Massimo Girotti

Cinecitta is today known as the center of the Italian film industry. But there is a dark past. The film city was solemnly inaugurated in 1937 by Mussolini. Here, propaganda films would be produced to strengthen the dictator's position.

Overburdened and stuck in a greying marriage, Giovanna takes to caring for a Jewish Holocaust survivor her husband brings home. As she begins to reflect on her life, she turns to the man who lives across from her.

A chronological look at the creative life of Luchino Visconti (1906-1976). It examines his theatricality, role in the neorealist movement, use of melodrama, and relation to decadence. It touches on the impact of a fabulously wealthy childhood, his writing for "Cinema," his politics, his work with Renoir, his appreciation of Thomas Mann, and his deep knowledge of literature and the arts. Visconti moves constantly between film and the theater, staging plays provocatively, working with Maria Callas at La Scala, and shooting films in theaters. Clips from his films and interviews with actors, crew members, and critics provide details for this portrait of creativity.

A vicious serial sex killer is on the loose, and landscape gardener and shop-window outfitter Loris is the prime suspect, thanks to his unfortunate habit of getting caught in compromising situations (for which there is always a totally innocent explanation that the police fail to spot). Undercover policewoman Jessica is assigned by eccentric police psychologist Taccone to follow Loris and ...

In Paris, Maxi Ardel, in her elegant forties, successfully and firmly runs a haute couture house bearing her name. In Florence, she is about to take over a textile company that belonged to an old Italian aristocratic family, the di Falco. She has, indeed, a revenge to take on them. Count Massimo di Falco had stolen her child twenty years earlier. Driven by a desire for revenge, Maxi wants to destroy this family at all costs, but she has to count on Countess Bianca, who is ready to defend herself from her former rival. From then on, the two women fight without mercy.

A history of the French Revolution from the decision of the king to convene the Etats-Generaux in 1789 in order to deal with France's debt problem. The first part of the movie tells the story from 1789 until August 10, 1792 (when the King Louis XVI lost all his authority and was put in prison). The second part carries the story through the end of the terror in 1794, including the deaths by guillotine of Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, Danton, and Desmoulins.

What is the shady affair in which the woman is involved, and what is her role? Is or isn't the man a marquis? Who is the young man played by Fabrizio Bentivoglio, and why does he own that car? Does Basque nationalism have to do anything with the story? Everybody has something to hide, everybody seems guilty.

The film tells the story of a love affair between a poor poet and an equally poor seamstress in 19th century Paris.

In 1938 Berlin, Gudrun Landgrebe, wife of Nazi functionary Kevin McNally, begins taking art lessons. She makes the acquaintance of another student, Japanese ambassador's daughter Mio Takaki. Soon afterwards, the two women begin a passionate lesbian affair. This leads to a chain reaction of disaster and tragedy, culminating with the inevitable intervention of the Gestapo. Despite the film's galloping sexual passions, The Berlin Affair is an exercise in aloofness, keeping the characters at arm's length-surprising, considering that the director was Liliana Cavani, auteur of the erotic classic The Night Porter (1974). The film was based on The Buddhist Cross, a novel by Junichiro Tanizaki.

Young student Claudine has a dream in which the Roman student Cornelius, fascinated by the beautiful wife of the commander, attends lectures on the art of love of great Ovid. Ancient tragedy repeats itself in a few centuries ...

In the 1860's, Giorgio (Giraudeau), a young Italian soldier is sent to a remote post, far away from his lover, Clara (Antonelli). He is lodged in the house of the colonel (Girotti). He becames friends with the colonel and the local doctor (Trintignant). Among the inhabitants of the house, there is a strange young woman - Fosca (d'Obici) who is both unattractive and mad. However, she has a passion that Giorgio will have to cope with.

TV-adaptation of Joseph Conrad's "Outcast of the Islands".

Paris, France, 1942, during the Nazi occupation. Robert Klein, a successful art dealer who benefits from the misfortunes of those who are ruthlessly persecuted, discovers by chance that there is another Robert Klein, apparently a Jewish man; someone with whom he could be mistakenly identified, something dangerous in such harsh times.

Tullio Hermil is a chauvinist aristocrat who flaunts his mistress to his wife, but when he believes she has been unfaithful he becomes enamored of her again.

Mark Terzi goes to Genoa to take on the case of a serial killer who calls himself "The Sphinx".

Police detective Paolo Germi and the mysterious Marisa meet each other at a dance hall. Germi is unsuspecting of the secret Marisa is carrying with her: adverse conditions forced her into prostitution. As Germi finds the young girl brutally murdered, he decides to go after her killers. During his investigation, he enters a world of intrigue and obfuscation that leave an endless trail of blood.

