Film Archive

"It has glamour, sophistication, color, wit and sensuality!" -- The New York Times

Four legendary filmmakers direct some of Europe’s biggest stars in this landmark anthology film. Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), Federico Fellini (8½), Luchino Visconti (The Leopard) and Vittorio De Sica (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) direct Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider and more through four stories of unashamed eros. Modeled on Boccaccio’s Decameron, they are comic moral tales about the hypocrisies surrounding sex in 1960s Italy.

Monicelli’s “Renzo e Luciana” (cut out of the original American release) is a frothy tale of young love and office politics in the big city. Fellini’s notorious “Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio” features Ekberg as a busty model in a milk advertisement whose image begins to haunt an aging prude. Visconti’s “Il Lavoro” stars Romy Schneider as a trophy wife enduring her husband’s very public affairs, and De Sica’s “La Riffa” raffles off a night with Sophia Loren to a lucky ticket holder during a small town fair.

Bursting with passion and sly satire, Boccaccio ’70 is a glittering showcase for some of the greatest talents in movie history.

Baron Ferdinando Cefalù (Marcello Mastroianni) longs to marry his nubile young cousin Angela (Stefania Sandrelli), but one obstacle stands in his way: his fatuous and fawning wife, Rosalia (Daniela Rocca). His solution? Since divorce is illegal, he hatches a plan to lure his spouse into the arms of another and then murder her in a justifiable effort to save his honor. Pietro Germi’s hilarious and cutting satire of Sicilian male-chauvinist culture won the 1962 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

The concluding chapter of Michelangelo Antonioni’s informal trilogy on contemporary malaise (following L’avventura and La notte), L’eclisse tells the story of a young woman (Monica Vitti) who leaves one lover (Francisco Rabal) and drifts into a relationship with another (Alain Delon).

Using the architecture of Rome as a backdrop for the doomed affair, Antonioni achieves the apotheosis of his style in this return to the theme that preoccupied him the most: the difficulty of connection in an alienating modern world.

Giovanni Veronesi’s irresistible romantic comedy journeys through four decades of recent Italian history on the back of a good-hearted, honest middle-class guy who always finds himself one step behind.

Elio Germano (Magnificent Presence) stars as Ernesto, a humble, honest everyman who moves from job to job as his country’s political and economic situation goes from bad to worse. As a child in 1967, Ernesto’s father began berating his confidence calling him a “useless fifth wheel of the family”. In subsequent years, Ernesto determinedly searches for his calling as humorous experiences frame his life as a kindergarten cook, removalist and politician while his wacky family undergoes radical transformations. All the while, true historical events contextualize the eras, involving references to the likes of Aldo Moro, Socialist politician Bettino Craxi, and Silvio Berlusconi.

Strong musical themes are enlivened by cult songs from the past, making this a thoroughly enjoyable journey back in time!

"Today a woman can still feel incomplete if she has no children, but there is a large part of the population, 17 percent, who are women, single and happy. Perfection doesn’t exist, there are no better lives than others, but there are roads marked by who we are." -- Maria Sole Tognazzi (director)

Five Star Life is the sophisticated story of one woman’s quest for personal and professional fulfillment set against some of the most stunning cities and opulent hotels of the world. Stylish and independent, Irene (Margherita Buy) is a single career woman in her forties with a job to die for. As a luxury hotel critic, she checks into the world’s finest establishments incognito to assess their standards, meticulously judging every detail from the concierge’s manners to the temperature of the food to the quality of the bed sheets. Her elegant, unattached lifestyle affords her the freedom to jet around the globe at a moment’s notice to experience a world of luxury, but doesn’t leave her with much of a personal life. On the rare occasions she’s not working, Irene’s world revolves around her absent-minded sister Silvia (Fabrizia Sacchi), two lively young nieces, and best friend – and former lover – Andrea (Stefano Accorsi). But when Silvia begins to deal with marital problems and Andrea faces an unexpected life change, Irene’s small support network is fractured and she struggles to balance a glamorous career with the growing desire for something more. After a chance meeting shakes up her worldview even more, she’s compelled to re-examine her choices and charts her own path to happiness despite the expectations of others.

Popular TV satirist Pierfrancesco Diliberto, known as Pif, does a remarkable job negotiating the delicate balance between humor and heartrending emotion in his terrific directorial feature debut.

