Italian Language Films: Media Resources Center UCB

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Boccaccio '70: Scherzo in Quattro Atti (1962)

Four separate satires on morality, prudery, and hypocrisy, each directed by one of Italy's top filmmakers. Disc 1: 1. Renzo e Luciana (Renzo and Luciana). Director, Mario Monicelli. Cast: Marisa Solinas, Germano Giglioli. -- 2. La Tentazioni del Dottor Antonio (The temptation of Doctor Antonio). Director, Federico Fellini. Cast: Anita Ekberg, Peppino de Filippo. -- Disc 2: 3. Il Lavoro (The job). Director, Luchino Visconti. Cast: Romy Schneider, Tomas Milian, Romolo Valli. -- 4. La Riffa (The raffle). Director, Vittorio De Sica. Cast: Sophia Loren. 208 min total. DVD 5985

Buongiorno, notte (Good Morning, Night) (2003)

Directed by Marco Bellocchio. Cast: Maya Sansa, Luigi Lo Cascio, Robert Herlitzka, Paolo Briguglia, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Giovanni Calcagno. A young woman, Chiara, moves into a new apartment with her husband. She conceals her true identity as a member of the Red Brigades, Italy's terrorist underground, which is currently planning to kidnap the Prime Minister. Based upon true events in 1978, the kidnapping and murder of Italy's former Prime Minister Aldo Moro. 103 min. DVD 5557

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Cabiria (1914)

Directed by Giovanni Pastrone. Cast: Letizia Catena, Letizia Quaranta, Gina Marangoni, Bartolomeo Pagano, Italia Mazini. The personal adventures of a Roman girl (Cabiria) and her two benefactors in the third century B.C. during the Second Punic War. Includes scenes of the eruption of Mt. Etna, sea battles, and Hannibal crossing the Alps. Opens with a brief description of the Italian genre of historical spectacular films, plus a history of the making of the film Cabiria. Based on Cabiria by Gabriele d'Annunzio. 123 min. DVD 410; VHS 999:1800

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Caro Diario (Dear Diary) (1994)

Directed by Nanni Moretti. Nanni Moretti stars as himself in this whimsical comedy about a man who takes off on his motorcycle across Italy and the Lipari Islands of the Mediterranean in search of the true meaning of life. 100 min. 999:1602

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Haaland, Torunn. "Moretti's Epistemological Realism: Cultural Heritage and Intellectual Distance in Caro diario." Forum Italicum, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 325-45, Fall 2006

Rascaroli, Laura. "New voyages to Italy: postmodern travellers and the Italian road film." Screen v. 44 no. 1 (Spring 2003) p. 71-91

Casanova (Il Casanova di Federico Fellini) (1976)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Donald Sutherland, Tina Aumont, Cicely Browne, Carmen Scariptta, Clara Algranti, Daniela Gatti. Donald Sutherland portrays the famous Casanova, a libertine who collects seductions and sexual feats, in his wanning days as he travels from a bubonic-plagued Venice to a syphilitic London and a tubercular Germany. 155 min. DVD 3323

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C'eravamo Tanto Amati (We All Loved Each Other So Much) (1974)

Directed by Ettore Scola. Cast: Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi, Stephania Sandrelli. In a retrospective allegory, Ettore Scola examines the lives of three resistance fighters and their transformation over thirty years. Each of these friends falls in love with the beautiful Luciana, an aspiring actress, testing the friendship and idealism they all shared. Throughout the story Scola pays tribute to the masters of Italian cinema by weaving classic film clips and iconic personalities into the background, as the film reveals which of the three friends remains true to the spirit of liberation they had once fought to achieve. 124 min. DVD 6097

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Le Chiavi di Casa (The Keys to the House) (2004)

Directed by Gianni Amelio. Cast: Kim Rossi Stuart, Charlotte Rampling, Andrea Rossi, Anita Bardeleben, Thorsten Schwarz, Bernd Weikert, Ingrid Appenrodth, Manuel Katzy, Dimitri Susin, Alla Faerovich. Gianni is reunited with Paolo, the 15-year-old physically handicapped son he has never seen, a son he abandoned at birth. The reunion is not Gianni's idea, but that of Paolo's doctor who hopes the connection will benefit the troubled boy. Gianni experiences a Pandora's box in Paolo, full of shocks and wonders, but eventually comes to appreciate the responsibilities and rewards of caring for a handicapped child. 107 min. DVD 5311

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Ciao, Federico! (1975)

Directed by Gideon Bachmann. A study of the style and techniques of Federico Fellini, a creative international director of motion pictures. Filmed during the shooting of Fellini's Satyricon. 65 min. Video/C 2989

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Cinema Paradiso (Nuovo Cinema Paradiso) (1988)

Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. Cast: Antonella Attili, Salvatore Cascio, Philippe Noiret, Jacques Perrin. A young boy in a small Italian village is befriended by the projectionist at the movie theater, the Cinema Paradiso. As he grows up he learns to love films, and is encouraged by his good friend to pursue his dream of one day making movies. 121 min. DVD 3195 (PAL); vhs 999:1976

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Movie Review Query Engine

Galt, Rosalind. "Italy's Landscapes of Loss: Historical Mourning and the Dialectical Image in Cinema Paradiso, Mediterraneo, and Il Postino." Screen, vol. 43, no. 2, pp. 158-73, July 2002

Radstone, Susannah. "Cinema/Memory/History." Screen, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 34-47, April 1995

Thiel, Lydia Distefano. "Cinema Paradiso: Search for the Father." RLA: Romance Languages Annual, vol. 3, pp. 321-25, 1991

La Ciociara (Two Woman ) (1961)

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Cast: Sophia Loren, Jean Paul Belmondo, Raf Vallone, Eleonora Brown. Portrays an Italian mother who along with her daughter is raped by soldiers during World War II. After regaining consciousness she finds her daughter in a state of shock, and the rest of the film tells how they find their way back to life and survive the horror of war. 105 min. 999:2431

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Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

La Città delle Donne (The City of Women) (1981)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Ettore Manni, Anna Prucnal. This film expounds at length on the nature, complexities, attitudes, and hang-ups of women and how this all relates to men "hunting" sexual conquests. Snaporaz, a modern day Don Juan, finds himself in a surrealistic world of women as he dreams he follows a woman off a train and then loses her. Soon, as a representative of the male sex in general he finds himself in a hotel, among myriad women attending a feminist conference. 138 min. DVD 670; VHS 999:2771

I Clowns (The Clowns) (1970)

The circus clowns of film director Federico Fellini's childhood are recalled followed by an exploration of the symbolic meaning of clowns, a segment featuring the present-day clowns in Italian and French circuses, an interview with a historian of clowns, and concluding with a clown funeral. Featuring Anita Ekberg, Federico Fellini, Tristan Remy, Riccardo Billi, Tino Scotti, Fanfulla, Charlie Revel. Dialogue in Italian and French, subtitles in English. 90 min. Video/C 6883

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Come inguaiammo il cinema italiano

This informative documentary chronicles the lives and careers of the Italian comics Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia who formed a memorable duo in over 130 films in the 1970s and '80s. 2005. 97 min. DVD 9577

Comizi d'amore (Love Meetings ) (1964)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Documentary featuring director Pasolini asking questions about sex, love, and morality of a variety of people all over Italy. Features interviews with psychologist Cesare Musatti and author Alberto Moravia. 90 min. DVD 3722; Video/C 4744

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Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

La Commare Secca (The Grim Reaper) (1962)

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Cast: Carlotta Barilli, Lorenza Benedetti, Clorinda Celani, Vincenzo Ciccora, Alvaro D'Ercole, Giancarlo De Rosa, Gabriella Giorgelli, Romano Labate, Silvio Lourenzi, Francesco Ruiu, Alfredo Leggi. The brutalized corpse of a prostitute is found in a Roman park, along the banks of the Tiber River. The police round up and interrogate a handful of possible suspects. Each has to explain why he is there. One of them is the killer. In Italian with optional subtitles in English; closed-captioned. 93 min. DVD 6425

Bernardo Bertolucci bibliography

Il Conformista (The Conformist) (1970)

