Enrico
Mirko and Genziano are two 35-year-old brothers who have not seen each other since their mother died in a freak accident in which they were involved—eighteen years ago. Since then, Genziano left to live in the UK and now is a stockbroker; Mirko instead remained in Rome, to stay with their father Marcello, working at the same run-down family shop. When Marcello dies, he leaves a task for the two brothers in his will: he asks them to take, on an old restored roadster, his ashes to the grave of his old mother in a village in Calabria, where the accident happened.
Edoardo Recchi Senior
Emma has left Russia to live with her husband in Italy. Now a member of a powerful industrial family, she is the respected mother of three, but feels unfulfilled. One day, Antonio, a talented chef and her son's friend, makes her senses kindle.
The czar of Russia has died and a power vacuum has developed. This period in the late 16th and early 17th century has been called "The Time of Troubles." There are many impostors who claim to the right to rule, but there's only one heir, the Czarina Kseniya Godunova. She has married a Polish military leader who wants to claim the Russian throne in her name so he can rule all of Russia. As the Poles move in on Moscow in an attempt to install the czarina on the throne, Andrei, a serf with a life-long infatuation of the czarina attempts to save her from her brutal Polish husband.
Card. Giuseppe Siri
Livanos
Maria Callas, one of the most talented opera singers of her time, seemed to have it all. Coming from humble origins, she always felt slighted by her mother's preference for her sister. She grew up in an unhappy environment, until her career in the operatic world took off. Aristotles Onassis also came from a poor Greek family. His ambition took him places where others dare not go and became a shipping magnate whose great wealth bought his entry into an international society he didn't ever dreamed of entering. These two powerful personalities were so much alike that their own passion served to destroy them.
Vito Santamaria
Self - Actor
Third part of a three-part documentary series on the making of Once Upon a Time in the West, Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone's masterpiece, released in 1968. (Preceded by The Wages of Sin.)
Self - Actor
Second part of a three-part documentary series on the making of Once Upon a Time in the West, Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone's masterpiece, released in 1968. (Preceded by An Opera of Violence; followed by Something to Do With Death.)
Self - Actor
First part of a three-part documentary series on the making of Once Upon a Time in the West, Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone's masterpiece, released in 1968. (Followed by The Wages of Sin.)
Tommaso Pasini
Ettore, a young boy in Sicily in the 50's, is surrounded by women and is always surprised by what is happening around him. In Milan a few years later Ettore is once again the center of attention and the hip crowd.
Draco (archive footage) (uncredited)
Roger Moore presents the ten best sequences ever to have appeared in the James Bond series, and cast members recall their favourite moments.
professor De Lollis
A story set behind the scenes of the annual Miss Italia pageant, with its load of young girls and recognizable characters.
At a bus stop they meet Francesca, an eighteen year old who is collaborating in a veterinary office, and Claudio, a university student. The two begin to walk together and talk about many things.
Strono vecchio
Signor Noé Alga Croce
Ben Costa
A maverick cop takes on the seedy criminal underbelly of Miami singlehanded.
Vittorio
Guido Braschi
This Italian TV mini-series (4 episodes) is directed by giallo great Sergio Martino and stars some of the most recognizable stars of Italian genre cinema, including Edwige Fenech, Ray Lovelock, and Alida Valli. Story: Sandra Venturi, studying to be a singer at the conservatory of music in the Italian town of Lucca, has a promising career in opera ahead of her. On the eve of her nineteenth birthday, during a thunderstorm, the young singer leaves the apartment she shares with her mother Nicole Venturi, a journalist. Sandra is on her way to a secret rendezvous with a married man. He is murdered shortly before Sandra arrives at the deserted villa outside the town which they had chosen as their meeting point. When Marco's corpse is discovered the next morning, Nicole senses that reporting this case will make her famous outside her local region. What she doesn't know is that her daughter is also missing ...
Gaetano Castelli
On June 30, 1990, in Rome, Marie Christine is getting ready to take her son Pietro and Paolo to their father for the weekend. As the Football World Cup is taking place in Italy, Rome is flooded with supporters; the traffic is chaotic and French-born Marie Christine, who works as a translator, finds a bag that belongs to Miriam, who must leave the next day. Marie Christine decides to find her to return her passport, but one Giuliano Ferrini tries to prevent this. So Marie Christine finds herself navigating through a hot Roman night in a city she doesn't know, among people she never dreamed could inhabit the same city.
