Cinema - Italian films

Italian cinema: War

La Bataille d’Alger (1966)

Gillo Pontecorvo

After a humiliating retreat from Indo-Chino, France has no intention of releasing its grip on Algeria. After some civil unrest, the French authorities clamp down on the native Arab population. This leads to the creation of the FLN, the Algerian National Liberation Front, who decide that terrorist activity is the only way to achieve independence... [More...]

La Ciociara (1960)

Vittorio De Sica

In the summer of 1943, Rome is under constant combardment. The young widow Cesira flees the capital with her 13-year-old daughter, Rosetta, and returns to her home village in the mountainous Ciociaria region of Italy. In her absence, she asks her neighbour Giovanni to take over her shop. On their arrival, Cesira makes the acquaintance of Michele, an intellectual libertine who is attracted to both the mother and her daughter... [More...]

Paisà (1946)

Roberto Rossellini

Six tales of ill-fated human contact set during the liberation of Italy by the Allied forces in World War II, between 1943 and 1944. In Sicily, a group of American soldiers arrive in an Italian village and seek help from the untrusting locals. A young woman, Carmela, agrees to lead them across a mine field... [More...]

Roma, città aperta (1945)

Roberto Rossellini

Rome, during the Nazi occupation of 1943-44. The Germans have declared Rome an open city but are intent on tracking down resistance leaders. High up on their wanted list is Giorgio Manfredi, who is hiding under an assumed name in an apartment block with Francesco and his pregnant fiancée Pina... [More...]

La Vita è bella (1997)

Roberto Benigni

Italy, 1939. Leaving his home in the country, Guido Orefice moves to a town in Tuscany to get a job as a waiter. There he meets and falls in love with a young schoolteacher, Dora, but she is already betrothed to another man. At the last moment, Dora chooses Guido over her dull fiancé. Five years later, they have a son, Giosué, and Guido run a successful bookshop... [More...]

War and Peace (1956)

King Vidor

Moscow, 1805. Pierre Bezukhov, a pacifist wastrel, is in love with Natasha, the daughter of the wealthy Count Rostov, but knows he cannot marry her since he is of illegitimate birth. Having inherited his father’s title and vast estate, Pierre decides to marry the beautiful Helene Kuragina, but soon realises he has made a mistake... [More...]

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