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Cast: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda, Repressing his homosexual drives, a young man strives for an "acceptable" life as a member of the Italian Fascist Secret Service and as a middle-class would-be wife-chaser, until an odd series of events makes him a willing murderer. DVD special features: "The rise of The conformist: the story, the cast"; "Shadow and light: filming The conformist"; and "The conformist: Breaking new ground". 108 min. DVD 7295; vhs 999:949

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I coltelli del vendicatore (Knives of the avenger) (Italy, 1966)

Directed by Mario Bava. Cast: Cameron Mitchell, Elissa Pichelli, Fausto Tozzi, Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Luciano Pollentin, Amedeo Trilli. Described as an Italian Viking film, or a Viking Western, this is a story of a mysterious knife-throwing viking warrior who protects a young peasant woman and her young son from the clutches of a evil regent bent on claiming the title of king and the woman for himself. 85 min. DVD 7574

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Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (Christ Stopped at Eboli) (1979)

Directed by Francesco Rosi. Cast: Gian Maria Volonte, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny, Lea Massari, Irene Papas, Francois Simon. Levi, an intellectual exiled by the Fascist government during World War II to a mountain village in southern Italy, discovers the resilience and dignity of people who live close to the land. 145 min. DVD 2542

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Cronaca di un amore (Story of a Love Affair) (1950)

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Cast: Massimo Girotti, Lucia Bos`e, Gino Rossi, Marika Rowsky, Ferdinando Sarmi, Rubi D'Alma, Anita Farra, Carlo Gazzapini, Nardo Rimediotti. Groundlessly jealous of his wife's romantic past, Enrico Fontana hires a private detective to finally determine whether she is fathful or not. Ironically, his suspicious attitude unconsciously brings his wife, Paola, together with Guido, a man with whom she had once been in love. Paola and Guido's past was clouded in tragedy. Giudo had been involved with Paola's close friend's death. Their passion rekindled once again, the lovers even get to the point where they are thinking about murdering Enrico. Special features: "Restoring a masterpiece"--Interviews with cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno and post-production technicians on the process; "Story of a peculiar night" - the screening of the restored print in Rome; "Identification of a masterpiece" - with assistant Bruno Roberti; "Fragments of a Love Affair" - on camera visit of the shooting locations with Francesco Maselli, reconstructing the genesis of the film; extensive poster & still gallery including behind the scene photos; Collectible booklet - including talent bio, two original interviews with Michaelangelo Antonioni and essay by Academy Award Nominee cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno on the restoration of the film. 98 min. DVD 6670

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Michelangelo Antonioni bibliography

Il Decameron (The Decameron) (1970)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cast: Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli, Jovan Jovanovic, Vincenzo Amato, Angela Luce, Giuseppe Zigaina. Pasolini's rendition of 8 of Boccaccio's tales. Includes lusty nuns who perform sexual "miracles," a cheating wife with a head for business, a dying con artist attempting a heavenly swindle, young lovers caught with their pants down, a servant who loses his head for love, and a gullible farmer who tries to turn his wife into a mare. 111 min. DVD 1903

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Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Il Deserto Rosso (Red Desert) (1964)

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Cast: Monica Vitti, Richard Harris, Xenia Valderi, Carlo Chionetti, Rita Renoir. Antonioni's first color film depicts a woman traumatized by an auto accident who finds herself permanently alienated in her urban milieu. 116 min. DVD 186; VHS 999:1065

Michelangelo Antonioni bibliography

Dillo con parole mie (Ginger and Cinnamon) (2001)

Directed by Daniele Luchetti. Cast: Stefania Montorsi, Giampaolo Morelli, Martina Merlino, Alberto Cucca. After breaking up with her boyfriend, 30-year-old Stefania vacations on the Greek "Isle of Love", and reluctantly agrees to chaperone her precocious 15-year-old niece, Meggy. But Stefania doesn't know that Meggy plans to lose her virginity before the summer is over, and the guy she has her eye on is none other than Stefania's ex. 104 min. DVD 6331

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Divorzio all'Italiana (Divorce Italian Style) (1962)

Directed by Pietro Germi. Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Daniela Rocca, Stefania Sandrelli. An Italian baron who is tired of his clinging wife, fantasizes about killing her as there is no divorce in Italy. He falls madly in love with his innocent young niece and begins to plan in earnest to kill his wife in a fit of passion when he finds her unfaithful to him. But first he must arrange for his wife to have a lover so that she may be unfaithful. 104 min. DVD 5929; vhs 999:2319

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La Dolce Vita (1960)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimee, Yvonne Furneaux, Magali Noel, Alain Cuny, Lex Barker, Alain Dijon. Tabloid reporter Marcello's beat is Rome's international jet set. In pursuit of the next big scandal, Marcello is continually seduced and repulsed by the hedonistic lifestyle of the rich, amoral and bored to whom nothing is sacred. His values are being destroyed, leaving him totally disillusioned as he experiences the emptiness behind the glitz of "the sweet life." DVD special features: Disc 1. Audio commentary by noted critic and film historian Richard Schickel; Disc 2. Fellini TV - collection of never-before-seen Fellini shorts; Remembering the sweet life, interviews with Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg; Cinecitta, the house of Fellini, musical montage of Fellini's beloved studio; Fellini, Roma and Cinecitta, interview with Fellini; extensive photo gallery; restoration demo; biographies; filmographies. 174 min. DVD 2986; vhs 999:42 (2 tapes)

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L'Eclisse (Eclipse) (1962)

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Cast: Alain Delon, Monica Vitti, Francisco Rabal. A young woman, after breaking off an affair with an older man, finds herself in Rome and alone. She becomes friends with a young stockbroker, but after he has an accident, she once again finds herself alone. 123 min. DVD 3644; vhs 999:131

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1860 (1933)

Directed by Alessandro Blasetti. In May 1860, the Sicilians rebelled against and defeated the troops of the King of Naples. This is a dramatization of the events surrounding the battle of Calafimi. The use of non-professional actors, actual landscapes, natural light sources, and regional dialects make this epic film a precursor of the neo-realism film genre. 72 min. 999:1550

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8 1/2 (Eight and a Half; Otto e mezzo) (1963)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimee, Sandra Milo, Barbara Steele. Autobiographical film about a famous film director who loses his inspiration while making a movie. Much of the story is told in flashback sequences. DVD Disc two features Fellini's rarely seen first film for television, an imagined documentary, as well as a documentary about Nino Rota, the maestro behind the music of Fellini's films, interviews, still photographs and production photos connected with the film. 135 min. DVD 952; vhs 999:132

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Enrico IV (Henry IV) (1984)

Directed by Marco Bellocchio. Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Leopoldo Trieste. Thrown from a horse, a modern aristocrat proclaims he is the 11th century king of the Holy Roman Empire. For 20 years he lives out this delusion until his former love visits with a plan to shock the madman back to reality. Based on the play by Luigi Pirandello. 95 min. DVD 5999

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Fascisti su Marte(2006)

Directed by Corrado Guzzanti Igor Igor Skofic. Cast: Corrado Guzzanti, Marco Marzocca, Lillo Petrolo, Andrea Blarzino. Imagines a 1939 expedition to Mars intent on turning the Red Planet to Fascist black. Led by Mussolini acolyte Barbagli, the group overcomes the Martian atmosphere and battles rocks they've determined are enemies. 100 min. DVD 9567

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Fellini's Roma (see: Roma)

Ferdinando e Carolina (Ferdinando and Carolina) (1999)

Directed by Lina Wertmuller. Cast: Sergio Assisi, Gabriella Pession, Nicole Grimaudo. After an arranged marriage, King Ferdinando and Carolina discover that the one thing they have in common is sexual desire. The sovereigns continue to reign, oblivious to the tide of revolution threatening to tear France apart. 108 min. DVD 4418

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La Finestra di Fronte (Facing Windows) (2003)

Directed by Ferzan Özpetek. Cast: Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Massimo Girotti, Raoul Bova, Filippo Nigro, Serra Yilmaz, Massimo Poggio. Giovanna is a young working-class wife and mother, who has no time for the senile elderly man her husband has rescued from the streets. But as she uncovers the stranger's secrets, it unlocks a freedom within her heart she never expected; a freedom that will lead her to the arms of a neighbor she secretly adores, and to fulfillment her husband and family cannot provide. Non-US format DVD. 106 min. DVD 3021

