Anthony Quinn

Federico Fellini

Giulietta Masina

Marcello Mastroianni

Enter the world of Federico Fellini. Between 1976 and 1986, Ferruccio Castronuovo made films showing the backstage activity of Federico Fellini's films, unveiling a world apart and a cities of the imagination populated by unique characters. Exceptional interviews with Fellini's most trusted collaborators explores their relationships with the Maestro, of working and living with him, revealing a new take on the man and his methods.

Fellinopolis

Fellinopolis (2020)

Amelia and Pippo are reunited after several decades to perform their old music-hall act (imitating Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) on a TV variety show. It's both a touchingly nostalgic journey into the past, and a viciously satirical attack on television in general and Italian TV in particular, portraying it as a mindless freakshow aimed at morons

Ginger & Fred

Ginger & Fred (1986)

Fellini discusses his views of making motion pictures and his unorthodox procedures. He seeks inspiration in various out of the way places. During this film viewers go with him to the Colisseum at night, on a subway ride past Roman ruins, to the Appian Way, to a slaughterhouse, and on a visit to Marcello Mastroianni's house. Fellini also is seen in his own office interviewing a series of unusual characters seeking work or his help. —Anonymous

NBC Experiment in Television Fellini: A Director's Notebook

NBC Experiment in Television Fellini: A Director's Notebook (1969)

Documentary about the actress Giulietta Masina who was Federico Fellini's wife and frequent collaborator.

Giulietta Masina: The Power of a Smile

Giulietta Masina: The Power of a Smile (2004)

Barbara Steele

Martin Potter

A behind-the-scenes documentary about the filming of the Federico Fellini film, "Satyricon."

Ciao, Federico!

Ciao, Federico! (1970)

Giancarlo Giannini

Rita, a vivacious co-ed flees her boarding school with her music teacher, who is also engaged to her. She wants to take part in a singing contest but her father who is dead against it has her kidnapped. He finally gives in when his wife threatens to sing in the contest herself. —Salvatore Santangelo

Don't Sting the Mosquito

Don't Sting the Mosquito (1967)

When a young woman of beauty and talent joins a provincial vaudeville troupe, they're suddenly playing to packed houses, and their aging comic Checco Dalmonte gets big ideas. He falls in love with the ingenue, Liliana, and ignores his companion of several years, Melina Amour. (She wants to marry Checco and she's saving to open a deli.) Also, believing he can be an impresario, he hires other actors and begins rehearsal for a revue that will star Liliana and himself. Liliana admires Checco, but she's being squired around town by Adelmo Conti, the assistant to the region's biggest impresario. Can Checco's new troupe hold onto Liliana, and how will Melina fare?

Variety Lights

Variety Lights (1950)

Broderick Crawford

Richard Basehart

Augusto, Carlo and Roberto are scam artists who often work together, middle-age divorced Augusto the spiritual leader of the three in being the oldest and most seasoned in the business. They either are immune to the notion that most of their victims are not wealthy - most uneducated, rural peasants - or don't care, in each of their scams netting them in total at most a few hundred thousand lira at a time. Each of the three is at a different stage of his life which makes Carlo and Augusto examine what they're doing more critically, each stemming from a specific incident. Roberto, the youngest, still lives solely for the here and now and will take whatever money willingly in supporting that notion. Carlo would like to make a living as an artist, hence his nickname of Picasso, if only it would support him, his loyal wife Iris, and their adolescent daughter Silvania. While Carlo has told Iris that his frequent absences is in his work as a traveling salesman with Augusto, Iris can no ...

Il Bidone

Il Bidone (1955)

Enmeshed with the Italian Campaign during the liberation of Italy between 1943-1944, six distinct but unconnected episodes unfold. Starting off from Sicily, a local girl, Carmela, guides a band of American soldiers through a minefield with devastating results, while in Naples, Pasquale, the orphaned child of war, after stealing the boots of an inebriated African-American G.I., is followed back to his war-battered town. Then, in liberated Rome, the impoverished young prostitute, Francesca, waits for the American soldier who fell in love with six months before, and in Florence, during a battle across Ponte Vecchio, Harriet, a US wartime nurse, risks her life to reunite with her lover. Next, three army chaplains spend the night at a Roman Catholic monastery, however, only one of them is a Catholic. Finally, on the banks of Po River, American OSS officers and Italian Partisans fight the Nazis, after saving two downed English pilots.

