Il Grande Cinema Italiano

The story is the harried attempt of a Sicilian partisan, as part of the risorgimento, to reach Garibaldi's headquarters in Northern Italy, and to petition the revered revolutionary to rescue part of his besieged land. Along the way, the peasant hero encounters many colorful Italians, differing in class and age, and holding political opinions of every type. There is a key train scene, and the film ends on the battlefield, Italian unification a success, despite brutal losses.

A harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.

In Sicily, a leftist professor investigates the "honor killings" of two friends, uncovering a tangled web involving politicians, the Mafia, the Church, and the widow of one of the victims.

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.

A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiraling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.

In the huge steel factories in Terni (Umbria, Italy), two friends (Mario and Pietro) fight for the love of the same girl (Gina). Pietro dies because of a work accident at the factory. The other workers think Mario is responsible for the death of his friend. Mario, who is innocent, is forced to quit, but his love for Gina and his dedication to his job help him out of his crisis.

About a group of Italian resistance fighters from Genoa and led by Commander Vento. They must seize a shipment of weapons destined for the German occupation.

When a brothel closes because of new laws, four of the prostitutes decide to go into business running a restaurant. They discover they cannot escape their past.

Aida, featuring the actress Sophia Loren, is a film adaptation of a theatre performance written by Verdi. The plot revolves around the character Radames who falls in love with what he thinks is a slave in a country his armies has conquered. The young woman is actually the daughter of the leader he ousted.

A series of comedic and nostalgic vignettes set in a 1930s Italian coastal town.

Nando Moriconi is a young Italian living in Rome. He is fond for everything coming from the United States. He tries to speak American-English, to wear clothes he thinks Americans wear, to walk like John Wayne, and to eat cornflakes with ketchup - His life is a parody of the real American way of life that he could not get. Nando's not-so-secret dream is to visit the USA, so he climbs up to the Coliseum and threats to commit suicide if the American Embassy does not give him the visa. But at this point Nando is very well known as a 'crazy-for-USA' boy and the troubles he provoked will not help him.

A young woman returns to her hometown of Turin to set up a new fashion salon and gets involved with a troubled woman and her three wealthy friends.

Four inseparable friends try to face their midlife crisis with daytrips and pranks at the expense of their families and the people around them.

Six separate episodes: would-be suicides discuss their despair. A provincial dance hall. An investigative reporter posing as a husband-to-be. A young unwed mother. Girl-watching techniques of Italian men. A glimpse into prostitution.

When an elderly woman dies--apparently happy but in curious circumstances--her daughter travels home to Naples for the funeral. Staying on, she tries to piece together her mother's recent life. In doing so she starts to confront childhood memories that shaped the family history.

A baron is obliged to marry his cousin within two days in order for him to get an inheritance. If he doesn't marry, the inheritance will go to an animal clinic.

Aldo 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.

Without mentioning the reason, Venetian musician Enrico invites his ex-wife Valeria to visit him, and her heart is broken again during their last days together.

A forty-year-old employee marries a seemingly quiet girl who turns into a mantis after the wedding.

A group of misfits, headed by an incompetent knight named Brancaleone, set out to reach the small town of Aurocastro so that their leader can take possession of the fief.

Rosario Scimoni is twenty years old and lives in Catania at the beginning of this century. He loves two things in life: women and money and he is the secretary of the mayor who is his uncle, and the lover of the mayor's wife, but, unfortunately, he isn't paid for neither of his two jobs. When Rosario falls in love with Paola, partner af a socialist, he becames socialist and let the man of Paola go to jail to have her, but he has no success. When Mussolini and his fascists take the power, Rosario found himself fascist and he marries a women ugly but rich. He becames a gerarca (high fascist authority). When during World War II Sicily is invaded by the allied troops he camouflages himself as communist and at the end of the war he goes to Rome after losing all the money he had. In Rome Rosario changes again his skin and becames a Chistian Democrat after the Christian Democrat's victory in the elections of 1948. Trying to speculate on the land near Rome he ends in prison for five years and in 1953 Rosario closes his career dressed as a German selling faked German gadgets in the streets of Rome.

Assunta Spina is a tragedy set in Naples at the beginning of the twentieth century. Assunta and Michele are in love but others come between them and there is much jealousy. They fight and Michele is sent to prison for two years for assault. Nevertheless, because Assunta still loves Michele she is vulnerable when Federigo offers to help Michele but only if Assunta becomes his mistress. Michele is released early from prison, finds Assunta and Federigo together and kills Federigo. When the police arrive, Assunta takes the blame for Michele's crime.

A woman disappears during a Mediterranean boating trip. During the search, her lover and her best friend become attracted to each other.

Based on Carlo Collodi's classic novel, this mini-series is about an animated puppet named Pinocchio and his father, a poor woodcarver named Geppetto.