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Lally, Kevin. "Facing Windows." Film Journal International, Jun2004, Vol. 107 Issue 6, p49-50, 2p

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Il Fiore delle mille e una notte (Arabian Nights) (1974)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cast: Ninetto Davoli, Franco Citti, Margaret Clementi, Tessa Bouche, Ines Pellegrini, Franco Merli. The tale follows the adventures of a slave girl as she rises to power over a great city. Around her revolve the stories of magic and lust, mystery and fantasy that derive from three cultures (Persia, Egypt and India) and range from the ninth century to the Renaissance. 133 min. 999:2239

For a Fistful of Dollars (Per un pugno di dollari) (Italy / Spain / West Germany, 1964; dubbed into English)

Directed by Sergio Leone. Cast: Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, John Wels, W. Lukschy, S. Rupp, Joe Edger. The first of the "spaghetti westerns" featuring a lean, cold-eyed, cobra-quick gunslinger, a cynical enigmatic loner, the first of the "anti-heroes." 99 min. DVD 4545; vhs 999:276

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Sergio Leone bibliography

Francesco, Giullare di Dio (The Flowers of St. Francis) (1050)

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Cast: Brother Nazario Gerardi, Brother Severino Pisacane, Esposito Bonaventura, Aldo Fabrizi, Arabella Lemaitre. Told in a series of simple and joyous vignettes from the daily events and experiences of the Franciscans, conveys the universal teachings of humility, faith and sacrifice of the People's Saint and the order he founded. 87 min. DVD 4441

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Fratello sole, sorella luna (Brother Sun, Sister Moon) (1973)

Directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Cast: Graham Faulkner, Judi Bowker, Alec Guinness, Leigh Lawson, Kenneth Cranham, Lee Montague, Valentina Cortese, Michael Feast, Nicholas Willatt. A compelling, insightful look at the early years of Saint Francis of Assisi, who abandoned a life of wealth and comfort to seek spiritual values, eventually founding the religious order of Franciscans. 121 min. DVD 2345

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Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) (1963)

Directed by Luchino Visconti. Cast: Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon. A historical drama set in 1860 about a Sicilian prince who recognizes the crumbling of the aristocracy and meets the changing scene and the rise of the middle class with pride. Based on the novel by Giuseppe Tommasi de Lampedusa. PAL format DVD. 180 min. DVD 1498

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Germany, Year Zero (Germania, anno zero; Deutschland im jahre null) (1947)

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Cast: Edmund Moeschke, Franz-Otto Kruger, Werner Pittschau, Erich Guhne. This film tells the story of a 12 year old boy who works with increasing desperation to support his family in war-torn Germany. He kills his sickly father, and then, unable to live with such a deed, kills himself. Filmed shortly after WWII in Berlin, a place filled with starving people, rampant crime, and a generation confused by the role their fathers played in one of history's greatest tragedies. Rossellini took people off the streets of Berlin to play the characters in this, his last Neo-Realist film, which poignantly captured the impoverished state of Berlin at that time. Based on a story by Roberto Rossellini. In German with English subtitles. 75 min. DVD 1798; vhs 999:2790

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Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini(The Garden of the Finzi-Continis) (1970)

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Cast: Lino Capolicchio, Dominique Sanda, Fabio Testi, Romolo Valli, Helmut Berger. This drama is set in Italy in 1938, when Mussolini's anti-Semitic edicts began to isolate the Jews from their communities. As the political atmosphere becomes increasingly hostile to Jewish citizens the handsome and carefree children of a cultured Jewish family, the Finzi-Continis, turn their home into a refuge for their young friends. In an atmosphere of emotional instability, they play out hearbreaking romantic rituals which spiral into tragedy as Fascism gradually descends upon their world. 94 min. DVD 5520; vhs 999:1909

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Ginger e Fred (Ginger and Fred) (1986)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Giulietta Masina, Marcello Mastroianni, Franco Fabrizi, Martin Blau, Francesco Casale. A former dance team that used to earn its living in Italian dance halls by imitating the routines of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, reunites thirty years later to do a television variety show. Fred is the same as ever drinking and chasing women, but Ginger has matured and gotten married, yet fond remembrances of former days still gleam in her eyes. Together they learn that they can never leave the past behind. 128 min. 999:2577

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Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits) (1965)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Giulietta Masina, Sylvia Koscina, Valentina Cortese, Sandra Milo, Valeska Girt, Lou Gilbert, Milena Vukotic. "Juliet lives in a beautiful house by the ocean. Her sisters, and especially her Mother overshadow her with their beauty. She is a spiritual, superstious and naive woman. She visits a psychic seer who tells her she must follow the sex trade in order to be happy. Not long after she meets her eccentric and sexy neighbour, Suzy, who, by all counts appears to be a high class prostitute and encourages Juilet into sexual acts which make her guilty and nervous. A rare night when her husband is at home she wakes up to catch him talking to another woman on the phone. He calls out the name "Gabriella" while sleeping, but when she questions him he lies his way out of it. She finds out who Gabriella is and fears her husband will leave her. Juliet begins having visions who accuse and terrorise her. The pinnacle of the visions comes at the end where it is implied she realises she would be better off without her husband and is ultimately emotionally emancipated." [imdb.com] 140 min. DVD 72; VHS 999:389

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The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo) (Italy / Spain, 1966; dubbed into English)

Directed by Sergio Leone. Cast: Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef, Aldo Giuffre. During the American Civil War, three men seek hidden loot. With greed as their sole motivation, they overcome anything that gets in their way--including each other. 162 min. DVD 4546; vhs 999:832, parts 1 & 2

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Sergio Leone bibliography

Goya in Bordeaux (Spain/Italy, 1999)

Directed by Carlos Suara. Cast: Francisco Rabal, Jose Coronado, Maribel Verdu, Eulalia Ramon. In Bordeaux, France, in the early 1800's, Goya suffers from strange visions and nightmares. Goya reflects on his tumultuous career, a love affair with the beautiful Duchess of Alba and the evil crusade of Napoleon's French army. 105 min. DVD 563

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Il Grido (The Outcry) (1957)

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Cast: Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, Dorian Gray, Betsy Blair. The narrative follows Aldo, a young refinery mechanic who, when faced with the sudden end of a seven-year affair with a married woman (Irma), abandons his past and embarks on an aimless quest with their young daughter in tow. His travels take him to the home of an old flame, to a filling station owned by a lonely widow and into the arms of a prostitute in a fishing village but ultimately he realizes he can love only Irma. In Italian with English subtitles. 115 min. DVD 5919; vhs 999:2401

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Haman: Il Bagno Turco (Italy / Turkey / Spain, 1995)

Directed and written by Ferzan Özpetek. Cast: Alessandro Gassman, Francesca d'Aloja, Halil Ergun, Serif Sezer, Carlo Cecchi, Alberto Maolinari. Francesco travels from Rome to Istanbul to claim his inheritance and discovers that it is a decaying turkish bath in the city's ancient quarters. He is so taken by life in the city that he decides to stay and restore the hamam, a decision which opens up his life to an array of powerful new emotions. PAL format. In Italian and Turkish with English subtitles. 96 min. Video 999:3046

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Anderlini-D'Onofrio, Serena. "Bisexual games and emotional sustainability in Ferzan Özpetek's queer films." New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film; 2004, Vol. 2 Issue 3, p163-174, 12p

Girelli, Elisabetta. "Transnational Orientalism: Ferzan zpetek's Turkish dream in Hamam (1997)." New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film | Volume: 5 | Issue: 1 | Pps: 23-38

Iordanova, Dina. "Whose is This Memory?: Hushed Narratives and Discerning Remembrance in Balkan Cinema." Cineaste; Summer2007, Vol. 32 Issue 3, p22-27, 6p

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Smith, Paul Julian. "Haman." Sight and Sound. Nov 1998. Vol. 8, Iss. 11; p. 52 (2 pages)

