Salvatore Giuliano (1962)

Director: Francesco Rosi 
Country: Italy

This is a dense political-social film based on real facts, shot in a documentary style following a non-linear narrative about the circumstances around the assesination of Salvatore Giuliano, a bandit and the leader of a separatist movement in Sicily, that was responsible for a massacre against members of a communist party, he only appears as a corpse three or four times in the film. 

We can see how Sicily was after the departure of the allies, an empoverished, dejected, dangerous and corrupted place controlled by the local mafia, full of street codes such as the Omerta, and curfews by the military (North Italians who look down on Sicilians calling them savages.) Shot by the legendary Gianni Di Venanzo, the film has a stunning cinematography and a  pure neorealist look . 

Amazingly this film portrays how some goverments around the world still operating nowadays!, with the help of local mafias and bandits, definitely an incredible film.

                                 

Battle of Algiers (1966)

Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
Country: Italy

"Should France remain in Algeria? if you answer 'yes', you must accept all the necessary consequences."

Told from the point of view of Ali and General Mathieu (who is based upon a real life soldier named Jacques Massu) it's a great juxtaposed story based on real life events. An Algerian guerrilla movement trying to get independence from France, starts a bloody battle and is willing to die for the cause no matter what. 2015 and 2016 have been difficult years for developed democracies in Europe and the rest of the World, terrorist attacks, radicalism and insurgent militias in the Middle East have been some of the problems, and is amazing how this movie made in the 60's can explain many things happening right now, so whether if you want to know how terrorism and radicalism work or how many soldiers work, you gotta see this film.  

Pontecorvo not only shows us how radicals approach children, women, vendors, old ladies, etc and turn them into terrorists, they are heartless fanatics indeed, but also he shows us the brutal practices of the military, in particular the many forms of torture and ruthless acts such as chopping up heads of political prisoners or burning people with blowturches . 

The film portrays in a realistically way how colonialism worked in Africa for years: an apartheid system, where European whites lived apart from the native population while oppresing any form of political discomfort, just like the European conquistadores "worked" for centuries in the Americas. Pontecorvo is a genius because he's always neutral, he does not interfere with the story and let us alone to judge the situations, such a huge contrast compared with those American movies about Vietnam War or Second War World, where American troops are martyrs and heroes in contrast with the evil communist Asians and Nazis who wanted to destroy the world. 

A solid, superb piece of work with a critical and incisive argument which is remarkable because for Pontecorvo would have been easy to be biased and to portray the military as the villians (due to his communist past and marxist ideology) but he chose not to. Pontecorvo's masterful use of camera, documentary and guerrilla style shooting are superb, we can see close ups, detail shots, kinda news footage and along with Ennio Morricone's soundtrack, consisting mainly of percussive instruments and background pre-recorded music which adds tension to the images, such as in the simultaneous terrorist bomb attacks, the result is so powerful. 

This is a very complex film, shot in a minimalistic way and in my opinion it's one of the best films about social conflicts ever made . The French won the Battle of Algiers but were defeated and finally kicked out from Algeria in the real life, and then unfortunately the native people faced years of repression and dictatorship...

                            

Stromboli (1950)

Director: Roberto Rossellini 
Country: Italy

A Lithuanian refugee woman named Karin (Ingrid Bergman) who had a good life before war mets Antonio, an Italian war prisoner (Mario Vitale), while waiting in a refugee camp for the approval of his Argentinian Visa, when her Visa application is denied, she decides to get married with Antonio and go with him to his home in Stromboli, a little Italian island near Sicily. During the Visa interview the film shows us how Europeans were looking for a new home in developed countries after the Second World War such as America, Australia or Argentina. 

At the moment she arrives to Stromboli, she realizes has made a big time mistake because the village is destroyed, underdeveloped and with a Volcano next to it, representing a deadly hazard, that place is paradoxically even worse than a prison or a refugee camp, with nothing much to do and uneducated close minded catholics as neighbors, Karin realizes that she gotta get outta there as soon as possible, but without money her chances are reduced. 

Also we can see other elements of this movie through the descriptions of the villagers who returned from America, and we can compare the almost uninhabited village to the industrial New York City and its people enjoying the benefits of the post-war boom such as driving new cars, working in factories, eating hot dogs, attending baseball games or wearing nice clothes. 

