The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth century Italy, as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.
With Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Alida Valli, Donald Sutherland, Romolo Valli, Sterling Hayden, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda, Burt Lancaster, Laura Betti, Francesca Bertini, Werner Bruhns, Ellen Schwiers, Anna Henkel, Stefania Casini, Anna Maria Gherardi, Paolo Pavesi, Tiziana Senatore, Paolo Branco, Giacomo Rizzo, Antonio Piovanelli, Liù Bosisio
Recommended by Bong Joon-Ho, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Michel Hazanavicius, John Woo, Caroline Link, Alice Rohrwacher
1h58
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.
With Alberto Sordi, Lea Massari, Franco Fabrizi, Claudio Gora, Lina Volonghi, Loredana Cappelletti, Antonio Centa
Recommended by Bertrand Tavernier, Arthur Harari, Guillaume Brac
1h45
Two neighbors, a persecuted journalist and a resigned housewife, meet during Hitler's visit to Italy in May 1938.
With John Vernon, Sophia Loren, Françoise Berd, Patrizia Basso, Tiziano De Persio, Marcello Mastroianni
Recommended by Gérard Krawczyk, Bertrand Blier, Albert Dupontel, Patrice Leconte, Francis Veber
1h45
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.
A anarchist leader (Fulvio) wishes to retire, as he is old and tired. He tries to hide himself, but his friends find him and insist he carries on helping them.
With Lea Massari, Marcello Mastroianni, Laura Betti, Mimsy Farmer, Renato De Carmine
Recommended by Nanni Moretti
2h07
A series of comedic and nostalgic vignettes set in a 1930s Italian coastal town.
With Bruno Zanin, Pupella Maggio, Armando Brancia, Giuseppe Ianigro, Nando Orfei, Maria Antonietta Beluzzi, Ciccio Ingrassia, Luigi Rossi, Gianfilippo Carcano, Magali Noël
Recommended by Bong Joon-Ho, Laurent Cantet, Costa Gavras, Jacques Doillon, Hirokazu Kore-eda, James Gray, Agnès Varda, William Friedkin, Catherine Corsini, Jaco Van Dormael, Michel Ocelot, Elia Suleiman
2h10
Ancient Arabia. A youth is chosen by a beautiful slave girl to be her new master; she is kidnapped and they must search for each other. Stories are told within stories; love, travel and the whims of destiny.
With Ninetto Davoli, Franco Citti, Franco Merli, Ines Pellegrini, Tessa Bouché, Giana Idris, Abadid Ghidei, Alberto Argentino, Francesco Paolo Governale, Salvatore Sapienza, Fessazion Gherentiel
Recommended by Laurent Cantet, Cédric Klapisch, Robin Campillo
2h10
A group of men go to a villa in the French countryside where they resolve to eat themselves to death.
With Michel Piccoli, Andréa Ferréol, Ugo Tognazzi, Monique Chaumette, Rita Scherrer, Solange Blondeau, Florence Giorgetti, Michèle Alexandre, Henri Piccoli, Cordelia Piccoli, Marcello Mastroianni, Philippe Noiret
Recommended by Costa Gavras, Park Chan-wook, Robert Guédiguian
1h30
Political activist Salvatore returns to his native Sicily and stirs up trouble among the peasants, urging them to confront the Mafia and demand the right to plough their own fields. The peasants refuse to help him, and Salvatore is marked by the Mafia as a troublemaker.
With Gian Maria Volontè, Didi Perego, Marina Malfatti, Vittorio Duse, Alessandro Sperli
Recommended by Nanni Moretti
1h39
A wandering gunfighter plays two rival families against each other in a town torn apart by greed, pride, and revenge.
With Clint Eastwood, Marianne Koch, John Wels, Wolfgang Lukschy, Sieghardt Rupp
Recommended by Dario Argento
2h15
Based on Carlo Collodi's classic novel, this mini-series is about an animated puppet named Pinocchio and his father, a poor woodcarver named Geppetto.
With Gina Lollobrigida, Nino Manfredi, Andrea Balestri
Recommended by Alain Guiraudie
2h02
A meek middle-aged man takes justice in his own hands.
