Directing

Vittorio De Sica

Born July 7, 1901 · Sora, Frosinone, Lazio, Italy

Died November 13, 1974 · aged 73

Vittorio De Sica (7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: Sciuscià and Bicycle Thieves (honorary), while Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and Il giardino dei Finzi Contini won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Indeed, the great critical success of Sciuscià (the fi…

Known For

The Witches

The Witches · 1967

MovieComedyDrama

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. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.

The Earrings of Madame de...

The Earrings of Madame de... · 1953

The Earrings of Madame de...

MovieDramaRomance

In late 19th century France, the Countess Louise, wife of a wealthy general, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off her secret debts, then claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many tragic misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess, and her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati.

Bicycle Thieves

Bicycle Thieves · 1948

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 he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.

We All Loved Each Other So Much

We All Loved Each Other So Much · 1974

We All Loved Each Other So Much

MovieDramaComedy

Three partisans bound by a strong friendship return home after the war, but the clash with everyday reality puts a strain on their bond.

Two Women

Two Women · 1960

A young widow flees from Rome during WWII and takes her lonely twelve-year-old-daughter to her rural hometown but the horrors of war soon catch up with them.

Miracle in Milan

Miracle in Milan · 1951

Miracle in Milan

MovieComedyFantasy

Once upon a time a wise and kind old woman discovers a baby in her cabbage patch. She brings up the child and, when she dies, the boy, Totò, enters an orphanage. Totò leaves the orphanage a happy young man, and looks for work in post-war Milan. He ends up with the homeless and organizes them to build a shanty town in a vacant lot. But when greedy developers threaten the community’s land, Totò will need all the help he can get in order to find an impossible way out.

Scandal in Sorrento

Scandal in Sorrento · 1955

Scandal in Sorrento

MovieRomanceComedy

Back to his hometown, a former marshal finds his house occupied by a young woman working as a fishwife.

A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms · 1957

A Farewell to Arms

MovieDramaRomance

An English nurse and an American soldier on the Italian front during World War I fall in love, but the horrors surrounding them test their romance to the limit.

Filmography

Sort

The Witches

The Witches · 1967

MovieComedyDrama

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. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.

Director

The Earrings of Madame de...

The Earrings of Madame de... · 1953

The Earrings of Madame de...

MovieDramaRomance

In late 19th century France, the Countess Louise, wife of a wealthy general, sells the earrings her husband gave her on their wedding day to pay off her secret debts, then claims to have lost them. Her husband quickly learns of the deceit, which is the beginning of many tragic misunderstandings, all involving the earrings, the general, the countess, and her new lover, the Italian Baron Donati.

Baron Fabrizio Donati

Bicycle Thieves

Bicycle Thieves · 1948

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 he can find the thief. With the help of his son, Antonio combs the city, becoming desperate for justice.

Screenplay

We All Loved Each Other So Much

We All Loved Each Other So Much · 1974

We All Loved Each Other So Much

MovieDramaComedy

Three partisans bound by a strong friendship return home after the war, but the clash with everyday reality puts a strain on their bond.

Presenter

Two Women

Two Women · 1960

A young widow flees from Rome during WWII and takes her lonely twelve-year-old-daughter to her rural hometown but the horrors of war soon catch up with them.

Director

Miracle in Milan

Miracle in Milan · 1951

Miracle in Milan

MovieComedyFantasy

Once upon a time a wise and kind old woman discovers a baby in her cabbage patch. She brings up the child and, when she dies, the boy, Totò, enters an orphanage. Totò leaves the orphanage a happy young man, and looks for work in post-war Milan. He ends up with the homeless and organizes them to build a shanty town in a vacant lot. But when greedy developers threaten the community’s land, Totò will need all the help he can get in order to find an impossible way out.

Director

Scandal in Sorrento

Scandal in Sorrento · 1955

Scandal in Sorrento

MovieRomanceComedy

Back to his hometown, a former marshal finds his house occupied by a young woman working as a fishwife.

Maresciallo Carotenuto

A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms · 1957

A Farewell to Arms

MovieDramaRomance

An English nurse and an American soldier on the Italian front during World War I fall in love, but the horrors surrounding them test their romance to the limit.

Major Rinaldi

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow · 1963

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

MovieComedyRomance

Three tales of very different women using their sexuality as a means to getting what they want.

Director

Boccaccio '70

Boccaccio '70 · 1962

MovieComedyRomance

An anthology of four comic moral tales about the hypocrisies surrounding sex in 1960s Italy: frothy young love and office politics in the big city; milk advertisements that begin to haunt an aging prude; a trophy wife enduring her husband's very public affairs; a lucky ticket-holder at a small town fair.

Director

Sunflower

Sunflower · 1970

After World War II, a woman refuses to believe her husband, missing on the Russian front, is dead. Flashbacks reveal their brief courtship and marriage. Years later, she travels to Russia with his photo, determined to find him. What will she discover?

