
Known for
7.6In 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 work on some of the masterpieces of Italian neorealism, The Children Are Watching Us is a vivid, deeply humane portrait of a family’s disintegration.
The Children Are Watching Us
1943
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Il dottor Antonio
1954
7.0Based on the Nikolai Gogol story but set in 1950s Italy, "The Overcoat" is the story of a poor city hall clerk whose only desire is to buy a new overcoat.
The Overcoat
1952
6.4Anna, a woman with a troubled past, marries an honest worker at the SIMA mechanical workshop, who provides her with a decent life despite financial difficulties. Blackmailed by a man who knows about her past, Anna loses her mind and kills him. Sentenced to ten years in prison, she dies in childbirth while giving birth to a baby girl.
Love Story
1942
4.8A former prostitute and a little Polish girl are survivors of a train crash. The woman wishes to adopt the child, but her past makes that difficult.
The Slave of Sin
1954
7.8Aldo 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.
Difficult Years
1948
Film credits
1950s · 13 titles
7.0Based on the Nikolai Gogol story but set in 1950s Italy, "The Overcoat" is the story of a poor city hall clerk whose only desire is to buy a new overcoat.
The Overcoat
1952
4.8A former prostitute and a little Polish girl are survivors of a train crash. The woman wishes to adopt the child, but her past makes that difficult.
The Slave of Sin
1954
8.0A man and a woman love each other, but they can’t marry because he’s ashamed of his unjustly incarcerated mother. What’s more, he loses his eyesight in an accident.
Noi peccatori
1953
NRNo synopsis available yet.
La vendetta di una pazza
1951
7.2Oreste is known for his deliberation and caution in handling license forms at his office.But when he needs money to send his 3 girls off to Capri to find rich suitors, he is tempted to take bribes to put a license through more quickly.
Ragazze da marito
1952
8.0As the Legion Etrangère puts in at Napoli, legionnaire Walter escapes from the ship to meet a woman he still loves ,in spite of his five years away from home.
The Eternal Chain
1952
7.0Louise of Habsburg-Lorraine, young and beautiful wife of the Crown Prince of Saxony, manifests democratic sentiments that make her pleasing to the people, but not to the court. In 1902 old King George would like to have her committed to an asylum, but she escapes to Florence where she meets and loves the musician Enrico Toselli. Theirs will be a dramatic affair, with the man's death and her madness.
All for Love
1950
A love story along the lines of Romeo and Juliet, set in Calabria: two young lovers belong to two families who have always been enemies of each other.
Il sentiero dell'odio
1950
10.0A famous tenor pawns valuables too often. His strange behavior arouses the suspicions of a detective. The situation is complicated by the fact that both the tenor and the detective are in love with the same woman. Attempts at infidelity, revenge, and spying ensue. In the end, love conquers all.
I Sing for You
1954
5.5Cousins James and Robert are in love with Susanna. When Robert and Susanna announce their engagement, James vows to ruin their happiness.
Torna!
1954
NRA door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman finds himself caught up in a surreal misdeed, which takes place inside a cottage where the man has gone to introduce the product to a potential customer.
Villini a sorpresa
1958
8.0Raped during the war by a stranger, Anna is forced by their parents to pretend that that her daughter Lisa is her sister. When she is about to marry the new doctor in the country, her jealous brother resorts to threats of blackmail in an attempt to keep them apart.
The Last Violence
1957
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Due sorelle amano
1950
1940s · 29 titles
7.6In 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 work on some of the masterpieces of Italian neorealism, The Children Are Watching Us is a vivid, deeply humane portrait of a family’s disintegration.
The Children Are Watching Us
1943
6.4Anna, a woman with a troubled past, marries an honest worker at the SIMA mechanical workshop, who provides her with a decent life despite financial difficulties. Blackmailed by a man who knows about her past, Anna loses her mind and kills him. Sentenced to ten years in prison, she dies in childbirth while giving birth to a baby girl.
Love Story
1942
7.8Aldo 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.
