Italian Film

Italy has twice led world cinema, first with the epic 'Super Spectacles' of the 1910s, and then, post-WWII, with the neo-realist dramas of Roberto Rossellini and Vittoria De Sica; films such as Rome, Open City and The Bicycle Thieves that brought a new authenticity to global film-making.

Following on from this, directors such as Luchin... show more >

Italy has twice led world cinema, first with the epic 'Super Spectacles' of the 1910s, and then, post-WWII, with the neo-realist dramas of Roberto Rossellini and Vittoria De Sica; films such as Rome, Open City and The Bicycle Thieves that brought a new authenticity to global film-making.

Following on from this, directors such as Luchino Visconti, Michelangelo Antonioni and Federico Fellini abandoned their neo-realist roots to extend the boundaries of film art. As with Antonioni's groundbreaking L'Avventura, their attempts were sometimes met with initial hostility, but cinema now is unthinkable without their influence. Their works also paved the way for such politically-motivated directors as Bernardo Bertolucci (1900) and Pier Paolo Pasolini, whose Salo is still profoundly shocking to this day.

More recently, Italian cinema has given us arthouse favourites such as Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso and Nanni Moretti's Dear Diary. However, Italy also has a genius for genre, and no brief introduction to the country's cinema would be complete without mentioning the marvellous spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone (and here we have to mention the contribution of composer Ennio Morricone) and the blood-soaked gialli of Mario Bava and Dario Argento. < show less