Signor Mantoni
Genua, 3rd October 1985. Together with over 500 other passengers Margot and Pierre Bergeron, a married couple from France, the Serafinis, an Italian family, Anne Higgins, an Englishwoman, Gitta and Helmut Holzer from Germany and an American couple called Marilyn and Leon Klinghoffer board the 'Achille Lauro'. The mood is cheerful and relaxed, everyone is looking forward to twelve days of sun, sea and peace. No one suspects that there are four Palestinian terrorists among the passengers: Al Assadi, Fatayer, Al Ashker and Molqi, their leader. The ship puts to sea in perfect weather. Three marvellous days follow. Everyone appears to be happy and contented. But in the case of some of the passengers appearances are deceiving. Marilyn Klinghoffer, for example, only pretends to her crippled husband that she is well and happy; in reality she is seriously ill with cancer and knows that this will be her last voyage. She does not want to upset her husband, however. A crisis is brewing between ...
Il Nonno
Luca, a young boy of eleven, lives with his grandfather in a majestic house in Rome. Learning that his mother, whom he believed to be dead, now lives in Argentina, he goes to look for his portable computer, Toto.
Alfredo
Giulia, an American woman living in Italy, becomes depressed and traumatized after her husband Paolo is killed in a car accident on their wedding day. Six years later, Giulia inexplicably finds herself sliding in time between two different worlds where in one she is still struggling with her grief over Paolo's death, and in the other world she is married to Paolo who's alive and well with their five year old son, where Giulia is having an affair with a British gentleman named Daniel, in which the frequent supernatural sliding between these two worlds threaten to drive Giulia crazy when she begins having difficulty in telling them apart and learning which world she is currently living in.
(First movie filmed with Sony HDVS camera, in High Definition.)
Sandro (voice) (archive footage)
Twenty-three years after L'Avventura (1960), Michelangelo Antonioni returns to Lisca Bianca Island. The rarefied atmosphere of Anna's (Lea Massari's) disappearance is recalled by some audio excerpts from the original movie.
Mario Cantone
The lives of the surviving members of the Basileus Quartet, a chamber group that has been playing successfully around the world for more than 30 years, are turned upside down after the death of the leader, Oscar Guarneri. The three aging musicians decide to split up to pursue those pleasures they've denied themselves too long.
Alberto
Cardinale Ixaguirre
A hermit who has had contact with terrorists is planning to kill the Pope by poisoning.
Turkish Brigadier
A noisy and absurd re-telling of the great 1950 invasion of Inchon during the Korean War which was masterminded by General Douglas MacArthur.
Miles
An oceanographer diving in the Bermuda Triangle discovers an undersea world.
Padre di Saverio
Max Astarita
After an elderly crime boss retires from business, his three lieutenants each inherit a piece of his empire: Max is given the kidnapping ring, while the prostitution racket and the drug trafficking go to the others. Max is not satisfied with his share, and after killing the old boss he gets rid of the other two lieutenants. However, a police officer finds a lighter at the murder scene which could lead to Max, who then kidnaps the policeman's daughter.
Georges
This sentimental drama is the story of the relationship between a lovely mother and her 20-year-old son who never really knew her. When he learns that she is dying of leukemia, he tries to get to know her. By the end of the film, the two have reconciled and she dies feeling at peace.
Herzog
A woman on a train becomes the center of attention when she is mistaken for a spy by opposing factions who are traveling on the same line.
Gregorio
An engineer and former fascist comes back to Italy to resume possession of his own lands. A widower with his sons and daughter befriends a girl who happens to be slightly nuts, the girl, influenced by the speeches of her own father which she had listened to when she was younger succeeds to isolate herself with her lover's sons and pulls them into a dark dimension of madness and murder.
Emilio Rospini
A woman with psychic powers has a vision of a murder that took place in a house owned by her husband.
Valerio
Sequel to "La Orca" which follows the life of the kidnapped girl after she returns home to her boyfriend and family. After her kidnap ordeal Alice tries to return to her normal life, but her memories still haunt her and her way to see the world has been changed forever.
Antonio Vicari
During a press conference, international star Nina remembers simpler times, flashing back to her days as a maid in a run-down Italian hotel. As a young woman, Nina befriends Contessa Sanziani, an elderly woman who entertains Nina with memories of her vibrant, wealthy life with Count Sanziani. Inspired by her tales of success, young Nina fantasizes about her own adventures and seeks to find the same excitement in her life.
