Frivolous Lola

Frivolous Lola 1998

5.13

The story takes place in northern Italy in the 1950's. Lola and Masetto are about to get married. Masetto wants to keep Lola as a virgin until they are married. But Lola is impatient to remain in chastity until the wedding night. She wants to be sure that Masetto is a good lover, before she commits herself into marriage. She does everything to trick Masetto into breaking the moral tradition.

1998

Tourist Train

Tourist Train 1933

6.38

The film portrays the comic adventures of a group of summertime travellers. Produced at the height of the fascist era, Treno popolare was nonetheless free of propaganda, and featured the first film score by the legendary composer Nino Rota.

1933

Il grande appello

Il grande appello 1936

1

An Italian proprietor of a squalid Djibouti bar collaborated in selling arms to Ethiopians fighting his own country's invasion but after finding his long lost son on the Fascist front he decides to choose patriotism over selfish profit.

1936

People of the Po Valley

People of the Po Valley 1947

6.50

A documentary short detailing the life of Italians living on the Po River in the 1940s.

1947

Volcano

Volcano 1950

5.70

An exiled Italian prostitute shields her sister from a deep-sea diver on an island volcano.

1950

Maddalena, Zero for Conduct

Maddalena, Zero for Conduct 1940

6.10

A young woman teaches commercial writing and makes her students practice by writing letters addressed to an imaginary recipient from Vienna. One day, the love letter the woman writes to this non-existent man is accidentally sent by one of her students –and falls into the hands of a real person.

1940

Bix

Bix 1991

6.20

Biopic of troubled jazz musician/composer Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931), who played with the Paul Whiteman band, among others.

1991

Document Z-3

Document Z-3 1943

1

Document Z-3 (Italian:Documento Z-3) is a 1942 Italian spy film directed by Alfredo Guarini and starring Isa Miranda, Claudio Gora and Luis Hurtado. It was one of three Miranda films directed by Guarini that helped re-establish her in Italian cinema following her return from a largely unsuccessful spell in Hollywood. Many critics were not impressed with the film, feeling that Miranda had not recovered the spontaneity of her pre-Hollywood films. This is considered the first movie in which Federico Fellini has worked as a screenwriter.

1943

Rita da Cascia

Rita da Cascia 1943

1

Biographical film about Saint Rita da Cascia, who lived in Umbria in the 14th century.

1943

The Gorgon

The Gorgon 1942

1

1017 AD. The Republic of Pisa is organizing a fleet to drive out the Saracens who are infesting the Mediterranean. While the forces are away "The Gorgon," the young daughter of a Pisan nobleman who has been heroically killed, comes to be solemnly invested as the figurehead virgin who will maintain a lantern to celebrate the men's victorious return. In charge of the home guard is an ambitious young Florentine who feels deprived of the forthcoming honour and glory, and who seeks revenge by violating the sacred person of the virgin. He gains access to her well guarded quarters, but when the Gorgon falls helplessly in love with him, his desire for vengeance falls away. His plot exposed, he commits suicide rather than invoke the wrath of the Pisans. The Gorgon too takes her life by throwing herself from a high tower. Meanwhile, the victorious Pisan vessels return.

1942

La fanciulla di Portici

La fanciulla di Portici 1940

1

During the Spanish occupation of Naples, the people led by Tommaso Aniello - known as "Masaniello" - plot against the Viceroy. The Viceroy's son, under another name, has a son from Masaniello's sister, but his father has already planned a marriage for him with a Spanish patrician against his wishes.

1940

The Adventuress from the Floor Above

The Adventuress from the Floor Above 1941

6.80

A comedy in which a young lawyer, with a very jealous wife, ends up hosting a woman from his building for a night, with strange consequences

1941

The White Squadron

The White Squadron 1944

6.00

Inspired by the activity of the medical squadrons, piloted exclusively by female nurses on the Russian front of the Second World War.

1944

Seven Reeds, One Suit

Seven Reeds, One Suit 1948

6.40

A short documentary on the production of rayon, shot in Torviscosa (Italy). It portrays the production of this new synthetic fabric in the small town of Torviscosa, entirely built following strict fascist canons.

1948