Covering only the first 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis, vignettes include: Adam and Eve frolicking in the Garden of Eden until their indulgence in the forbidden fruit sees them driven out; Cain murdering his brother Abel; Noah building an ark to preserve the animals of the world from the coming flood; and Abraham making a covenant with God.
Just before the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, a party is held in the castle of the Stettin's Counts.
Love at Twenty unites five directors from five different countries to present their different perspectives on what love really is at the age of 20. The episodes are united with the score of Georges Delerue and still photos of Henri Cartier-Bresson.
A police inspector comes into contact with people of all types and dispositions during a grueling murder investigation.
Marguerite, a beautiful woman of affairs, falls for the young and promising Armand, but sacrifices her love for him for the sake of his future and reputation.
Henri La Tour, a strolling player, is also a daring adventurer. So, when, after accomplishing a brilliant feat, he is awarded a title by King Louis XV, the Duke of Saint-Sever takes offense at it and challenges Henri to a duel. However, while they fight, a group of Austrian soldiers appear suddenly and the two rivals instantly unite to repel their enemies. Unfortunately, Saint-Sever is mortally wounded and, feeling he is about to die, he entreats his new friend to offer protection to Toinon, his natural daughter, whose life is being threatened...
London, England. Dorian Gray is a young man who somehow keeps his beauty eternally, while a mysterious portrait of himself gradually reveals his moral decay.
Clelia, a self-made woman coming from humble means, travels back to Turin, her hometown, to scout locations for the successful Roman atelier she works for. At the hotel, she encounters some upper middle-class women and she finds herself drawn into their friendships.
Police are in hot pursuit of a criminal who is evading capture on a speeding motorbike. He takes refuge in an overgrown castle’s grounds and sees a pale woman burying a corpse in a shallow grave. Thirteen years later, after being recaptured and serving his sentence, the man returns to the castle, intent on blackmail — and maybe a few other things.
Prosecutor Etzel discovers that his father has sentenced a man, Leonardo Maurizius, on mere presumptions. He then makes it a point of honor to trace the sources of the case to uncover the truth.
Vittorio Gassman stars as different characters in each of the nine episodes of this unusual Italian comedy. Playing everything from a practical joker to a prisoner, he comments upon romance, love and women in general.
Alberto Moretti arrives in Cortina D'Ampezzo, with daughter Marcella,who has just won a TV contest, the prize of which is a free stay in a luxury hotel.
Summer, 1943: wealthy youth in the Riccione district of Rimini play while the war gets closer. Carlo Caremoli, a young man who follows the crowd, has found ways to avoid military service. Then, on the beach, he meets Roberta, a war widow with a child. Roberta's mother warns Roberta to avoid Carlo, but to her, he seems attentive and to her daughter he is kind. Romance develops. Within a few weeks, Roberta is risking everything. Can there be a resolution between passion, on the one hand, and war, duty, and social expectation on the other?
"Under Ten Flags" is a WWII movie loosely based on the true story of the German navy commerce raider Atlantis, a converted Auxilliary Cruiser, and her Captain Bernhard Rogge. Atlantis, camouflaged as a merchant ship, cruised the South Seas ( Atlantic, Indian & Pacific) and sank or captured 22 merchant ships from May 1940 through November 22, 1941 when she was sunk by the British Cruiser HMS Devonshire. Rogge was one of the few German officers of flag rank who were not arrested by the Allies after the war ended. This was due to the very proper and ethical way he exercised his command of Atlantis. After the war he advanced to Rear Admiral in the West German Navy and became a high-ranking NATO commander.
Erik, in love with Magda, the fiancée of Georg, his boss, secretly sends her roses every night.
Nando is dissatisfied with his repetitive and mortifying work. He manages to escape from daily mediocrity only at night, when he enters his fantasy world.
A man with a past gets married and it seems that he will be able to start a new life, but an unexpected inheritance gets in the way and deteriorates the relationship with his wife.
