During the Nazi occupation of Rome, the resistance leader Giorgio Manfredi aka Luigi Ferrari (Marcello Pagliero) is chased by the Gestapo. His friend Francesco (Francesco Grandjacquet), who is going to marry the widow Pina (Anna Magnani), together with the priest Don Pietro Pellegrini (Aldo Frabrizi) help him to get a new identity and leave Rome. However, Manfredi is betrayed by his lover Marina Mari (Maria Michi) and arrested by the Germans.

“Roma, Città Aperta” is among the best movies of the cinema history, a milestone of the Italian Neo-Realism and was filmed by Roberto Rossellini when the economical and social structure of Italy was completely destroyed due to the World War II. Rossellini did not have money even to buy the negatives, which were given by his friends. He used ordinary people and real locations to shot the film, making a very authentic and realistic movie as if it were a documentary.

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn1ayrlnmZ4

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A movie everyone interested in film should watch. It’s not only a classic because of the great story, a lyrical masterpiece (Lamberto Maggiorani and Enzo Staiola play a father and son, who search for his stolen bicycle vital for his job) but also because of Vittorio De Sica, who directed every scene with a beautiful sense of control and balance. It’s unbelievable that this movie was only nominated for one Oscar (screenplay) and then didn’t even win. De Sica’s career is most impressive, being involved in nealy 200 films, 165 of them as an actor. This film remains one of his greatest achievements. Italian cinema at it’s best.

A poor young father in postwar-ravaged Rome who finally finds work putting up Rita Hayworth posters around town, only to have his precious bicycle stolen the first day on the job. Now the father and his young son chase after the thief.

Trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi4035510553/

Won 4 Oscars

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A film directed by Charles Laughton adapted from a novel written by Davis Grubb. Starring Robert Mitchum (who’s amazing/ scary/ funny), Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish. This is not just a great horror movie, but an artist achievement, from the opening scene of the beautiful Lillian Gish and her children, watching over the world in a starry sky, the camera takes us down in one sweeping move to a scene of children playing on a hot sunny day, right to the feet of a murder victim, or the river scene, moments of pure visual splendor. The soundtrack is just as mesmerizing.

Plot:

Harry Powell marries and murders widows for their money, believing he is helping God do away with women who arouse men’s carnal instincts. Arrested for auto theft, he shares a cell with condemned killer Ben Harper and tries to get him to reveal the whereabouts of the $10,000 he stole. FULL

Trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi35167257/

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A touching story directed by Delbert Mann about two people in New York who have almost resigned themselves to never being truly loved. Starring Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair and Esther Minciotti. Marty (Borgnine) is a 34-year-old butcher whose Italian family is constantly after him to get married. He meets plain-looking schoolteacher Clara. Both are lonely, unglamorous people who are looking for true love, but can’t seem to find it - until they meet each other.

Won 4 Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Writing and actor-Ernest Borgnine)

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMP-uD8F8tc

This masterpiece is directed and written by Luis Buñuel and the great Salvador Dalí.

In a dream-like sequence, a woman’s eye is slit open—juxtaposed with a similarly shaped cloud obsucuring the moon moving in the same direction as the knife through the eye—to grab the audience’s attention. The French phrase “ants in the palms,” (which means that someone is “itching” to kill) is shown literally. A man pulls a piano along with the tablets of the Ten Commandments and a dead donkey towards the woman he’s itching to kill. A shot of differently striped objects is repeatedly used to connect scenes.

Trailer:

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2380267801/