The Brigand

Verdi

This 1982 biographical television miniseries, as seen on PBS's Great Performances, dramatizes the life of this classic Italian composer known for operas including La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Aida and his Requiem.

A Brief Season

A young American agent living in Rome meets with a beautiful Swedish translator.

Il furto della gioconda

A miniseries in three parts about the theft of Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" in 1911.

Il grande appello

An Italian proprietor of a squalid Djibouti bar collaborated in selling arms to Ethiopians fighting his own country's invasion but after finding his long lost son on the Fascist front he decides to choose patriotism over selfish profit.

The Life of Leonardo da Vinci

Miniseries dramatizing the life of the Italian Renaissance polymath Leonardo da Vinci.

Notte di tempesta

The story is taken from the drama "I Pescatori" (The Fishermen) by Raffaele Viviani, and is set in a fishing island off the coast of Naples (clearly identifiable with Ischia). Here lives Concetta, a widow with two children, who now lives with another man who however secretly lusts after his stepdaughter until when, on a stormy night...

Marriage Italian Style

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.

Hell in the City

A young girl comes to prison and experiences the entire prison subculture. The inmates she befriends vary from big tough dangerous dames to smaller submissive ladies who are totally lost in prison life.

Under the Sun of Rome

A lovely, incisive portrait of adolescents in the crowded San Giovanni quarter of Rome during the last years of WWII.

Malìa

In regional Sicily, Jana tries to repair her sister's marriage by going to a sorceress who makes up a love potion that will bring about the couple's happiness. But the spell only works on Jana herself...

The Archangel

Furio Bertuccia, a corruptible lawyer who defends lost causes, is hired by the glamorous model Gloria Bianchi to defend her from the alleged murder of her lover.

The Woman of Monte Carlo

An adventuress serves as bait for a swindler, who robs the naive people she brings to him with poker. A childhood friend helps him.

Professor, My Son

During Fascism and after WWII, a school porter sacrifices himself so his son, who is slightly ashamed of a lowly background, can become a respected professor.The film also takes a few jabs at Italy's rapid governmental reshuffles.

We Are All in Temporary Liberty

A judge opens an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of an MP.

An Adventure of Salvator Rosa

Everything unfolds in Naples seventeenth century, when a mysterious masked swordsman who calls Salvador Rossa becomes champion of the needy and lonely struggle against the cruel tyrant that frightens the country.

Controsesso

A vivid assortment consisted of three acts taken from the lives of modern 1960s Italians, always in orbit around the restless theme of sexual inhibition and the pursuit of pleasure in sex.