Highlighting the Cosa Nostra pernicious influence over average Sicilians, we follow Everyman Arturo from childhood to maturity, as he deals with life, love, and the mafia. The Palermo of the 1970s and early ’80s is wonderfully captured as a city where denial goes hand-in-hand with stifled tolerance, as a bloody war for Mafia supremacy rages, with regular assassinations of rival mobsters and anti-Mafia crusaders.

Through Arturo’s eyes and experiences, it is cleverly revealed with remarkable wit and humour, how complacency and willful blindness allowed the Cosa Nostra to flourish until high-profile killings finally opened people’s eyes.

Senate President and former anti-Mafia magistrate, Pietro Grasso, referred to this film as the best film work on Mafia ever made.

One of the most famous, and funniest, Italian comedies of all time, Marriage Italian Style received nominations for Best Foreign Language Film, and Best Actress for Sophia Loren, at the Academy Awards.

Marcello Mastroianni co-stars as the irrepressibly carnal businessman Domenico, who discovers Loren’s Filumena as a young prostitute and keeps her as his mistress and confidante. When he chooses to marry a young cashier instead of her, Filumena is furious, and resorts to a series of wild and hilarious ruses to win back his hand.

Directed by the great Vittorio De Sica (Bicycle Thiefs), Marriage Italian Style is a timelessly bawdy classic.

“A captivating tale of an art in both remission and resurgence, Men of the Cloth is a journey across the globe unifying craftsmanship and style… Dynamic, emotional, and inspiring, it was truly an experience.” -- A & H Magazine

Men of the Cloth is the story of three humble and accomplished master tailors who create masterpieces of elegance and style to clothe the human body. Working with the skill of engineers and the soul of philosophers, Italian artisans Nino Corvato, Checchino Fonticoli and Joe Centofanti celebrate the individual in both mind and body.

By weaving together the individual stories of these master tailors, Men of the Cloth unfolds the whole tapestry of their lives, unravels the mystery of their artistry and reveals how their passionate devotion to their craft is akin to a religion.

Some background: Tailoring as we know it began with the Italian Renaissance — in the age of Raffaello and Donatello — when the art and science of tailoring became a highly specialized, complex, and jealously guarded craft. And it dovetails with the rise of Humanism and the accentuation and glorification of the human form.

But starting in the mid-20th century, in the wake of the growth of ready-to-wear clothing and the industrialization of the tailoring trade, many of these Old World artisans had to abandon their beloved craft. Italian tailors were forced to leave their towns and even their country, and to forfeit their dreams in order to work in factories. They were casualties of the industrial advances and global economic changes that continue to the present day.

"A tuneful, genre parody casting a loving glance on Naples and its criminal underworld." -- Screen Daily

Set in modern-day Naples, Song ’e Napule (Neapolitan dialect for “I am from Napoli”) is a hugely entertaining comedy with an endearing cast that will leave audiences whistling the catchy award-winning tunes with a silly grin on their face.

Paco (Alessandro Roja) is a nerdy but gifted and passionate piano player. Unable to get a job in his chosen field, family connections gain him a low-ranking position in the police force. However, when the chief discovers his talent for music, Paco is reluctantly enlisted on a dangerous top-priority case to go undercover as Pino Dynamite – a member of Lollo Love’s pop-music band. Lollo Love is scheduled to play at a high-profile wedding and Paco’s mission is to track one of the guests; a dangerous killer of the Camorra known as “O’ Fantasma” or “The Ghost”.

Paco couldn’t have gotten himself into a worse predicament: he will end up risking his life on the front line, while playing music he hates, dressed up like a local hick. But this will ultimately be the turning point in his life…

“A delicate, nuanced film that is unexpectedly moving in its portrait of a young Italian family living through the turbulent, freedom-loving '70s, Those Happy Years uses ironic distance to talk about very intimate things… It captures the excruciating honesty and soul-searching of the years of feminism and self-liberation, a time that now seems far, far away… Italian stars Kim Rossi Stuart and Micaela Ramazzotti [are] both at the top of their game here.” -- Deborah Young, Variety

Genuine affection is paired with trenchant reflection in Daniele Luchetti’s subtle, sharply perceptive and partially autobiographical look back at (what could be) his parents’ marriage. Like Luchetti’s father, Guido Marchetti (Kim Rossi Stuart) is an avant-garde artist, an egotistical painter, determined to succeed. Married to the lovely Serena (Micaela Ramazzotti) and father to two boys, Guido enjoys the perks that his work with frequently nude models affords while expecting his wife to adhere to more traditional codes. But it’s the 1970s, and when Serena is invited on a feminist retreat, she starts to rethink her life…