With Alberto Sordi, Romolo Valli, Shelley Winters, Vincenzo Crocitti, Renzo Carboni, Enrico Beruschi
Recommended by Marjane Satrapi
2h20
Anna has long been engaged to Sandro, a promising young architect. At this point, it seems that their relationship will never lead to marriage. She hides her despair as they go on vacation on a friend's yacht around the Lipari islands, taking along Claudia, Anna's less fortunate friend. But on Lisca Bianca, following an argument with Sandro, Anna disappears. All attempts at locating her fail. Sandro and Claudia decide to join strengths in order to find her, but soon their unsuccessful quest attracts them to one another irresistibly. Claudia finds in Sandro the love of her life, whereas he, very soon, betrays her. Even though her dream has been shattered, she forgives him.
With Monica Vitti, Gabriele Ferzetti, Lea Massari, Dominique Blanchar, Renzo Ricci, James Addams, Dorothy De Poliolo, Lelio Luttazzi, Giovanni Petrucci, Esmeralda Ruspoli
Recommended by Martin Scorsese, Cédric Klapisch, Raymond Depardon, Lodge Kerrigan, Dario Argento
1h55
Following the death of his friend, an Italian youth grows increasingly closer to his young aunt.
With Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Allen Midgette, Cristina Pariset, Cecrope Barilli, Gianni Amico, Evelina Alpi, Morando Morandini, Emilia Borghi, Domenico Alpi, Jole Lunardi, Giuseppe Maghenzani, Gastone Moschin, Goliardo Padova, Guido Fanti, Salvatore Enrico, Ida Pellegri
Recommended by Martin Scorsese, Christian Rouaud, Nanni Moretti, Dario Argento, Philippe Garrel
1h51
A motley quintet of inept small-time thieves attempt the burglary of a local pawnshop in this Italian farce.
Recommended by Costa Gavras, Cédric Klapisch, Pierre Salvadori, William Friedkin, Bertrand Blier, Olivier et Éric Nakache & Toledano, Alexandre Astier, Francis Veber
1h32
Boris Karloff hosts a trio of horror stories concerning a stalked call girl, a vampire-like monster who preys on his family, and a nurse who is haunted by her ring's rightful owner.
With Boris Karloff, Michèle Mercier, Lidia Alfonsi, Mark Damon, Susy Andersen, Massimo Righi
Recommended by Dario Argento
1h26
A masked, shadowy killer brutally murders the models of a scandalous fashion house in Rome.
With Eva Bartok, Cameron Mitchell, Thomas Reiner, Ariana Gorini, Mary Arden, Franco Ressel
Recommended by Robin Campillo
1h51
A mod London photographer finds something very suspicious in the shots he has taken of a mysterious beauty in a desolate park.
With David Hemmings, Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Peter Bowles, Jane Birkin, Gillian Hills
Recommended by Jacques Doillon, Cristian Mungiu, Christian Rouaud, William Friedkin, Wim Wenders, John Woo, Corneliu Porumboiu, Elia Suleiman
1h40
Italian immigrant tries to become a member of Swiss society but fails as a waiter and even as a chicken plucker. He then becomes involved with shady wealthy character and tries to hide his Italian identity. He refuses to give up no matter how awful his situation.
With Anna Karina, Nino Manfredi, Johnny Dorelli, Paolo Turco, Ugo D'alessio, Tano Cimarosa, Gianfranco Barra, Giorgio Cerioni, Francesco D'Adda, Geoffrey Copleston
Recommended by Cédric Klapisch, Yolande Zauberman
2h15
This is a dramatization of events in the life of St. Francis of Assisi from before his conversion experience through his audience with the pope, including his friendship with St. Clare.
With Alec Guinness, Valentina Cortese, Lee Montague, Graham Faulkner, Judi Bowker, Leigh Lawson, Kenneth Cranham
Recommended by Hirokazu Kore-eda
1h51
Pasolini's artistic, sometimes violent, always vividly cinematic retelling of some of Chaucer's most erotic tales.
