Best Italian Movies?

Gosh there are so much, and I don't wanna "load the sample" - but I'll respond if there are some that are not mentioned.

Bicycle Thief has gotta be number one, right?

lol didn't even see the thread right below this one

leone's stuff is great.

I haven't seen The Bicycle Thieves yet but i was reading an essay a few months back about Italian Cinema and the guy really tore into it; calling it De Sicas worst film and calling it over-sentimental and trite. He was singing the praises of Rosselini, Visconti and Cottafavi (who i hadn't heard of) as the best Italian Directors. As i said i haven't seen it just some food for thought, i'll post it later if i find it again.

Anyway i haven't seen enough Italian films yet to contribute, it won't stop some others but i won't bother.

Some of my favourite Italian movies (1 movie per director):

Death in Venice - Visconti
The Eclipse - Antonioni
Umberto D. - De Sica
Once Upon a Time in the West - Leone
At the First Breath of Wind - Piavoli
Keoma - Castellari
The Great Silence - Corbucci
Don't Torture a Duckling - Fulci
Suspiria - Argento
A Special Day - Scola
Dellamorte Dellamore - Soavi
The Conformist - Bertolucci
La Dolce Vita - Fellini
1900 - Tornatore
My Name is Nobody - Valerii
Starcrash - Cozzi

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San Franciscan lesbian dwarves and their tomato orgies.

I think Bicycle Thief is a great movie, but my very favorite Italian movie is "La Strada"

Minio - I thought "1900" was directed by Bertolucci... Kudos for "A Special Day" - I just saw it for the first time this morning, so great.

The Legend of 1900

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Marco Ferreri

- The Conjugal Bed 1963
- La Grande bouffe 1973
- Tales of Ordinary Madness 1981

Mario Monicelli

- Big Deal on Madonna Street 1958
- The Great War 1959
- An Average Little Man 1977

Ettore Scola

- The Easy Life 1962 (story and screenplay)
- Ugly, Dirty and Bad 1976
- We All Loved Each Other So Much 1974

Franco Brusati

- Bread and Chocolate 1974

Bernardo Bertolucci

- The Spider's Stratagem 1970

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Vittorio De Sica is my favorite director period... Check out
-Umberto D
-Bicycle Thief
-Shoeshine
-The Roof
-Sunflower
-Marriage Italian Style

A Special Day - Ettore Scola (would like to see more of his movies)

Pontecorvo was named earlier.. Kapo is a great movie about Italians in the Holocaust, and opportunism. One of my Top 10 is "The Battle of Algiers" though there isn't any Italian spoken. "Burn" has Marlon Brando in it.. Good not great.

The Working-Class Goes To Heaven - Elio Petri (if you like movies empathetic to the workers)

Pasolini directed a few great ones.. "Accatone" and "Mamma Roma"

One of the most interesting Italian movies I ever saw was "Fist In Pocket" by Marco Bellocchio, who made a movie in 2014 I've been planning to see.

Antonioni was mentioned.. The only movie of his I liked was "Il Gido"

"Nights of Cabiria" is a nice movie by Fellini

I liked Rossellini's "Stromboli" (I think.. I've liked/loved every movie with Ingrid Bergman)

This is a cinematic masterpiece

I Knew Her Well 1965 by Antonio Pietrangeli

I just saw her in "Divorce Italian Style" - beautiful.. I think I'll try to find it today, thanks!

Check out Fernando Di Leo:
Caliber 9
The Italian Connection
The Boss
Rulers of the City (A.K.A. Mister Scarface)

La Strada -Fellini



Cinema Paradiso-



Malena

Both by Giuseppe Tornatore


Also liked Il Postino, 8 1/2, Nights of Cabria, and La Dolce Vita. Really looking for recommendations based on these. I know I need to watch de sica and many others. I'm not very strong on Italian Cinema.

paprika

I am a huge, HUGE fan of Mario Bava. The man is a genius.

My favorites of his:
Black Sunday (1960)
The Whip and the Body (1963)
Black Sabbath (1963)
Kill Baby, Kill (1966)
Danger: Diabolik (1968)
Lisa and the Devil (1973)

The 10th Victim.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

YES! One of the great sci-fi movies. So funny. I loved the music so much I bought a copy of the soundtrack from a guy in Italy on ebay! Marcello Mastroanni's best film!


My favorite Italian film (including the one above) are

La Strada
The Bicycle Thief

And two more Fellini films. "The White Sheik" is early Fellini and very funny. Its about newly weds visiting Rome and the wife meeting up with her dream man from Italian "comic books" -- publications where they used stll photo instead of drawings. Very good film.And a less funny, but still amusing film is "Variety Lights" about the leader of a thespian troupe falling for his new ingenue -- who is quite an Italian dish!.

I love this movie, doesn't get near the praise it deserves

I'm thinking of watching this movie.. Thanks!

Speaking of Marcello - on another board, someone was saying how Etora Scola's "Macaroni" with Jack Lemon was great.