After attending esoterical studies with a wise man, Cagliostro, a mysterious Italian count, received the gift of supernatural powers. He started to travel all over Europe to heal the poor. But he is also a member of a pre-revolutionary lodge the aim of which is to give freedom to the populations of Europe. This cannot be tolerated by the 18th century's establishment and bought the Pope and the regal house of France try to eliminate him. So Cagliostro is locked up in a castle, while his wife is killed. But when in 1795 the door of his cell is opened there is nothing inside but a sword...

Adaptation of a novel by Carolina Invernizio.

After robbing a jewellery shop in Canada, two Americans arrange a meeting near the US borders in order to split the loot. One of them has an accident with his car on his way there and gets stuck in an isolated motel until his car is fixed. The owner of the motel, a sexy woman in her thirties, falls in love with him, but her suspicions about him begin to multiply, as the police arrive at the motel...

"Il mio corpo con rabbia" by Roberto Natale has been credited an uncertain and indefinite status between an art and an exploitation movie. Silvia (Antonia Santilli) is a daddy's girl who has wanted to have a drug experience only once, but this was enough for her parents to batten down the hatches, on the advice of a doctor, isolating the girl into a luxurious hotel in Sardinia and being vigilant on her "healing". It's out of season, there're almost no people in the compound. But a strange young man is roaming around there, maybe a fugitive, who Silvia starts to have a relationship with. This young man is the figure by whom Roberto Natale clarifies, using him as a reagent, the real key relation, the core of narration, the focus of the movie, which is the link between Silvia and her father.

A recently widowed American begins an anonymous sexual relationship with a young Parisian woman.

A young man, Peter, returns to Austria in search of his heritage. There he visits the castle of an ancestor, a sadistic Baron who was cursed to a violent death by a witch whom the Baron had burned at the stake. Peter reads aloud the incantation that causes Baron Blood to return and continue his murderous tortures.

Milošević’s Last Tango in Paris, Levi presents a series of images that attempts to reconstruct Last Tango in Paris using both Bertolucci’s original and Milošević’s grainy alterations.

Based on the plot of Euripides' Medea. Medea centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed her for another woman.

Torn by personal guilt, Italian General Umberto Nobile reminisces about his 1928 failed Arctic expedition aboard the airship Italia.

Diana is divorcing her husband, and decides to spend winter at her younger sister's home. Adultery and saphic love will enter her life, amidst sad remembrances and with unsuspected consequences.

When his father dies, young lad travels to Milan to attend the funeral and decides to follow in his father's footsteps as a gigolo. He is successful at finding rich women to prey on, but finds himself caught up in a bidding war.

A wealthy Italian household is turned upside down when a handsome stranger arrives, seduces every family member and then disappears. Each has an epiphany of sorts, but none can figure out who the seductive visitor was or why he came.

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. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.

A treasure sinks into the sea with the body of Charles Van Eyck, killed during a fight on a yacht by one of the sailors.

Having been assigned by his publisher to write a biography of Omar Sivori, the great footballer, Ugo Sanfelice heads for Torino. Given he is not very knowledgeable about soccer, Ugo tries -several times but in vain - to obtain an appointment from Sivori. Forced to fall back upon persons being or having been in contact with the elusive star, he gets to know young forward-center Moretti and soon becomes friendly with him. The young man confides in him and tells him the whole truth about his own "career" : the training in a small provincial team, the promising debut alongside Sivori, the desertion of his fiancée, the premature decline due to a dissolute life. When Sanfelice finally meets Sivori, he finds that the star is no match - humanely at least - for Moretti and he gives up writing the book at all.

Young Marco Polo travels to China to help Kublai Khan fight against rebels, headed by his own son, with a new invention: gunpowder.

A gladiator gets caught up in a slave revolt and the invasion of England.

Two jerks are enlisted in the Italian army during W.W.1 and by pure luck manage to help win an important battle.

Biopic about Napoleon's sister Paulette.

Twin brothers were raised by wolves, revolt against tyranny in pre-Roman Italy and then come to a parting of the ways as they lead their people toward the founding of a new city, the founders of Rome.

In order to placate the angry gods, who have allowed Thessaly to be overrun with barbarian invaders and beset with natural disasters, King Jason takes his Argonauts on a search for the fabled Golden Fleece. Meanwhile, back at home, his scheming regent is plotting to get his hands on the kingdom--and the queen.

The nun tells the priest about her past and then a long flashback begins...

Set in the 1850s in Czar Alexander II's Russia, this drama and adventure film focuses on the strife between the Circassian Muslims, led by Shamil and Czar Alexander.

An Italian drama directed by Leopoldo Savona.

During a 100km marathon in Rome, some of the runners get involved in comical and paradoxical situations

At some point, somewhere in the relentless events of the Second World War: A submarine returns from a long, successful patrol. Shortly before their native coast, however, they are bombarded by enemy aircraft. The submarine sinks and for the men begins a fight for survival at 110 meters depth.

