Best Italian Movies
by jorge_barrio_uribarri | created - 13 Feb 2016 | updated - 2 months ago | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
Not Rated | 179 min | Crime, Drama, Sport
Having recently been uprooted to Milan, Rocco and his four brothers each look for a new way in life when a prostitute comes between Rocco and his brother Simone.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Alain Delon, Renato Salvatori, Annie Girardot, Claudia Cardinale
Votes: 21,207
2. Cinema Paradiso (1988)
R | 174 min | Drama, Romance
A filmmaker recalls his childhood when falling in love with the pictures at the cinema of his home village and forms a deep friendship with the cinema's projectionist.
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore | Stars: Philippe Noiret, Enzo Cannavale, Antonella Attili, Isa Danieli
Votes: 283,080 | Gross: $11.99M
3. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
Not Rated | 89 min | Drama
In post-war Italy, a working-class man's bicycle is stolen, endangering his efforts to find work. He and his son set out to find it.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Lamberto Maggiorani, Enzo Staiola, Lianella Carell, Elena Altieri
Votes: 175,238 | Gross: $0.33M
4. The Road (1954)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama
A care-free girl is sold to a traveling entertainer, consequently enduring physical and emotional pain along the way.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart, Aldo Silvani
Votes: 66,609
5. Misunderstood (1966)
104 min | Drama
A study of bitter relationships between a widower and his two sons.
Director: Luigi Comencini | Stars: Anthony Quayle, Stefano Colagrande, Simone Giannozzi, John Sharp
Votes: 1,278
6. Agostino (1962)
90 min | Drama
Agostino is a 13-year-old boy on vacation in Venice with his widowed mother. When a local stud seduces her, jealous Agostino joins a local group of juvenile delinquents out of protest. They force him to face his budding sexuality.
Director: Mauro Bolognini | Stars: Ingrid Thulin, Paolo Colombo, Mario Bartoletti, Aldo Bussaglia
Votes: 240
7. Death in Venice (1971)
GP | 130 min | Drama, Romance
While recovering in Venice, sickly composer Gustav von Aschenbach becomes dangerously fixated with teenager Tadzio.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Dirk Bogarde, Romolo Valli, Mark Burns, Nora Ricci
Votes: 23,045 | Gross: $0.15M
8. La Dolce Vita (1960)
Not Rated | 174 min | Comedy, Drama
A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering tabloid journalist living in Rome.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimée, Yvonne Furneaux
Votes: 78,230 | Gross: $19.52M
9. Life Is Beautiful (1997)
PG-13 | 116 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
When an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.
Director: Roberto Benigni | Stars: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Durano
Votes: 743,559 | Gross: $57.60M
10. The Conformist (1970)
R | 113 min | Drama
A weak-willed Italian man becomes a fascist flunky who goes abroad to arrange the assassination of his old teacher, now a political dissident.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli, Gastone Moschin, Enzo Tarascio
Votes: 33,718 | Gross: $0.54M
11. Nights of Cabiria (1957)
Not Rated | 110 min | Drama
A waifish prostitute wanders the streets of Rome looking for true love but finds only heartbreak.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Giulietta Masina, François Périer, Franca Marzi, Dorian Gray
Votes: 51,962 | Gross: $0.75M
12. The Best Offer (2013)
R | 131 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Virgil Oldman, a wealthy art auctioneer, takes the help of a young artificer, Robert, to understand and woo Claire Ibbetson, a young heiress, who hires him to auction off an antique collection.
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore | Stars: Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Sylvia Hoeks, Donald Sutherland
Votes: 128,644 | Gross: $0.09M
13. The Family (1987)
PG | 127 min | Drama, Romance
With the background of the XX century Italian history, Carlo, a retired teacher, traces the vicissitudes of his family.
Director: Ettore Scola | Stars: Vittorio Gassman, Fanny Ardant, Stefania Sandrelli, Emanuele Lamaro
Votes: 2,489 | Gross: $0.35M
14. Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958)
Not Rated | 106 min | Comedy, Crime
A motley quintet of inept small-time thieves attempt the burglary of a local pawnshop in this Italian farce.
