For Your Binge Consideration: My 10 Favourite Italian Films

Honourable Mentions: Rome, Open City; La Dolce Vita (I actually highly recommend this but I want to re-watch because it's a hard film to discuss); Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

10. Life is Beautiful 

 A crowd-pleaser that's particularly interesting to examine in light of Jojo Rabbit, this is essentially a game of two halves by Roberto Begnini where the it starts off as a breezy romantic comedy and ends up becoming a quietly haunting yet relentlessly optimistic story of surviving through an internment camp. A take it or leave it approach, but one I do really enjoy still and Begnini's clownish antics do work well for the purposes of the film as it ends up being a funny, moving, and occasionally very clever tribute to positivity of human spirit.

9. Rocco and His Brothers

First of two films on this film involving French superstar Alain Delon dubbed into an Italian, this emotionally draining, often quite heavy drama is an expertly directed depiction of familial disintegration of a poor rural family. The ensemble here is particularly well acted, with Renato Salvatori, Annie Girardot and Katina Paxinou being particular highlights, and as you watch the brothers of the family try to make ends meet and see their dreams and hopes destroyed it's quietly devastating, never resorting to melodrama even when the stakes get higher and higher. Tough, but good watch.

8. Two Women 

Another fairly dark, especially for its time, picture as even though it's not particularly 'explicit' the implicit horrors it depicts does linger with you. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this Vittori de Sica feature for a brilliant Sophia Loren performance (won the Oscar!) in her depiction of a widowed mother, Cesira, trying to protect and raise her daughter amidst the horrors of WWII Rome. The brief hints of respite and joy coupled with the overall tragedy and the resilience of Cesira make for a devastating watch.

7. Nights of Cabiria 

Federico Fellini won his second Academy Award for this rather heartrending depiction of a prostitute (Giulette Masina) going around Rome getting into various circumstances. Despite the harsh conditions, this is a very loving film in many ways in its depiction of its protagonist, this feels almost like an Italian Charlie Chaplin film in many ways (though with more of a focus on the dramatic) as the endearing, expressive, spiritually pure protagonist we go through thick and thin in we grow to love. It has to be said too that it's just beautifully shot and costumed.

6. Divorce Italian Style 

Yeah, it's not all gloom and doom with this list because Pietro Germi dark comedy is a riotous affair. Marcello Mastroianni gives his greatest performance here as the rather despicable yet utterly charming impoverished nobleman Ferdinando who spends his days imagining murder scenarios for his wife and running away with his cousin. A reprehensible figure the film invites us to mock and laugh at but also join in his misadventures as this vain jerk whose every deadpan reaction to the increasingly dark situations he gets into are all comedic gold. An unlikely barrel of laughs.

5. Umberto D

Another de Sica film, and this is perhaps his bluntest and most unforgiving film, though not without optimistic streaks, in a tale of the titular old man and his dog, who faces eviction, poverty, and an unforgiving society. De Sica wisely doesn't overplay the misery but instead provides a balanced, often quite contemplative and lingering look at the old man's struggles as an honest reflection of his societal views, and while this is a sad film it is not a hopeless one as there is something quite sweet and earnest in its depiction of the central dynamic, which will definitely warm the hearts of pup lovers everywhere.

4. The Leopard 

A superb gorgeously shot epic from Luchino Visconti, this is a remarkable depiction of 19th Century Sicily in social upheaval, as an aristocratic family struggles to uphold their societal position in tumultuous times of conflict. As Don Fabrizio Corbera Burt Lancaster, despite being dubbed, carries such extraordinary presence and is our focal entrance point to this vividly detailed world of high society we are brought into, with extraordinary costumes, set design, and a real sense of place and time as we watch this slow, sumptuous depiction of changing times unfold, and really is just a transportive cinematic experience that needs to be seen to be believed.

3. La Strada 

Fellini's best film, in my opinion. This tale of a strongman (Anthony Quinn) and a young woman (Giulette Masina, incredible again) he purchases as a wife and performance partner is a transfixing blend of neorealism and surreal touches, notably in the circus scenes, as we get insight into tortured souls who perform against a backdrop of weird and wacky characters, beautiful yet bleak landscapes, and creates what is ultimately becomes quite the covertly powerful cinematic experience you might not expect. A fascinating exploration into a variety of topics, from masculinity to performance art, and amazing Nino Rota music to accompany it.

2. Bicycle Thieves 

Simplicity sometimes is best, and this regularly ranks among many top films list worldwide for a reason as the appeal of it is undeniably universal. A whole film about a man trying to find a bicycle with his young son in order to make ends meet: such a simple premise, yet undoubtedly a brilliant way for de Sica to shatter and warm your heart in equal measure. Each shot capturing the facial expressions of our two protagonists are cinematic magic, it is authentic cinema at its very best without losing a sense of style and cinematic flair, in giving a window into the lives of poor souls. It's an extraordinary picture with never draws attention to its strengths, and through its sheer modesty captivates so eloquently the struggles but also the strengths of the father and son at its centre.

1. Cinema Paradiso 

Not just my favourite Italian film but one of my favourite films ever, and I'd love to keep talking to anyone else who loves this film as much as I do, essentially a tribute to cinema and cinemagoers. There are two versions of the film, I think both are great in their own ways, the longer cut adds more and I don't think it clashes with the shorter cut but I prefer the latter, but whichever cut you choose the elements that make this a masterpiece are one and the same. That amazing score by Ennio Morricone, both soothing and gentle when need be and grand, with just the right touch of intimacy, when required. The three stages in the life of our protagonist Salvatore played perfectly by a trio of perfectly cast actors - Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin - and one heartwarming one by Phillipe Noiret. The different stages of Salvatore's growth into a man are all handled never with sentimentality or melodrama but with just such an honest, sincere understanding of the journey from boy to man into director, the love of cinema and the love of his mentor, all captured in what might be my favourite ending scene of all-time.