Acting
Piccolo Hotel (aka Small Hotel) uses the titular establishment to weave together a vast tapestry of subplots, a la Grand Hotel. The guests include a domineering mother (Lola Braccini), her petulant daughter (Bianca Doria) and the daughter's gigolo boyfriend (Guido Notari). Also on hand is a worldly vamp (Laura Nucci) who also falls for the boyfriend, and the chronic-gambler son (Andrea Checchi) of the hotel's self-sacrificing landlady (Emma Grammatica). Though the film is set in Budapest, the characters are more Mediterranean than mittel-European. Piccolo Hotel was one of the entries in the Vienna Biennial Film Festival.
In the center of Milan, Felicita Colombo successfully manages a delicatessen that has among its customers the best bourgeoisie of the city.
Cipriano Duval is an Italian who has emigrated to Paris, where he works in a pediatric clinic as a nurse.
A lecherous governor of Naples in 1680 lusts after the wives of several peasants, particularly after the miller's wife Carmela. The miller himself plans to avenge his honor by seducing the wife of the governor.
Sold as slaves to a wealthy Roman, Lea and Esther, two Carthaginian sisters, are offered as gifts to the ambitious daughter of a proconsul and end up involved in spite of themselves in a dangerous game of power.
No description available.
Papal aspirant "Cardinal Lamberti" has to tread a fine line between the powerful Duke of Montimar and doing the right thing by a young couple in love in late 1730s Bologna.
Six episodes (adapted from as many short stories: Gozzano, D'Annunzio, Guido Rocca, Marino Moretti, Alba de CĂ©spedes and Oreste Biancoli), six love stories set in different moments in italian recent history.
The life story of a nun who started out as a bar singer, then took the veil because she couldn't choose between two men, and now devotes herself to nursing.
The noble Pantaleo Di Santa Paola has just died, and the preamble to his will is a confession in which he claims that in his youth he had a relationship with a circus rider that produced twin sons.
A sailor's girlfriend is courted by the same man who also seduced his sister.
A mad scientist captures young women and drains their blood, in order to keep alive an ancient, evil duchess.
A blacksmith from Montevergine, accused of murder, flees to Argentina. Years later, a mute witness testifies to his innocence, leading to his acquittal. Just before returning home, an Argentine woman plants opium in his luggage, resulting in a ten-year prison sentence. After his release, he finds his daughter engaged to a wealthy landowner who had falsely accused him. Enraged, he plans to kill the man but is moved by grace at the Marian Shrine, lays down his weapon, and makes peace with his enemy.
Alberto Serrani, a mining engineer, meets doctor's daughter Marina, sweet and simple, and the notorious and frivolous Clara who falls for him immediately.
An American starlet inflames two Italian peasants who forget about their respective fiance's. One of them even thinks of marrying her and begins to plan for the engagement banquet. When the girl decides to live the countryside harmony reigns again.
Two young people fall in love and run away from home. They soon run out of money and he, who has a decent voice, finds work in a low-class variety show, where he is captivated by the charms of a dancer.
A married woman fights her strange attraction to an aristocratic young pianist from her past.
