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'
Italian Film Festival 2007 (2006)
Director: Gabriele Salvatores, Nanni Moretti, Sergio Rubini, Roberto Faenza, Carlo Verdone, Kim Rossi Stuart, Antonio Capuano, Cristina Comencini, Sabina Guzzanti, Mario Canale, Annarosa Morri, Michele Placido
Starring: Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Margherita Buy, Valeria Golino, Stefano Accorsi, Giovanna...
Mamma mia! Have your own mini-festival at home with this bumper collection of 11 films and documentaries that featured in the 12th Italian Film Festiv... Read more
Italian Film Festival 2008 (2007)
Director: Roberto Ando, Claudio Antonini, Ermanno Olmi, Paolo Taviani, Pupi Avati, Vittorio Taviani, Ferzan Ozpetek, Roberta Torre, Giovanni Veronesi, Maurizio Sciarra, Roberto Cimpanelli, Roberto Dordit, Davide Marengo
Starring: Angela Molina, Arsinee Khanjian, Diego Abatantuono, Ennio Fantastichini, Frances...
Passionate trysts, endless summer days, glorious architecture, great artists, mouth-watering pasta, vino with friends... the Italy we all dream of esc... Read more
Italian Film Festival 2009 (2008)
Director: Silvio Soldini, Marco Tullio Giordana, Angelo Longoni, Paolo Virzi, Andrea Molaioli, Vincenzo Marra, Silvio Muccino, Paolo Sorrentino, Fabio Tagliavia, Francesco Munzi, Claudio Cupellini
Starring: Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Anna Bonaiuto, Fanny Ardant, Margherita Buy, Massimo Ghini...
"Not since the glory days of Fellini and Antonioni has Italian cinema enjoyed such a creative and critically acknowledged resurgence, with films like.... Read more
Italy: Love It or Leave It (2011)
6.6/10
Director: Luca Ragazzi, Gustav Hofer
The lease on their apartment is up and Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi must decide whether to stay in Italy or leave. Having witnessed the exodus of man... Read more
Journey in Italy (1954)
Director: Roberto Rossellini
Starring: Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders, Maria Mauban, Paul Muller
A graceful depiction of an eroding marriage that reaches its crisis as the couple holiday in Southern Italy. Roberto Rossellini directed his then-wif... Read more
Juliet of the Spirits (1965)
7.7/10
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Giulietta Masina, Mario Pisu, Sandra Milo
A lavishly colorful baroque fantasy with Giulietts Masina (in real life Mrs Fellini) as a middle-aged woman haunted by hallucinations from her past an... Read more
Kaos (1984)
8/10
Director: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani
Starring: Claudio Bigagli, Margarita Lozano, Omero Antonutti, Franco Franchi
"Kaos" consists of four stories plus epilogue, set in 19th-century Sicily. 'The Other Son' - A mother spends her life waiting for news from her two s... Read more
Kill, Baby, Kill (1966)
7.1/10
Director: Mario Bava
Starring: Giacomo Rossi-Stuart, Erika Blanc, Piero Lulli
From Italian horror master Mario Bava comes this ultra-stylish tale of a town haunted by the spectre of a homicidal adolescent girl. This fanciful noc... Read more
L'Avventura (1960)
8/10
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Starring: Monica Vitti, Gabriele Ferzetti
A scathing examination of Italy's aristocratic classes set within the framework of a mystery story, director Michelangelo Antonioni's groundbreaking f... Read more
L'eclisse (1962)
7.9/10
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Starring: Alain Delon, Monica Vitti, Louis Seigner
'Eclipse'. A fascinating drama of alienation about a translator (Monica Vitti) who breaks up with her boyfriend and commences an affair with stockbrok... Read more