Hanging Shadows: Perspectives on Italian Horror Cinema

With its roots in the pulpy crime novels of the 1920s and 30s, Giallo cinema or Italian horror cinema, as it's more commonly known, first emerged in the late 1960s. Following the neo-realists, the giallo films represented a radical break with Italy's cinematic past. This documentary presents an informative historical overview of the giallo genre, exploring its genesis and chronicling the films, directors, and personalities that made up its golden age. Includes interviews with a fascinating group of filmmakers who redefined the horror genre and forever changed the way we think of horror films. Written, produced and directed by Paolo Fazzini. Dist.: Cinema Guild. c2006. 60 min. DVD 8604

Ieri, Oggi, Domani (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow)(Italy / France, 1963)

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Cast: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni. Three humorous tales (Adelina of Naples; Anna of Milan; Mara of Rome) that portray Italian women who manipulate their sexual favors to get what they want out of the self-centered men in their lives. 120 min. DVD 5534; vhs 999:2430

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Indiscretion of an American Wife, & Terminal Station (Stazione termini) (Italy / USA, 1954)

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Cast: Jennifer Jones, Montgomery Clift, Richard Beymer. An American housewife vacationing in Italy reluctantly decides to put an end to her brief affair with an Italian academic. She flees to Rome's Stazione Termini, where she bids him farewell, but he begs her to stay. The troubled collaboration between director Vittorio De Sica and producer David O. Selznick resulted in two cuts of the same film. De Sica's version, Terminal Station, was screened at a length of one-and-a-half hours, but after disappointing previews, Selznick severely re-edited it and changed the title to Indiscretion of an American Wife without De Sica's permission. Both versions of this controversial release are presented here. Dialogue by Truman Capote. pecial Features: Exclusive audio commentary on Indiscretion by film scholar Leonard Leff (Hitchcock and Selznick: The Rich and Strange Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and David O. Selznick) ; original theatrical trailer ; promotional materials. Indiscretion of an American wife (72 min.) / Selznick's cut, including the Patti Page-performed overture "Autumn in Rome" and "Indiscretion" -- Terminal Station = Stazione termini (89 min) / De Sica's original version 72 min., 89 min. DVD 1851

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Intervista (1987)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Fellini, Anita Ekberg, Marcello Mastroianni. A dramatization of the life of the Italian motion picture director Federico Fellini, framed in the form of an interview conducted by a Japanese film crew. As the interview progresses Fellini's mind wanders to his earliest days. With the co-operation of Fellini's loyal co-workers, the viewer is permitted to see tantalizingly brief excerpts (some self-mocking) of Fellini's modus operandi. 108 min. DVD 5947; vhs 999:2578

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Io Non Ho Paura (I'm Not Scared) (Italy / Spain / UK, 2003)

Directed by Gabriele Salvatores. Cast: Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Dino Abbrescia, Giorgio Careccia, Riccardo Zinna, Michele Vasca, Susy Sanchez, Antonella Stefanucci, Giuseppe Cristiano, Mattia di Pierro. While playing outside one day in a wheat field, nine-year-old Michele discovers Filippo, who is chained to the ground at the bottom of a hole. Michele witnesses town bad boy Felice nearby and suspects something bad is happening. Michele is unsure whom he should tell about his discovery, eventually spilling the tale to his closest friend. When Michele's parents learn of his discovery, they warn him to forget whatever he saw. 102 min. DVD 3107

Ladri di Biciclette (Bicycle Thief; Bicycle Thieves ) (1949)

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Cast: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola. "The film tells the story of Antonio Ricci, an unemployed worker who gets a job posting flyers in the depressed post-World War II economy of Italy. To keep the job, he must have a bicycle, so his wife Maria sells her wedding sheets to get the money to get his bicycle from the pawnbroker. Early in the film, the bike is stolen, and Antonio and his son Bruno spend the remainder of the film searching for it. Antonio manages to locate the thief (who had already sold the bicycle) and summons the police, but with no proof and with the thief�s neighbors willing to give him a false alibi, he abandons this cause. At the end of the film Antonio, desperate to keep his job, attempts to steal a bicycle himself. He is caught and humiliated in front of Bruno, but the owner of the bicycle declines to press charges, realizing that the humiliation is punishment enough. Antonio and his family face a bleak future as the film ends, coupled with Antonio's realization that he is not morally superior to the thief." [Wikipedia] Special features on DVD 7407: "Working with De Sica": a collection of new interviews with screenwriter Suso Cecchi D'Amico, actor Enzo Staiola, and film scholar Callisto Cosulich; "Life as it is": new program on the history of Italian neorealism in cinema, with scholar Mark Shiel; documentary on screenwriter and longtime Vittorio De Sica collaborator Cesare Zavattini, directed by Carlo Lizzani. 90 min. DVD 7407 (Criterion); DVD 23; VHS 999:116

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Lamerica (Italy / France, 1994)

Directed by Gianni Amelio. Cast: Enrico Lo Verso, Michele Placido, Piro Milkani, Carmelo Di Mazzarelli, Elida Janushi, Sefer Pema, Idajet Sejdia, Marieta Ljarja. After 50 years of communist rule, a poverty stricken Albania finds itself overrun with exploitative capitalists, in particular two Italian businessmen looking to prosper in the changing economy. Forced to name an Albanian citizen as their company's acting chairman, they find the perfect pawn in a deranged former political prisoner. But when he suddenly disappears the Italians begin a journey that will ultimately reshape the integrity of their souls. Special DVD features: Deleted scenes (9 min.), alternate ending (5 min.); photo album; poster gallery; Italian theatrical trailers (2 min.). 135 min. DVD 8996; vhs 999:2660

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Movie Review Query Engine

Last Tango in Paris (Ultimo tango a Parigi; Le Dernier Tango a Paris) (Italy / France, 1972)

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Cast: Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider, Maria Michi, Giovanna Galletti, Jean-Pierre Leaud. An American widower in Paris, desolate at the unexplained suicide of his wife, plunges into an erotic affair with a young French girl half his age with tragic consequences 131 min. DVD 303; VHS 999:983

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Love and Anarchy (Film d'amore e d'anarchia, ovvero 'stamattina alle 10 in via dei Fiori nella nota casa di tolleranza...) (1973)

Directed by Lina Wertmuller. Cast: Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato, Eros Pagni, Lina Polito. Tells the story of a shy country peasant who goes to the city with a plan to assassinate Benito Mussolini. His underground contact in the network of anarchists offers him a hideout in her brothel where he meets a young prostitute and falls in love. When his lover prevents the plan's realization, he fires upon police, is imprisoned and murdered. 129 min. 999:2313

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Luce dei miei occhi (Light of My Eyes) (2001)

Directed by Giuseppe Piccioni. Cast: Luigi Lo Cascio, Sandra Ceccarelli, Silvio Orlando, Barbara Valente, Toni Bertorelli. Light of my eyes: Antonio, a lonely man working as a driver of luxury cars, reads science fiction novels until he meets Maria. Though he secretly pays her debts, she remains indifferent to his love. Until ... 113 min. DVD 6327

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Luci del varieta (Variety Lights ) (1950)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Peppino de Filippo, Carla del Poggio, Giulietta Masina, John Kitzmiller. Story of the hand-to-mouth existence of a troupe of engaging but not especially talented vaudeville performers who are joined by an ambitious, beautiful young girl of limited talents. She becomes the center of attraction for the company, but she deserts them all for a more upscale show. 93 min. DVD 287; VHS 999:1290

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Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Malèna (Italy / USA, 2000)

Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. Cast: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Frederico, Matilde Plana. An unforgettable story of a 13-year-old boy's journey into manhood amid the chaos and intolerance of World War II. In a sleepy Italian village, the most beautiful woman in town, Malena, becomes the object of increasingly malicious gossip among the lustful townsmen and their jealous wives. But only her most ardent admirer, young Renato, learns the untold story of the mysterious and elusive Malena, who inspires him to new heights of compassion, courage and independence. 92 min. 999:3210

Le mani sulla città (Hands Over the City) (Italy, 1963)

Directed by Francesco Rosi. Cast: Rod Steiger, Salvo Randone, Guido Alberti, Angelo D'Alessandro, Carlo Fermariello, Marcello Cannavale, Alberto Canocchia. The structure of power and the facade of democracy are explored in this political expose of corruption in Naples. Following the fatal collapse of a tenement building, an investigation reveals that profits from municipal developments are going to city council members and developers in backroom negotiations. Special features: (Disc 2): The supplements: "Neapolitan diary" (1992), Francesco Rosi's sequel to 'Hands over the city'; New video interviews with Rosi, Tullio Kezich, and Jean-Pierre Gorin; Video discussion with Rosi, co-writer Raffaele La Capria, and Michel Ciment. 110 min. DVD 9419

