Vittorio De Sica

Ferreri's swan song, an elegy for the cinema and an allegorical reflection on the 20th Century

Udo Kier is without a doubt the sickliest of vampires in any director's interpretation of the Bram Stoker tale... (imdb)

After 16 years of marriage ends with him running away and vanishing into thin air. The wife goes in search of him, but instead of finding him, he ends up in various perversions, eventually reaching suicide. (imdb)

Storia de fratelli e de cortelli (A story of brothers and knives) is a 1973 Italian comedy-drama film written and directed by Mario Amendola (wikipedia)

The story begins in Tuscany. A carpenter Master Antonio, but who everyone calls Master Cherry for his bright shiny red nose, has found a block of pinewood which he plans to carve into a leg for his table. When he begins, however, the log shouts out, "don't chop me!" Frightened by the talking log, Master Cherry does not know what to do until his neighbor Geppetto, known for disliking children who call him "Polendina," drops by looking for a piece of wood to build a marionette... (Wikipedia)

The story of the killing of socialist Giacomo Matteotti, ordered by Benito Mussolini, and its consequences on Italian politics during the fascist era.

Action director Enzo G. Castellari tries his hand at comedy in this absurdist updating of Homer's "Illiad," shifting the story to Rome's contemporary criminal underworld. (youtube.com)

A skiing instructor in the Italian Alps robs the winter resort where he works with the help of a down on his luck ski racer. (Wikipedia)

It started in bed and ended in the gutter!" Sal Lococco struggles with his small income from a gas station. A limo full of gangsters pulls in and they demand that Sal fly to Italy and kill Nick Manzano, an enemy of "the Don". If not, they will torch his station and slay his family.

A series of vignettes that take place in the Trastevere, the bohemian quarter in Rome, featuring the neighborhood and its inhabitants. (worldcat)

Drama: a young architect is temporarily imprisoned for his involvement in a car accident. He shares a cell with a homicidal maniac and other hardened criminals and learns some grim lessons about jail intrigues. One prisoner who might reveal incriminating evidence against highly placed person is done to death with the complicity of the guards. (bfi)

Mario, a young philanderer, receives 13 antique chairs in a bad state by inheritance and decides to sell off them to get some money. Afterwards he gets to know that one of them contains documents worth a lot of money. So he begins an adventurous trip to regain possession of the chair. On the way he meets many strange people who would like to help or to swindle him. (imdb)

Robinson, Welch and some incompetent European gangsters kidnap an American gangster who they think has a lot of money. (imdb)

A Russian man, released from a Siberian prison after 20 years, takes a strong religious stance against the world's problems, including nuclear war, and becomes elected Pope. (Yahoo.com)

France, July 1789. Whilst a party of aristocrats is enjoying themselves in the Bois de Vincennes, the French Revolution is beginning to get underway. At the insistence of her father, 16-year-old Caroline de Bièvre must marry the politician Georges Berthier, but she is in love with the younger, more handsome Gaston de Sallanches. (imdb)

The service-station attendant Giuseppe lives in Rome when he receives an invitation from his father to visit him in America. (imdb)

Peter Sellers plays Aldo Vanucci (aka the Fox), one of the greatest criminals of the world, and master of disguise... (imdb)

A bawdy story of how a poor damsel surrenders her virtue again and again to get to the top of society. (imdb)

A journalist undertakes an enquiry into human selfishness. (bfi)

Comedy of the havoc brought to the marriage of a provincial doctor when he takes aphrodisiac pills. (bfi)

An Italian tragicomedy in which a carabiniere and a thief exchange roles in nazi-occupied Italy under allied raids

A poor young man finds a magic lamp that possesses a genie, who will grant the boy three wishes if he sets him free from the lamp. (imdb)

A powerful and mysterious voice from the skies of Naples announces the coming of Doomsday and the characters amongst the citizens react and prepare themselves for the end.

