ITALIAN FILMS – Addlestone Library (Updated April 2011, C. Evans) In addition to the films listed below, also see the Italian, or “IT” section in the Media Room for some other titles. L'albero degli zoccoli (The tree of wooden clogs), 1979 PN1995.9.F35 A423 1990 (pts. 1 & 2); PN1995.9.F35 A423 2004 A deceptively simple tale of a small community of peasants in Italy at the turn of the century. It follows four families through the seasons, and shows the seemingly small events that influence their lives and the love they feel for the land and their families. Amarcord (I remember), 1973 PN1997 .A3337 1990; PN1997 .A3337 2006 Federico Fellini satirizes his youth and turns daily life into a circus of social rituals in this portrait of provincial Italy during the Fascist period. Before the revolution (Prima della rivoluzione), 1964 PN1997 .B355 1989 The plot, based loosely on Stendhal's "The charterhouse of Parma," concerns a young man who flirts intellectually with communism and incestuously with his young aunt. He finally realizes that for him life will always be "before the revolution." Brother Sun, Sister Moon (Fratello Sole, Sorella Luna), 1972 VIDEO 2664 This is a dramatization of events in the life of St. Francis of Assisi from before his conversion experience through his audience with the pope, including his friendship with St. Clare. Cabiria, 1914 PN1995.75 .C32 2000 This story tells the personal adventures of a Roman girl, Cabiria, and her two benefactors in the third century B.C. during the Second Punic War. Includes scenes of the eruption of Mt. Etna, sea battles, and Hannibal crossing the Alps. Cento passi (One hundred steps), 2000 PN1995.9.M23 C36736 2001 This film is based on the true story of Peppino Impastato, a young left-wing activist, who in the late seventies repeatedly denounced the crimes of Mafia boss Tano Badalamenti and the whole Mafia system using a small local radio station. In 1978 Peppino was killed by an explosion. The police archived the case as an accident or a suicide, which his friends never accepted. C'eravamo tanto amati (We all loved each other so much), 1977 PN1995.9.C55 C472 2001 (2 copies) In a retrospective allegory, Ettore Scola examines the lives of three resistance fighters and their transformation over thirty years. Each of these friends falls in love with the beautiful Luciana, an aspiring actress, testing the friendship and idealism they all shared. Cinema Paradiso, 1990 VIDEO 2075 A young boy in a small Italian village is befriended by the projectionist at the movie theater, the Cinema Paradiso. As the boy grows up, he learns to love films, and is encouraged by his good friend to pursue his dream of one day making movies. Il conformista (The conformist), 1970 PN1995.9.F67 C664676 2006 A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes to Paris to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident. Il Deserto rosso (Red desert), 1964 PN1995.9.F67 D47 1989 Antonioni's first color film depicts a woman traumatized by an auto accident who finds herself permanently alienated in her urban milieu. Divorce Italian Style (Divorzio all’italiana), 1961 IT 4012 A married Sicilian baron falls in love with his cousin and vows to wed her, but with divorce illegal he must concoct a crime of passion to do away with his wife. E la nave va (And the ship sails on), 1983 PN1995.9.F67 E43 1999 In 1914, a colorful melange of celebrities embark on a funeral voyage for a dead opera star. An allegorical film blending spectacle, humour, poignance and grotesquerie. Edipo Re (Oedipus Rex), 1967 VIDEO 2651 Sophocles' play, with added prologue and epilogue set in modern Italy, is extended into the present and points out that the motives of the ancient tragedy still exist today. Enchanted April, 1992 PR6035.U8 E571 2009 (two copies) Four women in 1920s London rent an Italian seaside castle drenched in wisteria and sunshine. The women find themselves in a transformative beauty so enchanting that they experience changes in themselves they never thought possible. Excellent Cadavers (In un altro paese), 2005 HV6453.I82 P35 2005 Documentary based on the book by Italian-American author Alexander Stille and featuring the photos of Sicilian photojournalist Letizia Battaglia, it chronicles the recent history of the Mafia and its integral -- and seemingly ineradicable -- relationship to postwar Italian politics. The film focuses on the events leading up to the historic anti-Mafia trials in Palermo mounted by Italian prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino in the mid 1980s and 1990s, and questions why so much of anti-Mafia legislation they fought and died for has since been undone by the Italian government. Fellini: I'm a born liar, 2002 PN1998.3.F45 F45 2003 Biography of Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. I fidanzati, 1963 PN1995.9.M27 F333 2003 A young Milanese couple's relationship is tested when the man accepts