Difficult Years
1948
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Le sorprese del vagone letto
1940
10.0Two young people fall in love and run away from home. They soon run out of money and he, who has a decent voice, finds work in a low-class variety show, where he is captivated by the charms of a dancer.
In cerca di felicità
1944
7.0No synopsis available yet.
Il diavolo va in collegio
1944
7.6Princess Zeila, daughter of Caliph Oman III, is preparing to review the nobles who aspire to her hand. The sinister Prince Jafar plots in the shadows: the young musician Amin will see to it that love can triumph, with the help of the Genie of the Lamp.
The Rose of Baghdad
1949
9.0No synopsis available yet.
La canzone rubata
1940
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Fortuna
1940
9.0Birdaghin is a dancer at La Scala in Milan whose rapid success also quickly goes to her head. Fortunately, everything will be fine.
Biraghin
1946
10.0No synopsis available yet.
L'elisir d'amore
1941
10.0A comedy set behind the scenes at Cinecittà studios in Rome during the war, focusing on a famous, demanding tenor and his love interest.
Silenzio, si gira!
1943
7.0Anna, a rich lady, decides to finance in great secrecy a singular enterprise: the founding of a real center for the creation of ideas, directed by Mario Morelli, a poet and songwriter perpetually waiting for great success, and a painter, Enrico Bovio, who cannot find the inspiration or the model for a portrait of a woman he wants to finish. Both are short of money and, convinced of the brilliance of their ideas, wish to open that bizarre business, called precisely the "Bazaar of Ideas".
Il bazar delle idee
1940
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Il segreto di Villa Paradiso
1940
6.5In this delightful 1945 comedy of errors, a mischievous, wealthy schoolgirl concocts a scandalous lie to win the heart of her incredibly naive history teacher, Casimiro.
L'innocente Casimiro
1945
10.0Caravaggio, il pittore maledetto is a 1941 Italian historical drama film directed by Goffredo Alessandrini and starring Amedeo Nazzari, Clara Calamai and Lamberto Picasso. Nazzari portrays the painter Caravaggio as a wayward genius. It was one of his favourite screen roles.
Caravaggio, il pittore maledetto
1941
7.0No synopsis available yet.
La prima donna che passa
1940
6.8A man comes home from the war and finds both his plant and his family destroyed.
Revenge
1946
9.0A wealthy widow becomes infatuated with an adventurer posing as a poet and, forgetting her responsibilities as a mother and her no longer young age, falls prey to a love frenzy in her family that puts her at odds with her daughter, who has just left boarding school, and her own brother, who is all about scientific research. The girl, who has learned of the alleged poet's less-than-honest intentions, tries every means to drive him away and restore her mother's sentimental balance. For this she pretends to be in love with him who, attracted by her youth and rich dowry, proposes that she elope.
Divieto di sosta
1941
10.0No synopsis available yet.
Il nostro prossimo
1943
10.0When she is in jail to defend her colleague, the secretary Anna Alessandri finds out that her man got engaged to another woman.
Ridi pagliaccio
1941
6.3The baron of Santafusca, descended from a noble family, leads a dissipated life. To pay debts he is forced to sell his house. He tries to steal from the house of a very rich priest and, surprised during the theft, he kills the priest, and then throws the body in an abandoned well. He continues his life of revelries and luxury, until the remorse for the crime trigger a process of self-destruction. The nightmares of the baron, tormented by the only evidence left of the murder, the hat of the priest ,drags him into a daring and hallucinated series of ups and downs to the brink of insanity and jail.
Il cappello da prete
1944
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Notte di fortuna
1941
8.0No synopsis available yet.
Brute Force
1941
A comedy film.
Vento di milioni
1940
9.0A woman, a theatrical impresario, simulates the theft of a precious necklace for marketing purposes. A young singer living in the province is believed to be responsible for the theft and is arrested.
