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Italian Cinema

Italian Cinema

Italy's film industry grew in international stature following World War II, defined by titans such as Rosselini, Visconti, Fellini and De Sica. Today Italy's film industry remains vibrant, and the status of the Rome Film Festival has been growing in recent years. Our selection of films includes new movies such as Twin Flower by the young director Laura Luchetti, as well as a representative of the classic Spaghetti Western (The Great Silence, from 1968).

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Italian Cinema
  • The Beautiful Summer

    Turin, 1938. Seventeen-year-old Ginia (Yile Yara Vianello) leaves the countryside with her brother in search of a new life in the city. Though Turin lies in the shadow of a rising fascist government and her brother yearns to return home, Ginia is optimistic about the future. In a short time, she ...

  • Californie

    Jamila (Khadija Jaafari) is a Moroccan girl from southern Italy who is figuring out life without guidance, friends, or money. She is intelligent and resourceful and, at times, it seems she is blazing her own path. But her pride and restlessness cause her to slip through the cracks. Filmed across ...

  • Paradise: A New Life

    Slushy pushcart vendor Calogero has entered the witness protection program after agreeing to testify against a mafia killer he saw murder a man in Sicily. Provided a new identity, he is sent as far away as possible: Sauris, a tiny village nestled in the Italian Alps. Unfortunately, snow and weird...

  • The Legionnaire

    Daniel, the only African-Italian officer in Rome's riot police, grew up in an illegally-occupied apartment building. Years ago he left to make a life for himself, but now he is forced to go back as a member of the mobile task force assigned to evict all the families inside. Among the desperate in...

  • The Time of Indifference

    Despite their bourgeois lifestyle, Mariagrazia Ardengo (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) and her children live beyond their means, relying on Leo (Edoardo Pesce), a greedy businessman and Mariagrazia’s lover. In the meantime, Leo intends on taking advantage of her recklessness in order to seize their only...

  • Padrenostro

    Rome, 1976. Valerio is ten years old and has a lively imagination. His life as a child is turned upside down when, with his mother Gina, he witnesses an attack on his father Alfonso by a terrorist group. From that moment on, fear and a sense of vulnerability leave a dramatic mark on the feelings ...

  • The Inner Cage

    An old prison in a remote and inaccessible area of Italy is being decommissioned. Due to bureaucratic mishaps, the transfer of inmates is delayed, and a dozen prisoners are left waiting for their new destinations, watched over by a handful of guards. Their lives feel suspended, and new relationsh...

  • The King of Laughter

    One of Naples’ most beloved playwrights, Eduardo Scarpetta (Toni Servillo) staged extraordinary comedic productions with his family troupe that were only rivaled by the constant drama surrounding his tumultuous personal life. But at the height of his popularity in 1904, Scarpetta risked it all wi...

  • The Truth About La Dolce Vita

    In 1958 Federico Fellini was at a crossroads. He had already won two Academy Awards for “La Strada” and “Nights of Cabiria,” but no one wanted to make his latest project, a film called “La Dolce Vita.” Giuseppe Amato, who had previously produced masterpieces such as “Umberto D.” and “The Flowers ...

  • Vivere

    The Attorre family lives in the suburbs on the outskirts of Rome. Luca (Adriano Giannini), a frustrated freelance journalist, struggles to support Susi (Micaela Ramazzotti), a former ballerina who is now reduced to teaching dance classes for weight loss, and Lucilla (Elisa Miccoli), their quiet s...

  • Molecules

    Between February and April 2020, director Andrea Segre, a resident of Rome, became stuck in his father's hometown of Venice during the initial COVID pandemic lockdown. At the time, he was working on two theater and movie projects about the wounds of the city: tourism and high water. While filming...

  • Darkness

    Seventeen-year-old Stella (Denise Tantucci) lives with her father (Valerio Binasco) and two younger sisters in an isolated house with bolted windows. Due to a solar explosion that occurred years earlier, only the father is able to leave their home. But there is something about this strange, post-...

  • Menocchio the Heretic

    Italy, late 16th century. The Roman Catholic Church, feeling threatened in its hegemony by the Protestant reform movement, invokes the Inquisition to consolidate its total control. The new confessional, designed in these very years, is transformed from a space for the consolation of souls to a tr...

  • Beate

    After receiving notification via group text that they are being laid off, the hardworking female employees of the Veronica Garment Factory decide to “borrow” some equipment and create their own line of lingerie. Despite a lack of money and resources, the group is determined to make the new busine...

  • Sin

    Florence, early 16th century. Although widely considered a genius by his contemporaries, Michelangelo Buonarroti (Alberto Testone) is reduced to poverty from his struggle to finish the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When his commissioner and head of the Della Rovere nobility Pope Julius II dies, ...

  • Selfie

    Alessandro and Pietro are 16 years-old and live in Naples, district of Traiano where, in the summer of 2014, Davide Bifolco, also 16, was shot by a policeman who mistook him for a fugitive. They are inseparable friends, Alessandro works as a waiter in a bar, Pietro dreams to become a hairdresser....

  • Human Capital

    Based on Stephen Amidon's acclaimed novel, director Paolo Virzì's HUMAN CAPITAL presents a riveting and stylish modern day morality tale of class, green and desire. With a lavish home and beautiful wife, hedge-fund manager Giovanni Bernaschi seemingly has it all. Meanwhile, real estate agent Dino...

  • The Dinner

    Based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Herman Koch, THE DINNER turns an ordinary meal among family into a taut morality play as the limits of polite society are tested and two brothers discover just how little they know about each other. Massimo is a posh and successful attorney; Paolo,...

  • The Great Silence - English subtitled

    On an unforgiving, snow swept frontier, a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led by the vicious Loco (Klaus Kinski Nosferatu, For a Few Dollars More) prey on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. As the price on each head is collected one-by-one, only a mute gunslinger name...

  • Scarlet Diva

    In her stunning, semi-autobiographical directorial feature debut, Asia Argento plays Anna Battista, a rising young actress who, despite her popularity and success, experiences despair and degradation at the hands of an abusive industry. Her harrowing journey towards redemption leads her on a sor...