Hell in the City

A Brief Season

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

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.

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.

Resurrection

Young Prince Nechljudov is summoned as a judge in a murder trial. A rich merchant was found dead in the room of the inn where he was staying and the prostitute Maslova was accused of the crime. Nechljudov recognizes in the woman the maid of the aunts he had seduced and abandoned years before and tries to convince the authorities of her of his innocence but to no avail. Convinced that he is responsible for her moral fall, he follows her to Siberia where she must serve her sentence.

I sogni nel cassetto

The difficulties of a young married couple, since the husband has to prepare for his examinations during his wife's pregnancy.

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.

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.

A Hundred Thousand Dollars

On a whim, an American man offers a girl the sum of $100,000 if she will marry him.

Cinéma et Réalité

In this documentary, giants of italian cinema such as Rossellini, De Sica, Fellini and Zavattini talk about the importance of cinema after WW2, and about huge moments of social rebellion. This movie gives the floor to the creators of italian neorealism.

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.

Steamboat Bill, Jr.

The just-out-of-college, effete son of a no-nonsense steamboat captain comes to visit his father whom he's not seen since he was a child.

Street Angel

A spirited young woman finds herself destitute and on the streets before joining a traveling carnival, where she meets a vagabond painter.

Barbed Wire Dolls

Maria, an unfortunate young woman, kills her rapist father in self-defense, and is later tried, sentenced, and shipped off to a woman's penitentiary where she and her fellow inmates are subjected to psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of a psychotic lesbian warden.

Black Mama, White Mama

When two troublemaking female prisoners (one a revolutionary, the other a former harem-girl) can't seem to get along, they are chained together and extradited for safekeeping. The women, still chained together, stumble, stab, and cat-fight their way across the wilderness, igniting a bloody shootout between gangsters and a group of revolutionaries.

99 Women

Female prisoners endure the horrors of drug abuse, prostitution and rampant sadism at an island prison. When an escape attempt goes awry, the fugitives discover that escaping can be as dangerous as remaining in the prison.

Dillinger

After a shoot-out kills five FBI agents in Kansas City the Bureau target John Dillinger as one of the men to hunt down. Waiting for him to break Federal law they sort out several other mobsters, while Dillinger's bank robbing exploits make him something of a folk hero. Escaping from jail he finds Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby Face Nelson have joined the gang and pretty soon he is Public Enemy Number One. Now the G-men really are after him.

Caged

A single mistake puts a 19-year old girl behind bars, where she experiences the terrors and torments of women in prison.

White Oleander

A teenager journeys through a series of foster homes after her mother goes to prison for committing a crime of passion.

Vera Drake

Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain – a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family.

Bound by Honor

Based on the true life experiences of poet Jimmy Santiago Baca, the film focuses on half-brothers Paco and Cruz, and their bi-racial cousin Miklo. It opens in 1972, as the three are members of an East L.A. gang known as the "Vatos Locos", and the story focuses on how a violent crime and the influence of narcotics alter their lives. Miklo is incarcerated and sent to San Quentin, where he makes a "home" for himself. Cruz becomes an exceptional artist, but a heroin addiction overcomes him with tragic results. Paco becomes a cop and an enemy to his "carnal", Miklo.