At 13 years old, Marie-Joseph Paul Roch Yves Gilbert Motier inherited from his parents a long name, a fortune bigger then that, and the title of Marquis de La Fayette. Barely past majority, he was a brilliant lieutenant and a King Musketeer, and married Adrienne, second daughter of the Duke of Ayen. (imdb)

Salvatore and Rosalino are sentenced to death by the Mafia because they are accused of having seduced the daughters of a boss. As they are about to be shot they manage to escape with the two girls. (imdb)

Colonels, majors, lieutenants: all of them live in the same building. Some of them have a wife or children or none, but everyone has his orderly. Major Penna is harassed by Osvaldo's mother. Lt. Martucci gets involved in the love affair between Antonio, his orderly, and Lauretta. De Acutis, Colonel Terenzi's orderly, falls in love with Valeria, the daughter of the retired Colonel Bitossi. Different stories about orderlies and their officers taking place in Rome. (imdb)

When her father dies, Epifania Parerga, an Italian in London, becomes the world's richest woman. She feels incomplete without a husband and falls in love with a humble, Indian physician, Ahmed el Kabir, much loved by his indigent English patients... (imdb)

Mike Hamilton, a Philadelphia lawyer, comes to Naples to settle the estate of his long estranged "black sheep" brother. Once there, he discovers that the deceased has left an eight-year old little boy named Nando, who is being raised by Michael's sister-in-law Lucia Curcio. Mike immediately disapproves of Nando's Italian-style (in other words "lax") education... (imdb)

Dirk Bogarde plays a doubt-stricken priest who finds himself attracted to a beautiful Cabaret girl (Ava Gardner) during the Spanish Civil War.

Another of Napoleon's adventures in this epic reconstruction of the battle of Austerlitz, where he had the greatest victory of his career, over the Russians. (imdb)

The life of unemployed Otello Celletti gets completely turned around when he gets a job as a traffic policeman.

The story of Gastone, a struggling theater actor and dancer of the 1920s who's also a small delinquent known to the police and constantly blames his bad luck on the great war.

A magnetic Vittorio De Sica is Bardone, an opportunistic rascal in wartime Genoa forced by the Nazis to impersonate a dead partisan general in prison to extract information from fellow inmates. (criterion.com)

Isabelle is a beautiful adventuress with valuable jewels, looking for a rich husband. Alfredo works as a barman, having long ago lost his money to a swindler. Gerard is a painter who sells copies as genuine masterpieces. When Gerard learns that Alfredo looks just like a rich Arab prince, he concocts a scheme to get his hands on Isabelle's jewels.

Agostino seems to be the irreproachable and even obtuse general secretary for the O.I.M.P., the organization for the defense of public morality, but you will find out he has a darker side.

Short. An ageing woman and her final fling and safe return. (bfi)

A husband and wife are divided. He likes football, is in fact a referee, and so neglects her. She tries other men; he other women, and finally they discover that they love each other. (bfi)

In this occasionally amusing frolic, Gina Lollobrigida plays a sexy widow who returns to Italy from New York following the death of her husband. Her wealth and good looks entice all the men in her small village except for the one she really wants, the town blacksmith (Dale Robertson). (allrovi.com)

Semi-burlesque concerning the captain of an Italian fruit freighter who is suddenly drawn into a series of war-time adventures. (bfi)

A little boy sets out to find a mother of his own choice, having none of his own, and is helped by God. (bfi)

Orson Welles examines the life of his friend, Gina Lollobrigida.

A young man is undecided about getting married. His friend, an experienced bachelor, constantly tries to dissuade him, warning him about the dangers of getting too attached to a woman.

An industrialist tries to corrupt the deputy mayor by exploiting his oratory vanity, to prevent the panoramic view of his villa from being disfigured by a hospice. (imdb)

The story of an affair between an English nurse an an American soldier on the Italian front during World War I. (imdb)

A gambler very much in debt, sets his cap for a beautiful woman, not knowing that she is also penniless.

A newspaper vendor who dreams to be part of the high society, meets a real aristocrat, Il Conte Max, who decides to help him.

Set in the weeks just prior to Christmas, the story focuses on the Yuletide preparations made by five different families. The humor derives from the communication gap between the elder family members and their bewildering offspring. The powerhouse cast is headed by Vittorio de Sica and Marcello Mastrioanni. (movies.nytimes.com)

Story of a quack doctor who falls in love with one of his "patients". (imdb)

The fake private detective Mike Spillone is hired by two old ladies to find out if Brigitte, the wife of their nephew Otello Bellomo, has a lover. Brigitte is a physician but the two aunts are unaware of the fact. While investigating, Mike and his assistant Johnny discover Brigitte with a prospective patient, the marquis De Vitti who was shot by the husband of the woman he tried to seduce... (imdb)

Story of three girl's hitchhiking experiences on a trip through northern Italy, the riviera, Venice, Pisa and Rome. Each finds romance at one of the stops. (bfi)

Mario De Santis, seller of toothpaste and regularly married with Valeria, gets accused of being a bigamist.

