Italian films about forbidden love

It's 1348. The plague has brutally hit Florence. A group of then young people, seven women and three men, rebel against the feeling of death that is about to swallow them. They flee the city and find refuge in an abandoned villa in the Tuscan hills. Here, between moral doubts and the tasks needed to survive, they kill time by telling each other stories until they will decide to return. The stories are varied - tragic, bizarre, funny or erotic - but common and central to all of them is the female presence.

The destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve.

A fairy tale of the misadventures of a beautiful but temperamental Neapolitan peasant, Isabella, when she meets the ill- tempered Spanish Prince Rodrigo Ferrante y Davalos. The King of Spain has ordered Rodrigo to choose a wife among seven Italian Princesses, but he is smitten by the lowly peasant.

In Shakespeare's classic play, the Montagues and Capulets, two families of Renaissance Italy, have hated each other for years, but the son of one family and the daughter of the other fall desperately in love and secretly marry.

While trying to make his sister's wedding day go smoothly, Jack finds himself juggling an angry ex-girlfriend, an uninvited guest with a secret, a misplaced sleep sedative, and the girl that got away in alternate versions of the same day.

A study of the friendship between a Chinese woman and a fisherman who came to Italy from Yugoslavia many years ago, who live in a small city-island in the Veneto lagoon.

Seminary student Michael Kovak (Colin O'Donoghue) reluctantly attends exorcism school at the Vatican. While he’s in Rome, Michael meets an unorthodox priest, Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), who introduces him to the darker side of his faith, uncovering the devil’s reach even to one of the holiest places on Earth.

Guido and Antonia are a young couple with opposing characters and working schedules: he works a night job as a doorman in a hotel, and she works as an employee for a rental car service. This is the story of what happens to Guido and Antonia when they decide to have a child.

It's 1943 and World War II is raging in Europe. In New York, Arturo and Flora the daughter of a restaurant owner are in love, but she is promised in marriage to the son of a Mafia boss. There is a way around this, but to be able to marry Flora, Arturo needs to get permission from her father, who lives in a village in Sicily. Arturo doesn't have any money, so the only way he can get to Sicily is to enlist in the U.S. Army, which is preparing for a landing on the island.

A music group and a journalist cross the region of Basilicata by foot to attend a music festival.

In this live-action adaptation of the beloved fairytale, old woodcarver Geppetto fashions a wooden puppet, Pinocchio, who magically comes to life. Pinocchio longs for adventure and is easily led astray, encountering magical beasts, fantastical spectacles, while making friends and foes along his journey. However, his dream is to become a real boy, which can only come true if he finally changes his ways.

A summer day in Italy. The camera follows the deaf-mute Giacomo and a childhood girlfriend Stefi closely – in the woods, by the river – without wanting to disrupt the mystery of their relationship, between restrained sensuality and childhood games.

Pio Amato, a 14 year-old member of a small Romani community in southern Italian town of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, is in a hurry to grow up. Pio follows his older brother Cosimo everywhere and from him he learns how to hustle and how to navigate the streets of his hometown. One night Pio sets out to prove to his brother that he is as good or better than him but, when things go wrong, a series of events will forever change the way he sees the world.

Michele is thirteen year old, shy, unpopular at school, and in love with Stella. After wearing a costume for a Halloween party, he finds out that he's invisible.

Three women confront their pasts which changes their futures.

A dark comedy centering on the lives of a Neapolitan based family whose father, a fish merchant, is so infatuated with the reality TV show "Grande Fratello" (the Italian version of "Big Brother") he starts living his life as if he were on it.

A gay couple living in San Francisco takes in two strangers traveling from Italy to start a new life in America, discovering each other and forming the most unlikely of relationships along the way.

In Verona, bad blood between the Montague and Capulet families leads to much bitterness. Despite the hostility, Romeo Montague manages an invitation to a masked ball at the estate of the Capulets and meets Juliet, their daughter. The two are instantly smitten but dismayed to learn that their families are enemies. Romeo and Juliet figure out a way to pursue their romance, but Romeo is banished for his part in the slaying of Juliet's cousin, Tybalt.

Italy, 1990. On the night when Italy's national football team is eliminated from the World Cup by Argentina on penalty kicks, a well-known film producer is found dead in the Tiber River. The main suspects for the murder are three young aspiring screenwriters, hauled in front of the Carabinieri to tell their version of what happened.

Internationally released Director's Cut of "Loro 1" and "Loro 2", which were released separately as two movies in Italy. The film talks about the group of businessmen and politicians – the Loro (Them) from the title – who live and act near to media tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi in the years between 2006 and 2009.

Christian is an extremely talented as well as unpredictable football player. After his latest screw-up, the president of his team decides to assign him a personal tutor, to help him in controlling his temper. Valerio is a shy and solitary professor, the exact opposite of the champion. Sparks will fly between the two at first, but soon their relationship will change both for the better.

The suicide of a prominent wine producer unleashes a series of mysterious murders.

At an isolated frontier outpost, a colonial magistrate suffers a crisis of conscience when an army colonel arrives looking to interrogate the locals about an impending uprising, using cruel tactics that horrify the magistrate.

Purehearted teen Lazzaro is content living as a sharecropper in rural Italy, but an unlikely friendship with the marquise’s son will change his world.

