Vittorio Cottafavi

The story of a peasant girl of fifteen, Mariute, who comes down from the Carnia mountains to the Friulian plains with her mother at the beginning of the summer.

An adaptation of the Aeschylus play.

Vittorio Cottafavi's 1973 television adaptation of Jean Anouih's play on Joan of Arc.

A TV movie adapted from a Pirandello play.

Adaptation of the greek tragedy.

A Vittorio Cottafavi minisseries about Christopher Columbus.

TV film by Vittorio Cottafavi based on the search for the nazi Adolf Eichmann by Simon Wiesenthal.

The trial of Saint Teresa de Lisieux.

In 1967 the director Vittorio Cottafavi produces the TV movie Le Troiane from Euripides. He uses the classical Italian translation by Enzio Cetrangolo, but creates an original way of film adaptation, inspired by the Brechtian conception of staging the ancient theater. He does not use costume or set design, but is based only on the simple performance of the actors, highlighted by the shooting technique. The absolute sense of tragedy is perceived by the public through emotional engagement and imagination. So, the Trojan war is all the wars and the pain of the Trojan women is the pain of all the victims of any war.

In 1967 the director Vittorio Cottafavi produces the TV movie Le Troiane from Euripides. He uses the classical Italian translation by Enzio Cetrangolo, but creates an original way of film adaptation, inspired by the Brechtian conception of staging the ancient theater. He does not use costume or set design, but is based only on the simple performance of the actors, highlighted by the shooting technique. The absolute sense of tragedy is perceived by the public through emotional engagement and imagination. So, the Trojan war is all the wars and the pain of the Trojan women is the pain of all the victims of any war.

A machine that creates poetry causes problems.

Don Fernando, the son of El Cid, rallies peasants and townspeople to overthrow Moorish occupiers in medieval Spain.

Don Fernando, the son of El Cid, rallies peasants and townspeople to overthrow Moorish occupiers in medieval Spain.

A man's encounter with his father.

With the participation of the inhabitants of Tirli (GR). RAI television film, based on a short story (1954) by Carlo Cassola and scripted by Marcello Fondato and Giuseppe Lazzari, filmed on location, aired on 19-9-1963. It is the simple story of a group of woodcutters in the Grossetano area with their problems, individual stories, small and big intimate dramas. It is a film with a Rossellini-style realist slant where, without falling into scenicism, the importance of the landscape is combined with the psychological subtlety of the characters and the lucid and critical description of their behaviour. "A phenomenological film that manages to introduce, in the objectivity of the realistic vision, a disturbing moral dimension" (G. Rondolino).

An adaptation of Guglielmo Petroni's book.

A TV adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's play.

Sci-fi film made for TV by Vittorio Cottafavi.

A television film by Vittorio Cottafavi. It's believed that this TV film has been lost.

King Androcles of Thebes commands a ship in search of a threat to Greece, predicted by an atmospheric oracle. Hercules is part of the crew, but the strongman falls overboard in a thick fog. Washed ashore, he saves a young Ismene from Proteus, an evil, shape-shifting creature. Ismene takes Hercules to Atlantis, where he discovers that her mother, Queen Antinea, has captured Androcles. Hercules schemes to rescue him and thwart Antinea's dream of world conquest.

Marching down the Italian peninsula to sack ancient Rome, Etruscan warrior Drusco instead offers to hold back his onslaught if the Romans hand over hostages, including Clelia, the sexy leader of a clan of woman warriors. But before long, intrigue and betrayal unravel the fragile peace. Directors Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia and Vittorio Cottafavi helm this vintage sword-and-sandal epic.

A warrior returning home to his country must battle giant bats, three-headed dogs and a vicious dragon to save his wife, and his people, from the machinations of an evil ruler.

Messalina was the Roman noblewoman who inveigled ageing emperor Claudio into marriage. Once ensconced on the throne, Messalina launched a reign of terror that shook the empire to its very foundations. The subject of countless film treatments, Rome's most villified empress is herein played by British actress Belinda Lee.

An italian-spanish co-production directed by Vittorio Cottafavi.

Octavio secretly sent his consul Curridio to Alexandria in a final attempt to reach peace. In the city, he meets Berenice, a mysterious and beautiful dancer who falls in love. Actually, the dancer is the queen Cleopatra who leads a double life using this name.

Octavio secretly sent his consul Curridio to Alexandria in a final attempt to reach peace. In the city, he meets Berenice, a mysterious and beautiful dancer who falls in love. Actually, the dancer is the queen Cleopatra who leads a double life using this name.

A scientist kills his rival with a perfect alibi and tries to get away with it.

