Italian Cinema
The history of Italian cinema began with a few seconds footage of Pope Leo XIII blessing the camera. Historical dramas were most popular in these early years before sound. During and after WWI, funds were short and nothing much of interest was made until the 1920s. With the rise of fascism the film industry was encouraged and in 1937 Cinecitta was built on the outskirts of Rome. Literally a 'cinema city', it contained everything a film maker could need or want, including theatres, and even a cinematography school. The slogan on posters at the time read "Cinema is The Most Powerful Weapon". Newsreels and propagandistic documentaries were filmed here but by 1939, feature film productions were underway. Visconti ('Ossessione'), Rossellini (Rome, Open City') and De Sica ('Bicycle Thief') all began their careers here. Post-war, two distinct trends emerged in Italian cinema: on the one hand, the neo-realist films of Rossellini and De Sica, made chiefly on location in the streets of Rome and surrounding towns; and on the other, the American megaproductions, filmed almost entirely on sets constructed in the Cinecitta studios. In 1948, 'Quo Vadis?', 'Roman Holiday (1952), 'Three Coins in a Fountain' (1954), 'Farewell to Arms' (1957), 'Ben Hur' (1958) and 'Cleopatra' (1961), to cite only the most famous. Federico Fellini shot most of his films, at least in part at Cinecitta and to this day the studios are used for television and film productions.
Mention must also be made of Pasolini, Bertolucci, Zeffirelli, Antonioni, Sergio Leone - Italy has given cinema some of its greatest individuals and auteurs.
Pictured: The lost kisses from 'Cinema Paradiso'
The Stolen Children (1992)
7.5/10
Director: Gianni Amelio
Starring: Enrico Lo Verso, Valentina Scalici, Florence Darel
A wonderful story of the friendship that grows between a young carbiniere and the two abused children he is escorting from Milan to a foster home in P... Read more
The Stone Merchant (2006)
Director: Renzo Martinelli
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Jordi Molla, Jane March, F Murray Abraham
University professor, Alceo, teaches History of Terrorism, and draws from personal experience having lost both legs in the American Embassy bombing in... Read more
The Tiger and the Snow (2005)
7.1/10
Director: Roberto Benigni
Starring: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Jean Reno, Tom Waits, Emilia Fox, Giuseppe B...
Roberto Benigni directs and stars in this romantic comedy-drama set at the outbreak of the US invasion of Iraq. Benigni is an Italian poet who meets... Read more
The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
8/10
Director: Ermanno Olmi
Starring: Luigi Ornaghi, Francesca Moriggi, Omar Brignoll, Antonio Ferrari
Ermanno Olmi's heartfelt look at peasant life in Lombardy, Italy at the turn of the century won the Golden Palm Award at Cannes. The story involves th... Read more
The Voice of the Moon (La voce della luna) (1990)
6.3/10
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Roberto Benigni
The Voice of the Moon (Italian: La voce della luna) is a 1990 Italian dramatic comedy film directed by Federico Fellini and starring Roberto Benigni,... Read more
The Wait (2015)
4.7/10
Director: Piero Messina
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Lou de Laage
Academy-Award winner Juliette Binoche gives one of the finest performances of her career in this dazzling and emotionally rich debut feature from Ital... Read more
The Way We Laughed (1998)
Director: Gianni Amelio
Starring: Francesco Guiffrida, Enrico Lo Verso, Claudio Contartese, Rosaria Danze, Fabrizi...
A.k.a. "Cosi Ridevano". The epic story of two brothers who emigrate to the northern Italian city of Turin, to escape the poverty of their Sicilian hom... Read more
The White Sheik (1951)
7.3/10
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Alberto Sordi, Brunella Bova, Leopoldo Trieste
Fellini's first film as director chronicles the adventures of a provincial couple honeymooning in Rome and the wife's involvement with a cartoon hero,... Read more
The Wolf's Mouth (2009)
Director: Pietro Marcello
" La Bocco del lupa". A touching tale of an enduring love found in the most improbable of places, Pietro Marcello's award winning docufiction hybrid c... Read more
Theorem (1968)
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Starring: Terence Stamp, Silvana Mangano, Massimo Girotti
Terence Stamp plays the mysterious Christ or Devil figure who stays briefly with a wealthy Italian family, seducing them one by one. He then goes as q... Read more