In Genoa, amongst the underclass living on the fringes of the law, Machedi organises the trafficking of women, to be exploited and sent off to who knows where. One of these women is Alda, who has evaded the ring once, but when her boyfriend is arrested, finds herself back in Machedi's net.
Shortly after his return from India, a special agent of the British secret service falls victim to an insidious poisoning in London. Scotland Yard gets involved. But too late: valuable information has fallen into the hands of an international criminal gang...
A valuable ruby disappears during an earthquake. Professor Ferlach is tasked with excavating the buried temple. Mysterious things are happening during the excavation and strangers are trying to stop them. The archaeologist Prof. Ferlach gets unexpected help from the animal catcher Larry Stone and his daughter Helga, who actively help with the research and excavations.
Alboino, the Lombard ruler, wants to marry the daughter of a neighboring king, but she loves another. Her father arranges the marriage to Alboino, which he believes will be beneficial to him, only to have Alboino kill him and leave Amalchi, his daughter's real love, beaten and left for dead. Amalchi recovers to lead a revolt against the murderous Alboino and reclaim his woman.
Middle class Sandra, engaged to be married and living in Turin, searches for her missing sister that is estranged from her family. For this, she enters the morally degraded back allies of the port city of Genoa and is exposed to the world of sex trafficking.
Piero is the leader of a group of university students who lead a carefree life. Finding himself in trouble and in need of money, he turns to criminal means—receiving aid from Daniela, the daughter of a rigid magistrate.
Five episodes: A professor decides to murder her husband to win a woman. A hotelier seduces a boarder. A man convinces a friend to marry his lover, so as not to arouse his wife's suspicions. A man borrows money from a loan shark to pay for the services of his wife. Two couples try in vain to take a trip to the seaside.
Three women share the same apartment and the same goal, to find a wealthy husband and settle down.
Gina is the daughter of a provincial newsstand dealer and spends her time reading pulp magazines and dreaming of a glamorous vocation on the big city. She enters a beauty contest in a nearby city, without her father's permission, and, en route, meets Franco, a salesman.
Three stories, very different in space and time. Lysistrata, a dancer from ancient times, Jeanne d'Arc, medieval warrior and Elisabeth, American war widow who comes on pilgrimage in Italy.
A building instructor cheats on his wife with a young fashion model.
Italian director Giuseppe DeSantis was the creative force behind this Yugoslavian "slice of life" drama. The title translates as The Year-Long Road and, accordingly, the plot concerns a voluntary joint effort to construct a highway. Naturally, this animosity wreaks havoc on the various Romeo-Juliet romances in the region.
Mr. Edmond is a middle-aged playboy, living by his wits on the Riviera. Among the women with whom Edmond dallies are three gorgeous ladies.
Italian drama.
An anthology comedy with segments about love and marriage.
Bob recruits Jacques, a desperate blacksmith, to "recover" smuggled diamonds from de Belar. The heist goes badly wrong. The crooks kill each other for the money, but the diamonds are gone and Jacques returns to his life as an honest man.
Young man Marco Laudato, after the '8/9/1943's WW2 armistice, enlists in the Italian Social Republic army, attending the last days of the old regime in decay.
A crack team of Italian naval divers plan to attach high explosives to the hulls of Royal navy warships anchored in Gibraltar harbour.
When the Philistines attack, the Israelites are hopeless against the fierce giant Goliath and don't know what to do. King Saul takes the advice of the prophets and sends an adolescent shepherd, David, into battle to conquer the oversized Philistine. David is victorious and becomes the King of Israel.
A young boy travels by himself to reach his sick mother.
An exasperated police inspector receives different eyewitness accounts surrounding a downed saucer and its female occupant.
Refugee Franca Gabre comes to the Po Valley with intent to use her obvious attributes and man-swaying talents to gain some security. She targets farm-owning brothers Riccardo and Carlo Sartori and uses the latter in an attempt to reach Riccardo, the older brother.
