Il bell'Antonio (dir. Mauro Bolognini, 1960)
A newly wedded and extremely handsome young bourgeois Antonio faces a scandal in a city of Sicily in 1950's when the public and her family hears that his beautiful wife is still "untouched" after their 12-month long marriage.
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The Days of Abandonment (dir. Roberto Faenza, 2005)
Olga's life is shattered when her husband abandons her. This prompts her to fall into a period of self-degradation and self-destructive behaviors. At first, Olga is in denial and tries to win him back, but when she sees him with his new love, who turns out to be a friend's daughter, she flies into a rage. Having to face the truth, she falls into a deep depression, oblivious to the attention she receives from Damien, a musician who lives downstairs. Adapted from the novel by Elena Ferrante.
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The Conformist (dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, 1970)
In Mussolini's Italy, repressed Jean-Louis Trintignant, trying to purge memories of a youthful, homosexual episode--and murder--joins the Fascists in a desperate attempt to fit in. As the reluctant Judas motors to his personal Gethsemane (the assassination of his leftist mentor), he flashes back to a dance party for the blind; an insane asylum in a stadium; and wife Stefania Sandrelli and lover Dominique Sanda dancing the tango in a working-class hall.
But those are only a few of this political thriller's anthology pieces, others including Trintignant's honeymoon coupling with Sandrelli in a train compartment as the sun sets outside their window; a bimbo lolling on the desk of a fascist functionary, glimpsed in the recesses of his cavernous office; a murder victim's hands leaving bloody streaks on a limousine parked in a wintry forest. Bernardo Bertolucci's masterpiece, adapted from the Alberto Moravia novel, boasts an authentic Art Deco look created by production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti, a score by the great Georges Delerue (Contempt, Jules and Jim, and That Man From Rio) and breathtaking color cinematography by Vittorio Storaro.
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The Eight Mountains: Le otto montagne (dir. Felix van Groeningen & Charlotte Vandermeersch, 2022)
Adapting the award-winning novel by Paolo Cognetti, directors Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch portray through observant detail and stunning landscape photography the profound, complex relationship between Pietro and Bruno, who first meet as children when Pietro’s Milan family vacations in an isolated village at the base of the Alpine slopes. As they mature, Pietro becomes estranged from his business-minded father even as Bruno takes up the role of surrogate son.
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The Name of the Rose (dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986)
An intellectually nonconformist friar investigates a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated abbey.
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The Skin: La Pelle (dir. Liliana Cavani, 1981)
Based on the memoirs of author Curzio Malaparte, diplomatic liaison between the Allied and Italian forces after the defeat of the Nazi’s in Italy, director Cavani’s (The Night Porter) film is an unflinching look the collapse of Italian society under the US occupation and the desperate measures required for survival. An unforgettable and controversial film.
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