Roberto De Simone

When romantic journalist Paolo rescues American photographer Lizzy from a scuffle in an Italian village, his efforts at romance lead nowhere. But when they meet again in San Francisco, Paolo succeeds in wooing her. Can their love overcome the differences between the traditional Italian Communist and the modern, liberated American woman that threaten to tear the two apart?

A tribute to Naples, this film presents six episodes: a clown exploited by a gangster, a pizza seller losing her husband’s ring, a child's funeral, a gambler beaten by a kid, a prostitute's unusual wedding, and a "wisdom seller" offering advice.

A criminal mastermind sets up a phony film production as part of a plan to smuggle stolen gold.

A rich businessman is fed up with work, family, society, and goes with his accountant to Africa, in search of his brother-in-law who had vanished there in mysterious circumstances. They will find him alright - as a tribal chief, surrounded with lots of topless, shapely wives. They are going to return to civilisation, but will their friend come with them?

Two devils from Hell are sent to Earth to cause trouble. Belfagor and his faithful sidekick Adramalek must start a war between Rome and Florence in 1478.

Efisio Mulas is a meek laborer who lives with occasional work, especially in Don Leandro Sanna's salon, and rounds up the slim balance by betting with colleagues in strength with the game "head against head". In the village the Sanna and Porcu families' conflict has lasted over a century.

A kidnapped mobster persuades his captors to help him rob platinum ingots from a train.

The Divine Comedy, in particular Hell, becomes a nativity scene and therefore life in the visions of the trans-avant-garde artist.

Fontamara is a village in the Marsica, forgotten by all but God and its inhabitants are called 'cafoni' (boors). Berardo Viola wants to marry Elvira but only after gaining enough money to buy some land and in order to reach his aim he has the idea of going to a great city. When Maria Grazia is raped by the fascists, Berardo and Antonio decide to leave Fontamara and go to Rome. Here they are swindled by a lawyer and afterwards they are invited by an antifascist to a restaurant where they are arrested by the police because of some subversive papers they had.

A girl out of the reform school leaves her boyfriend and marries a street vendor.

Giovanni Percolla lives in Catania surrounded by the attentive cares of his three sisters. He permanently acts like a Don Giovanni to hide his real poor "knowledge" of women. With his friend he moves also to Rome but women still continues to remain part of his fantasies. But Giovanni succeeded to build anyway a fame of "tombeur de femmes". One day he meets the real love of Maria Antonietta and decides to marry. Will things change?

Riccardo Muti leads the Orchestra of the Wiener Staatsoper in this performance of Mozart's opera, recorded live in 1996. The performers include Barbara Frittoli, Angelika Kirchschlager, Angelika Kirchschlager and Michael Schade.

An Italian-American mobster is sent back to Naples from the States. He moves to Italy with all his illegal proceeds hidden in jam jars--which fall into the wrong hands when they get to the harbour of Naples. These hands belong to people who demand their fair share. Meanwhile, the mobster is questioned by investigators.

A count with simple, unpretentious tastes courts the commoner Chiariella at his villa in Marechiaro. After a couple of broken marriage promises, he manages to extricate himself from the situation with the help of a sprite that pops out of a bottle.

This documentary is about the Italian small family circus, based on the old street theatre of the Commedia dell'Arte. Since World War II, they have diminished in number and today hardly exist anymore. They simply can't compete with modern times entertainment, symbolized by television. The film portrays and follows the Colombaioni family, six brothers and two sisters, their children and grand children. Most of them work in their own small circus(father, mother, children). Two of the brothers, Carlo and Alberto left the circus and now have a theatre show, based on their improvisation skills that they learned in the circus. The family is known by their collaboration with Frederico Fellini and Dario Fo. They appeared in many a Fellini movie -o.a. La Strada, Le Notti di Cabiria and I Clown.

Live from La Scala Friday 22 December 1989

Live performance from La Scala in Milan. Nabucco was the first production of the theatre's 1986-87 season.

After many years in prison, Luca Sabatini returns to his home village in Abruzzo in 1946. At the same time, party official Andrea Cipriani, who had to leave Italy during the war but is now welcomed back as a hero, also arrives. Andrea is the son of Luca's best friend. Luca's conviction was the first traumatic experience of his life. He is therefore determined to solve the mystery of why Luca did not defend himself at all during his trial, despite his innocence.