Rosa, a mature mother of several children, is concerned that her beloved husband Don Peppino is losing interest in her, and does his best to provoke some jealousy in him. She is a masterful cook, and if her romantic charms are fading, her culinary skills are not. By one means and another, and after some amusing confrontations, she succeeds in keeping her husband from taking her for granted and harmony is restored.
Two wise guysmanage a messed up underground casino and brothel. A "hunting club" as a cover up. The place is frequented by all kind of characters, from the Neapolitan upper class to the petty criminals, who use it as a base and such is the turmoil that it will not take much to blow the cover up.
Guests of the wealthy young Don Alberto De Simone, the ramshackle troupe of actors known as "L'eclettica," led by Gennaro De Sia, rehearse a new play in an attempt to redeem themselves after the fiascos of their previous performances. The "rehearsals" are interrupted by the arrival of Salvatore, brother of Viola, an actress who is expecting Gennaro's child and who wants to force the man to act like a gentleman and marry her.
The comedy, centered on five characters (Rita, Rodolfo, Agostino, Bettina, and Don Attilio - "o viecchio pazzo"-), has as background the Italy of the 60s between the economic boom and the perennial unemployment crisis. The cylinder, well explained by "Agostino-Eduardo" in the comedy, is a representation of power, designed to intimidate the ignorant for its only evocative "power". It can also be seen as a sort of "Pirandellian mask", where the character of Augustine wears it to defend himself and represent something that he is not.
Teenage problems intertwine during the occupation of a high school in Rome. Silvio—much like his peers desperate to lose his virginity—wants to make his move on the girl he likes, despite her being already his friend's girlfriend and not knowing that her best friend harbors feelings for him—while clashing also with his parents, onetime Sixties radicals who look down on the kids' aimless political commitment.
Five teenagers decide to steal money from someone who could not accuse them of the theft. Panini, a well-known stockbroker who uses to illeg ally pass money from Italy to Switzerland, is the perfect victim.
Full-throttle melodrama about an ill-starred romance set against the backdrop of the siege of Sarajevo. A mother brings her teenage son to Sarajevo, where his father died in the Bosnian conflict years ago.
Donna Beatrice is determined to expose her husband's alleged affair with the beautiful wife of the scribe Ciampa. The woman, heedless of her own family peace and the reputation of the scribe, who tries in vain to stop her, carries out a plan that does not confirm the adultery but, on the contrary, causes a huge scandal. Ciampa finds himself "forced," finding no other solution, to kill the two alleged lovers, driven by Beatrice's "madness." It is precisely from this "madness," however, that Ciampa will find a way to free himself from dishonor and a crime committed lightly.
Geronta Sebezio is revered by his fellow villagers for his miraculous ability to bring the dead back to life. However, anyone who wishes to benefit from this gift must sign a contract.
Antonio Barracano is a man who enforces his own law in the Sanità district, which is why he is recognized as the neighborhood's "mayor." He dispenses advice and opinions and solves the problems of poor people.
Oreste Campese is the leader of a traveling troupe of actors—made up of his family—who find themselves in the middle of winter in an unspecified town in central Italy. During the prologue, Campese recounts the events leading up to the present: the troupe has suffered the misfortune of losing their "shed," a mobile theater structure that was destroyed by an accidental fire. The flames spared only the boxes of props and costumes, which were opportunely saved.
Having withdrawn his complaint from the police station, Alberto now finds himself in trouble: the public prosecutor, suspicious, believes that he acted in this way out of fear or something else.
Happy Sciosciammocca has a double life: he plays sacred music in the convent of Rondinelle and teaches music to the educators, at night he goes to Naples where he is known as the actor.
Vincenzo De Pretore explains to his girlfriend Ninuccia, who threatens to commit suicide if they don't get married, that he wants to wait until he can give her a comfortable life, and tells her that he is the son of a rich man, raised by a poor couple. But to make a living, he is forced to steal and ends up in prison. On Ninuccia's advice, he chooses St. Joseph as his patron saint, and from then on his "work" goes from strength to strength.
Members of the Camorra on the run and actors seeking for authority meet after a shipwreck on an island-prison. The theatre turns into a free zone where everyone may not be able to recover their social role but for sure their humanity. Somebody can even get love back. Shakespeare and Eduardo De Filippo blend together in a picaresque comedy full of coup de théâtre.
Luca Cupiello, like every Christmas, prepares the crib, amid the disinterest of his wife Concetta and his son Tommasino. Ninuccia, the other daughter, writes a letter to her husband in which she communicates that she leaves him for her lover. The letter happens in the hands of Luca who hands it over to his son-in-law, who thus learns of his wife's betrayal. During lunch on Christmas Eve, the two rivals, who were confronted by Luca's carelessness, clash violently.
Gennareniello, a crazy inventor, is married to Concettina and lives at home with his son Tommasino, full of tics, his spinster sister and with Matteo, a drawing master who makes plans for his inventions. Driven by his friends, the man courts the young teacher Anna and when his wife notices it, he is forced to run away from home, overwhelmed by the scorn of derision of friends and acquaintances who come to disguise him as a dandy, thus offending his dignity.
Thanks to the legacy of an English lord, the cobbler Andrea has become a baron and now has delusions of nobility: he wants a high-ranking marriage for his stepdaughter Virginia and does not recognize the brothers of his wife, Rosina and Michele, even after the latter has saved the his house from a fire. Virginia does not like her promised Marchese Alberto, but Felice Sciosciammocca, a shy and poor master of calligraphy, who reciprocates her. But when Felice learns that the girl will soon marry another, out of spite he accepts the court of the late Marquise Zoccola, Alberto's mother.
Guglielmo Speranza is a young man who, having just graduated from university, decides to ask his beloved to marry him, convinced that the most challenging period of his life is now behind him. This is how we meet the protagonist, who repeatedly addresses the audience directly to explain what is happening on stage. He always wears the same suit and, during the play, changes three beards, black, gray, and white (one for each act), symbolizing the transition from youth to old age.