Paisan

Paisan (1946)

Sad story of a waif, Gelsomina, who is sold by her mother to Zampano for 10,000 lire and a few kilos of food. Zampano is a traveling showman who exhibits feats of strength by breaking a chain wrapped around his chest. He performs in village squares and then passes the hat for whatever the normally small crowd is prepared to give. He teaches Gelsomina a drum roll as part of his introduction. He doesn't treat her well and when she tries to run away, he beats her. They eventually join a small traveling circus where they meet a tight-rope walker who convinces Gelsomina to question her choices. —garykmcd

Tie (1954)

Practising the world's oldest profession in the archaeological walk of Rome's Parco di Porta Capena, the trusting and stubbornly optimistic streetwalker, Cabiria, refuses to lose faith in love. After escaping death by the skin of her teeth, hurt, and momentarily disenchanted Cabiria continues to confront life with a mixture of naivety and arrogance, and one evening, she ventures into the elegant Via Veneto and gets picked up by the suave movie star, Alberto Lazzari. Now, once more, disappointment awaits, and as poor Cabiria preys to Virgin Mary for guidance and a blessing, the man of her prayers, Oscar D'Onofrio, barges into her life after a chance encounter at a vaudeville theatre. But do miracles happen? —Nick Riganas

Cabirian yöt

Cabirian yöt (1957)

Alberto Sordi

Who would have thought that only moments after arriving at Rome for their honeymoon, the young and pure bride, Wanda, would sneak out of the room, leaving her fastidious groom, Ivan, all alone? Obsessed with the masculine Fernando Rivoli--the hero of her favourite romantic photo-novel, The White Sheik--Wanda plucks up the courage to meet him in person, only to be seduced by the arrogant protagonist, so far away from the hotel and her husband. As a result--perplexed by Wanda's strange disappearance, and unable to disclose the news to his family--Ivan meanders through the ill-lit Roman streets in search of his wife, on pins and needles, waiting for their eleven o'clock appointment with his uncle and the Papal Audience at the Vatican. What does the new day have in store for the separated newlyweds?

The White Sheik

The White Sheik (1952)

Jean Gabin

Jean-Luc Godard

Douglas Fairbanks

Do you still remember how, long ago, we trained our thoughts? Most often we'd start from a dream. We wondered how, in total darkness, colours of such intensity could emerge within us. In a soft, low voice. Saying great things. Surprising, deep and accurate matters. Image and words. Like a bad dream written on a stormy night. Under western eyes. The lost paradises. War is here.

The Image Book

The Image Book (2018)

Robert Wolders

Valentina Cortese

Juliet lives in a beautiful house by the ocean. Her sisters, and especially her Mother overshadow her with their beauty. She is a spiritual, superstitious and naive woman. She visits a psychic seer who tells her she must follow the sex trade in order to be happy. Not long after she meets her eccentric and sexy neighbour, Suzy, who, by all counts appears to be a high class prostitute and encourages Juilet into sexual acts which make her guilty and nervous. A rare night when her husband is at home she wakes up to catch him talking to another woman on the phone. He calls out the name "Gabriella" while sleeping, but when she questions him he lies his way out of it. She finds out who Gabriella is and fears her husband will leave her. Juliet begins having visions who accuse and terrorize her. The pinnacle of the visions comes at the end where it is implied she realizes she would be better off without her husband and is ultimately emotionally emancipated. —kwedgwood@hotmail.com

Juliet of the Spirits

Juliet of the Spirits (1965)

Ingrid Bergman

Irene Girard is an ambassador's wife and used to living in luxury. After the dramatic death of her son, she feels guilty of having neglected him and feels compelled to help people in need who cross her path. One day she offers shelter to a man who is evading justice, and she ends being arrested herself. Her husband, for the sake of social propriety, arranges for a doctor to declare her insane. Irene escapes one prison to enter another, and to reflect on what sort of society she lives in.

6.7 / 10

Documentary

7.2 / 10

Comedy
Drama

6.6 / 10

Animation
Comedy

6.6 / 10

Documentary

6.8 / 10

Documentary

6.2 / 10

Action
Comedy

7.1 / 10

Drama
Music

7.5 / 10

Action
Comedy

7.7 / 10

Drama
War

8 / 10

Drama

8.1 / 10

Drama

7.2 / 10

Action
Comedy

6.2 / 10

Action
Documentary

7.6 / 10

Action
Comedy

7.5 / 10

Action
Drama