Nero is on holiday at the seaside. Poppea, Seneca and many other guests are with him. Nero is preparing a great show where he will be the star. When Agrippina, his mother, arrives with her German praetorians and decides Nero has to conquer Britain, she is asking for trouble. Many attempts of murder and poisoning will happen on the eve of his great show. (imdb)

Holiday time in Corniolo, a resort 40 kilometres from Rome. In a recently opened hotel various characters sojourn and love stories begin and end. Among the hotel guests Carletto, who wants to go to Rome and become an actor and when summer ends and holidays are over we find that Carletto has not renounced his dream: he boards a coach and leaves Corniolo ready for adventure in the big city. (imdb)

The adventures of three university students who live in the same boarding house. Ugo, the most serious one, is in love with Lea, daughter of the lodger. Aldo is a practical joker, Bartolozzi is the shiest. Ugo and Lea's love story becomes stormy because of Aldo. (imdb)

Racconti Romani is a fast-paced comedy based on short stories related in the first person by men of the Roman working class. (worldcat)

The story of two cousins: one unattractive, desperately searching for the man of her dreams, and the other beautiful, but totally uninterested in sentimental affairs. However, it is the second who finds the right man, while the former is left searching. (bfi)

A rich man's attempts to steal away a poor man's wife set the stage for this comic farce, set in Naples in 1860. (AllMovie)

Marshall Antonio Carotenuto comes back to native Sorrento to take care of the local fire brigade. But since Sofia, a very nice fishmonger, occupies his native house Antonio share another home with Donna Violante, secretly fall in love with him. Sofia accepts to marry Antonio almost as a joke to make Nicolino, a traffic policeman, getting jealous. The chances for the two deloused sweethearts aren't over as it could appear. (imdb)

Two strangers meet at an apartment they both want to rent. After a little fighting they decide to solve the matter with a crazy idea.

Tribute to Naples, where director De Sica spent his first years, this is a collection of 6 Napolitean episodes : a clown exploited by a gangster; an inconstant pizza seller (Sofia) loosing her husband's ring; the funeral of a dead child; the gambler Count Prospero B. defeated by a kid; the unexpected and unusual wedding of Teresa, a prostitute; the "professor" Ersilio Micci, a "wisdom seller". (imdb)

When young and attractive Lina Stroppiani, a thief like the rest of her family, tries to steal the taxi of Paolo, together with two accomplices, she can't possibly know that this will have far reaching consequences... (imdb)

Five episodes,each illustrating an aspect of post-war Italian life: 1. Mara 2. Il pupo 3. Scena all'aperto 4. Casa d'altri 5. Don Corradino (bfi)

The relationships between a veteran marshal, his bride-to-be, a rookie and his fiancé are severely tested when the young carabiniere is temporarily sent to a distant town. (imdb)

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. (imdb)

In the Paris of the early 20th century, Louise, wife of a general, sells the earrings her husband gave her: she needs money for a gambling debt... (imdb)

The new marshal of Sagliena, Antonio Carotenuto, has dreams to marry Maria 'la Bersagliera' who is already in love with a shy policeman.

The famous and beautiful park in downtown Rome is the ideal place for romance, greatly attended by all sorts of couples in search of a little privacy... meeting point of young maids and soldiers; the perfect frame for a compromising picture with blackmailing purposes; theater of jealousy scenes when secret love affairs come to light; sentimental "ambiance" for a blind date... and the prostitutes' favorite "walking" area! (imdb)

Vittorio De Sica is a teacher struggling to take care of his family and always dreaming that Parliament will increase the salaries for teachers and life will become easier for his wife, Maria Mereander, and kids. An Indian prince (Sabu) visits Italy, is assisted by the teacher, and gives De Sica a baby elephant as a reward. This upsets the landlord, Nando Bruno, the other tenants and the neighborhood . He takes the elephant away but, like Lassie, it comes home. (imdb)

The innocent romance between a teenage boy and his girl is threatened by some of the school staff who do not understand or sympathize. (imdb)

A meek bank teller gets a harsh lesson on how the world goes when he gets wrongfully accused of a huge robbery. All his friends and family turn their backs on him, until they realize he might have kept the money. When everyone thinks you're the bad guy, you may just as well play the part.

