Italian VERY Independent or Not-Mainstream Movies

Nice try but it's a failed attempt even though the two protagonists are two nice actors that I respect. They're characterstill are well prepared but the overall disappointed me. A bit slow a bit without, I would said, a precise goal. Or maybe this was the goal and I didn'the catch it? If you'plan look at it let me know your impressions.

A failed director finds again a purpose in life once forced in directing a play about Jesus Christ life in a little town. Of course it's plenty of funny misadventures but despite quite a good cast the movie doesn'the really fly. Still I believe it deserves a place in the list for the effort.

Explain 'Buddhism' with a movie it's quite impossible because it's very hard to understand if not practiced. This neapolitan movie suprised me a lot because up to now it's the best piece of video art I've seen that succeed in the attempt. Of course it's still impossible to fully understand what buddhism is, mainly because needs an entire life and probably never fully happens, but in the eyes of the occidental viewer as I am this is quite a catch. It's possible that someone will find intuitions of what it is or maybe not. Still this is a very peculiar movie, even the drawing are quite original. Recommended!

I was a little worried to see this movie because apparently seemed a stupid teen-ager comedy. But I have convinced myself to look at the whole filmography of my idol Valerio Mastandrea, so I said myslef: 'be strong, and look at it!'. Luckilly (and surprisingly...) I've found one of the most hilarious Mastandrea I've ever seen! Yes, without him the movie would appear like a school play because of the irrelevance of the other actors, but some scenes are epical!

A stunning Isabella Ragonese (that I didn't know) as a desperate beautician, a very funny Valerio Mastandrea as a divorced tattoo artist, and Valerio Battiston as a priest with a gambling problem are the characters of this unique film. The whole group will try to ease their money problem by looking for a chair that a rich ill woman, before dying, says filled by jewels of the value of several million of euros. The result is an amusing italian style treasure hunt. To note: one of the rare Valerio Mastandrea's movie with a happy ending.

After I got out of the cinema I was thinking: 'what the hell I've seen for an hour and a half?!?' but surprisingly after few days it still was in my head and I have to admit it does not happen very often... It's the story of an hypersensitive man who can't stand the life he is living and rejects reality closing himself like an hedgehog. Neither love or work perspective seems to gave him the stability to spread his wings and to fly. The movie left me a subtle sense of discomfort: empathizing with a character which is not able to be happy it's not a sane exercise. But this episode reminds me how important it is in life to seek our real nature of happiness and not to be stuck in the surface of events. Conclusion: I am probably a little emotional because of the strong little feelings it pulled out of me, but for an hypothetical 'Italian Indie of the Year Award' this would be my pick for sure!

Here in the words of stefano76 a wonderful review of the movie!

A movie shooted in my city, or better at the boundaries between Prato and Bologna. The omnipresent Valerio Mastandrea is still here, even though performance is not at its best, but still enjoiable. Valerio Germano is not a favourite of mine and here just confirmed my previous thoughts about him... Surpsingly the 'Best Performance Award' goes to Gianni Morandi, a very famous italian singer of 60's and 70's. It's astonishing how good he is interpreting the bad guy of the story! I would have never said in my entire life to enjoy him, but here I am.

It's a cinema experiment. Actors are actually prisoners of Rebibbia's jail and the movie is about the preparation of a piece for theather. The movie goes and come between reality and fiction and the desperate need for those people to do something meaningful for their restricted lifes.

Claudio Caligari, the director, has been a shooting star in the italian cinematographic scene. This movie has been written after a deep study on eroin addicted in Rome and Ostia attended by the famous sociologist of the field Guido Blumir. Actually they did together a research (better call it an anthropological research)which last for more than a year with real addicted that became real actors in the movie and even contribute at the script of the movie. So the characters are all real addicted or ex-addicted. Even though the final result seems more like a primary school representation, in the far 1983 was more than a scandal which brought to the surface the very huge - and hidden - problem of young and drugs. Presented at the International Festival of Venice as a minor movie won a minor prize but sooner disappeared from the scene. I think the director was way to much innovative for his time!

An italian 'Spaghetti' version of Clockwork Orange. Very nice photography, and very pleasant in its entirity. Actors are quite good and well prepared. Violence and adrenaline intertwined searching for a sense - a wrong purpose - in life.