Director

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis · 1970

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

MovieDramaHistory

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 face the horrors of the Holocaust.

Director

Me, Me, Me... and the Others

Me, Me, Me... and the Others · 1966

Me, Me, Me... and the Others

Sandro is a well-known journalist and he is conducting a survey on human selfishness. Every man and every woman he meets turns into a theme for his inquiry. Even his own wife, Titta.

Commendator Trepossi

Shoeshine

Shoeshine · 1946

Two shoeshine boys in postwar Rome, Italy save up to buy a horse, but their involvement as dupes in a burglary lands them in juvenile prison; the experience take a devastating toll on their friendship.

Director

It Happened in Rome

It Happened in Rome · 1957

It Happened in Rome

MovieRomanceComedy

Three girls are on a hitchhiking trip through northern Italy, the riviera, Venice, Pisa and Rome.

The Count

Un sorriso, uno schiaffo, un bacio in bocca

Un sorriso, uno schiaffo, un bacio in bocca · 1975

Un sorriso, uno schiaffo, un bacio in bocca

MovieRomanceHistory

Anthological movie with some of the most famous movie sequences in Italian cinema produced by glorious Titanus Film from 1947 to 1962.

(archive footage)

The Anatomy of Love

The Anatomy of Love · 1954

The Anatomy of Love

MovieComedyMusic

Nine episodes about life in Italy in the period just before its economic boom.

Conte Ferdinando / Don Corradino Scognamiglio

Blood for Dracula

Blood for Dracula · 1974

Blood for Dracula

Deathly ill Count Dracula and his slimy underling, Anton, travel to Italy in search of a virgin's blood. They're welcomed at the crumbling estate of indebted Marchese Di Fiore, who's desperate to marry off his daughters to rich suitors. But there, instead of pure women, the count encounters incestuous lesbians with vile blood and Marxist manservant Mario, who's suspicious of the aristocratic Dracula.

Marquis Di Fiore

Woman Times Seven

Woman Times Seven · 1967

Woman Times Seven

MovieComedyDrama

Seven mini-stories of adultery: a widow misbehaves at her husband's funeral, a wife turns to streetwalking for revenge, a prudish girl surprises, a neglected wife vies for her husband's attention, a fight over a dress, a death pact, and a detective revealed as a jealous husband's spy.

Director

It Started in Naples

It Started in Naples · 1960

It Started in Naples

MovieComedyRomance

Mike Hamilton, a Philadelphia lawyer, comes to Naples to settle the estate of his long estranged "black sheep" brother. Once there, he discovers that the deceased has left an 8 year old boy who is being raised by Michael's sister-in-law Lucia Curcio. To complicate matters, Lucia happens to be a sexy nightclub performer.

Mario Vitale

The Millionairess

The Millionairess · 1960

The Millionairess

MovieComedyRomance

When her father dies, Epifania Parerga, an Italian in London, becomes the world's richest woman. She feels incomplete without a husband and falls in love with a humble, Indian physician, Ahmed el Kabir, much loved by his indigent English patients.

Joe

Marriage Italian Style

Marriage Italian Style · 1964

Marriage Italian Style

MovieDramaRomance

During the bombing of Naples in World War II, a cynical businessman helps a naive prostitute, who spends the next two decades desperate to have him reciprocate her feelings.

Director

Indiscretion of an American Wife

Indiscretion of an American Wife · 1953

Indiscretion of an American Wife

MovieDramaRomance

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 for her; he doesn't want her to go. Together they wander the railroad station where Mary is to take the train to Paris, then ultimately reunite with her husband and daughter in Philadelphia. Will she throw away her old life for this passionate new romance?

Director

General Della Rovere

General Della Rovere · 1959

General Della Rovere

In WWII-Italy, the Gestapo blackmails a con man to impersonate a dead partisan commander in order to extract information from his fellow inmates.

Bardone AKA 'Grimaldi'

The Four Just Men

The Four Just Men · 1959

The Four Just Men

The Four Just Men was a 1959 Sapphire Films production for ITC Entertainment. It ran for one season of 39 half-hour monochrome episodes.

Ricco Poccari

Hallmark Hall of Fame

Hallmark Hall of Fame · 1951

Hallmark Hall of Fame

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.

The Adventures of Pinocchio

The Adventures of Pinocchio · 1972

The Adventures of Pinocchio

SeriesComedyFamily

Mastro Geppetto is a poor carpenter with no wife and no children. The man is very lonely, and when trading a piece of wood with his colleague Mastero Cherry, he decides to build himself a puppet to make him company.

Giudice

Birth of the Republic

Birth of the Republic · 1971

Birth of the Republic

SeriesWar & Politics

A 1971 three-part miniseries about the birth of the Italian Republic, directed by Sandro Bolchi, Vittorio De Sica, and Ermanno Olmi

Director