Great Italian Films
A chronological list of my favourite Italian films - some well-known, others less so - from Rossellini through to Sorrentino.
List activity
2.6K views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
24 titles
- DirectorRoberto RosselliniStarsAnna MagnaniAldo FabriziMarcello PaglieroDuring the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, the Resistance leader, Giorgio Manfredi, is chased by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a way to escape.Harrowing throughout, 'Rome, Open City' offers an insight into the activities of the Italian resistance in Nazi-occupied Rome. Some characters ring truer than others - in retrospect the camp Gestapo commander comes across as rather contrived - but powerful performances from Anna Magnani and Aldo Fabrizi easily compensate for the film's weaker moments. The conclusion is deeply moving and leaves you with a glimmer of hope, after a very distressing final act.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsLamberto MaggioraniEnzo StaiolaLianella CarellIn post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen, endangering his efforts to find work. He and his son set out to find it.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsEmma GramaticaFrancesco GolisanoPaolo StoppaAn open-hearted, unrelentingly energetic orphan struggles to make the best of his life on the streets of Milan.
- DirectorVittorio De SicaStarsCarlo BattistiMaria Pia CasilioLina GennariAn elderly man and his dog struggle to survive on his government pension in Rome.Of all Italian Neo-Realist cinema that I've seen, this film left by far the greatest impression on me. Umberto D. is the ultimate outsider - forgotten and humiliated by the country he once served. His plight is profoundly upsetting, yet the film's ending is incredibly life-affirming. De Sica cited this as his personal favourite among his own films and Ingmar Bergman named it his favourite film - it's easy to see why.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsAlberto SordiFranco FabriziFranco InterlenghiA character study of five young men at crucial turning points in their lives in a small town in Italy.A much overlooked Fellini film, which deserves a place amoung his best works. Structurally much more straight-forward than his later films, it explores the lives of five lazy young Italians, living in a provincial seaside town. Their sense of apathy remains just as relevant today: there are still countless men in their 30s living with their mothers in Italy, unable to find work. Notably, 'I Vitelloni' was responsible for launching the career of Alberto Sordi (see below).
- DirectorStenoStarsAlberto SordiMaria Pia CasilioIlse PetersonNando Moriconi is a young Italian living in Rome. He is fond for everything coming from the United States. He tries to speak American-English, to wear clothes he thinks Americans wear, to walk like John Wayne, and to eat cornflakes with ketchup - His life is a parody of the real American way of life that he could not get. Nando's not-so-secret dream is to visit the USA, so he climbs up to the Coliseum and threats to commit suicide if the American Embassy does not give him the visa. But at this point Nando is very well known as a 'crazy-for-USA' boy and the troubles he provoked will not help him.Genius comedy about a young Roman who wants to be American. Sordi, one of the best comic actors of all time, oozes charisma as Nando Moriconi - his incomprehensible attempts at American English will have you in stitches. Really can't understand why is this isn't much rated higher here - the macaroni scene alone is one of the most iconic sequences in Italian cinema. "M'hai provocato e io te distruggo, macaroni!"
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsGiulietta MasinaFrançois PérierFranca MarziA waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finds only heartbreak.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMarcello MastroianniAnita EkbergAnouk AiméeA series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering tabloid journalist living in Rome.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsAlain DelonRenato SalvatoriAnnie GirardotHaving recently been uprooted to Milan, Rocco and his four brothers each look for a new way in life when a prostitute comes between Rocco and his brother Simone.
- DirectorPietro GermiStarsMarcello MastroianniDaniela RoccaStefania SandrelliA 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.Mastroianni gives a memorable performance as a selfish, amoral Sicilian baron intent on murdering his wife at a time when divorce was illegal in Italy. Black humour at its best - an Italian 'Kind Hearts and Coronets'.
- DirectorDino RisiStarsVittorio GassmanCatherine SpaakJean-Louis TrintignantAn impulsive braggart takes a shy law student with him for a two-day road trip from Rome to Tuscany.
- DirectorLuchino ViscontiStarsBurt LancasterAlain DelonClaudia CardinaleThe Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860s Sicily.I would definitely advise people to read the novel first, one of the masterpieces of Italian literature. This is a fairly faithful adaptation, which, with its talented cast and lavish sets, beautifully presents the tale of a powerful man's dilemmas in the face of great social change. Burt Lancaster plays the Prince well - my only complaint is that an Italian actor wasn't used - it somehow jars, hearing such a recognizable actor speaking with a dubbed voice. In fact Visconti initially shared this sentiment - it was 20th Century Fox's stipulation that a Hollywood star be used in order the justify the large budget.
- DirectorPier Paolo PasoliniStarsTotòNinetto DavoliFemi BenussiTotò and his son Ninetto are drifting on a road in Italy when they meet a speaking crow.
- DirectorLuigi ZampaStarsAlberto SordiBice ValoriSara FranchettiThe eventful ascent of a doctor in the corrupted Italian healthcare system.The literal translation is 'The National Health Service Doctor'. A very clunky title, but why they settled on the terrible one above is a mystery.