Director: Mario Monicelli | Stars: Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni, Renato Salvatori, Totò
Votes: 11,523
15. General Della Rovere (1959)
Not Rated | 129 min | Drama, War
Bardone, a petty con man, is arrested by the Gestapo and coerced into impersonating a partisan leader in order to expose another resistance organizer.
Director: Roberto Rossellini | Stars: Vittorio De Sica, Hannes Messemer, Sandra Milo, Giovanna Ralli
Votes: 3,688
16. Two Women (1960)
Not Rated | 101 min | Drama, War
In WWII Italy, a widow and her lonely daughter seek distance between themselves and the horrors of war.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Raf Vallone, Eleonora Brown
Votes: 12,439
17. The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)
Not Rated | 137 min | Biography, Drama, History
The life of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of Matthew. Pasolini shows Christ as a Marxist avant-la-lettre and therefore uses half of the text of Matthew.
Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini | Stars: Enrique Irazoqui, Margherita Caruso, Susanna Pasolini, Marcello Morante
Votes: 13,723
18. A Pure Formality (1994)
PG-13 | 108 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Onoff is a famous writer who hasn't published any new books for quite some time and has become a recluse. When he is picked up by the police one stormy night, without any identification, ... See full summary »
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore | Stars: Gérard Depardieu, Roman Polanski, Sergio Rubini, Nicola Di Pinto
Votes: 12,573 | Gross: $0.20M
19. The Son's Room (2001)
R | 99 min | Drama
A psychoanalyst and his family go through profound emotional trauma when their son dies in a scuba-diving accident.
Director: Nanni Moretti | Stars: Nanni Moretti, Laura Morante, Jasmine Trinca, Giuseppe Sanfelice
Votes: 21,446 | Gross: $1.01M
20. Journey to Italy (1954)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, Romance
An unhappily married couple attempts to find direction and insight while vacationing in Naples.
Director: Roberto Rossellini | Stars: Ingrid Bergman, George Sanders, Maria Mauban, Anna Proclemer
Votes: 12,261
21. The Innocent (1976)
R | 112 min | Drama, Romance
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.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Giancarlo Giannini, Laura Antonelli, Rina Morelli, Massimo Girotti
Votes: 4,268
22. The Easy Life (1962)
Not Rated | 108 min | Comedy, Drama
An impulsive braggart takes a shy law student with him for a two-day road trip from Rome to Tuscany.
Director: Dino Risi | Stars: Vittorio Gassman, Catherine Spaak, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Claudio Gora
Votes: 12,430
23. The Big Feast (1973)
NC-17 | 130 min | Comedy, Drama
A group of men go to a villa in the French countryside where they resolve to eat themselves to death.
Director: Marco Ferreri | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret, Ugo Tognazzi
Votes: 14,715
24. Luna (1979)
R | 142 min | Drama
While touring in Italy, a recently-widowed American opera singer has an incestuous relationship with her 15-year-old son to help him overcome his heroin addiction.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, Veronica Lazar, Renato Salvatori
Votes: 5,379
25. The Monster (1994)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Crime, Mystery
After a series of bizarre actions, Loris is mistaken for a serial killer. Jessica, a policewoman in undercover, will try to induce him to commit a murder.