Françoise Arnould plays here a married woman who decides one day to get away from her husband and return to her childhood place, where she meets all her former friends, and lovers.

The King of Judea drives himself mad fighting off invaders and his wife's pursuers.

Italian director Giueseppe DeSantis was the creative force behind this Yugoslavian "slice of life" drama. The title translates as The Year-Long Road; accordingly, the plot concerns a joint, voluntary effort between Italy and Yugoslavia to construct a highway along the countries' Naturally, this animosity wreaks havoc on the various Romeo-Juliet romances in the region. All is resolved when oil is discovered on one of the islands. An American oil company is finally able to establish détente between the warring factions, smoothing the path for the long-delayed marriages of three young couples.

The god Zeus sends Venus, the goddess of love, to Earth to find her own true love.

Maria, is a girl raised by the loving care of a poor couple but without knowing anything about her real parents. She is in love with Giorgio, a boy from a good family, who however has also aroused the interest of the intriguing Edvige who frequents bad company including jealous Roberto.

From Emile Zola's novel "La Bete Humaine", tells the story of a jealous husband, a provocative woman and a man with an uncontrollable desire to kill.

Three girls are on a hitchhiking trip through northern Italy, the riviera, Venice, Pisa and Rome.

It tells the story of an older pedant who buys adolescence from Satan.

A troubled and neurotic Italian Countess betrays her entire country for a self-destructive love affair with an Austrian Lieutenant.

During WWII, Sandro Ademari (Massimo Girotti), head of a group of Italian partisans, to escape from a Nazi catch, hides himself by a farm. Here he knows Luisa (Lea Padovani) and soon the two married and have a baby. After the war, Sandro, now a solicitor, succeeded also to be elected in Rome's parliament. Here he starts an extramarital affair with Germana (Patricia Neal). Sandro, now deep involved with Germana, tries all the way to leave Luisa (divorce wasn't legal during the '50s in Italy). But Luisa is determined to save her marriage and arrives in Rome to discuss with the two. The tragedy is behind the corner.

Marie, a young doctor, settles down on the Ouessant Island. She will be able to win the diffidence of the local population but she will have to fight for her independence after falling in love with an italian engineer.

Elena, after a date with his boyfriend Guido, comes home finding his father tried to kill himself with gas because he lost a lot of money due to some wrong investments.

Based on real events, in Rome a lawyer is not sure whether to accept defending a lower-class worker wrongly accused of the murder of his girlfriend.

Anna Zaccheo is a beautiful young woman from a working class Neapolitan family. Her main concern is to find herself a suitable husband. She meets a young sailor Andrea one day and gets engaged to him. But while she is waiting for Andrea to return from the navy she gets raped by her boss. Her life suddenly takes a downward spiral.

Coming of age, a girl is told the truth about her dead father: he is alive, but imprisoned for several crimes he did not commit... With the help of an old noble lady and a young count (who doubles as a daring sea captain), she will fight for the truth, and justice. Her opponent is the State Town's Inquisitor himself, who set her father's up to escape his own crimes.

74 B.C. Somewhere in the Roman Empire, Spartacus, a young officer, is condemned to be a slave because he hit a superior. Brought back to Roma in a gladiators' school, he escapes and stirs up all the slaves in a revolt against the Roman Empire.

Il Tenente Giorgio is a 1952 Italian romance-drama film directed by Raffaello Matarazzo.

After being hurt in the face, Count de Roger Tinchebraye is forced to hide his disfigured face behind a leather mask. Dispirited for a while, he decides to become a Casanova-like seductor. When he meets true love, cynical Roger does not believe in it and lets pure Judith marry an old marquis. But once Judith's husband dies, he sees Judith again, shows her his disfigured face, which does not discourage the young woman from loving him. Nevertheless, he distances himself from her forever

The story of 5 girls among 200 who answer a wanted ad for a modest secretarial position, which leads overcrowding in the building and a tragic accident.

Sandra searches her missing sister. For this, she enters the morally degraded seaside of Genoa.

Paola (Lucia Bose) is the beautiful and jealously-guarded younger wife of a shady factory owner, Enrico Fontana (Massimo Girotti). In order to investigate her romantic history he hires a private detective, which ironically brings Paola back into contact with former lover Guido, with whom she resurrects a lost passion. Dogged by the suspicions of their respective mates, they are drawn closer to each other in the face of adversity, and begin to plot Enrico's demise. But when the challenge of being together falls away, will the passion start to wane? A masterpiece of intensity and finely-wrought emotion.

A disguised thief talks himself into a countryside class fight immediately after WWII.

Bianca, a rich heiress, being an orphan, lives in her palace with her guardian uncle and cousin Olga.

A young, by-the-book judge is appointed to a Sicilian village controlled by corrupt leaders and the mafia.

