Umberto D.
When elderly pensioner Umberto Domenico Ferrari returns to his boarding house from a protest calling for a hike in old-age pensions, his landlady demands her 15,000-lire rent by the end…
The Condemned of Altona
A dying German magnate invites his youngest son and daughter-in-law home to discuss the future of the family’s shipbuilding empire. There, the daughter-in-law stumbles upon a secret of the family’s…
Sunflower
At the end of World War II, Giovanna, a war bride living near Milan refuses to accept that her husband, Antonio, missing on the Russian front, is dead. There’s a…
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
In late 1930s Ferrara, Italy, the Finzi-Continis are a leading family: wealthy, aristocratic, and urbane; they are also Jewish. Their adult children, Micol and Alberto, gather a diverse circle of…
Miracle in Milan
Once upon a time an old woman discovers a baby in her cabbage patch. She brings up the child and, when she dies, the boy, Toto, enters an orphanage. Toto…
The Roof
Under provincial Italian law at the time, once a roof is erected, the occupants cannot be evicted from a building. This comedy follows the efforts of a family to erect…
The Children Are Watching Us
In his first collaboration with renowned screenwriter and longtime partner Cesare Zavattini, Vittorio De Sica examines the cataclysmic consequences of adult folly on an innocent child. Heralding the pair’s subsequent…
A Place for Lovers
Globe-trotting clothes-horse Julia, who’s harboring a secret, embarks on a 10-day fling with Valerio in Italy.
A Garibaldian in the Convent
An old woman’s poignant reminiscence of her youth in a convent school, the happy moments and the sad, and her tragic love for a Garibaldian.
The Witches
Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men….
Woman Times Seven
Seven mini-stories of adultery: “Funeral Possession,” a wayward widow at her husband’s funeral; “Amateur Night,” angry wife becomes streetwalker out of revenge; “Two Against One,” seemingly prudish girl turns out…
Marriage Italian Style
Domenico keeps 17-year-old Filumena as his mistress. Filumena later becomes a prostitute, but remains Domenico’s mistress. Filumena tricks Domenico into marrying her.
Indiscretion of an American Wife
While on vacation in Rome, married American Mary Forbes becomes entangled in an affair with an Italian man, Giovanni Doria. As she prepares to leave Italy, Giovanni confesses his love…
Bicycle Thieves
A working man’s livelihood is threatened when someone steals his bicycle.
Boccaccio ’70
An anthology of four adult tales: a young couple tries to hide their marriage and the wife’s supposed pregnancy from their place of employment; a billboard photo of a scantily…
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Three tales of very different women using their sexuality as a means to getting what they want.
Teresa Venerdì
A comedy of errors in which the sweetly incompetent Dr. Pietro Vignali (de Sica) has been run deep into debt by his girlfriend, Loletta Prima (Magnani). After his creditors threaten…
Two Women
Widowed shopkeeper Cesira and her 13-year-old daughter Rosetta flee from the allied bombs in Rome during the second World War; they travel to the remote village where Cesira was born….
After the Fox
Criminal mastermind ‘The Fox’ sets up a phony film production and masquerades as it’s director as part of a plan to smuggle a stolen gold shipment into Italy.