Tuesday, March 8, 2011

My 15 Favorite Italian Movies

Italian films are fascinating to me; for years, the industry was divided between lower-class horror films and Westerns (i.e. "Spaghetti Westerns"), and the higher-class Neo-Realists, many of whom graduated to more artistic endeavors, and never the twain shall meet. There was also an interesting crossover with English and American stars (as well as stars from all over the world). Many Italian films were filmed in many different languages, and dubbing the film into one coherent language was considered a routine part of post-production. Hence we get Burt Lancaster in The Leopard, Marlon Brando in Burn!; Farley Granger in Senso, Clint Eastwood in A Fistful of Dollars, and many others. For a while Italy became the "go to" place for exotic backdrops, but recently the Italian film industry has received a shot of new blood with films like The Best of Youth, The Unknown Woman, Gomorrah, Mid-August Lunch, Vincere, and I Am Love. Goda di!
  1. L'Avventura (1960, Michelangelo Antonioni)
  2. Kill, Baby... Kill! (1966, Mario Bava)
  3. La Dolce Vita (1960, Federico Fellini)
  4. Senso (1954, Luchino Visconti)
  5. Blood and Black Lace (1963, Mario Bava)
  6. Bicycle Thieves (1948, Vittorio De Sica)
  7. Cinema Paradiso (1989, Giuseppe Tornatore)
  8. Burn! (a.k.a. Queimada) (1969, Gillo Pontecorvo)
  9. The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978, Ermanno Olmi)
  10. 8 ½ (1963, Federico Fellini)
  11. Amarcord (1974, Federico Fellini)
  12. The Leopard (1963, Luchino Visconti)
  13. The Great Silence (1968, Sergio Corbucci)
  14. A Fistful of Dollars (1964, Sergio Leone)
  15. Suspiria (1977, Dario Argento)

No comments:

Post a Comment