Composed by long shots, actual documentary footage (the volcano eruption scenes), minimalistic but powerful dialogues and non-professional actors, which was a characteristic of the Italian neorealism, Rossellini made a great work, not only because of that, but also because we can deduce and imagine many things without flashbacks, words or sequences in other place, that's why this film is a masterpiece. 

Likewise, many people in the film were real villagers like Mario Vitale (a real life fisherman) who made a great performance and later became a succesful actor but like in Stromboli he quit the industry to came back to his village, Bergman is stunning, beautiful and a great performer (married at the time with Rossellini), After having made powerful films such as "Rome, Open City", "Paisa" or "Germany Year Zero", Rosellini started with "Stromboli" another trilogy starring Bergman, the "Trilogia della Solitudine" keystone in the history of cinema.

                                

Il Demonio (1963)

Director: Brunello Rondi
Country: Italy

If you want to know where all those witchcraft-posession and alike modern movies come from, you have to see Brunello Rondi's "Il Demonio", a film about superstition, witchcraft and an exorcism. Certainly the most famous film about exorcism is William Friedkin's blockbuster "The Exorcist" and possibly the best known film about witchcraft is Roman Polanski's American debut "Rosemary's Baby", but Brunello Rondi not only made "Il Demonio" involving both themes, 10 and 9 years before them respectively but also he added the social reality of the poor country life in Italy. 

The film takes action in a rural community in Italy and it is about a woman obsessed with an engaged man who has rejected her many times, in order to destroy his relationship, she invokes the invisible forces, and apparently she becomes possesed by the devil (or by some sort of demon at least) 

Full of powerful close-ups and an impressive acting by Daliah Lavi who shows a great use of the pantomime technique, especially in the exorcism scenes, "Il Demonio" was a groundbreaking film and to my surprise it contains many references to "The Exorcist" or better said Mr. William Friedkin appearently took ('cause he has never mentioned this film as a direct influence in the making of The Exorcist) a lot of angles, concepts and even scenes from Rondi's film! specifically the exorcism scene in the church when the posssesed girl walks in a spider-walk-style! It sounds familiar?

Definitely "Il Demonio" could fit into the Italian neo-realism era, 'cause it portrays perfectly well how Catholic uneducated people thought at the time, and maybe how many catholics around the world and particularly in Latin America (where a huge chunk of Catholics live) still have a huge amount of superstition beliefs. I wish I would have seen "Il Demonio" before seeing "The Exorcist" so in case you haven't seen the latter, now you know which one to see first.

                                   

I Vitelloni (1953)

Director: Federico Fellini 
Country: Italy

"I Vitelloni" is my all time Fellini favorite, it's the one for me and for many reasons. For instance, it starts as a comedy but it doesn't finish as such, and I think of this movie every single day of my life, no matter what I'm doing, no matter what I'm working on or who I am with, I always think about Fellini and his "I Vitelloni" 'cause in my opinion everyone has been a Vitelloni at least once in their life. 

I can see "Vitelloni" everyday on the streets, at the coffee shops, in the billiards, at the park, in the subway, no matter if they are married or not, they exist and they are out there waiting for something, waiting for an opportunity that never comes, I gotta confess that this movie moved me to tears, and I will always be thankful with the great Federico Fellini for doing this amazing piece of art, because I have been a "Vitelloni" many times in my life, but this film has helped me to heal emotional scars, 'cause in the end we all can be Moraldo if we wish to. 

                            .

Umberto D. (1952)

Director: Vittorio de Sica
Country: Italy

The Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Sica did one the best jobs in the history of world cinema without any doubt, and he did it by only hiring a non-professional actor and a simple dog to build a sad, dramatic and tragic story about an elderly pensioner who's struggling with poverty, loneliness, hopelessness and desolation in the middle of the Post-World War era in Italy. 

 

The main character, Umberto Domenico Ferrari, is in a big dilemma, whether losing his dignity and pride in favour of earning some coins as a homeless old man in the streets of Italy in order to satisfy his basic needs or facing life with a pair of empty pockets and the consequences that brings, for example, like giving up his lovely and loyal little dog named "Flike" which is his companion and the only being in Umberto's world that loves him in an unconditional way. 

 

This is an excellent work in every single aspect: story, acting, cinematography, directing, and in my opinion it contains one of the most beautiful and simpliest covers ever made, If you don't cry while seeing this movie, you certainly are not a human being.