ITALY

 

 

ROMAN EMPIRE TO EARLY CHRISTIANITY

Orazi e Curiazi (Duel of Champions) (1961) -- Roman leader challenges forces of Alba Longa

Hannibal (1960)  --  Second Punic War (Carthage vs. Rome)

Carthage in Flames (1959) Rome-Carthage War of 2nd c. B.C. during Third Punic War

Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal (1939)  --  Roman general defeats Hannibal

Cabiria (1910)  --   a young girl's odyssey through ancient Rome at the time of Hannibal

Spartacus (1960)  -- slave revolt in 71 B.C.

Sins of Rome (1954) -- Spartacus

Julius Caesar (1953)  --  Shakespeare's play with Marlon Brando

Julius Caesar (1970) --  Charlton Heston

Rome (2005)  --  Julius Caesar & Company

Cleopatra  (1934)  --  love affairs with Caesar and Mark Antony

Cleopatra (1963)

Cleopatra (1999)  -- Leonor Varela

Caesar and Cleopatra (1946) British film

Antony and Cleopatra (1973)

Caligula (1980) --  37 to 42 A.D., very bad emperor of Rome, after Tiberius

I, Claudius (1976) --  42 to 54 A.D., handicapped emperor of Rome after Caligula

Quo Vadis (1951)  --  Christian persecution under Emperor Nero

Sign of the Cross (1932) --  Rome under Emperor Nero; Christians seek religious freedom

Ben-Hur (1959) -- Charlton Heston

Sign of the Gladiator (1959)

Gladiator (2000)

Masada (1981) -- 70 A.D. Jewish Revolt against Roman rule

Last Days of Pompeii  (1984)  --  Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. and covered (thereby preserving) the Roman village of Pompeii

Ultimi giorni di Pompei, Gli (Last Days of Pompeii) (1960)

The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)   --  Mt. Vesuvius erupted 79A.D.

FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (180-476)

Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)-- Sophia Loren

Nel Segno di Roma (Sign of the Gladiator) (1959)  --  Queen of Palmyra, Zenobia, revolts against Rome & is captured (under Emperor Aurelian - 270-275)

Constantine and the Cross (1962) -- 4th c. A.D. emperor battling Romans

Attila (2001) --  the famous barbarian (died 453)

Attila (1954)  --  

Sign of the Pagan (1954) Attila the Hun threatening Rome

Medieval Italy

The Flame and the Arrow (1950)  --  12 c. Lombardy under German overlord

Renaissance

The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) -- Michelangelo (1475-1564) fights with Pope Julius II; based on Irving Stone novel

Titan -- Story of Michelangelo (1950)

Prince of Foxes (1949)  --  Cesare Borgia (1475-1507) plays politics with who his sister will marry

Il Duca Nero (The Black Duke) (1963) --  Cesare Borgia 

Bride of Vengeance (1948) --  Cesare Borgia

Caravaggio (1986)  --  Italian Renaissance painter 1593-1610; proto-Baroque style

Artemisia (1997)  --   Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the most accomplished early Baroque painters in the generation influenced by Caravaggio 

Dangerous Beauty -- 16th c. Venice; with Catherine McCormack

Casanova  (2005)  --  yes, even Casanova got dumped; 18th century

Fellini's Casanova (1976)  -- not for historians; erotic adventure

The Amorous Mis-Adventures of Casanova (AKA Casanova & Co.) (1979)  --  not for historians; erotic comedy

Galileo (1975)  --  Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

Galileo Galilei (1969) Italian 

ITALY (1855)

Senso (1968) --  Italy 1855, Austrian military occupation

ITALY: BEFORE WWI

Leopard (1936)  --  Sicily after Italian unification

1900 (1976)  --  the Italian Communist Party and the rise of the Black Shirts

RISE OF MUSSOLINI:

1900 (1976)  --  the Italian Communist Party and the rise of the Black Shirts

Mussolini: The Decline and Fall of Il Duce (1985) (A.k.a, Mussolini and I)

Time of Indifference (1964) -- moral & social decay in 1920s Italy

Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1971)  --  Italian concurrence with the Final Solution

Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979) Italian  --  writer Carlo Levi's exile from Mussolini in the Basilicata region of southern Italy

Lion of the Desert (1981) -- Omar Mukhtar, guerilla leader stymies Italian forays into Libya, 1911- 1931

El Alamein (2002) -- the battle that finally stops Rommel in North Africa seen through the eyes of an Italian unit, October- November, 1942

El Alamein (1968)  --  Italian troops left behind by their German allies

ALLIED INVASION OF ITALY

Anzio (1968)  --  French-Italian-Spanish movie dealing with the beach landing, January to May, 1944

Darby's Rangers (1958) -- assault troops in N. Africa & Italy

Bold and the Brave (1956) -- WWII soldiers fighting in Italy

 

Italiani brava gente (Attack and Retreat) (1999)  --  Italian army up against the Russians at the Battle of the Don during the  Stalingrad counteroffensive

The Assisi Underground (1985)  --  rescuing Italian Jews from the Nazis in 1943 Assisi

ITALY'S LAST DAYS OF FASCISM

Paisan (1946)  --  a heart-breaking look at the last days of the war

The Night of the Shooting Stars (1982)  --  last days of WWII for one town in Italy

Open City (1945)  --   the Italian resistance against German occupation

Post-War Italy

Ladri di biciclette (Bicycle Thief) (1949)  --  Italy's post-war depression

Umberto D. (1955)  --  poor treatment of elderly in post-war depression

Miracle in Milan (1951) --  displaced European refugees

La Dolce Vita (1961)  --  disillusionment and decadence after Fascism and War

Mama Roma (1962)  --  the continuing negative effects of poverty on a mother trying to improve her life for herself and her son

La Meglio gioventu (The Best of Youth) (2003)  --  two brothers live through the period 1966-2000

Excellent Cadavers (1999)  --  battle waged against the Sicilian Mafia during the late 1980's and early 1990's