
Giuseppe De Santis
Directing
Biography
Giuseppe De Santis (11 February 1917 – 16 May 1997) was an Italian film director. One of the most idealistic neorealist filmmakers of the 1940s and 1950s, he wrote and directed films punctuated by ardent cries for social reform. In 1942, De Santis collaborated on the script for Ossessione, Luchino Visconti's debut film, which is usually considered one of the first neo-realist films. His third film Bitter Rice (1950), the story of a young woman working in the rice fields who must choose between two socially disparate suitors, made a star of Silvana Mangano and was a landmark of the new cinematic style. It also earned De Santis an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Story.
Known For

Gino, a drifter, begins an affair with inn-owner Giovanna as they plan to get rid of her older husband.
Obsession

Francesca and Walter are two-bit criminals in Northern Italy, and, in an effort to avoid the police, Francesca joins a group of women rice workers. She meets the voluptuous peasant rice worker, Silvana, and the soon-to-be-discharged soldier, Marco. Walter follows her to the rice fields, and the four characters become involved in a complex plot involving robbery, love, and murder.
Bitter Rice

When "Tamara" throws herself from the window of their brothel, her colleagues are made to realise that a new law will close down the source of their livelihood. The girls must now find honest work.
Angels of Darkness

Paola, a Milan call girl, returns home to her village in the Abruzzi mountains in an attempt to go straight. Rejected by her father, blackmailed by a former lover, and lusted after by her brother-in-law, she turns to her beloved sister for support. Denied succor, like so many of Rossellini’s isolated figures, Paola awaits the arrival of her fiancé, who has offered her a new start, but instead decides that life is untenable.
Desire

Cinecitta is today known as the center of the Italian film industry. But there is a dark past. The film city was solemnly inaugurated in 1937 by Mussolini. Here, propaganda films would be produced to strengthen the dictator's position.
Cinecittà, de Mussolini à la Dolce Vita

Immediately after the war, bandits attack a truck that is transporting newlyweds Michele and Giovanna and the accountant of an agricultural cooperative charged with bringing four million lire into office.
Tragic Hunt

Gino is a drifter, down-at-heel and magnetically handsome. At a road side restaurant he encounters husband and wife, Joseph and Hanna. Irresistibly attracted to each other, Gino and Hanna begin a fiery affair and plot to murder her husband. But, in this chilling tale of passion and destruction, the crime only serves to tear them apart.
National Theatre Live: Obsession

Chronicle of the unheralded and unsuccessful invasion of the Soviet Union by the Italian army during World War II.
Attack and Retreat

A young shepherd returns home after the Second World War having been held in a prisoner of war camp. He finds that the local landowner has stolen his sheep and his girlfriend. When he also assaults and murders his sister, the shepherd takes revenge.
Under the Olive Tree

Johnny Texas is asked to inquire about the death of Prescott, a rich landowner accused of having robbed a postal wagon. His investigation upsets Prescott's neighbor, Martin, who will use all possible means to stop him.
God Will Forgive My Pistol

Certain that "the right man" is crucial to her escaping the confines of the Italian village where she lives, Pina places an ad in the newspaper. She gets a response from Adolfo, who agrees to travel from his residence in Rome to visit her. As flashbacks shed light on both their pasts, suspense builds about how they will relate to one another.
The Visitor

A chronological look at the creative life of Luchino Visconti (1906-1976). It examines his theatricality, role in the neorealist movement, use of melodrama, and relation to decadence. It touches on the impact of a fabulously wealthy childhood, his writing for "Cinema," his politics, his work with Renoir, his appreciation of Thomas Mann, and his deep knowledge of literature and the arts. Visconti moves constantly between film and the theater, staging plays provocatively, working with Maria Callas at La Scala, and shooting films in theaters. Clips from his films and interviews with actors, crew members, and critics provide details for this portrait of creativity.
Luchino Visconti

Two young hunters of wolves are involved in a conflict. Besides the dangerous wild wolves, beautiful Teresa is the center of attention.
Men and Wolves

The story of 5 girls among 200 who answer a wanted ad for a modest secretarial position, which leads to overcrowding in the building and a tragic accident.
Rome 11:00

Documentary made for the 60th anniversary of Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein.
Sergei Eisenstein

No description available.
Ricordami

The young lawyer Vincenzo, Lucetta's new husband, daughter of a building speculator, discovers, on the night of the wedding, that he can not fulfill his duty as husband.
One Appreciated Professional of Sure Future

Anna Zaccheo is a beautiful young woman from a working class Neapolitan family. Her main concern is to find herself a suitable husband. She meets a young sailor Andrea one day and gets engaged to him. But while she is waiting for Andrea to return from the navy she gets raped by her boss. Her life suddenly takes a downward spiral.
A Husband for Anna

A tale of love, rivalry and passion set in the 50s, in the madcap world of motorcycle speed races, shot on the occasion of the main competitions of that time, such as Monza’s Moto GP and the last edition of the legendary Milano-Taranto race. With also very rare footage of the Moto Guzzi wind tunnel and factories. The film features, alongside popular actors Rik Battaglia and Sylva Koscina, many of the most important champions of those years: Geoffrey Duke, Libero Liberati, Bill Lomas, Enrico Lorenzetti, Reg Armstrong, Stanley Woods, Ken Cavanagh, Dickie Dale, Thomas Campbell, Pierre Monneret, Albino Milani, Walter Zeller, Bruno Francisci, all of them riding amazing Moto Guzzi, Gilera, Mondial and Norton bikes with the so charming and dangerous dustbin fairings that were going to be banned in 1958.
Engaged to Death

Italian director Giuseppe DeSantis was the creative force behind this Yugoslavian "slice of life" drama. The title translates as The Year-Long Road and, accordingly, the plot concerns a voluntary joint effort to construct a highway. Naturally, this animosity wreaks havoc on the various Romeo-Juliet romances in the region.