A tremendous congestion hit the Roma highway ring. The biggest traffic jam ever seen endures for more than 36 hours. People blocked in their cars react at the beginning normally. But the more the time advance the more we are witness of personal dramas, hysteric reactions and more. All the episodes are linked like one only plot. Cars and their hosts are a microcosm of stories part of a major universe: the congestion.

Adriana, a naive Italian country girl, moves to Rome to become a movie star and experiences the dark side of the business.

Three stories, all set in Treviso. Various couple experience adultery at a party, a bank clerk abandons his wife for his mistress and all the men in the end are prosecuted for having intercourse with an underage girl.

1966 Italian film directed by Pietro Germi

Andrea Rossi-Colombotti, a U.N. official and modern-day Casanova, cannot get aroused unless there's danger in sex, but women and society are too compliant, so he's often impotent. A psychiatrist warns him it will get worse, and he should be celibate. Andrea tries and fails at that, abandons his fiancée, finds the occasional life-threatening liaison, and pursues a woman tethered to a dull but murderous husband. Will Andrea find pleasure and fulfillment, or is he doomed to pursue and then go limp when the pursuit is successful?

1965 film by Mario Monicelli, Renzo Marignano

Four different facets of love Italian-style provide the basis of this episodic film.

1964 film by Mauro Bolognini, Luigi Comencini, Dino Risi, Franco Rossi

Vittorio Gassman stars as different characters in each of the nine episodes of this unusual Italian comedy. Playing everything from a practical joker to a prisoner, he comments upon romance, love and women in general.

Agnese, a 15-year-old Sicilian girl is seduced and impregnated by Peppino, her sister Matilde's fiancé. Soon Vincenzo, Agnese's father, discovers everything. He wants to force Peppino to marry the dishonored Agnese, but Peppino runs away and Vincenzo sends his son Antonio to kill him. At this point, Agnese goes to the police to try to stop events. They're all taken to court. But events can't be stopped, there's still time for a fake kidnapping. A happy end is still possible.

Two members of a former group of friends find themselves after many years by chance through the streets of Milan; after a moment, memories of the past resurface.

Three different stories of Italian social mores are presented. In "Adelina", unemployed Carmine Sbaratti and his wife Adelina Sbaratti survive through Adelina selling black market cigarettes on the street. They are unable to pay for the furniture they bought (which is under Adelina's name), but are able to avoid the bailiff when he comes for the money or to repossess. They come up with a longer term solution to avoid Adelina being prosecuted for non-payment, but that solution has a profound effect on the family, especially Carmine. In "Anna", Anna Molteni, the spoiled wife of a successful businessman, and an artist named Renzo are on the cusp of an affair. Anna is feeling neglected in the marriage, as her husband seems more concerned about success and money than her. But a car accident shows both Anna and Renzo if an affair with each other is really what they want. In "Mara", Mara is a prostitute who works out of her apartment. She befriends Umberto, a young man visiting his grandparents who live in the adjacent apartment, the balconies of the two apartments which are adjoined. Umberto, a seminary student, seems to be attracted to Mara as a woman without really knowing what she does. Umberto's grandmother, who knows what Mara does, believes Umberto's seeming romantic infatuation with Mara will be his downfall. As Mara and Umberto's grandmother ultimately join forces to get Umberto to do the right thing in life, Augusto Rusconi, one of Mara's regular clients who is in town from Bologna, does whatever he can to get Umberto's family issues out of the way so that he can get on with his own wants with Mara.

Four episodes satirising modern marriages and the lack of affection which leads to infidelity.

The myths of the sixties are satirized in 20 episodes.

A 40 year old man, Alfonso, finally succeeds to marry a virginal, educated, beautiful and very Catholic woman. But soon she, Regina, starts stressing him because she wants to be pregnant. ** Spoiler **: When the stress is at its peak Regina at last gets pregnant. Once the goal is reached the man is put aside and dies.

After the 1st world war, two veterans, starving, but fools, are enlisted with the fascists, where they can eat. But when it comes to killing, they drop out.

Four directors tell tales of Eros fit for a 1970 Decameron. Working-class lovers Renzo and Luciana marry but must hide it from her employer; plus, they need a room of their own. A billboard of Anita Ekberg provocatively selling milk gives a prudish crusader for public decency more than he can handle. The wife of a count whose escapades with call girls make the front page of the papers decides to work to prove her independence, but what is she qualified to do? A buxom carnival-booth manager who owes back taxes offers herself for one night in a lottery: a nerdy sacristan and a jealous cowboy make for a lovers' triangle. In each, women take charge, but not always happily.

Ferdinando Cefalù is desperate to marry his cousin Angela, but he is married to Rosalia and divorce is illegal in Italy. To get around the law, he tries to trick his wife into having an affair so he can catch her and murder her, as he knows he would be given a light sentence for killing an adulterous woman. He persuades a painter to lure his wife into an affair, but Rosalia proves to be more faithful than he expected.

whitneyabi

Italian Comedies from the 1950s to 1970s: lots of satire, lots of "socially taboo" subjects, usually to the background of the working class with some sprinkles of social criticism

Commedia all'italiana

movie

Niko Aiello

I guess I’m more of an arthouse snob than I thought

1979 American war film directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Best of All Time

1987 American science fiction parody movie directed by Mel Brooks

Sci-Fi and/or Horror 

2014 film directed by John Michael McDonagh

Watchlist 2.0

Sundance was good this year - TasteDive has not update most of these with accurate trailers/photos, descriptions are mostly okay

2023 film list

I like stuff with financial crime, or drugs. Or financial crime related to drugs

Crime

Board Games

Seductiveness of the miraculous, embrace of authoritarianism, corruption in power, isolation and loneliness, reflection on grief

Commedia all'italiana

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More lists by Niko Aiello

Best of All Time

Sci-Fi and/or Horror

Watchlist 2.0

2023 film list

Crime

Board Games

Contemporary Religion

Books to Read

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