Matteo (Alessandro Tiberi better known for the series 'Boris') is a talented matematician which can't find a proper place in University and decided to work as a marketer as second job. He doesn't really like this job but little by little e will be tempted by the advantages of being a brilliant careerist. After he broke with his girlfriend Valentina (Francesca Inaudi) he will find two beautiful girls, Angelica (Carolina Crescentini) a stunning career woman and Beatrice (Valentina Lodovini) a beautiful dreamy girl, with which he will begin love stories. At the very end he will have to decide which way to follow, if to be part of the mechanism as a cog or a "fucking idiot" but himself. There's another character, Francesco, interpreted by Francesco Mandelli, that is an actor I really don't like, but in this movie - maybe because he doesn't pretend to be a real actor but just to interpret himself - he is kind of perfect for the role of looser he does. That's it, quite an interesting movie, again about choices and hard life during the economical crisis in the 'Boot Country'. A film really worth to watch that actually was quite a while I was waiting to find time to see!

I thought it was complete garbage and waste of time but I was surprisingly amazed by the final result. It's a super hero story locate in the city of Trieste. Well not really a super-hero story, I would say instead a "spaghetti super-hero" story. Well because it's a very fun movie even though probably better for a teenage audience. I've found it pretty original and the director, Salvatores, it's pretty known everywhere to be very good in his job. I guess he made it again!

This is not fictional and probably the best documentary I've ever seen. It's the story of five people, clandestines from Africa and Middle-East, which are trying to reach Sweden passing through Italy - France - Germany - Denmark. Along the way they're helped by a group of volunteers and a troupe that follows them everywhere. People are actually talking about their lifes and experiences in their countries and that is very moving because you can feel real and deep fear and sadness in their eyes and voice. This movie has been presented to the International Movie Festival of Venice and has raised a serious debate on this theme. I really feel to thank the people who made the movie and risk their safety for the best of the many.

Fabrizio Bentivoglio became one my favourite actor. This movie is the story about two people, an old and lonely cynical professor and an indolent but good boy who are going to find in each other an unexpected support. It's a very fun movie and it goes through drugs, a love story with an ex pornstar, and much much more! A very nice one.

Surprisingly good it's one of the hidden treasure made by the 'Underground Master' Valerio Mastandrea. I really think he is one of the best, maybe the best around Italy. It's a movie about illegal car races in Rome and of course my hero is there to act the only character he was born for: the loser. And he is very good in doing it!

The best part of this movie is the photography. I'm not an expert of the field but some scenes looks pretty amazing! And the black and white, which might be taken as preposterous, is the best choice ever made. The story is quite nice it talks about the rivalry between supporters of different local football team of Sardegna. It also brings to light a strong critique of corruption inside the football organization. Well, in fact it's a grotesque comedy really worth to see. Thumbs-up!

Diego Bianchi, the director, is a smart political talk show host I like to see from time to time in italian television. Unfortunately this movie doesn't reach the same quality of his TV program... The script is kinda nice but the final result is pretty banal with nothing exceptional. Moreover the role he does in the movie is between the host and a deus ex machina... In my honest opinion this movie doesn't work, maybe too political or maybe too ingenuous, I cannot tell for sure. Sorry Diego, next might be better!

This is the story of a man who faces a separation. I think the most representative sentence of the movie is: 'Divorce is for rich people'. The man will pass through several difficulties in order to ensure a decent life for his family. Little by little he will fall down - pieces after pieces - overwhelmed by economic problems ending up into an endless abyss. Cannot tell more about the story, otherwise you'll know the end. But it really caught me, with a masterly Mastandrea which is the unchallenged king of the set (better only in "We All Fall Down"). No other words than AMAZING.

Where I was when this movie was released in theaters? I've only heard of it yesterday... But if we want to see the glass as half full this is a great discovery. It's a movie divided in three episodes all of them are about an absurd stories of young italian people seeking for job, each of them ending doing very weird stuff! On the other end the translation of the title sounds like "Workers, Ready to Everything" (and it really catches the mood of the movie). Moreover the cast is pretty good and the director of photography did a great job. It's more comedy than tragic in my view, and really worth to see.

I didn't quite understand the meaning of the movie. Maybe alienation or maybe just a contemporary experiment. The fact is there's a man whose only dream is to work. He just works and works and works and works for almost the entire movie. He does a lot of different jobs, some paid some others not. That's it! But I was so enchanted by the result I can't even explain why. Maybe is the director skills, maybe a majestic Antonio Albanese, Maybe I was in the right mood. I don't know. The movie has to be watched.

The innovative part is the one about the statues, scattered in the streets and gardens, who watch every morning the city that wakes up. If you get close enough, climbing up to them, you can hear them think or even speak. You can hear Giuseppe Garibaldi for example, sitting on his horse at the center of a large square, complaining for an Italy increasingly degraded and vulgar. The rest of the movie is average although the crew of actors isn't bad at all. The overall? Unfortunately pretty fragile.

The movie has been shooted in my city and it's the second work by "John Snellinberg", a collective of artists. The movie is composed by two different episodes but connected in a certain way. My city, Prato, is the background of both and it's amazing how poetic it appears in the movie. Moreover both stories are very interesting and not banal at all. Considering the movie has been self-produced (the budget was probably no more than few thousands of euros), I'm astonished by the final result. It's a super movie to me!