In ancient Rome a love story blossoms between Fabiola, daughter of a senator, and Rhual, a Gallic gladiator. After Fabiola's father is killed, the Romans blame the Christians and the persecution begins. Rhual confesses to being a Christian, is accused of the murder and sentenced to fight to the death in the arena.

Aldo Piscitello, a minor government clerk, is forced in 1934 to join the Fascist party. When the war comes, he finds himself able only to talk ineffectually in secret against Mussolini, even as his own son Giovanni is sent into battle. By the end of the war, Aldo has found the courage to stand up for his beliefs, but by then it is too late.

Driven by the constant quarrels with his wife and humiliated by a rich Milanese industrialist after asking him for a job, an unemployed person decides to steal a car from a garage guarded by a friend.

In impoverished post-war Rome, a gang of young thieves is lead by Stefano, the son of an illustrious professor. The police suspects that the criminals are actually university students; inspector Mariani, a young World War II veteran, enrolls and tries to find out more. He falls for a pretty fellow student, Luisa, but she is the sister of the gang leader...

Second World War . Field 119 in California (USA ) . War is long over , but the Italian Prisoners Still waiting to return home , preparing to celebrate , away from families , another sad Christmas. To dare a little rein to Their longing , they tell Episodes of Their Life . A Roman tells the USA difficult married life . A Neapolitan soldier tells of His lieutenant, a Neapolitan duke penniless . Meanwhile , the camp commander gave : Prisoners and a gramophone , So , Ai stories intertwine songs . Another soldier recalls the parties and the songs of the Sicilian spring , WHILE a Venetian gondolier evokes A HIS love affair . Sometimes , From Radio shabby listening news from abroad and Italy . Finally , one day , comes the ' pending release and All They return home .

Immediately after the war, bandits attack a truck that is transporting newlyweds Michele and Giovanna and the accountant of an agricultural cooperative charged with bringing four million lire into office.

Paola, a Milan call girl, returns home to her village in the Abruzzi mountains in an attempt to go straight. Rejected by her father, blackmailed by a former lover, and lusted after by her brother-in-law, she turns to her beloved sister for support. Denied succor, like so many of Rossellini’s isolated figures, Paola awaits the arrival of her fiancé, who has offered her a new start, but instead decides that life is untenable.

Some Italian partisans want to take refuge in a convent to escape German raids. The nuns are a little perplexed at first but then agree since one of the men is seriously wounded. When the partisans eventually leave, the Germans take a terrible revenge.

After returning from the war Davide, a fisherman from Liguria, discovers that his girl Anna has been courted and compromised by a sailor named Rocco. Rocco’s other girl, Tea, takes revenge by denouncing him to the police. In remorse she commits suicide by drowning herself.

Episodic film with flashbacks about the lives of some sick and infirm people travelling on the same train, making a pilgrimage to the shine of Our Lady of Loreto.

This melodrama was directed by an émigré Russian from a story by Corrado Alvaro and Emanuele Caracciolo. The latter was murdered by the Nazis in the Fosse Ardeatine massacre, before the film’s post-war release. Featuring Miranda and Girotti prior to neo-realist stardom.

Ten episodes, one for each of the Ten Commandments. Lost film.

Gino, a drifter, begins an affair with inn-owner Giovanna as they plan to get rid of her older husband.

One of the most famous movie stars of the moment has a problem with his car. The actor is obliged to stop in a provincial hotel, where he finds himself surrounded by his admirers.

This propaganda film was partly inspired by the story of the first Italian heavyweight champion Primo Carnera who, after winning the title with Al Capone’s help in 1933, was beaten the following year by the Jewish Max Bear and then again by the ‘Brown Bomber’ Detroit Joe Lewis in June 1935, on the eve of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. This match provoked numerous racial skirmishes on the streets of Harlem between the Black community and pro-Fascist Italian-Americans. The film overturns historical facts and here, obviously, it is the white boxer who wins in order to demonstrate the superiority of the “Aryan Italians” over the “sinister Jewish entrepreneurs” and the “savage Afro-American fans in Yankee Stadium”. In the film, these were played by South African prisoners-of-war interred in a work camp, which the German and Italian propaganda ministries had set up near Cinecittà “for cinematic purposes”.

A young Italian pilot is interned in a British prison camp after his plane is shot down during the war against Greece. He falls in love with a doctor's daughter and manages to escape during a bombardment. He reaches home, wounded, just as news arrives of the Greek surrender.

In the kingdom of Kindaor, traitor Sedesmondo kills his brother, the King of Kindaor, and becomes the tyrant of kingdom. He abandons the prince Arminio to beasts in the woods, but lions don't kill him and breed him as one of them.

A humble girl looks so much alike a capricious movies star that she gets to replace her both on the set and in her private life. A remake of a French comedy from 5 years before.