Maurice
Nick Hezard, a young con man, wants to avenge the death of a friend of his and organizes a swindle trying to cheat Robert Turner, an American businessman he thinks responsible for his friend's death. He succeeds in getting a hundred thousand swiss francs and uses them to carry out the second part of his plan.
L'avvocato Finaldi
After a terrorist attack against a train, the police arrest the young laborer Stefano Baldini, member of a group of militant leftists. Entrusted for interrogation to Sergeant Pendicò and special agents Lorusso and Spasiani, Stefano dies, after four days, in unclear circumstances. Doubting the official version of the police, the second time in which a young person died in custody, journalist Cristina Visconti tries, with the aid of the sister of Stefano, to discover the truth. They rub up against a conspiracy of silence that encircles the acts of Pendicò and his associates. Frustrated beyond reason, Cristina tries a desperate ploy: publishing a story without evidence in the newspaper, accusing the three agents of having caused the death of Stefano with their blows. Cristina is put on trial for defamation. Can she avoid going to jail and also reveal the facts surrounding Stefano's death?
Valerio
A teenage girl is kidnapped by 3 guys and taken to an abandoned house in the country, and make her write her own ransom letter. She soon discovers that one of her captors is infatuated with her and she will use those feelings to stay alive.
Gaspard
A compulsive gambler must steal a suitcase full of money, which is also coveted by Melba, a cabaret singer. A getaway ensues.
Dr. Lutz
Hans Baerlach is a Swiss police detective who has dedicated much of his career to pursuing powerful and allegedly murderous businessman Richard Gastmann. Though Baerlach's partner meets his demise while investigating Gastmann, his replacement, Walter Tschanz, is undaunted. Meanwhile, the lovely Anna Crawley becomes involved in the case, which proceeds to take many twists and turns.
Professor Andrea Icardi
Story about a young girl, the daughter a prominent doctor. When the girl goes missing her father gets the police to jump into action because of his class status and wealth.
Prandó
During an inquest, an ambitious judge finds out that a lot of high-rank politicians are corrupt to the core.
Dr. Emilio Rutelli
Two teenage friends conspire to find out how much their youthful sensuality can disrupt one of their households, headed by a dentist and his mentally-ill wife.
Hans
A concentration camp survivor discovers her former torturer and lover working as a porter at a hotel in postwar Vienna. When the couple attempt to re-create their sadomasochistic relationship, his former SS comrades begin to stalk them.
Don Francesco Salvatore
This crime drama follows Italian police commissioner Caprile (Henry Silva) as he races to rescue the 6-year-old daughter of an important businessman. Also hoping to save her is Frank Salvatore (Gabriele Ferzetti), the old-school Mafia don accused of the crime. Caprile leans on a low-level thug (Philippe Leroy) for information and is led to Salvatore, who considers children to be off-limits as targets and hopes to restore his reputation
Angela Father
Prof. Daniele Vallotti
This Italian film is a searing indictment of the greed and ambition which warp the medical profession. It focuses especially on surgeons in the persons of Professor Valiotti (Gabriele Ferzetti) and Dr. Giordani (Enrico Maria Salerno). Many of the scenes are based on Italian news stories of the period ('70s) which recount the suffering and high costs of unnecessary or overly aggressive treatment motivated by academic ambitions or simple greed.
Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel
Hitler: The Last Ten Days takes us into the depths of der Furher’s Berlin bunker during his final days. Based on the book by Gerhard Boldt, it provides a bleak look at the goings-on within, and without.
Pablo Moncada
José, a young mechanic, arrives in Madrid to make it big. After being conned he loses his savings, and is taken in by Elisa, a photographer. She introduces him to Pablo and Laura. Laura makes him an offer he cant refuse and then his troubles really begin.
Nick La Caterina / Tony La Monica
Boxer Teddy Wilcox leaves his manager and relocates. He finds Nick, a manager/trainer. Before Wilcox's first fight, Nick receives a threat-- Wilcox loses, or Nick will die.
Vasco
An heiress (Piccolo) fakes her own kidnapping in order to get money from her parents and hides in the river Po's delta among eel fisherman and is helped by a small time smuggler (Toffolo).
Inspector Bardeche
Serge Morgan is a killer working for the American Mafia. After performing a contract in New York for his employers, he takes the plane back to Paris and, during the flight, he gets to know Jane, the rich daughter of an ambassador. Once in Orly Airport he gets seriously wounded by the men of French drug kingpin Henri Emery. He manages to escape them though and takes refuge at Jane's. Passion sets in between the killer and the young lady. As of then, sex will be intertwined with blood and death. For better or worse...