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Maschera del demonio (Black Sunday) (Italy, 1961)

Directed by Mario Bava. Cast: Barbara Steele, John Richardson, Andrea Checchi, Ivo Garrani, Arturo Dominici. A woman executed as a witch by the Inquisition returns from the grave to seek gruesome revenge on the descendants of those who caused her death. Based on a story by Nikolai Gogol. 88 min. DVD 1833

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Medea (France / Italy / West Germany, 1969)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Medea (Maria Callas), high priestess of the Golden Fleece, falls in love with Jason, and, stealing the prized article, flees with him to Corinth. Jason eventually betrays her, however, when he falls in love with the daughter of Creon. In a white heat of anger, Medea murders Creon, his daughter, and finally her two sons by Jason, then flees, leaving him to face a wifeless, childless future. 100 min. DVD 5618; Video/C 1062

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Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Mediterraneo (1991)

Directed by Gabriele Salvatores. Cast: Diego Abatanuono, Claudio Bigagli, Guiseppe Cederna, Claudio Bisio, Vanna Barba, Irene Grazioli. In 1941, a small group of misfit Italian soldiers is sent to a tiny Greek island in the Agean for four months of lookout duty. Their relief ship is torpedoed and their radio destroyed. As they lose all touch with the world outside, they are absorbed into the life of the idyllic island. PAL (Non-US) DVD. 98 min. DVD 5557

La Meglio Gioventu (The Best of Youth) (2003)

Directed by Marco Tullio Giordana. Cast: Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Adriana Asti, Sonia Bergamasco, Fabrizio Gifuni, Maya Sansa, Valentina Carnelutti, Jasmine Trinca. Divided by politics but bonded by blood, Italian brothers Nicola and Matteo find their paths intersecting through some of the most tumultuous events in Italy's recent history, including the hippy movement, the flood of Florence, the Red Brigades, Mafia scandals, kidnapping and political assassinations. Produced for Italian television, but never broadcast; released theatrically instead. 368 min. DVD 5058

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Mimì metallurgico ferito nell'onore (The Seducation of Mimi; Mimi the Metalworker Wounded in Honor) (1972)

Directed by Lina Wertmuller. Cast: Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato, Agostina Belli. A comedy about a Sicilian laborer who in the course of defending his honor gets into trouble with the Communists, the Mafia and his family. 89 min. DVD 952; vhs 999:2318

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Miracolo a Milano (Miracle in Milan) (1951)

Directed by Vittorio DeSica. Cast: Branduani Gianni, Francesco Golisano, Paolo Stoppa, Emma Gramatica, Gugielmo Barnabo, Brunella Bovo. Comedy, satire, and realism are combined in a fantasy about the social conceits of man. An Italian orphan, with the aid of a miraculous dove, combats power and wealth and succeeds in bringing happiness to the inhabitants of a Milanese hobo camp. 95 min. 999:856

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E la nave va (And the Ship Sails On) (1983)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Freddie Jones, Barbara Jefford, Victor Poletti, Pina Bausch, Peter Cellier, Elisa Mainardi. In 1914, a colorful melange of celebrities embark on a funeral voyage for a dead opera star. An allegorical film blending spectacle, humour, poignance and grotesquerie in this stylized re-creation of a decadent bygone era. 127 min. DVD 539

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Neorealismo

Director Carlo Lizzani discusses the origin and development of the Neorealism movement in Italian cinema between 1943 and 1945, with particular reference to the films Ossessione, Roma Citta Aperta, Paisa, and Sciuscia. 1989. 55 min. Video/C 5878

Neorealismo fino al 1950

Carlo Lizzani explores the development of Italian Neorealism in post-World War II cinema, when films such as La Terra Trema and Ladri di Biciclette brought prestige to the industry even as it struggled with financial problems.1989. 60 min. Video/C 5879

Neorealismo fino al 1954

Carlo Lizzani discusses the crisis and decadence of Neorealism in Italian cinema. In the fifties Rossellini seeks new ways to depict social change taking place in Italy, while upcoming talents such as Fellini, Antonioni and Lizzani use neorealism as a starting point for their personal probings. Meanwhile Neorealism spreads, giving rise to new schools of filmmaking in England, South America and France..1989. 60 min. Video/C 5880

Ninfa plebea (The Nymph) (1996)

Directed by Lina Wertmuller. Cast: Lucia Cara, Stefania Sandrelli, Raoul Bova, Pepe Da Rosa. Miluzza, a young girl who has been abused repeatedly and orphaned, meets a young wounded soldier. Upon helping him return to his family farm, the two fall in love. The man's mother however insists that he marry a virgin. 110 min. DVD 4419

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La Notte (La Nuit/The Night) (Italy / France, 1961)

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Marcello Mastroianni, Monica Vitti, Bernhard Wicki. Examines twenty-four hours in the life of a Milanese novelist and his wife, during which they visit a dying friend in hospital, go to a nightclub, meet a rich industrialist's daughter at a party, and face the emptiness of their lives and marriage. 122 min. DVD 1165; vhs 999:2404

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Le Notte Bianchi (White Nights) (Italy / France , 1957)

Directed by Luchino Visconti. Cast: Maria Schell, Marcello Mastroianni, Jean Marais, Marcella Rovena, Maria Zanoli. A chance encounter on a canal bridge results in a series of twilight rendezvous between a lonely city transplant and a sheltered woman haunted by a lover's promise to return in one year. Just as the young man persuades the girl to believe the sailor will never return, he does. Based on the novel by Fyodor Dostoyevski. 101 min. DVD 4409

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Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Notte d'estate con profilo greco, occhi a mandorla e odore di basilico (Summer Night) (1986)

Directed by Lina Wertmuller. Cast: Marangela Melato, Michele Placido, Massimo Wertmuller, Roberto Herlitzka. Signora Bolk, a self-made rich-bitch billionairess, fed up with the terrorists who poach Italy hires a former CIA agent to kidnap the lead violator. While in captivity and blindfolded the man discovers that one of the women who kidnapped him agrees to pay the ransom but only with a twist. 98 min. DVD 4417

La Notte di San Lorenzo (The Night of the Shooting Stars) (1982)

Directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. Cast: Omero Antonutti, Margarita Lozano, Rinaldo Mirannalti, Enrica Maria Modugno. Depicts the final days of World War II in Italy, seen mostly through the eyes of a six-year-old girl. It is a mythic recollection by the protagonist of life on the run when a group of Italian villagers flee from brutal Nazi occupiers in the summer of 1944. 107 min. DVD 1949

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Taviani Brothers bibliography

Le Notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria) (1957)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Giulietta Masina, Francois Perier, Franca Marzi, Amedeo Nazzari. Cabiria, a prostitute, throws herself into endless love affairs with the frantic persistence of a trapped bird, dashing body and soul against the vain hope of securing marriage and a happy family life. Special DVD features: Uncut, restored theatrical re-release version with 7 minute "man with a sack" sequence; interview with former Fellini assistant Dominique Delouche ; audio interview with producer Dino De Laurentiis ; original and re-release theatrical trailers ; excerpt from Fellini's The White Sheik, in which Masina makes her first appearance as Cabiria ; restoration demonstration. 110 min. DVD 66; VHS 999:361

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1900 (Novecento) (France / Italy, 1976)

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Cast: Robert De Niro, Gerard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Donald Sutherland, Burt Lancaster. An epic film that is both a history of 20th century Italy and a portrait of two families. It is also the story of the conflicts between two boys, one a peasant and the other a landowner, as they pass through the upheavals of the modern world. 255 min. DVD 6809; vhs 999:510

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Nuovomondo (The Golden Door) (Italy / France, 2006)

Directed by Emanuele Crialese. Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Vincenzo Amato, Vincent Schiavelli, Aurora Quattrocchi. Sicilian farmer Salvatore falls in love with a worldly British woman while both are attempting to immigrate to America. Lucy, or Luce as Salvatore calls her, for unknown reasons wants to marry someone before arriving at Ellis Island in New York. Salvatore accepts her proposal. Once they arrive at Ellis Island their destiny is in the hands of the custom officers. 118 min. DVD 9512

