As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life. Proud but pragmatic Prince Don Fabrizio Salina allows his war hero nephew, Tancredi, to marry Angelica, the beautiful...
A newly arrived governor finds his province under the control of the corrupt Colonel Huerta. To avoid assassination by Huerta, he pretends to be weak and indecisive so Huerta will believe he poses no threat. But secretly he masquerades as Zorro, and joins the monk Francisco and the beautiful...
"The Family," an album with a velvet cover, is meant to touch the extended family of man. Formal portraits, bookends in this 80-year saga, enclose the central story, which opens with the baptism of Carlo, a baby in his grandfather's lap, and ends with Carlo as a grandfather with a baby in his arms....
Mario, a young philanderer, receives 13 antique chairs in a bad state by inheritance and decides to sell off them to get some money. Afterwards he gets to know that one of them contains documents worth a lot of money. So he begins an adventurous trip to regain possession of the chair. On the way he...
Bubu leaves his job in a bakery, forces his girl-friend into prostitution, and from then on lives out of the money she makes. The young couple find their place in the world of prostitutes and pimps, but the lack of perspective in their life - which is permanently haunted by the possibility of an...
A middle-aged businessman faces bankruptcy after his partner's suicide and a rival's unscrupulous offer to buy his company. Determined to avoid the trap, he finds an unexpected solution through a prostitute.
Claudia is married with Giovanni, a rather dull type. Meek Giacomo is happily divorced, until he meets her. Aldo is a colorful cabbie with whom she had an affair. Who'll win her heart?
Italy, 1968. Aspiring actor Nicola enrolls in the police to pay for his studies, ending up undercover among college students protesting the government, the Vietnam War and the values of their parents' generation. However, he complicates his mission by falling for Laura, a bourgeois girl dreaming of...
Mademoiselle de Maupin escapes from her uncle's castle, invaded by Hungarian troops, under the guise of a clergyman named Theodore. An army recruiter forces Theodore to enlist in the King's army, and not even the religious robe is an insurance against it. Theodore is assigned to be aide-de-camp to...
Serafino, a young and innocent shepherd, inherits a huge fortune. He immediately starts spending the entire sum on presents for his friends, causing the envy of his family.
Marco, a nine year old boy, is in love with his elementary teacher, and feels neglected by his workaholic parents. When they forget about his birthday he wishes he could grow up at once. This really happens and Marco begins a new life as an adult. He rents a room in his teacher's flat and she falls...
A young recruit to the Italian army discovers and rejects the seedy world of soldiers who prostitute themselves to supplement their income. But before leaving this world he is raped by a highly-respected senior officer and must decide whether to risk bringing proceedings against him.
The story of a young man of the working class, who has grown up practically an orphan due to his father’s repeated jailings for anarchistic activism. Struggling with life in 19th-century Italy, Metello Salani is determined to change his situation for the better - but love, marriage and politics...
An advertiser who lives in Milan learns from a former teacher that his mother is dying. He leaves immediately in his car; as he drives thinks back to his childhood and the time he believed his mother had a relationship with the teacher.
Antoine has raised Sébastien, the son of a friend who was killed in a plane crash. Sébastien is doing his military service and Antoine would like him to marry Nathalie, the girl he grew up with. But Nathalie is in love with an American, and the day Sébastien has a leave, she leaves with her...