Director: Roberto Benigni | Stars: Roberto Benigni, Michel Blanc, Nicoletta Braschi, Dominique Lavanant
Votes: 11,323 | Gross: $0.64M
26. Miracle in Milan (1951)
Not Rated | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
An open-hearted, unrelentingly energetic orphan struggles to make the best of his life on the streets of Milan.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Emma Gramatica, Francesco Golisano, Paolo Stoppa, Guglielmo Barnabò
Votes: 8,548
27. Il giovedì (1964)
105 min | Drama
It's the story of a day spent by Dino, separated by his wife, who sees his son Robertino after five years. Dino has not contributed anything in life and to win the affection of his son, ... See full summary »
Director: Dino Risi | Stars: Walter Chiari, Michèle Mercier, Roberto Ciccolini, Umberto D'Orsi
Votes: 397
28. Bellissima (1951)
Not Rated | 108 min | Drama
A woman from the lower class desperately tries to get her daughter into the movies.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Anna Magnani, Walter Chiari, Tina Apicella, Gastone Renzelli
Votes: 5,394
29. White Nights (1957)
Not Rated | 97 min | Drama, Romance
A humble clerk courts a woman who awaits her lover's return night after night.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Maria Schell, Marcello Mastroianni, Jean Marais, Marcella Rovena
Votes: 9,009
30. The Desert of the Tartars (1976)
PG | 140 min | Drama, History, War
Lieutenant Giovanni Drogo is assigned to the old Bastiani border fortress where he expects an imminent attack by nomadic fearsome Tartars.
Director: Valerio Zurlini | Stars: Jacques Perrin, Vittorio Gassman, Giuliano Gemma, Helmut Griem
Votes: 2,632
31. Girl with a Suitcase (1961)
96 min | Drama, Romance
A girl pursues a guy who fooled her, but fascinates his younger brother instead.
Director: Valerio Zurlini | Stars: Claudia Cardinale, Jacques Perrin, Luciana Angiolillo, Renato Baldini
Votes: 2,464
32. Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970)
R | 115 min | Crime, Drama
A chief of detectives, homicide section, kills his mistress and deliberately leaves clues to prove his own responsibility for the crime.
Director: Elio Petri | Stars: Gian Maria Volontè, Florinda Bolkan, Gianni Santuccio, Orazio Orlando
Votes: 13,344 | Gross: $0.27M
33. Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972)
PG | 121 min | Biography, Drama, History
Dramatization of events in the life of St. Francis of Assisi from before his conversion experience through his audience with the pope, including his friendship with St. Clare.
Director: Franco Zeffirelli | Stars: Graham Faulkner, Judi Bowker, Leigh Lawson, Kenneth Cranham
Votes: 4,947
34. The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
Not Rated | 186 min | Drama, History
Peasant life in a feudal farm in rural Italy at the end of the 19th century.
Director: Ermanno Olmi | Stars: Luigi Ornaghi, Francesca Moriggi, Omar Brignoli, Antonio Ferrari
Votes: 6,895
35. Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence (1969)
123 min | Biography, Comedy, History
Through the childhood and adolescence of Signor Giacomo Casanova (from his memoirs), this is a description of how people lived in 18th-century Venice: their customs, habits, medicine, ... See full summary »
Director: Luigi Comencini | Stars: Leonard Whiting, Maria Grazia Buccella, Lionel Stander, Raoul Grassilli
Votes: 461
36. Everybody's Fine (1990)
PG-13 | 118 min | Drama
Matteo decides to take a trip across Italy to go visiting his five children.
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Michèle Morgan, Valeria Cavalli, Marino Cenna
Votes: 4,438 | Gross: $1.75M
37. Il posto (1961)
Not Rated | 93 min | Drama
Bursting with big dreams and plans, an Italian teen goes to Milan to work in a big impersonal corporate office, where he becomes disillusioned and drained of all his individualism.
Director: Ermanno Olmi | Stars: Sandro Panseri, Loredana Detto, Corrado Aprile, Guido Chiti
Votes: 6,748 | Gross: $0.01M
38. Francesco (1989)
PG-13 | 119 min | Biography, Drama, History
Docudrama about the life of St-Francis of Assisi.
Director: Liliana Cavani | Stars: Mickey Rourke, Helena Bonham Carter, Andréa Ferréol, Nikolaus Dutsch
Votes: 1,695
39. The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988)
Not Rated | 128 min | Drama
An alcoholic homeless man is given two hundred francs by a stranger, who requests that when he can he will return the money to Saint Therese in the cathedral.
Director: Ermanno Olmi | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Anthony Quayle, Sandrine Dumas, Dominique Pinon
Votes: 2,169
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