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Oedipus Rex (Edipo re) (1967)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cast: Franco Citti (Oedipus), Silvana Mangano (Jocasta), Alida Valli (Merope), Carmelo Bene (Creon), Julian Beck (Tiresias), Pier Paolo Pasolini (High Priest). A dark and riveting retelling of the classic Greek tragedy by Sophocles. Set in modern Morocco with added prologue and epilogue, his play is extended into the present and points out that the motives of the ancient tragedy still exist today. 110 min. DVD 5609; vhs 999:1677

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Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Operazione paura (Kill, Baby, Kill) (Italy, 1966)

Directed by Mario Bava. Cast: Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Erika Blanc, Fabienne Dali, Max Lawrence, Giana Vivaldi, Piero Lulli. A child who bled to death during a festival when villagers were too drunk to save her returns to haunt them. 80 min. DVD 7573

L'Oro di Napoli (Gold of Naples) (1952)

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Cast: Silvana Mangano, Vittorio De Sica, Sophia Loren, Toto. A collection of plays featuring Toto as a little clown imposed on by a bullying racketeer, Silvana Mangano as a prostitute, Sophia Loren in a comic turn as a pizza seller, and Vittorio De Sica himself as a gambler. 107 min. 999:2179

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Ossessione (Obsession) (1942)

Directed by Luchino Visconti. Cast: Clara Calamai, Massimo Girotti, Dhia Cristiani, Elio Marcuzzo, Vittorio Duse, Michele Riccardini, Juan De Landa. The story of the ill-fated love between Gino, a young drifter, who arrives by chance at a roadside restaurant and filling station, and Giovanna, the beautiful young wife of the fat old man who owns the place. Gino leaves, only to return because he can't get her out of his blood. They kill her husband but his death haunts the guilt-ridden Gino. 135 min. DVD 1201; vhs 999:815

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Otello (1986; opera)

Directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Adaptation of the opera by Giuseppe Verdi, libretto [by] Arrigo Boito. Based on the play Othello by William Shakespeare. Otello (Placido Domingo), a Moor appointed governor of Cyprus on behalf of the 15th century Venetian Republic, loves and is loved by his young bride, Desdemona. Soon, however, he is deceived by the evil Iago, his ensign, into believing that Desdemona is unfaithful to him. Otello's jealousy overwhelms him and he murders Desdemona. Upon learning the truth, he kills Iago and himself. 123 min. Video/C 1486

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Padre Padrone (My Father, My Master) (1977)

Directed by Paolo & Vittorio Taviani. Cast: Omero Antonutti, Saverio Marconi, Marcella Michelangeli, Fabrizio Forte. A true story of a son's development under an oppressive father. Gavino livesA powerful story of a son's development under an oppressive father. Gavino Ledda lives in solitude as an illiterate Sardinian shephard. His father is the brutal instrument of that solitude. Year after year Gavino is isolated alone with his flock in the mountains; separated from family, schools and the collectivity of his town. Finally, he rebels against his father and his own illiteracy. Studying by himself, Gavino earns his degree and writes a book about himself. 113 min. DVD 4074; vhs 999:951; and vhs 999:3777 in the original Italian version (no subtitles)

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Paisan (1948; Italian, German and English dialogue; English subtitles)

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Six stories dealing with Italian and American soldiers meeting under battle conditions during World War II. Recreates the liberation of Italy by the Allied Forces and depicts the harsh realities of war.)115 min. 999:758

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Pane e Cioccolata (Bread and Chocolate) (1973)

Directed by Franco Brusati. Cast: Nino Manfredi, Anna Karina, Johnny Dorelli, Paolo Turco. A comic but poignant portrait of an Italian immigrant working odd jobs in prosperous Switzerland and trying desperately to fit in. Though his work becomes increasingly degrading, he tenaciously refuses to give up and go home. This hapless Everyman is eternally rejected yet ever-hopeful. 109 min. DVD 1062; vhs 999:1560

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Pane e tulipani (Bread and Tulips) (Italy / Switzerland, 2000)

Directed by Silvio Soldini. Cast: Licia Maglietta, Bruno Ganz, Giuseppe Battiston, Antonio Catania, Marina Massironi, Vitalba Andrea, Daniela Piperno, Tatiana Lepore, Felice Andreasi. When a harried housewife is accidentally left behind while on vacation with her family, she decides to take a holiday of her own in Venice. She becomes charmed by the city and her newfound freedom. She decides to extend her stay, finding a job in a flower shop, renting a room from a wistful waiter, and rediscovers her love for playing the accordian. But her solo journey does not sit well with her tyrannical husband, who hires an amateur detective to bring her back home. 112 min. DVD 4345

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Pizzicata (1996)

Directed by Edoardo Winspeare. Cast: Cosimo Cinieri, Fabio Frascaro, Chiara Torrelli, Anna Dimitri, Paolo Massafra. An Italian American pilot shot down during WWII assumes the identity of a cousin to the rural peasant family who protects him. Set in southern Apulia in a region called Salento, this film presents much folk dancing, including the pizzica and the tarantata. 93 min. 999:2956

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Il Portiere di notte (The Night Porter) (1974)

Directed by Liliana Cavani. Cast: Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy, Gabriele Ferzetti. The chance meeting of a woman and a former Nazi SS officer brings back memories of their sado-masochistic relationship in a concentration camp years before. When the couple attempt to re-create their relationship, his former SS comrades begin to stalk them. 118 min. DVD 2477

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Il Postino (The Postman) (France / Italy / Belgium, 1994)

Directed by Michael Radford. Cast: Philippe Noiret, Massimo Troisi, Maria Grazia Cucinotta. In this romantic comedy the postman, Mario, enlists the aid of the poet Pablo Neruda to conquer the heart of the beautiful Beatrice. 103 min. DVD 9136; vhs 999:2064

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Il Posto (1961)

Directed by Ermanno Olmi. Cast: Loredana Detto, Sandro Panseri. When young Domenico ventures from the small village of Meda to Milan in search of employment, he finds himself on the bottom rung of the bureaucratic ladder in a huge, faceless company. The prospects are daunting, but Domenico finds reason for hope in the fetching Antonietta. A tender coming-of-age story and a sharp observation of dehumanizing corporate enterprise, the film is a touching and hilarious tale of one young man's stumbling entrance into the perils of modern adulthood. 93 min. DVD 2234

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Prima della rivoluzione (Before the Revolution) (1964)

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Cast: Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Allen Midgette, Morando Morandini, Cristina Pariset. The plot, based loosely on Stendhal's "The charterhouse of Parma," concerns a young man who flirts intellectually with communism and incestuously with his young aunt. He finally realizes that for him life will always be "before the revolution." 90 min. DVD 6260; vhs 999:3739

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Bernardo Bertolucci bibliography

Primo Amore (First Love) (2004)

Directed by Matteo Garrone. Cast: Michela Cescon, Vitaliano Trevisan. Vittorio is looking for his ideal woman. He meets Sonia, a sweet pleasant intelligent girl. A goldsmith by trade, Vittorio is obsessed with the desire to shape Sonia's body and mind as he shapes gold with fire. Almost imperceptibly Sonia becomes a passive participant and the relationship grows into a reciprocal masochistic game. 94 min. DVD 5467

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Prova d'orchestra (Orchestra Rehearsal) (1979)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Balduin Baas, Clara Colosimo, Elisabeth Labi, Ronaldo Bonacchi. A controversial yet comical film, it depicts the turmoil of Italian society through events that take place during a rehearsal gathering set in a 13th century chapel, as musicians rebel against their conductor. 72 min. DVD 5984; vhs 999:2576

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I Pugni in Tasca (Fists in the Pocket) (1965)

Directed by Marco Bellocchio. Cast: Lou Castel, Paola Pitagora, Marino Mase, Liliana Gerace, Pier Luigi Troglio. Story about a blind widow and her four children. Three are afflicted with epilepsy, and the fourth, Augusto, has to support the family. Alessandro (Sandro) wants to free his brother from this burden and sees killing the rest of the family as the only way. 108 min. DVD 5494

