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Ossessione
Luchino Visconti (1943) |
La Terra trema
Luchino Visconti (1948) |
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Luchino Visconti's interpretation of American film noir is this
grim yet masterfully executed psychological thriller, a film which
laid the foundations for Italian neo-realism.
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A harsh yet compassionate portrayal of ordinary Sicilian fisher folk
makes this one of the most naturalistic of neo-realist dramas from the Italian
masters.
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Paisa
Roberto Rossellini (1946) |
Rome Open City
Roberto Rossellini (1945) |
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Roberto Rossellini's World War II drama paints a harrowingly realistic picture of Italy
during its period of liberation, showing a country shattered, divided and suspicious of all outsiders.
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No where else is the neo-realist style used to greater effect than in this
compelling account of Rome under Nazi control. Anna Magnani, a future icon of
Italian cinema, underscores the bleakness of Rossellini's vision.
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Shoeshine
Vittorio De Sica (1946) |
Germany Year Zero
Roberto Rossellini (1947) |
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This early neo-realist masterpiece (winner of the first Oscar for a foreign film)
shows how the friendship of two shoeshine boys is gradually destroyed
in a world that seems to have lost all sense of compassion.
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A young boy's struggle to survive in post-war Germany provides an apt and
moving metaphor for a nation humilated by defeat and scarcely able to pick up the
pieces.
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Bicycle Thieves
Vittorio De Sica (1948) |
Miracle in Milan
Vittorio De Sica (1951) |
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This masterful example of Italian neo-realism
is Vittorio Da Sica's intensely poignant, Oscar-winning portrait of
a penniless father and his son struggling to survive at a time of post-war depression.
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An unlikely melange of social realism and surreal fantasy makes this one of
strangest of the neo-realist masterpieces, De Sica's strikingly humanist depiction of the
homeless poor.
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Umberto D.
Vittorio De Sica (1952) |
I Vitelloni
Federico Fellini (1953) |
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This supreme masterpiece of Italian neo-realism is a shocking
indictment of how society treats its older citizens. Widely
regarded as one of the greatest films of all time.
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Fellini's first great film is this ironic portrait of
five young men who appear incapable of taking on the burden
of adult responsibility. A foretaste of La Dolce Vita.
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La Strada
Federico Fellini (1954) |
Mamma Roma
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1962) |
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Fellini won an Oscar for this compelling neo-realist portrait of street performers
played with great force and humanity by Anthony Quinn and Giulietta Masina.
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Anna Magnani's gripping performance as an ill-fated mother makes
this an emotionally charged neo-realist drama, an early masterpiece from
the ever-controversial Pasolini.
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Nights of Cabiria
Federico Fellini (1957) |
Rocco and His Brothers
Luchino Visconti (1960) |
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Fellini directed his wife in this devastatingly effective neo-realist
drama, regarded by some as his finest work.
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Visconti combines the relentless grittiness of neo-realism with the power and poetry of grand opera
in this celebrated social drama. Here we see Alain Delon in probably his greatest
screen role.
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La Dolce vita
Federico Fellini (1960) |
The Leopard
Luchino Visconti (1963) |
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One of the most stylish films of the 1960s is this scathing satire of easy-living journalists.
Marcello Mastroianni stars in his most famous role, whilst Fellini has fun indulging his
artistic vision to maximum effect.
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A historical drama of rare artistic brilliance, masterfully composed by
Visconti at the height of his creative powers and starring Burt Lancaster
at his absolute best.
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Accattone
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1961) |
The Gospel According to St Matthew
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1964) |
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Pasolini's first film was this compelling neo-realist drama, an evocative work which
was informed by the director's
own troubled experiences as a young man.
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A world apart from the lavish Hollywood Bible epics, Pasolini's film adaptation of
St Matthew’s Gospel stands as one of the most captivating and humanist
films ever made.
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8½
Federico Fellini (1963) |
The Damned
Luchino Visconti (1969) |
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Fellini's most unashamedly abstract film is this self-indulgent,
exuberant fantasy, inspired by the director's own real-life mental block.
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Visconti’s account of a dynastic German family succumbing to Nazi evil
and reaping the consequences is a shocking yet totally absorbing work, arguably the
director’s most overtly political and controversial film.
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Il Postino (The Postman)
Michael Radford (1994) |
Life is Beautiful
Roberto Benigni (1997) |
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This marvellously rendered romantic drama captures the poetry and pain of
human existence, mainly through the extraordinarily sympathic performance from its lead
actor, Massimo Troisi.
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Roberto Benigni both directed and starred in this blisteringly humanist
portrayal of the Nazi holocaust, in which burlesque comedy is used to great effect
to shed a new perspective on one of the greatest of human tragedies.
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