Non canto più
1945
10.0Paolo Bianchi, an average young man, picks up an underground newspaper on the street: he lives in northern Italy during the Nazi occupation and is mistaken for a communist, searched and beaten by the police. An influential friend manages to get him released, but now Paolo has a positive reputation among the partisans. To save him from further trouble, his friend gives him a document that corroborates his strong loyalty to the current regime: the safe passage he thus obtains helps, albeit inadvertently, the partisans on several occasions. Then the Allies arrive, accuse him of being a collaborator, and arrest him. His friend comes to his rescue.
Uno tra la folla
1946
No synopsis available yet.
Ho visto brillare le stelle
1940
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Antonio Meucci
1940
1930s · 18 titles
7.0Piccolo Hotel (aka Small Hotel) uses the titular establishment to weave together a vast tapestry of subplots, a la Grand Hotel. The guests include a domineering mother (Lola Braccini), her petulant daughter (Bianca Doria) and the daughter's gigolo boyfriend (Guido Notari). Also on hand is a worldly vamp (Laura Nucci) who also falls for the boyfriend, and the chronic-gambler son (Andrea Checchi) of the hotel's self-sacrificing landlady (Emma Grammatica). Though the film is set in Budapest, the characters are more Mediterranean than mittel-European. Piccolo Hotel was one of the entries in the Vienna Biennial Film Festival.
Small Hotel
1939
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Duetto vagabondo
1939
8.0Ginevra degli Almieri's family has arranged a marriage of interest but the young Ginevra strenuously refuses until she falls into catalepsy and is buried alive. Once she wakes up she goes home but her family believes they are dealing with a ghost and they try to chase her away. She will only be welcomed by the penniless young painter who has always been in love with her.
Ginevra degli Almieri
1935
5.6A story of the Second Punic Wars, beginning with Scipio's futile pleas to the Roman Senate to build an army to battle Hannibal, that climaxes with the battle of Zama.
Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal
1937
10.0No synopsis available yet.
Tenebre
1934
8.0Based on fact, Passaporto Rosso (Red Passport) details the plight of a group of poor Italian immigrants who are hired as railroad workers in turn-of-the-century South America. In addition to facing poverty, deprivation, and prejudice, the immigrants are also bedeviled by a raging fever epidemic. Finally achieving a measure of prosperity, the Italians are forced to confront tragedy once more when their grown children march off to WWI. Though Isa Miranda is top-billed, she has very little to do in comparison with male lead Filippo Scelso. Passaporto Rosso was released in the U.S. as Destiny Unknown.
Destiny Unknown
1935
8.0No synopsis available yet.
Diamanti
1939
6.8A comedy about a hobo and a millionaire who swap roles after the millionaire rescues the hobo from a suicide attempt.
I'll Give a Million
1935
10.0Based on the comedy Il successo by Alfredo Testoni.
L'albero di Adamo
1936
A pianist is torn between her quartet's cellist and an exotic Indian maharajah she meets on tour with the troupe. The maharajah, however, has trouble forgetting his dead former love.
Una donna tra due mondi
1936
No synopsis available yet.
Cose dell'altro mondo
1939
6.6Lieutenant Mario Ludovici, an army officer, gets himself transferred to a Libyan post when his romance with society girl Cristiana goes on the rocks. Ludovici is looked upon as a weakling by Captain Santelia, the hard-boiled commander of the troops, but after a bitter campaign against a rebel tribe Ludovici proves his true worth and returns as commander when Santelia is mortally wounded. Cristiana arrives and tries to entice him to return to Rome, but he decides to stay in Africa with the army.
White Squadron
1936
No synopsis available yet.
Il piccolo re
1939
No synopsis available yet.
Il treno delle 21,15
1933
10.0No synopsis available yet.
I figli del marchese Lucera
1939
9.0In the center of Milan, Felicita Colombo successfully manages a delicatessen that has among its customers the best bourgeoisie of the city.
Felicita Colombo
1937
A young girl learns that she is the daughter of an executed politician and conspires to avenge her father's memory.
The King's Jester
1935
No synopsis available yet.
Creature della notte
1934