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I Racconti di Canterbury (Canterbury Tales) (Italy / France, 1971; dubbed into English)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cast: Hugh Griffith, Laura Betti, Ninetto Davoli, Franco Citti, Josephine Chaplin, Alan Webb. Originally released as motion picture in 1971. Based on the Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer. Pasolini's startling candor and ribald humor illuminate these classic tales of romance, deception, murder and lust. 121 min. 999:1502

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La Ragazza Che Sapeva Troppo (The Girl Who Knew Too Much) (1963)

Directed by Mario Bava. Cast: Leticia Roman, John Saxon, Valentina Cortese, Dante Di Paolo. Nora Davis jets away to Rome to vacation with Edith, an old friend of her family. Unfortunately, her trip is anything but relaxing. On the first night, Edith dies, and as Nora runs into the night for help, she becomes an eyewitness to murder as she sees a woman stabbed to death on the Piazza di Spagna! 86 min. DVD 1830

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Ricordati di me (Remember Me My Love) (2003)

Directed by Gabriele Muccino. Cast: Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Laura Morante, Monica Bellucci, Nicoletta Romanoff, Gabriele Lavia. With his passions reawakened by a long lost love, Carlo's affair threatens to tear apart his entire family. Unfullfilled desires and ambitions which have worn each of them down now resurface when a crisis makes them realize the importance of family. 125 min. DVD 5102

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Rocco e I Suoi Fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers) (Italy / France, 1960)

Directed by Luchino Visconti. Cast: Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, Renato Salvatori, Katina Paxinou, Claudia Cardinale. The story of four poor Italian brothers and their mother who leave their country home and move to bustling Milan with hopes of improving their bitter fortune. The family is thrown into chaos when two of the brothers are torn apart by their love for the same woman and their struggles to succeed in a viciously competitive world. 168 min. DVD 905

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Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Roma (Fellini's Roma) (1972)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Federico Fellini, Peter Gonzales, Fiona Florence, Anna Magnani, Gore Vidal, Britta Barnes, Pia De Doses, Marne Maitland, Renato Giovannoli. A film adaptation of Federico Fellini's reminiscences of Rome before World War II, as compared to the present as it was when the film was originally produced in 1972. 129 min. DVD 648; VHS 999:1290

Roma, Città Aperta (Open City) (1946)

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Cast: Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero, Aldo Fabrizi. Ultra-realistic portrayal of life in the conquered city of Rome. Adapts the true story of the plights of a priest and a resistance leader being sought by the Germans during the occupation of Rome in World War II. 105 min.DVD 117; VHS 999:170

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Once Upon a Time ... Rome, Open City

Examines the political and cinematic history of Roberto Rossellini's landmark film "Roma, Città aperta," which so memorably dramatized the WWII Italian resistance to the German occupation. In addition to archival footage, which sketches in the relevant historical background, the documentary includes scenes from this classic film, revisits some of its key locations today, and features interviews with many of its participants. A film by Marie Genin & Serge July. Dist.: First Run/Icarus Films 2006. 52 min. DVD 8276

Salo, o, le 120 giornate di Sodoma (Salo, the 120 days of Sodom) (1975)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cast: Paolo Bonacelli, Uberto Paolo Quintavalle, Aldo Valletti, Caterina Boratto, Elsa De Giorgi, Hel`ene Surgère, Giorgio Cataldi, Sonia Saviange. At Mussolini's holdout in northern Italy, four Fascists kidnap a group of young men and women. The victims move through three increasingly violent and perverse phases at the hands of their tormentors, culminating in ritualistic death. Considered by many the most disturbing film ever made. 112 min. DVD 2372

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[Fellini's] Satyricon (1969)

Directed by Federico Fellini. "A free adaptation of the Petronius classic," recreating the bawdy and lecherous days of Nero's reign in ancient Rome. It is also an allegorical satire of the self-indulgence of modern society. 130 min. DVD 647; VHS 999:792

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Senso (Wanton Countess) (1954)

Directed by Luchino Visconti. Cast: Alida Valli, Farley Granger, Heinz Moog, Rina Morelli. In 1866, an Italian countess falls into a tempestuous affair with a dashing Austrian officer. When war and revolution break out, she becomes torn between her fervent patriotic commitment and her emotional obsession with one of the enemy. 115 min. 999:1551

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Seven Beauties (Pasqualino Settebellezze) (1976)

Directed by Lina Wertmuller. Cast: Giancarlo Giannini, Fernando Rey, Shirley Stoler. A small-time casanova with no political convictions and fewer brains shoots his sister's pimp to save the family honor. He is caught, tried, sent to an insane asylum, volunteers for the Italian army and ends up in a Nazi prison where he learns to survive at any cost. 115 min. DVD 352; VHS 999:2326

Shoeshine (Sciuscià) (1946)

Directed by Vittorio DeSica. Cast: Franco Interlenghi, Rinaldo Smordoni, Anielo Mele, Bruno Ortensi, Emilio Cigoli. Two shoeshine boys in Nazi occupied Rome become involved in black marketeering, with tragic consequences. 93 min. 999:733

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Sins of Rome: Story of Spartacus (Spartaco) (1952; dubbed into English)

Directed by Riccardo Freda. Cast: Massimo Girotti, Ludmilla Tcherina, Yves Vincent, Gianna Maria Canale, Carlo Ninchi, Vittorio Sanipoli. Loosely based on true events, this is the story of Spartacus, the blood gladiator who led a slave revolt against his Roman masters. 90 min. 999:1601

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Spartacus (1914)

Directed by Roberto Chiosso. An early Italian silent era spectacle based on the revolt of the slaves of ancient Rome. One of the historical "kolossals" of the silent era which were produced to stimulate the nationalism of Italians as they veered toward intervention during World War I. 58 min. 999:3246

Spirits of the Dead (Tre passi nel delirio) (1968)

Presents three films based on the dark prose of Edgar Allan Poe. Metzengerstein, directed by Roger Vadim, with Jane Fonda and Peter Fonda, is the tale of a young woman who believes the spirit of the cousin she loved, killed in a stable fire she started, is in a horse that escaped. William Wilson, directed by Louis Malle, with Brigitte Bardot and Alain Delon, is the story of a mean-spirited Austrian officer who kills his doppelganger in a duel. Toby Dammit, directed by Federico Fellini, with Terence Stamp, is about a film star who takes off on a drunken spree after his film is completed, and was liberally adapted from Edgar A. Poe's novel Don't Wager Your Head to the Devil. 121 min. DVD 1819

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La Stanza del Figlio (The Son's Room) (2001)

Directed by Nanni Moretti. Cast: Nanni Moretti, Laura Morante, Jasmine Trinca, Giuseppe Sanfelice, Silvio Orlando. Tragedy hits the family of a psychiatrist when his son is killed in an accident, and they struggle with anger and grief until an unexpected visitor forces them to confront their feelings. 100 min. DVD 5527

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La Strada (The Road) (1954)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Giulleta Masina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Aldo Silvani, Marcella Rovere. A drama portraying the conflict between an intinerant circus strong man whose loneliness is masked by a rough, indifferent exterior, and his simple-minded mistress who serves him with unselfish devotion in the vain hope of winning his love. (DVD Disc 2) Federico Fellini's autobiography, a documentary made for Italian television by Paquito del Bosco; essay by film scholar Peter Matthews. 110 min. DVD 2128; vhs 999:761; 999:2447

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Strategia del Ragno (The Spider's Stratagem) (1970)

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Cast: Giulio Brogi, Alida Valli, Pippo Campanini, Franco Giovannelli, Tino Scotti. A son revisits the village in the Po Valley where his father, an anti-Fascist hero, was murdered in 1936, and learns the man was a traitor executed by his own men. Based on the story "Tema del traditore e dell'eroe" by J.L. Borges. 97 min. 999:2097

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Bernardo Bertolucci bibliography

Stromboli (1949)

Directed by Roberto Rossellini. Cast: Ingrid Bergman, Mario Vitale, Renzo Cesana, Mario Sponza. A Lithuanian refugee girl marries a poor Sicilian fisherman to escape internment in post-war Italy, but finds herself imprisoned by the primitive and rigidly traditional society when the couple moves to a desert island. 107 min. 999:871

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Suspiria (1977)

