Lionello Massobrio

A vivid assortment consisted of three acts taken from the lives of modern 1960s Italians, always in orbit around the restless theme of sexual inhibition and the pursuit of pleasure in sex.

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

This film is very much a docudrama which portrays the difficulties of Italian life circa 1963 due to the absence of a divorce law. Five scenarios with different actors portray realistic situations where divorce is clearly warranted but, because marriage was strictly in the purview of the Catholic Church at that time, which strictly forbade divorce, these people are shown to suffer the consequences in their daily lives. Italy got its first civilian divorce law in 1970.

Political activist Salvatore returns to his native Sicily and stirs up trouble among the peasants, urging them to confront the Mafia and demand the right to plough their own fields. The peasants refuse to help him, and Salvatore is marked by the Mafia as a troublemaker.

A doctor rescues a young woman who is about to throw herself into the river and takes her to the hospital. The woman learns of three very sad stories revolving around suicide.

Nobleman Rainiero, Sidonia's duke son, comes back home with his friend Renzo. Soon after arrival, Renzo will get in a big trouble and he will be forced to choose between going to church for marriage or going to prison.

Aldo, Vasco and "Smilzo" (Slim) are friends. They live with their parents and are training for boxing. But their real interest is in women. When casually Aldo meets Laura and falls for her. Will he succeed in winning her love?

The tragic love story between Guido, the owner of a marble quarry and Luisa, the humble daughter of one of his employees, ends up in her giving birth to their baby boy. Giulio's mother is against them: first she sends her son abroad and then has the baby kidnapped, making Luisa think the boy died in a fire.

Progressive schoolteachers Landi and Anna have a profound influence on two of their young students, Mirella and Franco. The two kids are enamored with one another and decide to experiment with some of the knowledge they've gleaned in the classroom.

A destroyer departs from the port of Taranto with orders to take a load of petrol to Tobruk at all costs.

An Italian clerk has been helped to his position by a fake kickback letter from a politician who, meanwhile has become a state secretary. His colleagues thus send him to Rome to settle an important matter with the powerful character. The poor fellow goes hoping the truth will not come out.

A comedy centered on the character of Pepito. It is an Italian western made before the Spaghetti western era and it is at the same time a parody of the western genre.

In a village, the pharmacist and the innkeeper have an intense rivalry fuelled by the fact that they were once romantically involved many years before. To spite her rival, the innkeeper arranges to have her nephew set up a second pharmacy to take business away him. Unbeknownst to them a romance is developing between the younger generation of the families.

A film by Lionello Massobrio.

Directed by Pierre Clément and Djamel-Eddine Chanderli, produced by the FLN Information Service in 1958, this film is a rare document. Pierre Clément is considered one of the founders of Algerian cinema. In this film he shows images of Algerian refugee camps in Tunisia and their living conditions. A restored DVD version released in 2016, from the 35 mm original donated by Pierre Clément to the Contemporary International Documentation Library (BDIC).