Opera Prima is a tribute and a journey through the evolution that cinema has had in Italy. Tayu Vlietstra, a pupil of Bertolucci, carries out an investigation on the first work of six of the most authoritative and beloved Italian directors. The result is an unpublished and precious document that reveals the emotions and expectations of directors grappling with their cinematic debut. Mario Monicelli, Bernardo Bertolucci, Lina Wertmüller, Marco Bellocchio, Liliana Cavani and Francesca Archibugi offer a still current evolution on the needs and difficulties of making cinema in our country.
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.
Documentary about Italian cinema.
Director Marco Bellocchio returns with his family to his homeland, in the province of Piacenza. The journey is an opportunity to confront oneself with one's past, as well as with the nostalgia of an era.
A celebrated painter receives a visit from a cardinal's assistant, who informs him that his mother could become a saint.
Days before the general election, after a girl from a rich family is murdered in an attempted rape, the editor-in-chief of a conservative tabloid tries to derail the police investigation in order to help the right-wing candidates supported by his bosses.
A young writer is trapped between his awful actress mother and the knowledge that he has only a mediocre talent as a playwright and almost no force of character.
The extremely mawkish hides something extremely violent.
A portrait of Ennio Morricone, the most popular and prolific film composer of the 20th century, the one most loved by the international public, a two-time Oscar winner and the author of over five hundred unforgettable scores.
An account of the life and artistic career of Raffaella Carrà (1943-2021), Italian pop star and television personality, told through the voices of those who knew her best.
A 1966 biopic of Francis of Assisi presents him as a troubled rebel and champion of radical brotherhood, reflecting the spirit of 1968 student protests. Praised and condemned, the film sparked controversy for its bold, dissenting portrayal of faith.
Marco Bellocchio in his interview with Joyce in 1994 talks about his attitude towards life devoid of dreams and illusions, but extremely active, asking her how it is possible to transmit the extraordinary things that she has lived. Her straw handbag still hanging on a door of her room, the cuckoo of the room, the wicker rocking chair, her colored combs resting in the bathroom near the mirror, the Sardinian carpets, the flowers that Angela always puts on the kitchen table, the reeds dancing with the wind. Joyce's house in Fermo, in the Marche region, is a house that breathes life, a life many times dramatic but also rich in poetry. The period of exile with Emilio Lussu in Paris, the struggles of women in Sardinia, the translations of poets who wrote "useful poetry", the one that comes directly, without too many words, to the knowledge of other realities and to sentiment.
Five short stories with contemporary settings. In New York, people are indifferent to derelicts sleeping on sidewalks, to a woman's assault in front of an apartment building, and to a couple injured in a car crash. A man, stripped of his identity, dies in bed with actors expressing his agony. A cheerful, innocent young man walking a city street in a time of war pays a price for this innocence. A couple talks about cinema while it watches another couple talk of love and truth on the eve of one character's return to Cuba. Striking students take over a university classroom; an argument follows about revolution or incremental change.
Matteo is a communist intellectual, the son of a wealthy bourgeois, who found himself blind from an eye after the war. One day in the streets of Rome he meets Amelia, a child suffocated by the bourgeois environment.
Documentary on the making of Marco Bellocchio's first film as a director, 'Fists in the Pocket'.
A documentary focused on film critic Lino Micciché, as seen from the point of view of his friends and his son Francesco.
A documentary about the making of "Buongiorno, notte" and the films and politics of director Marco Bellocchio.
Traces the life of Anna Magnani, her creations, her successes, her triumphs, her boycotted career, her nonconformism, her anxieties, her generosity ... Punctuated with photos that tell her career in theater and cinema, Extracts of films, this documentary portrait also gives the floor to his friends and relatives, from Roberto Rossellini to Marcello Mastroianni, through Federico Fellini.
A strange encounter with an unknown man from a story a harpist tells to his friend during a recording session.
An engineer invents a revolutionary machine capable of automating all industrial production, thereby eliminating the need for human labor. His groundbreaking innovation, intended to free humanity from work, instead leads to his abduction and brainwashing by unknown forces. He is then left to wander the city, stripped of his memories and identity.
Various generations of filmmakers talk about what cinema means for them.
How the cinema industry does not respect the author's work as it was conceived, how manipulates the motion pictures in order to make them easier to watch by an undemanding audience or even how mutilates them to adapt the original formats and runtimes to the restrictive frame of the television screen and the abusive requirements of advertising. (Followed by “Filmmakers in Action.”)
This documentary was distilled from a 3 1/2-hour television film Nessuno o Tutti, to make the point that many inmates now in mental hospitals could be released without harm to society, and to their advantage.
A deep dive into Glauber Rocha's years exiled in Italy in the 70s. Through a collection of interviews and archives, the movie shows the making of his film Claro (1975) and his relation with European auteurs in their filmic and political views.
After shooting to fame with Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” (1960), actor Marcello Mastroianni (1924-1996) starred in more than 160 films in his nearly half-a-century career. Directors Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri look into the melancholic charm of one of the most famous Italian actors through interviews with his two daughters, Barbara and Chiara; directors Fellini and Luchino Visconti; actresses Claudia Cardinale and Anouk Aimee; and in archival footage of Mastroianni himself. The subject matter ranges from Mastroianni’s passion for kidney-bean pasta and his addiction to the telephone to his famous laziness, humility and talent. Shown in black-and-white, Mastroianni — elegantly holding a cigarette in between his fingers — is undeniably the dandy.
Documentary about the anthology film Love and Anger (1969) with interviews with Carlo Lizzani (director of the segment "L'indifferenza"), Marco Bellocchio (director of the segment "Discutiamo, discussamo"), Maurizio Ponzi (assistant director of the segment " La sequenza del fiore di carta," by Pier Paolo Pasolini), and Roberto Perpignani (editor of the segment "Agonia," by Bernardo Bertolucci).
"Marx can wait" was something Camillo Bellocchio said to his twin Marco the last time they met before the former died at a young age in the heated days of 1968. This documentary is dedicated to his memory.
Until the 1970s, Italian cinema dominated the international scene, even competing with Hollywood. Then, in just a few years, came its rapid decline, the flight of our greatest producers, a crisis among the best writer-directors, the collapse of production. But what are the true causes and circumstances of this decline? In an attempt to provide an answer to this question, Di Me Cosa Ne Sai strives to depict this great cultural change. Begun as a loving examination of Italian cinema, the film transformed into a docu-drama that alternates between interviews with the great names of the past and fragments of cultural and political life of the last 30 years. It is a travel diary that shows Italy from north to south, through movie theatres; television-addicted kids; Berlusconi and Fellini; shopping centers; TV news editors; stories of impassioned film exhibitors and directors who fight for their films; and interviews with itinerant projectionists and great European directors.
A portrait of Italy in the 60's and 70's, based on films by Marco Bellocchio.
Documentary about Italian film screenwriter Cesare Zavattini
A documentary exploring the life and legacy of renowned Italian actor Gian Maria Volonté, featuring insights from his colleagues, family, and never-before-seen footage, highlighting his artistic journey and political activism.
