Summary: The film is based on the events related in Saint Matthew’s Gospel. It begins with the angel Gabriel telling Joseph about the Immaculate Conception and goes on to recreate the Nativity, the flight into Egypt and the Slaughter of the Innocents before moving forward to Christ’s baptism by John the Baptist, Christ’s temptation in…
Tag: Italian Movies
Rome, Open City (1945) – Summary – Analysis
Summary: In Nazi-occupied Rome, the Gestapo is hunting the ringleaders of the local Resistance movement, Manfredi and Francesco. The pursued men are hidden and assisted by the local people, including the local priest Don Pietro and Francesco’s fiancée, Pina, while the diabolical Major Bergmann tracks them down from the comfort of his office. Francesco is…
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Summary, Analysis
Bene! Bene! Bene! Sergio Leone is the master craftsman of the ‘Spaghetti Western’ and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is his masterpiece. An Italian director shooting Spain as the American West could not help but invent a genre. Sergio Leone reflects the old world taking a fresh and distinct account of the new….
Il Postino (The Postman) – Summary, Analysis
I’ve ranged the far-famed seas, the nuptial stamen of each island, I’m a great paper seafarer, and I ran, ran, ran, to the uttermost foam Pablo Neruda, El Canto General (1950) Summary: In the 1950s, in a fishing port on a small Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea, Mario, illiterate and unemployed, dreams of a…
Obsession / Ossessione – Summary, Analysis
Summary: Set in the Po Delta, Ossessione tells the doomed love story of a handsome vagabond and a frustrated wife. When Gino stops in Bragana’s roadside gas-station restaurant for a meal, he meets the owner’s young spouse, Giovanna. Inescapably attracted to each other, they soon begin a passionate affair, and eventually Gino agrees to help…
Bicycle Thieves – Summary & Analysis
Summary: In the economic depression of post-Second World War Italy, unemployed Antonio Ricci finally finds some work to support his wife and two children. The condition of the job as a poster hanger is that he needs to have a bicycle, but in order to feed his family Antonio had already pawned his bicycle. Facing…
The Conformist (1970 Movie): Summary and Analysis
Summary: Set in 1930s Fascist Italy, Il Conformista tells the story of Marcello Clerici’s desire for conformity. Sexually repressed Marcello is tormented by the memory of a homosexual encounter during his childhood with his family’s chauffeur Lino, whom he believes he killed after Lino attempted to seduce him. Having suppressed his homosexual leanings, believing them…
Cinema Paradiso: Summary and Analysis
Summary: On hearing that his old friend Alfredo has died, famous filmmaker Salvatore ‘Totò’ Di Vita looks back on his childhood in the fictional Sicilian town of Giancaldo. His flashback begins shortly after the Second World War when, as a small child, he fell in love with the world of movies. Alfredo, the avuncular projectionist…
L’Avventura: Analysis and Summary
Summary: A group of wealthy friends leaves Rome for a yachting trip to an island off the coast of Sicily. They loiter on the island coast while the boat is docked, and then they realise that their friend Anna has disappeared at some point during the day. After an unfocused search for her, they summon…
8 ½ (Eight and a Half): Summary and Analysis
Summary: Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ portrays a key juncture in the life of the fictional film director, Guido Anselmi (as played by Marcello Mastroianni). Guido is successful with audiences and well regarded by the critics, but he is having problems with his ideas for his latest work, a strange piece that seems to combine autobiographical…