- DirectorElio PetriStarsGian Maria VolontèFlorinda BolkanGianni SantuccioA chief of detectives, homicide section, kills his mistress and deliberately leaves clues to prove his own responsibility for the crime.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMagali NoëlBruno ZaninPupella MaggioA series of comedic and nostalgic vignettes set in a 1930s Italian coastal town.
- DirectorNanni MorettiStarsNanni MorettiDario CantarelliNicola Di PintoMichele criticizes the film industry and its inhabitants, and is particularly embattled with a Neapolitan director making a musical about the 1968 student demonstrations. At the same time, Michele has a creative block and struggles to finish his film titled "Freud's Mother."Nanni Moretti's early films have generally all slipped under the radar, at least outside of Italy, which is a great shame. He has been described as an Italian Woody Allen and there is some truth in this: like Allen, he often stars as the protagonist in his own films, exploring his personal neuroses and convictions through an exaggerated version of himself - Michele Apicella. 'Sogni D'oro' is a highly autobiographical film, which alludes to Moretti's own battle to maintain artistic integrity while his contemporaries willingly stoop to anything in order to achieve success.
- DirectorNanni MorettiStarsNanni MorettiLaura MoranteRoberto VezzosiMichele is a mathematics professor who just started a new job in a school with some peculiar teaching methods. After a woman in his neighborhood is murdered, Michele meets beautiful colleague Bianca, and a relationship begins between the two. Where is this relationship heading, and will Michele be able to help the police catch the murderer?'Bianca' is the finest of the Apicella films - a gentle tragicomedy about a highly neurotic, intolerant man, obsessed with solving other people's problems, but incapable of finding happiness in his own life. There are some wonderful comic moments, most memorably in connection with the trendy new school where Michele teachers - the 'Marilyn Monroe' school. Listen out for one of the most beautiful Italian songs ever written - 'Il cielo in una stanza' by Gino Paoli, a masterful songwriter who Moretti repeatedly draws on in his films.
- DirectorNanni MorettiStarsNanni MorettiFerruccio De CeresaMarco MesseriThe young priest Father Giulio returns to Rome, his hometown, after a long pilgrimage. Don Giulio hopes to live peacefully with his family and his friends, but discovers that many of them are depressed or frustrated, and some suicidal. Father Giulio determines to leave again, but his stopped parents convince him to perform the wedding ceremony for his friend Caesar and his fiancee. Don Giulio rushes through the ceremony and then away from Rome. Once away from the city, he immediately regains happiness.Here Moretti plays Don Giulio, who is Michele Apicella in all but name.
- DirectorRoberto BenigniStarsRoberto BenigniNicoletta BraschiPaolo BonacelliA kindhearted but bumbling idiot who likes to steal bananas, is passed off for a snitch hiding from the mob.
- DirectorRoberto BenigniStarsRoberto BenigniMichel BlancNicoletta BraschiAfter a series of bizarre actions, Loris is mistaken for a serial killer. Jessica, a policewoman in undercover, will try to induce him to commit a murder.
- DirectorMarco Tullio GiordanaStarsLuigi Lo CascioAlessio BoniJasmine TrincaAn Italian epic that follows the lives of two brothers from the 1960s to the 2000s.One of my absolute favourite films - this should be seen by everyone, and particularly those with an interest in Italy. Every character in it is believable and complex - by the end of the film you feel totally involved in their lives and above all, profoundly moved. It is also a fascinating insight into Italian history from the 1960s through to the 2000s, as well as a reminder of the not-so-distant horrific malpractice in some psychiatric hospitals. Now if only they would bring out a Region 2 version with English subs so that this could be accessible to more people!
- DirectorPaolo SorrentinoStarsToni ServilloOlivia MagnaniAdriano GianniniAn introverted man's life changes completely when he finds himself attracted to a young barmaid.Practically every frame in Sorrentino's films is an artwork in its own right - here the cinematography is bleaker and colder than in 'Il Divo' and 'The Great Beauty', an approach which perfectly matches the protagonist's isolation and loneliness. The film offers an unromantic view of the workings of organized crime in Italy, more akin to the stark realism in Gomorrah than to the world of Don Corleone. Tony Servillo is mesmerizing as the solitary Titto di Girolamo and the film boasts a brilliant, minimalist score from the likes of Mogwai and Lali Puna.
- DirectorNanni MorettiStarsMichel PiccoliNanni MorettiJerzy StuhrA story centered on the relationship between the newly elected Pope and his therapist.This has garnered indifferent reviews because people find it difficult to place. Some have taken offense at its representation of the Vatican, while others argue that it isn't critical enough. Ultimately, Moretti wasn't intending to attack or defend the Church, but simply to humanize it. It is a gentle, thought-provoking film about human fragility, with a moving performance from Michel Piccoli and some great comic setpieces like the cardinals' volleyball tournament. It also contains some stunning cinematography, particularly during the scenes in the conclave.