Kohoutek
The vice-minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia, knowing he's being watched and followed, is one day arrested and put into solitary confinement by his blackmailers.
Paolo Marchesi
The beautiful but neglected wife of a brilliant architect from Milan, betrayed by her husband and mocked by her friend who manages the amorous adventures that she dreams of having, decides to take vengeance of the two, seducing her friend's husband and her young son.
Marc Ange Draco
James Bond tracks his archnemesis, Ernst Blofeld, to a mountaintop retreat in the Swiss alps where he is training an army of beautiful, lethal women. Along the way, Bond falls for Italian contessa Tracy Draco, and marries her in order to get closer to Blofeld.
Biagio
In the most traditional Sicilian, a 18 year old is in full arousal. His relationship with breathtaking mature woman will create a great controversy in the retrograde Sicilian society.
Don Francesco DeMarco
After serving 12 years behind bars for armed robbery, tough guy Hank McCain finds himself the pawn of a ruthless mob runt's rebellion against a high level don. When McCain discovers that he's been betrayed and abandoned by his new employer, he retaliates with a high stakes Las Vegas casino heist that erupts into all-out war on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Not blood, nor lust, nor wedding vows can come between McCain and his money...or his machine gun.
Morton
As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life.
Commissioner
After professional stickup man Mario Corda is jailed, his young, ambitious partner -- who covets both Corda's life and his wife -- cuts loose, leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake.
Guido
Italian drama.
Don Calogero Minniti
Tom Proby is a representative from a British engineering firm sent to Sicily to convince the landowners (all in the Mafia) to allow his company to build an oil refinery on some waterfront real estate. Proby talks to the mob bosses about the project, but disagreements between different bosses complicate his efforts.
Il Commissario
An enterprising reporter takes along four willing adventurers to interview and photograph a young Sardinian criminal in hiding. Under intermittent gunfire, they make their way to the mountain hideout of the bandit. After a leisurely conversation and photo session, the encampment comes under fire from a group of armed citizens acting as police. Bullets fly and violence overtakes the criminal's two henchman, as the thrill-seeking group and the wanted criminal find themselves under attack.
Stefano
Young Alvise's body is paralyzed, or at least he thinks so. He is infatuated by his beautiful aunt Lea. What starts as innocent therapy and care soon develops into strange erotic and psychological battle between them.
Augusto Lambertinghi
1968, London. Luca is living his 'swinging' years away from duties and responsibilities while his father wants him to be introduced to the family business at any cost. Luca is first forced to return to Italy, then kidnapped by his father's collaborators, placed in a sanitarium and put through electroshock therapy and other torments. Once 'normalised' Luca marries a woman who is in reality a psychologist paid by his father to brainwash him and turn him into a perfect businessman.
Anselmo
Anselmo is a young anthropologist who is tormented by jealousy, and although his wife Camilla does not give reasons, keeps a close eye on her. After consulting a psychiatrist, the doctor says the problem is him and not his wife. So he plots to verify, once and for all, if his suspicions are true. By chance he meets an old friend, Lotario, who seems the ideal person to carry out his plans. What Anselmo does not know is that his friend is a real womanizer who ends seducing his wife.
Avvocato Rosello
A leftist professor wants the truth about two men killed during a hunting party; but the mafia, the Church and corrupt politicians don't want him to learn it.
Lorenzo de' Medici
Two devils from Hell are sent to Earth to cause trouble. Belfagor and his faithful sidekick Adramalek must start a war between Rome and Florence in 1478.
Lot
Extravagant production of the first part of the book of Genesis. Covers Adam and Eve, Noah and the Flood and Abraham and Isaac.
le comte Larsi
When his wife leaves him, a young French actor, François Combe, moves to New York to work for a television company. One evening, he meets an attractive young woman, Kay Larsi, in a bar.
Victor Dermott
An ill-assorted group of international criminals executes a tightly-planned ransom sting in Spain. Things go along swimmingly until various tensions within the group come to the fore.
