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'
La Notte ( The Night ) (1961)
8/10
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, Monica Vitti, Bernhard Wicki
Michelangelo Antonioni's stunning follow-up to 'L'Avventura' explores similar themes of relationship dysfunction and the search for unattainable passi... Read more
La Notte ( The Night ) (Blu-ray) (1961)
7.6/10
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, Monica Vitti, Bernhard Wicki
Michelangelo Antonioni's stunning follow-up to 'L'Avventura' explores similar themes of relationship dysfunction and the search for unattainable passi... Read more
La Strada ( The Road ) (1954)
8.1/10
Director: Federico Fellini
Starring: Giulietta Masina, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart
AKA 'The Road'. Fellini's Oscar-winning study of a brutish carnival strongman (Anthony Quinn) who uses a simple minded girl (Giulietta Masina) to serv... Read more
La Terra Trema (1948)
7.9/10
Director: Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti's epic-saga of Sicilian fisherman remains one of the most important films of Italian neo-realism. Shot entirely on location in Sicily... Read more
Le Notti Bianche ( White Nights ) (1957)
7.8/10
Director: Luchino Visconti
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Maria Schell, Jean Marais
Aka 'White Nights'. Marcello Mastroianni, as a lonely city transplant, and Maria Schell, as a sheltered girl haunted by a lover's promise, meet by cha... Read more
Le Quattro Volte ( Four Times ) (2010)
7.2/10
Director: Michelangelo Frammartino
Starring: Giuseppe Fuda, Bruno Timpano, Nazareno Timpano
An unclassifiably brilliant reverie on life, death, nature and the splendours of Calabria, "Le Quattro Volte" is a deceptively simple and playfully ph... Read more
Life is Beautiful (1998)
8.6/10
Director: Roberto Benigni
Starring: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi
Receiving Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Actor, Roberto Benigni's celebrated and popular film boldly blends a sentimental and humourou... Read more
Like Crazy (2016)
7.3/10
Director: Paolo Virzi
Starring: Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, Micaela Ramazzotti, Valentina Carnelutti
Donatella and Beatrice reside in a psychiatric facility in Tuscany. They have very different life stories, but a chance to escape brings them together... Read more
Like Two Crocodiles (1994)
Director: Giacomo Campiotti
Starring: Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Giancarlo Giannini, Valeria Golino, Ignazio Oliva
Gabriele (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) is a successful Italian antique dealer living in Paris. He has wealth, status, a girlfriend - a life perfectly manufac... Read more
Lives of the Saints (2004)
7.1/10
Director: Jerry Ciccoritti
Starring: Sophia Loren, Fabrizio Filippo, Sabrina Ferilli, Kris Kristofferson
Taking place over 20 years and across two continents, this epic miniseries adaptation of Nino Ricci's coming-of-age saga chronicles how a young man de... Read more