Not well appreciated by critics and viewers, but instead very appreciated by me! It's an intertwined story into the North-East area of Italy, well known for being a stronghold xenophobic forces. The movie is about what happens if all the immigrants disappear at once. Result: the cities are out of control and people who blames them of being total evil become after few days by their side asking them to come back even using - as last resort - some sort of magic rituals... This should inspire us to rethink our actual life in the way of social inclusion and not social exclusion. I think it's a movie worth to see.

A social experiment, a movie which is not a movie, the actors except Mastandrea are all immigrants with no experience. The story is just an opportunity to talk about the issue of people who are forced to leave their homes trying seek fortune in the Occidental World (in this case Italy) leaving behind family and roots often finding an hostile place where to live at the edge of society. The movie is not well realized, but people's stories are very moving, mainly because they are true. Very peculiar.

A coproduction between Italy and Slovenia on which you can really see the slovenian influence. It's not properly a comedy, I would rather say a black comedy. But still there are few very funny scenes. It's the story of a man interpreted by Giuseppe Battiston who, not able to do anything good in his hole life, seeks a sense of payback when he finds his nephew to be a dart master. I've never seen a movie on which dart skill is a central theme. After all neither bad or good.

Yeah, another story from the unemployment branch. Italy seems to have thousands of movies about this theme. I don't understand how this is possible (of course I'm sarcastic...). Well then, the movie tells about a young brilliant vulcanologist who can't find work and ended up in a cul the sac called call center. He will try to keep his life all togheter but with a lot of difficulties. Peculiar are the micro interruptions in which real people testify their experiences in call centers. It's like a documentary following throughout the entire movie giving strength to the overall. Not a big production but still truly intriguing.

A group of PhD researchers without jobs trying to find a legal way of doing money by producing smart drugs. What can I say? This movie is simply super-cool! I laughed for the entire movie (and it's not so easy to make me laugh) and it's smart and sharp in the way I like. Highly recommended!

Pif, the main actor and director, is a guerrilla journalist that usually do a great job on tv talking about underrated topics in original and funny ways. The story goes over 20 years of mafia killings and fear in Palermo, Sicily, from the perspective of a young and talented - but very shy - boy. If I have to be sincere the direction disappoint me a little with some ingenuous scenes but the overall is quite great and the binomial comedy-drama works pretty well.

What if your life sounds so miserable and ordinary compared to the 'Big Brother' way of life? What if the dream to be part of the "House" sinks after big expectatios? How can a normal man be part of the modern world without compass? Answer: the modern world will eat him bite after bite until crazyness.

A modern love story from the country of the Boot. A talented and wonderful singer (Thony) and his 'philosopher' partner, both with shitty jobs, are trying to keep themselves together in this very world of sad resignation where dream is a forbidden word. Love still is an anchor point, probably the last one.

A comedy of misunderstandings based on a thirty year old man that found accidentally a lot of money and want to try to change his life - and family - without completely leaving the previous one. Result: double work for him and his lawyer helper and a lot of fun!

A "spaghetti-robbery" movie, funny and melancholic. The two desperate characters decide to steal a very important relic of Sant'Antonio in Padova. But they're so miserable that the Saint, patron of pitiable people, decides to help them by giving some extra help to their odd attempt...

This is a dramatic one from one of the greatest actor/director we have in Italy. Nanni Moretti here succeeds in passing through the souls of watchers in such a brilliant way. This movie has to be watch, it's a little masterpiece (I suggest when in the mood, tough).

Again from Nichetti both as director and main actor. A complete nonsense but with super-characterized characters.

The peculiar transformation of a man into a cartoon. A funny and unique movie by Maurizio Nichetti.

An insane exercise based on the fruitful and restless genious of Andrea Pazienza, an italian comic artist who had a lot of troubles and died very young. Its almost completely crazy characters are sympathetic and evocative in a very genuine and human way. And the movie got it.

Mastandrea! Again! Guess you're kinda sick to read about him from me. Well, it's not my fault if he's doing a lot of interesting underground movies..

Italian's life during the 70's showing all the contraditions but also the explosive force aimed at breaking everything that had been before.

Simply amazing. A trip from coast to coast by walk searching for liberty through music and friendship. There's a very interesting cast, too.

Based on a true story, it talks about the life and death of Peppino Impastato, a young man from the deep Sicily who was trying to fight against mafia - it's own family and culture - with the force of thought. Ne is now considered one of the symbols of anti-mafia movements.

One of the first Roberto Benigni's movie shooted in my city - Prato - and close locations. It catches an interesting cultural nuance of what is Tuscan culture.