Carlos Brul y Betancourt
Patricia is guide of a travel agency. One night, when accompanying a group of tourists through the old Madrid, she meets Carlos and falls for him. Days later, Patricia embarks on a summer cruise meeting up again with Carlos. The romance begins, but Patricia is not the only one chasing Carlos. Three villains want to kidnap him
Guido
Attractive teenager Sergia usually hangs out with her older sister and her circle of mature friends. For a change, she is convinced by two teenage male friends to go for a beach vacation. Their main motive is to try to win her affection and get to sleep with her. Tragedy soon follows when the love triangle unravels.
Max
Feeling complicit in a heinous act of her husband, a woman sinks into decay, then recovers and becomes a nun
Giulio
Leonardi
An Italian submarine captain tries to navigate his sub through enemy waters while being stalked by a British warship. They both make it to the neutral port of Tangiers where they agree a truce.
Tenente in trincea
Two jerks are enlisted in the Italian army during W.W.1 and by pure luck manage to help win an important battle.
Avvocato Leblanc
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.
Freron
Biopic about Napoleon's sister Paulette.
Gian Paolo Osio
Virginia de Leyva, daughter of a Spanish Lord, becomes a nun in Monza, in 1600s. She becomes very strict with herself and the students until she's unable to resist a romance with the nobleman Gian Paolo Osio which will lead both to danger.
Edmondo Raumo
When the men of a Sicilian village start obsessing over ravishing blonde midwife Jessica, angry females revolt by refusing to have sex with their husbands. As the local priest tries to encourage procreation, Jessica falls for a tricky recluse.
Roberto Santi
In Congo during the revolution, an Italian journalist is in love with the wife of a Belgian businessman.
Ralph Scaffari
Bella Krastner is sunbathing on a beach on the Côte d'Azur when she attracts the attention of an attractive younger man, Ralph Scaffari. It is the start of a whirlwind romance which looks like it might last beyond the end of the summer. Unfortunately, Bella is already married, to Carl Krastner, a once renowned pianist who has become bitter and reclusive after a car accident that irreparably damaged one of his hands. Krastner no longer has any zest for living. He tyrannises both his wife and his sister Laurence and divides his time between scuba diving and gambling. After ratcheting up a small fortune in gambling debts, Krastner decides to fake his own death so that he can claim on his life insurance.
Alberto Bressan
A group of passengers traveling around the Mediterranean on a luxury liner enjoy various adventures and become romantically involved with each other.
Tommaso
Italy signed the armistice and in the general confusion a corporal decides to bring the tank back from the coast to the barracks.
Franco Villani
1943. The affair between Anna, unhappily married to wheelchair-bound Pino, and deserter Franco unfolds in foggy Ferrara, intertwining with the power struggle taking place within local Fascist ranks that culminates in a massacre of civilians, including Franco's father – Pino sees it all from his window, but will he tell anyone?
Sandro
Claudia and Anna join Anna's lover, Sandro, on a boat trip to a remote volcanic island. When Anna goes missing, a search is launched. In the meantime, Sandro and Claudia become involved in a romance despite Anna's disappearance, though the relationship suffers from guilt and tension.
Avvocato Paolo Martini
A lawyer heads out on the road in an attempt to find his daughter who has been missing for quite some time. To help him navigate the secret world his daughter lived within that he knows nothing about, he recruits the help of Irene a close friend of his daughter's. But Irene has plans of her own.
Senator Quintus Fabius
A Carthaginian general attempts to cross the Alps with an army of elephants in order to conquer Rome.
Bernard Turquet de Mayenne
Burgundy 1728. Old count Antoine d'Eon is overjoyed. His daughter-in-law has finally given birth to a boy and he will at long last be able to transmit his inheritance to his son Pascal. At least this is what he thinks, for Pascal has concealed from his father the fact that his son was ... a daughter, his eighth daughter! Well, enough is enough and Geneviève has no other choice but become a boy first, then a soldier and even the special envoy of Louis XV, King of France, to Catherine II, the Czarina of Russia.
Arturo
Giovanni is a young widower with a son who is attracted to the charming teen Allegra.
Giulio Ferrari
It is Summer. It is the right time for love, especially in a most romantic place as Golfo del Tigullio. Different stories: Dorina looking for a rich lover; Clara who takes a fancy to the young Walter while her daughter Lina tries to save her; Aristarco who gave up his career to follow Ada's, but who likes Jacqueline; Renata who is offered by her husband to Ferrari to get money; Marcello who, extraditing Micheline to France, misses the train and falls in love with her.
Andrea
Marietto is a very lively and creative orphaned child, housed in a boarding school of nuns. One day, while browsing a newspaper, he sees a photo of a beautiful opera house dancer, Camilla, and is convinced that she is her mother.