With Hugh Griffith, Ninetto Davoli, Franco Citti, Vernon Dobtcheff, Alan Webb, Joséphine Chaplin, J.P. Van Dyne, Adrian Street, Nicholas Smith, Peter McGregor, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Laura Betti
Recommended by Arnaud et Jean-Marie Larrieu
1h47
A pair of working class lovers - a secretary and an accountant, scheme to marry into the rich landed gentry. Their targets are a professor, Vittorio Gordini Malvezzi, who is running for municipal office as a Socialist candidate, and his sister Elena, a great lady who lets every man in town climb on top of her but won't marry because socially they're all beneath her. Vittorio doesn't get what is going on. Their little brother Camillo, a seventeen year old seminary student turned Maoist provides the title of the film when he scrawls 'China is Near' on the walls of the Socialist Party building, his brother's campaign headquarters.
With Alessandro Haber, Glauco Mauri, Elda Tattoli, Paolo Graziosi, Daniela Surina, Pier Luigi Aprà
Recommended by Nanni Moretti
2h00
A Swedish arms dealer and a Mexican peon team up to rescue the intellectual leader of the Revolutionary cause, while taking part in numerous misadventures along the way.
With Fernando Rey, Tomas Milian, Franco Nero, Iris Berben, José Bódalo
Recommended by Kleber Mendonça Filho
1h51
A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Milly, Pierre Clémenti, Stefania Sandrelli, Dominique Sanda, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio, José Quaglio, Giuseppe Addobbati, Yvonne Sanson, Fosco Giachetti
Recommended by James Gray, Lodge Kerrigan, Joachim Trier, Park Chan-wook, Todd Haynes, Robert Guédiguian, Dario Argento, Abel Ferrara, Paul Schrader, Joanna Hogg
0h00
A reclusive, retired professor is faced with confronting modernity when a group of vulgar youths, led by an obnoxious marchesa, take up residence in his unused upper residence.
With Claudia Cardinale, Helmut Berger, Silvana Mangano, Elvira Cortese, Dominique Sanda, Burt Lancaster, Claudia Marsani, Stefano Patrizi
Recommended by Akira Kurosawa
1h56
A man wanders aimlessly, away from his town, away from the woman he loved, emotionally and socially inactive.
With Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, Betsy Blair, Dorian Gray, Gabriella Pallotta, Lynn Shaw, Mirna Girardi
Recommended by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Raymond Depardon
2h30
The dramatic collapse of a wealthy, industrialist/Junker family during the reign of the Third Reich.
With Ingrid Thulin, Dirk Bogarde, Umberto Orsini, Helmut Griem, Helmut Berger, Charlotte Rampling, Renaud Verley, Reinhardt Kolldehoff, Albrecht Schoenhals, Florinda Bolkan, Nora Ricci, Irina Wanka, Karin Mittendorf, Valentina Ricci, Wolfgang Hillinger
Recommended by Olivier Assayas, Clément Cogitore
2h12
While recovering in Venice, sickly Composer Gustav von Aschenbach becomes dangerously fixated with teenager Tadzio.
With Dirk Bogarde, Franco Fabrizi, Romolo Valli, Nora Ricci, Silvana Mangano, Marisa Berenson, Mark Burns, Björn Andressen, Carole André, Leslie French, Bill Vanders, Marco Tulli, Sergio Garfagnoli
Recommended by Céline Sciamma, Elia Suleiman, Francis Veber
2h06
A jazz pianist and a wisecracking journalist are pulled into a complex web of mystery after the former witnesses the brutal murder of a psychic.
With Macha Méril, Clara Calamai, David Hemmings, Gabriele Lavia, Giuliana Calandra, Piero Mazzinghi, Daria Nicolodi
Recommended by Bertrand Bonello, Christophe Gans, Park Chan-wook, William Friedkin
1h35
A man decides to cook for himself, but finds the revolver of John Dillinger hidden in his kitchen instead.
With Michel Piccoli, Annie Girardot, Carole André, Anita Pallenberg, Gino Lavagetto, Mario Jannilli
Recommended by Nanni Moretti
1h48
A married Sicilian baron falls in love with his cousin and vows to wed her, but with divorce illegal he must concoct a crime of passion to do away with his wife.