Story of a love affair (1950) is the legendary Michelangelo Antonioni's debut feature, a powerful statement on the delusions and violence sparked by a passionate love. This deeply tragic romance already exhibits the astonishing formal control and penetrating insights into the human condition that would later make him famous in films like Il Grido, L'Avventura and Blow-up.

Referenced in Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol. 2, Uomini Si Nasce Poliziotti Si Muore (Live like a cop, die like a man, 1976) opens with an insane motorcycle chase that was filmed in rush hour in downtown Rome with no permission from the local authorities. To top it off, this is one of the most violent and unconventional Italian style action films of its time. The credit goes to the director, Ruggero Deodato, best known for his infamous and censored film...

During a party, Adriana meets Andrea, a charming and self-confident young man. They are immediately attracted to each other and spend a passionate night together. Adriana begins to think this could be the beginning of a great love that could change her life. They agree to meet the next day, but Andrea doesn’t show up. Disappointed, Adriana goes back to her normal life, but an unexpected breakthrough comes: Andrea is suddenly found dead. Dragged...

Arguably the most insanely idiosyncratic giallo ever directed, DEATH LAID AN EGG is a true wayward masterpiece of kaleidoscopic Italian counterculture cinema. Starring legendary leading man Jean-Louis Trintignant (THE CONFORMIST) as a married man that may or may not be a serial killer, Gina Lollobrigida (BEAT THE DEVIL) as his delectable yet overly domineering careerist wife, and Ewa Aulin (CANDY) as his murderous double-crossing mistress, the film...

Fellini's fascination with the circus and the surreal come to a head in one of his final masterpieces, The clowns. The film reflects Fellini's childhood obsession with clowns and begins with a young boy watching a circus set up from his bedroom window. Though comical and referred to as a "docu-comedy", this film explores deeper human conditions that resonate through the various clowns who vary from a local sex-crazed hobo, a midget nun, to a mutilated...

The seduction of Mimi is a raucous sex comedy that brought international fame to director Lina Wertmuller (Swept Away). Giancarlo Giannini (Love and Anarchy) gives a wonderfully comic performance as the sad sack Mimi, a Sicilian laborer whose refusal to vote for the Mafia's candidate leads him to lose his job, his wife and his home. At rock bottom, he revives his spirits by falling in love with the beautiful, radical Fiorella (Mariangela Melato),...

Mariangela Melato (Swept Away) stars as Signora Bolk, a self-made tycoon interested in ecological preservation. She is fed up with the terrorists who poach Italy's rich beauty, and as part of a crazy retaliation scheme she hires a former CIA agent to abduct the number one violator, Giuseppe 'Beppe' Catania. Catania is taken to her villa on a private island where he insists that as a man, he cannot go without sex. She relents and hires two prostitutes...

Director Riccardo Freda, known for mentoring one of Italy's master cult horror film makers, Mario Bava, brings us one of his sexiest giallos: Murder obsession which tells the story of a horror film actor Michael Stanford (played by Stefano Patrizi) who, after shooting his film, visits his mother (Anita Strindberg) at their old mansion. The only other person on the property is Oliver (played by John Richardson), the eccentric butler. Michael's girlfriend,...

"Intorno a Marisa" highlights the domestic component and the ways in which creativity and life have merged in the work of the Italian artist Marisa Merz, the only major female protagonist of the Arte Povera movement. Marisa Merz is a crucial figure in postwar Italian art and an eccentric voice in the contemporary art world. Arte Povera made its debut on the international art scene with her the wife and artistic companion of Mario Merz. Her value is...

8 architects, 8 houses, 8 stories, 8 paradigms of contemporary living. The diary of an exploration into the houses and private spaces of 8 protagonists of world architecture: Shigeru Ban, Mario Bellini, David Chipperfield, Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, Zaha Hadid, Marcio Kogan, Daniel Libeskind and Bijoy Jain / Studio Mumbai.