midnight Pulp
A disturbed young embalmer digs the grave of his recently deceased girlfriend and brings her body to his family villa with help from his strange housekeeper. But his bouts of insanity are just beginning.
La Luna (1979)
Bernardo Bertolucci · 1 critic vote
While touring in Italy, a recently-widowed American opera singer has an incestuous relationship with her 15-year-old son to help him overcome his heroin addiction.
The Face with Two Left Feet (1979)
Neri Parenti · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Bloodstream
Gianni, a hotel cook, is frustratingly in love with the sexy blonde DJ at the nightclub "John's Fever" but he can't dance. When one of the cook's coworkers draws a mustache and beard on a poster of John Travolta everyone somehow finally notices that Gianni looks exactly like Travolta and the game is on.
Zombi 2 (1979)
Lucio Fulci · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Shudder, Fandor Amazon Channel, Screambox Amazon Channel
After an abandoned boat sails into New York harbor with a zombie aboard, a reporter teams up with the daughter of the boat's missing captain to investigate the island where he was last seen conducting research—the site of an alleged zombie outbreak.
Passion of Love (1981)
Ettore Scola · 1 critic vote
In the 1860's, Giorgio (Giraudeau), a young Italian soldier is sent to a remote post, far away from his lover, Clara (Antonelli). He is lodged in the house of the colonel (Girotti). He becames friends with the colonel and the local doctor (Trintignant). Among the inhabitants of the house, there is a strange young woman - Fosca (d'Obici) who is both unattractive and mad. However, she has a passion that Giorgio will have to cope with.
All My Friends Part 2 (1982)
Mario Monicelli · 1 critic vote
The four old friends meet on the grave of the fifth of them, Perozzi, who died at the end of the first episode. Time has passed but they are still up for adventures and cruel jokes, and while they recall the one they created together with the late friend, new ones are on their way, starting right there at the cemetery.
Kaos (1984)
Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV · Streaming on Kanopy, Cohen Media Amazon Channel
Five stories center on a werewolf, a feudal landlord, peasants, a ghost, and a mother and her sons.
The Family (1987)
Ettore Scola · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
"The Family," an album with a velvet cover, is meant to touch the extended family of man. Formal portraits, bookends in this 80-year saga, enclose the central story, which opens with the baptism of Carlo, a baby in his grandfather's lap, and ends with Carlo as a grandfather with a baby in his arms. And never once do we get out of the house, whose rooms provide the film's structure. Comfort or passion? Carlo couldn't really decide until it was too late.
The Last Emperor (1987)
Bernardo Bertolucci · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Criterion Channel, Cinemax Amazon Channel, HBO Max Amazon Channel
A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.
The Church (1989)
Michele Soavi · 1 critic vote
Free on Bloodstream, Tubi TV · Streaming on Shudder, Kanopy, Fandor Amazon Channel
In a Gothic cathedral built on the mass grave of a Teutonic purge, an ancient discovery by the new librarian will release an unholy maelstrom of madness, violence, and demonic vengeance.
Voices In Time (1996)
Franco Piavoli · 1 critic vote
Visual ode to contemplative journey through the stages of life and the essence of human existence, set in a timeless backdrop of an Italian village.
Totò Who Lived Twice (1998)
Daniele Ciprì, Franco Maresco · 1 critic vote
On the margins of Sicilian life, the sacred and profane collapse into one another in a hallucinatory, blackly comic satire.
Workers, Peasants (2001)
Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet · 1 critic vote
A group of men and women have been brought together after World War II, when Italy regained its national and territorial unity. They make up a primitive community which seeks to erase not only the distress created by the war but also the hardships of life, and look to protect themselves from violence, misery and fear. Amid the ruins of this post-war period, these men and women build a new rapport between themselves, between sexes, between generations, between social and geographical origins, between political camps.
The Best of Youth (2003)
Marco Tullio Giordana · 1 critic vote
After a fateful encounter in the summer of 1966, the lifepaths of two brothers from a middle-class Roman family diverge, intersecting with some of the most significant events of postwar Italian history in the following decades.