José Luis is a young man from a modest family of Barcelona and he feels genuine passion for motorcycles. His dream is to buy one of a large cylinder capacity, although his economic situation does not allow him by a long shot. Watching a race in the circuit of Montjuic he meets an elegant Italian woman, manager of a team, who made advances to José Luis. But the boy thinks that accessing her wishes he could get the motorbike of his dreams.
Ersilia Drei, after a suicide attempt recounts her vicissitudes: hired as governess to the daughter of Consul Grotti she is wooed by Franco but soon after seduced by the very consul who drives her away after his daughter loses her life due to Ersilia's distraction. Because of economic difficulties she falls lower and lower until she meets Ludovico with whom she can perhaps hope for sincere love again. The consul's return, however, will lead her toward a tragic ending.
In the pre-Civil War South, a sadistic plantation owner brutalizes his slaves to the point of rebellion. Always obedient, peaceful and honest old slave Tom plays a central role in this tragedy.
Directed by the incredibly prolific Mario Camerini, Suor Letizia was released in English-speaking regions as When Angels Don't Fly and The Awakening. In her first film appearance since The Rose Tattoo, Anna Magnani plays a feisty nun named Sister Letizia. Believing herself above such earthly trivialities as a maternal instinct, Sr. Letizia changes her way of thinking when an abandoned child is placed in her care. Unofficially adopting the boy, the good sister eventually comes to realize that even she cannot provide the care and guidance of a biological mother. Carefully constructed to accommodate all the surefire box-office elements inherent in Camerini's earlier films, Suor Letizia was almost guaranteed to be a hit.
A destroyer departs from the port of Taranto with orders to take a load of petrol to Tobruk at all costs.
The holdup of the bank is a success. All happened according to plan. Now, Cyril Gad and his four accomplices must secure an alibi. What better place than a prison cell? As a result the five gangsters have themselves arrested on minor charges and start waiting until they are released. Unfortunately three of them die mysteriously, another one is openly murdered. The only man still alive, Tony, is scared. Easy to understand why...
Six sketches with as many ways of murdering someone, and getting away with it.
While recuperating from their injuries in a hospital, three young women flash back to the events leading up to the catastrophe. Remata (Lia Amando) has spent her entire life trying to overcome a childhood rape. Annamaria (Antonella Lualdi) has recently come out of an unfortunate marriage to a wealthy but insensitive boor. And Gianna (Eleanore Rossi Drago), the daughter of a college professor, has ruined her life with narcotics.
England, first half of the 19th century. Edmund Kean is a celebrated theatre actor, notorious for his tumultuous private life. He is in love with the beautiful countess Koefeld, wife of the Danish ambassador, to the consternation of his friend, the Prince of Wales. He is also hounded by Anna Damby, who wants to become an actress to escape a marriage to Lord Mewill.
A young composer is forced to work as a bar pianist. One night he gets hit by a car and is brought to a hospital. Severely injured he is injected with morphine. He becomes addicted.
In this crime-thriller, Rome proves to be an unhappy destination for an American couple when the husband is kidnapped and his wife begins a desperate search for him.
A drug dealer obsessed by the memory of a young woman whom he had fallen in love, is disgusted by his shameful profession. One day, as he walks through the streets of the city, he realizes that he is unable to escape.
A movie divided in four episodes: the arrival of the husband makes the loves of his wife to hide in the next room; an husband invites a friend while his wife is not at home; a poor man dreams about having an adventure with a beautiful girl; an impoverished nobleman wins at gambling after taking the earring of the wife of a factory owner.
A segment of "Love at Twenty" tells the story of a tough mistress who loses her lover to an older, wealthier and more-appreciative woman.
In the 1960s, Silvana, a beautiful girl from the countryside, decides to spend the night in Rome after missing the last bus home. Without a place to stay, she seeks refuge in an under-construction attic. There, she meets a young man, leading to a short-lived romance. He opens her eyes to the wonders of the economic boom shaping the capital in those years. Despite the chaos of buses, protests, and big stores, Silvana chooses to make Rome her home.
A documentary on the history of Italy's peplum genre.