Marcus Numidius (Ettore Manni), a Roman tribune sent to Armenia to put down a gladiators' revolt, captures the rebels' popular leader, Aselepius (Georges Marchal). Princess Amira (Gianna Maria Canale), with ambitions of being Queen and jealous of Asclepius' popularity, plans his death in the arena by substituting a lion for his human opponent

An adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel.

A TV adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's play.

An adaptation of Molière's play.

Liana, an architecture graduate, is about to get married until she is confronted with the fact she is sacrificing the rest of her life for a man she barely knows. So begins a series of romantic encounters in which Liana tries to find her freedom and happiness, but which will ultimately lead her to a tragic fate.

After years of detachment Alberto Valli returns to the home of Margherita, his widowed mother, with his mistress Germaine.

Three jailbirds - a surgeon, a robber and a wrongly convicted man must adjust to their lives once released from prison.

Luisa Galli moves to Rome in search of a respectable job, but instead just finds a job as a waitress for the lawyer Giorgi

An engineer has a romance with the mistress of a rich banker but she sacrifices herself,returning to the rich man, for the best interests of the lover and his family.

Il Cavaliere di Maison Rouge is an Italian adventure film directed by Vittorio Cottafavi based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas.

Very stylish Italian swashbuckler - The Three Musketeers from the viewpoint of Milady de Winter

In 1951, two years after the “scandal” of the Fiamma che non si spegne, Cottafavi got the opportunity to work on a film with a small production company, Novissima Film. With little means, a number of technical and financial problems and working Sundays with the pieces of film given to him bit by bit, Cottafavi shot Una donna ha ucciso, a minor film that marked his comeback to directing. (Gianni Rondolino)

In 1951, two years after the “scandal” of the Fiamma che non si spegne, Cottafavi got the opportunity to work on a film with a small production company, Novissima Film. With little means, a number of technical and financial problems and working Sundays with the pieces of film given to him bit by bit, Cottafavi shot Una donna ha ucciso, a minor film that marked his comeback to directing. (Gianni Rondolino)

In 1951, two years after the “scandal” of the Fiamma che non si spegne, Cottafavi got the opportunity to work on a film with a small production company, Novissima Film. With little means, a number of technical and financial problems and working Sundays with the pieces of film given to him bit by bit, Cottafavi shot Una donna ha ucciso, a minor film that marked his comeback to directing. (Gianni Rondolino)

Inspired to the real story of the Carabiniere Salvo D'Acquisto. We see how, to save 22 hostages from dead sentence by Nazi, he decided to sacrifice himself.

Inspired to the real story of the Carabiniere Salvo D'Acquisto. We see how, to save 22 hostages from dead sentence by Nazi, he decided to sacrifice himself.

Inspired to the real story of the Carabiniere Salvo D'Acquisto. We see how, to save 22 hostages from dead sentence by Nazi, he decided to sacrifice himself.

Evocation of a dramatic episode of the Second World War told by an old guard. Boarded as a non-commissioned officer on the battleship sailed from Pola and headed south. In time of danger, the man is forced to sacrifice the lives of seven sailors and the son of the Captain, his good friend, in order to save the rest of the crew.

A former war captain buys a wrecked ship, fixes it and starts a freight business with some fellow navy members.

A former war captain buys a wrecked ship, fixes it and starts a freight business with some fellow navy members.

A mysterious man, who had lost his memory, arrives in San Marino among other refugees during the Second World War.

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.

Leo (Vittorio De Sica) is young man trying to make a living without any success. Through fortuitous circumstances, he is assigned by the director of a big firm to accompany for one night the daughter of the firm's accountant, Titi (María Mercader). Leo pretends then to be the son of a tycoon, and takes her in a luxurious restaurant.

Leo (Vittorio De Sica) is young man trying to make a living without any success. Through fortuitous circumstances, he is assigned by the director of a big firm to accompany for one night the daughter of the firm's accountant, Titi (María Mercader). Leo pretends then to be the son of a tycoon, and takes her in a luxurious restaurant.

The film takes place at the end of the 19th century. The Cardinal Guglielmo Massaia has spent 20 years in Ethiopia to convert people to the Catholic Church. He comes back to Italy and he tries to get the help of the government of Piedmont. The Count Cavour, although he appreciates the Cardinal's deeds in Africa, cannot grant his Cabinet's support to the Cardinal's plans. The missionary man, trusting the Divine Providence, goes back to Africa by himself. The Cardinal, who is known among the people as Abuna Messias, becomes a friend of king Menelik. The support of the king is fundamental to spread his word and accomplish his mission. The Head of the Coptic Church, Abuna Attanasio, does whatever he can to prevent Massaia from reaching his goals and to get him exiled from Ethiopia. Menelik refuses to help Abuna Attanasio, who decides to address the Emperor, thus igniting a war between the Emperor and his subject Menelik. In order to end the war, the Cardinal decides to leave Africa.