These Encounters of Theirs (2006)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 1 critic vote
These Encounters Of Theirs divides 10 non-professional actors into couples, then has them take turns in declaiming the Dialogues With Leuco, Cesare Pavese's abstract, philosophical work.
Il Divo: The Spectacular Life of Giulio Andreotti (2008)
Paolo Sorrentino · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Hoopla
Italy, early '90s. Calm, clever and inscrutable, politician Giulio Andreotti has been synonymous with power for decades. He has survived everything: electoral battles, terrorist massacres, loss of friends, slanderous accusations; but now certain repentant mobsters implicate him in the crimes of Cosa Nostra.
Greenery Will Bloom Again (2014)
Ermanno Olmi · 1 critic vote
World War I, Italian north-eastern front after the 1917 bloody battles on the Altipiano. A group of soldiers face the difficulty of war in a story that unfolds in the space of one night. Events follow one after the other without any kind of pattern: the peaceful mountains suddenly become a place where men die. But every story told in this film is a true story.
Blood of My Blood (2015)
Marco Bellocchio · 1 critic vote
Streaming on MUBI, MUBI Amazon Channel
In the Middle Ages, Federico, a soldier, visits the convent in Bobbio, where Sister Benedetta is facing charges of witchery for seducing Fabrizio, Federico’s twin brother, and making him betray his priestly mission. Federico hopes to secure his brother a burial on consecrated grounds. In modern times, Federico Mai, a Minister inspector, knocks on the doors of the very same convent, in order to broker a sale of the property to a Russian millionaire. Unbeknownst to him, a mysterious "Count" lives there.
Dogman (2018)
Matteo Garrone · 1 critic vote
Free on Tubi TV, YouTube Free, Fandango at Home Free · Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Magnolia Selects Amazon Channel
Marcello, a small and gentle dog groomer, finds himself involved in a dangerous relationship of subjugation with Simone, a former violent boxer who terrorizes the entire neighborhood. In an effort to reaffirm his dignity, Marcello will submit to an unexpected act of vengeance.
Martin Eden (2019)
Pietro Marcello · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy, Hoopla, Kino Film Collection
The tale of an individualist proletarian in a time marked by the rise of mass political movements. In early 20th-century Italy, illiterate sailor Martin Eden seeks fame as a writer while torn between the love of a bourgeois girl and allegiance to his social class.
Cursed Spring (2020)
Elisa Amoruso · 1 critic vote
Nina is 13 years old and has an incredibly messy family. She finds herself catapulted from the center of Rome in a suburban neighborhood: grey high-rises, boys on scooters and a funny grandmother who spends all of her time gambling on cards. A sudden encounter upsets everything, like a storm: she is 13 years old, lives in the opposite building, and dances the Lambada. Her name is Sirley, she comes from French Guiana and has an ambitious dream: to interpret the Madonna in the neighborhood procession. Between the two an intense, very strong bond is created. Their friendship will lead Nina to finally lose control, and to discover her place not only in the world, but in the heart of her family.
Journey into the Dusk (2021)
Augusto Contento · 1 critic vote
A portrait of Italy in the 60's and 70's, based on films by Marco Bellocchio.
La Chimera (2023)
Alice Rohrwacher · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Kanopy
Just out of jail, rumpled English archaeologist Arthur reconnects with his wayward crew of tombaroli accomplices – a happy-go-lucky collective of itinerant grave-robbers who survive by looting Etruscan tombs and fencing the ancient treasures they dig up.
Challengers (2024)
Luca Guadagnino · 1 critic vote
Streaming on Amazon Prime Video
Tennis player turned coach Tashi has taken her husband, Art, and transformed him into a world-famous Major champion. To jolt him out of his recent losing streak, she signs him up for a "Challenger" event — close to the lowest level of pro tournament — where he finds himself standing across the net from his former best friend and Tashi's former boyfriend.

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