Directed by Dario Argento. Cast: Jessica Harper, Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bose, Luciano Tovoli, Joan Bennett. Suzy Banyon, a young American ballet dancer arrives at a prestigious European dance adademy, but murder and the academy's unspeakable secret of supernatural evil turn her expectations into a nightmare. 98 min. DVD 6451

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Swept Away (Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'Agosto) (1975)

Directed by Lina Wertmuller. Cast: Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato, Riccardo Salvino, Isa Danieli, Aldo Puglisi, Eros Pagni. A wealthy upperclass capitalist and a proletariat deckhand on her yacht are marooned together on an uninhabitated island for several weeks. The woman becomes totally dependent on the man for survival, falls in love with him, and the two temporarily reverse their roles. 116 min. DVD 356; VHS 999:183 (vhs is dubbed into English)

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Bullaro, Grace Russo. "The Fictitious Genius of Lina Wertm�ller's 1970s Films? A Look at the American and the Italian Views." Forum Italicum, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 487-99, Fall 2006

Teorema (1969)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cast: Silvana Mangano, Terence Stamp, Massimo Girotti, Anne Wiazemsky, Laura Betti. In this highly seductive and intellectual look at the bourgeois class of Italy, a mysterious young man visits the family of a wealthy Italian industrialist. They are all temporarily seduced by his sexuality and mystery and equally devastated by his sudden departure. 98 min. DVD 4600; also vhs 999:3481

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La Terra Trema: : Episodio del mare (The Earth Trembles) (1948)

Directed by Luchino Visconti. Cast: Indigenous citizens of Aci-Trezza. Primarily an account of the difficult life led by Sicilian fishermen (played by non-professional actors, the indigenous citizens of Aci-Trezza), this haunting film by one of the fathers of Italian neo-realism is part polemic, allowing the images of the villagers' struggle for sustenance in the face of unscrupulous businessmen to relay their sense of frustration and injustice. Based on the novel "I Malavoglia" by Giovanni Verga. 154 min. DVD 1277

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Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

La Tivu di Fellini

During the shooting of "Ginger & Fred" in 1985, Fellini directed a number of satirical segments parodying Italian television, quiz shows and advertising, which were intended to be spread throughout the movie, but were later cut. "These crumbs, these shavings, these fragments," as Fellini affectionately called them, were finally rescued and are assembled here. 2003. 35 min. DVD 8844

Toto, Peppino e ... (ho detto dutto)

Contents: Toto e le donne -- La banda degli onesti -- Toto, Peppino e la ... malafemmina -- Toto, Peppino e i fuorilegge -- Toto, Peppino e le fanatiche -- La cambiale -- Signori si nasce e Toto -- Letto a tre piazza -- Toto, Peppino e ... la dolce vita -- Toto e Peppino divisi a Berlino. A selection of the best scenes from the films of the two "unforgettable" Italian comics, Toto and Peppino De Filippo. In Italian. PAL format. 2001. 95 min. Video/C 8844

I tre volti della paura (Black Sabbath) (Italy / France / USA, 1963)

Directed by Mario Bava. Cast: Boris Karloff, Mark Damon, Mich`ele Mercier, Jacqueline Pierreux. Presents Brava's classic triptych (three tales of terror) hosted by Boris Karloff: The telephone: A prostitute is threatened by the pimp she helped send to prison. The wurdalak: A returning patriarch to an Eastern European family may be a Wurdalak--a vampire who thirsts for the blood of his loved ones. A drop of water: A nurse steals a diamond ring from the finger of a dead clairvoyant, and is haunted that night by the woman's ghost. Bonus features: Audio commentary with author Tim Lucas ; A life in film: an interview with Mark Damon ; international and U.S. theatrical trailers ; TV and radio spots ; poster and still gallery ; Mario Bava and Boris Karloff biographies. 92 min. DVD 7575

Uccelacci e uccelini (The Hawks and the Sparrows) (1965)

Director, Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cast: Ninetto Davoli, Femi Benussi, Toto, Rossana Di Rocco, Lena Lin Solaro. Pasolini uses a comic crow, which philosophizes about the passing scene as a counter point to the performers, representing humanity, as they progress down the road of life, caught between the Church and Marxism. 88 min. DVD 1802; vhs 999:3098

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Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Uccello dalle piume di cristallo (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) (1970)

Directed by Dario Argento. Cast: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Eva Renzi, Enrico Maria Salerno, Mario Adorf. An American writer in Italy becomes an amateur sleuth when he witnesses a failed attempt by a serial killer to take the life of the wife of a wealthy gallery owner. 96 min. DVD 5253

L'ultima sequenza (1952)

A documentary examining thousands of previously unseen photographs taken by an American journalist, Gideon Bachmann, on the set of Fellini's Otto e mezzo. 2003. 50 min. DVD 8844

Umberto D. (1952)

Directed by Vittorio De Sica. Cast: Carlo Battisti, Maria Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari, Ileana Simova, Elena Rea, Memmo Carotenuto. The film shows postwar renaissance in Italy after a period of chaotic economic conditions and the emergence of a new spirit of "neorealism". Umberto D., an elderly man, lives alone on a small pension, and tries to maintain his dignity and hold onto his dog, the only thing in the world that he loves and that loves him back. 89 min. DVD 1800; vhs 999:188

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Il Vangelo secondo Matteo (The Gospel According to St. Matthew ) (1964)

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Cast: Cast: Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini, Mario Socrate, Marcello Morante. The film, which won a Special Jury Prize at the 1964 Venice Film Festival, is different from other cinematic depictions of the life of Christ in that there is no screenplay per se. Pasolini limited himself to the account by Matthew: only words written by the Saint are employed; no additional dialogue was written and only scenes described by Matthew are shown. Pasolini used no professional actors (his mother plays the older Mary) and he dedicated his film "to the dear familiar memory of John XXIII". 136 min. DVD 1801; vhs 999:143

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La vita è bella (Life Is Beautiful) (1997)

Directed by Roberto Benigni. Cast: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giustino Durano, Sergio Bustric, Lydia Alfonsi, Giorgio Cantarini, Horst Buchholz, Marisa Paredes. A charming but bumbling waiter who's gifted with a colorful imagination and an irresistible sense of humor has won the heart of the woman he loves and has created a beautiful life for his young family. Then that life is threatened by World War II. 116 min. DVD 124; VHS 999:2503

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Movie Review Query Engine

I Vitelloni (1953)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Franco Interlenghi, Alberto Sordi, Franco Fabrizzi, Leopoldo Trieste, Eleanora Ruffo. Character study of five aimless young men living in a small Italian town, based in part upon Fellini's own experiences and those of his acquaintances. 99 min. DVD 2887; vhs 999:869

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La voce di Pasolini

Pier Paolo Pasolini has a sacred, religious and arcane love towards the masses and, opposite this, a deep hate for the bourgeois. Thirty years has passed since his death, but his words, those he left in the form of verses, songs, stories, tales, films and interviews, even today contain authentic and sacred truths. It is through these words, still annoying, scandalous, atrocious, and sublime, that the authors of this documentary have decided to rediscover the historical value of this poet, of his message and life. Directed by Matteo Cerami e Mario Sesti. In Italian without English subtitles. c2006. 53 min. DVD 9454

The White Shiek (Lo Sceicco bianco) (1952)

Directed by Federico Fellini. Cast: Alberto Sordi, Brunella Bovo, Leopoldo Trieste, Guilietta Masina. Ivan and his bride Wanda arrive in Rome to meet his relatives after their marriage. Wanda sneaks off to meet her favorite fotoromanzi actor, the White Sheik. While she is meeting with him, Ivan, who is searching for her, tries to excuse her absence to the relatives. After making a mess of her life, she attempts suicide and is taken to a mental hospital. She and Ivan are reunited just in time to have an audience with the Pope and then meet Ivan's family. Story of the hand-to-mouth existence of a troupe of engaging but not especially talented vaudeville performers who are joined by an ambitious, beautiful young girl of limited talents. She becomes the center of attraction for the company, but she deserts them all for a more upscale show. Based on a story by Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini and Tullio Pinelli. 86 min. DVD 1681; vhs 999:2628

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Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Ieri, Oggi, Domani)(Italy / France, 1963)