Goodnight, Ladies and Gentlemen
An episodic satire of the political and social status of Italy in the seventies, through the shows of one day of a television channel.
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
In 1930s Italy, a wealthy Jewish family tries to maintain their privileged lifestyle, hosting friends for tennis and parties at their villa. As anti-Semitism intensifies under Fascism, they must ultimately…
A Place for Lovers
Globe-trotting clothes-horse Julia, who’s harboring a secret, embarks on a 10-day fling with Valerio in Italy.
The Witches
Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men….
Marriage Italian Style
During World War II, a man falls for a woman in Naples, leading to a two-decade affair. When she learns he plans to marry someone else, she schemes to make…
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Three tales of very different women using their sexuality as a means to getting what they want.
The Condemned of Altona
A dying German magnate invites his youngest son and daughter-in-law home to discuss the future of the family’s shipbuilding empire. There, the daughter-in-law stumbles upon a secret of the family’s…
Two Women
Widowed shopkeeper Cesira and her 13-year-old daughter Rosetta flee from the allied bombs in Rome during the second World War; they travel to the remote village where Cesira was born….
Scandal in Sorrento
Back to his hometown, a former marshal finds his house occupied by a young woman working as a fishwife.
The Roof
Under provincial Italian law at the time, once a roof is erected, the occupants cannot be evicted from a building. This comedy follows the efforts of a family to erect…
The Monte Carlo Story
Stylish, sophisticated and absolutely broke, Dino and Maria pursue a romance until they realize neither of them has any money, which forces the gold diggers to turn their attention to…
Indiscretion of an American Wife
While on vacation in Rome, married American Mary Forbes becomes entangled in an affair with an Italian man, Giovanni Doria. As she prepares to leave Italy, Giovanni confesses his love…
Bread, Love and Dreams
When a veteran marshal is sent to a small town, he quickly falls for two women: a midwife and an earthy young woman nicknamed “Frisky”.
Umberto D.
When elderly pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari returns to his boarding house from a protest calling for a hike in old-age pensions, his landlady demands her 15,000-lire rent by the end…
Miracle in Milan
An old woman finds a baby in her cabbage patch and raises him. After her death, the boy grows up in an orphanage and later joins the homeless in post-war…
Bicycle Thieves
Unemployed Antonio is elated when he finally finds work hanging posters around war-torn Rome. However on his first day, his bicycle—essential to his work—gets stolen. His job is doomed unless…
The Children Are Watching Us
In his first collaboration with renowned screenwriter and longtime partner Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica examines the cataclysmic consequences of adult folly on an innocent child. Heralding the pair’s subsequent…