Sandro
Francesca and Sandro meet, falls for each other and get married. But the differences between them are too many and the separation is around the corner.
Lawyer Alberto Cortini
Three girls are on a hitchhiking trip through northern Italy, the riviera, Venice, Pisa and Rome.
Desiderio
Desiderio is a gentleman thief who steals jewelry. Without him knowing, he is hired as a manager in the jewelry store of Gabriele Bertinori, and with this position he plans to rob the place.
Comandante Alberto Bruni
A destroyer departs from the port of Taranto with orders to take a load of petrol to Tobruk at all costs.
Maurizio
Donatella is a simple and honest roman girl, daughter of a bookbinder and girlfriend of Guido, a gas station owner. One day she finds a woman's handbag containing valuables and documents, and decides to return it to her owner, a wealthy American lady, who offers Donatella a job as a secretary as a reward: she has to manage the lady's villa during her absences. There, Donatella casually meets Maurizio, a rich, elegant and well-educated young man, and ends up falling in love.
Pietro Leonardi
As part of a story, a reporter goes to meet Elisa, a young woman he met a few years ago on a trial on which she was finally exonerated.
Lorenzo
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.
Casanova
1760 Spain provides the setting for Giacomo Casanova's romantic escapades, every woman he encounters unable to resist his disarming charm, be they single, engaged, or even married.
Giacomo Puccini
The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.
Dott. Mario Rossetti
Camilla, a middle-aged Venetian widow, arrives in Rome to take up service as a maid for the Rossetti family, who are not prosperous. With her discreet presence, she is an element of cohesion for them thru tensions and misfortunes.
Gabriele Demico
The young Claudia wants to escape from the gray life of the province and aims rich men but each time with unhappy results. Only the brother will eventually succeed in shaking her from this purpose.
Carlo, the Political Prisoner (segm. "Gli ultimi dieci Minuti")
Six episodes (adapted from as many short stories: Gozzano, D'Annunzio, Guido Rocca, Marino Moretti, Alba de Céspedes and Oreste Biancoli), six love stories set in different moments in italian recent history.
Ludovico Nota
An Italian drama based on the play by Luigi Pirandello.
Fernando Maestrelli
A young and shy girl Celestina arrives from her small home village to Rome to become a housemaid. Her inexperience and naivety causes her to change her employers quite frequently. As she is moving from one family to another she makes friends with other Roman maids and falls desperately in love with a handsome plumber Fernando. But Fernando isn't telling Celestina that he is already engaged to another woman.
Giacomo Puccini
Produced in Italy in breathtaking Technicolor, this biographical story of Puccini (played by L'avventura's Gabriele Ferzetti) spans his creative life from early student days to the height of success, including his early flop Madama Butterfly and his incomplete Turandot. Along the way he encounters three women who change his life, including a sexy, beautiful singer (Two for the Road's Nadia Gray) whom he drops for a small town girl (Sirocco's Marta Toren), and a servant girl who commits suicide over him. Well-selected excerpts from Manon, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly and Turandot are featured along with other Puccini music, including the voice of Beniamino Gigli. Sets, costumes and production values are first class, all sumptuously filmed by Claude Renoir.
Franco Vagnuzzi
The ever-growing popularity of Gina Lollobrigida was a decided box-office asset when the Italian La Provinciale was distributed to the U.S. as The Wayward Wife. Lollobrigida acquits herself quite nicely in the tensely dramatic role of a much-put-upon small-town girl named Cemma. Seduced by a lad who turns out to be a relative, Cemma is tossed out of her home. Seeking security, she impulsively marries bookish science professor Franco Vagnuzzi (Gabriele Ferzetti). Bored by her marriage, Cemma doesn't realize the true value of her loving husband until it's almost too late. The original 118-minute run time was reduced for U.S. release.
Mario
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.
Andrea Vannini
Dario
Producers of phony currency become the object of a crackdown by law enforcement agencies.
(uncredited)
Freshly released from a Russian POW camp, Italian soldier Raf Vallone tries to discover who betrayed his brother to the Nazis.
Sandro Deodata
The veteran
A disguised thief talks himself into a countryside class fight immediately after WWII.
(uncredited)
Jean Valjean, pursued through the years for a minor infraction by the implacable policeman Javert, attempts to create a life for himself and for his adopted daughter Cosette amid the revolutionary struggles of France.
(uncredited)