a new job in Sicily, causing them to be separated for long periods of time. Film d'amore e d'anarchia (Love and anarchy), 1973 PN1995.9.F67 F45 1982; PN 1995.9.F67F45 1997 Tells the story of a shy country peasant who goes to the city with a plan to assassinate Benito Mussolini. Shows how his underground contact in the network of anarchists offers him a hideout in her brothel where he meets a young prostitute and falls in love. Francesco, 1989 PN1995.9.B55 F72 2004 Dramatization of the passionately mystical life of Saint Francis of Assisi. The decadent son of a wealthy, 13th-century Italian merchant, Francesco experienced a religious awakening and set an enduring example of devotion and sacrifice. The garden of the Finzi-Continis, 1970 PQ4807.A79 G5 1997 The drama is set in Italy in 1938, when Mussolini's anti-Semetic edicts began to isolate the Jews from their communities. Among them were the Finzi-Continis, an aristocratic Jewish family forced for the first time to acknowledge the world beyond its fenced garden. Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits), 1965 PN1997 .G534 2002 (two copies) When she suspects her husband of infidelity, a housewife unleashes an unconscious ripe with erotic fantasies. In this film, Fellini's first feature-length color film, his examination of the sexual psyche unfolds via the surrealistic use of abrupt cut-aways to illustrate the woman' sexual fantasies. Intervista, 1987 PN1998.3.F45 F43 2005 A Japanese film crew interviews Fellini about his career as he films the memories of his life as a young journalist walking into his beloved studio Cinecitta for the first time. Italianissimo 1: beginners, 1994 PC1121 .I83 1994 This course combines a carefully designed language learning program with a colorful and fascinating insight into the daily life of Italy. History and culture of Italy are integrated throughout the course. Italiensk for begyndere (feature film) PN1997 .I83 2002 Several Danish students of an Italian language class find romance in their studies of the language of love. Ladri di biciclette (The Bicycle Thief) or (Bicycle Thieves); 1950 PN1995.9.F67 B53 1998; and PN1995.9.F67 B53 2007 In post-WWII poverty-stricken Rome, a man struggles to earn a living for himself and his family. When his bicycle and main means of support is stolen, with his young son in tow, he attempts to find the thief. Laviamoci il cervello (Rogopag: four stories by four writers who contain themselves to recounting the gay beginning of the end of the world), 1962 PN1997 .L38 1995 A collection of four short films which take a satirical and darkly humourous look at society and the conditions and circumstances of specific individuals in it. Leri, Oggi, Domani (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow), 1964 PN1995.9.F67 Y47 2004 Three tales of women who use sex to get what they want out of the self-centered men in their lives. Mafioso, 1962 PN1995.9.M23 M345 2008 Nino is an auto-factory foreman who takes his proper, modern wife and two blonde daughters from industrial Milan to the antiquated, rural Sicily to visit his family and get back in touch with his roots. Nino gets more than he bargained for when he discovers some harsh truths about his ancestors and himself. Mamma roma, 1962 PN1995.9.F67 M366 2004 A middle-aged prostitute attempts to extricte herself from her sordid past for the sake of her son. Mamma Roma offers an unflinching look at the struggle for survival in postwar Italy. La mariée était en noir (The bride wore black), 1968 PN1997 .M373 2001 After a bridegroom is shot on the steps of the church on his wedding day, his widow traces the group of men responsible and eliminates them one by one. This film was the original inspiration for Kill Bill. La meglio gioventù (The best of youth), 2002 PN1995.9.H5 B478 2006 (2 copies) Divided by politics but bonded by blood, Italian brothers Nicola and Matteo find their paths intersecting through some of the most tumultuous events in recent history. Le mépris (Contempt), 1963 VIDEO 2291 A French dramatist writing a screenplay for an American producer disagrees with the producer on how film should be done. After an argument between her husband and the producer, the writer's wife has an affair with the producer and regards the writer with contempt, presumably because of his attitudes and behavior. Le mépris (Contempt), 1963 PN1995.9.M27 M46 2002 (2-disc set) Features: Disc one: audio commentary by film scholar Robert Stam. Disc two: The dinosaur and the baby (1967): a conversation between Jean-Luc Godard and Fritz Lang (60 min.); Encounter with Fritz Lang (1963): a short film by Peter Fleischmann; two 1963 documentaries by Jacques Rozier featuring Godard on the set of Contempt: Bardot et Godard and Paparazzi; Jean-Luc Godard interview excerpt from the French television program Cinepanorama (1964); interview with cinematographer Raoul Coutard (2002); original theatrical trailer.