A film set in the slums of Naples about the friendship between two street performers.

After WW2, a group of Italian soldiers languishing in a California POW camp is nostalgically reminiscing about the happy pre-war years while awaiting repatriation.

In post-war Rome, poverty is everywhere. A suicidal man, a small time thief, a desperate typist, and a distinguished amnesiac are some of the characters trying to make it through the night, as they drift through bars and gambling dens.

Thanks to wartime smuggling Gioconda Perfetti, a roman fruit vendor, becomes very rich. She leaves her shop and moves to a magnificent villa which once belonged to a count. She also becomes involved with some very dubious characters who profit from her ignorance and cheat her out of her money. (imdb)

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. (Worlds Cinema)

An old woman's poignant reminiscence of her youth in a convent school, the happy moments and the sad, and her tragic love for a Garibaldian. (imdb)

The nephew of a wealthy nobleman, convicted for a forged check, is replaced in prison by a poor engineer. From the exchange of people derives a chain of misunderstandings and trouble...

A comedy of errors in which the sweetly incompetent Dr. Pietro Vignali (de Sica) has been run deep into debt by his girlfriend, Loletta Prima (Magnani). After his creditors threaten to sell his belongings, he takes a job as an orphanage health inspector to pay his debts and ends up engaged to wealthy Lilli, daughter of a mattress tycoon, and chased after by the orphan Teresa Venerdí, while trying to keep his life in order. (imdb)

A comedy in which a young lawyer, with a very jealous wife, ends up hosting a woman from his building for a night, with strange consequences.

A young man studying in an academy secretarial practice makes writing letters addressed to an imaginary recipient who supposedly lives in Rome. One day, just for fun, it gets to write a love letter and, by chance, that letter is mailed and arrives at the hands of someone who, moved by curiosity, decided to inform the sender.

A comedy of errors about marriage and infidelity. Vittorio De Sica's debut film.

In a massive department store the driver romances the shopgirl. The problem is that the manager also has his eye on her, and some employees seem to be pilfering goods from the place.

Vittorio De Sica, heir to a large sum of money and owner of a newspaper vending stall, makes enough money out of his business to take a vacation at a fashionable resort. He is given a cruise ticket by an aristocrat who is an old school friend, and is mistaken for the aristocrat when he uses a camera that has his friend's name on it. Assia Noris plays a maid who falls in love with him because of who he is and not who others think he is. (imdb)

Based on a Pirandello play, Vittori De Sica plays a wealthy young social lion who has to constantly fight off a horde of women who are eager to marry him because of his position and money. He weds Elisa Cegani, a servant girl, who turns out to be a more appealing wife than any of the others could have been. Assis Noris decorates the screen well as one of the chasers and pursuers. (imdb)

The story gets under way when a cynical millionaire announces that he intends to disguise himself as a hobo and give a million lire to anyone who treats him nicely. As a result, every bum in Rome is given the royal treatment on the off-chance that they're the millionaire. While the tramps revel in this sudden wave of good fortune, the real millionaire finds true love with a pretty circus performer who knows nothing about the "I'll Give a Million" campaign. (allmovie.com)

After an argument with her husband, an unsatisfied wife suffers from selective amnesia. She doesn't recognize the man she married and calls her doctor husband instead.

A meek professor is swept over his feet by a very vivacious girl. (imdb)

Loves and adventures of a young chauffeur. (bfi)

Momi Tamberlan, Bortolo Cioci and Piero Scavezza are the last three old survivors of a club founded at the time of their student life by their partner Giuseppe Bardonazzi. The rules of the Club establish that who cannot be a member of the Club he has no reputation as a pleasure-loving, gluttonous.

The Clemenceau Affair (Italian: Il processo Clémenceau) is a 1917 silent Italian adventure film directed by Alfredo De Antoni. The film features the first onscreen performance from Vittorio De Sica.