Simone, a clumsy financier, falls in love with Claudia, who’s living on her grandma’s retirement checks. When the old lady dies Claudia hides the body in a freezer, and sets up a fraud with the help of some friends to avoid bankruptcy.

The night of August 24, 1572, is known as the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. In France a religious war is raging. In order to impose peace a forced wedding is arranged between Margot de Valois, sister of the immature Catholic King Charles IX, and the Hugenot King Henri of Navarre. Catherine of Medici maintains her behind-the-scenes power by ordering assaults, poisonings, and instigations to incest.

Giulia is thirty years old and unmarried. She has a good job which allows her to travel and lead a luxurious life in Milan and Paris. She is convinced that she has everything she needs for happiness, but after meeting Renzo, a charming Apulian farmer, Giulia understands that she's missing the most important thing in her life - true love.

The "Tucci" are a poor Italian family living in a small village in Lazio. Father, mother, a conceited daughter and a genius son, forced to pretend being stupid to keep up with the family. One day something unexpected happens: the family wins one hundred million Euros. Excited, they decide to keep the winning a secret, but as soon as a single word slips out from the mouth of the householder, they only have one choice to avoid being persecuted by friends and acquaintances: run away. They leave at night, heading to Milan. They will realize as soon as they arrive that today's rich people behaves very differently from the past, and being rich has become a real bother... this discovery will make things way different from what Tuccis' expected.

During a dinner, a group of friends decide to share whatever text message or phone call they will receive during the evening - and all hell breaks loose.

Maggie is an uptight, single mother and college writing teacher from New York City. In an effort to reconnect with her troubled teen daughter Summer, she decides to embark on a journey to a Tuscan village where she frequented in her younger days. Upon arrival, Maggie runs into Luca a handsome former lover who is still a bachelor and lives with his eighty-year-old mother Carmen. Summer (missing her “bad boy” boyfriend in NYC) and Carmen (secretly planning a wedding against Luca’s wishes to MARCELINO, her one true love in Rome) impulsively steal Luca’s car and race off to Rome. Maggie and Luca quickly pursue allowing the two mismatched couples to spend some time together and develop a new understanding of each other.

Story about two brothers and their wives, and the interactions between them and their two high school age children. When the kids get into serious trouble together, how will the parents relationships change with and among each other? Will the parents protect the kids or force them to face the consequences of their actions?

From the bitter quest of the Queen of Longtrellis, to two mysterious sisters who provoke the passion of a king, to the King of Highhills obsessed with a giant Flea, these tales are inspired by the fairytales by Giambattista Basile.

Margherita, a director in the middle of an existential crisis, has to deal with the inevitable and still unacceptable loss of her mother.

Inspired by real events, this is a black comedy about 20 years of history of Sicily from 1970s to 1990s, mocking Mafia Bosses and restoring the generosity of the heroes of Antimafia. Its focused on Arturo, a young boy who grows up in Palermo and tries to conquer his beloved Flora.

On a trip home to visit her father, Jenny is thrown into a world of mystery, horror and legend when she is called upon by 3000 year old spirits of the Neverlake to help return their lost artifacts and save the lives of missing children.

Second part of the film "Sorry if I love you". Alex (Raoul Bova) and Niki (Michela Quattrociocche) are more in love than ever. They have just returned from the lighthouse on the island Blu where they have lived unforgettable days. Niki returns to see his friends, but a number of important changes in their lives will test the friendship of the girls. Alex also resume life with his old friends. All of them, Flavio, Enrico and Pietro, are no longer serene and safe husbands due to certain difficulties that have compromised their marriages.

A girl struggling with asthma is taken to a clinic in South Tyrol to be cured. After some time she decides to get out of this hell (that's how she feels about it) and soon she'll meet a new friend. Together they try to reach the peak of a mountain where, according to an old custom, she can be healed.

The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.

In a small mountain village lives a man with a challenging name, Giuseppe Garibaldi (one of Italy's "fathers of the fatherland"), but everybody call him with the nickname Peppino. Love fishing, the company of friends, the library where he works as a precarious employee. He is an optimistic person even if his child accuse him of being a wannabe. One day, due to a mess of politicians, an amazing thing happens: Peppino is mistakenly elected President of the Italian Republic. Pulled out from his quiet life, is to play a role for which he knows he is obviously inappropriate, but his common sense and his instinctive gestures are incredibly effective, except for the etiquette, for which he is in trouble. The inflexible and fascinating Deputy Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic, Janis Clementi, is anxious to no avail in an attempt to regulate the unpredictable actions of the President...

A man develops an attraction to the daughter of his father's fiancee.

Checco, an uneducated but self-satisfied fellow from Milan, who has always dreamed of becoming a police officer, fails his entrance exam for the third time. It must be said that at the oral examination Checco said that the reason why he wanted to join the police was benefits in kind and cronyism! But the young man has connections and he soon finds himself a security agent at the Milan Cathedral. Of course the bumbling idiot proves a living catastrophe! Spotted by Sufien, an Arab terrorist who is preparing an attack against the cathedral, Checco appears as the perfect sucker. To manipulate him, he sends his charming sister Farah to him, with the mission to seduce him...

The life story of Italian violinist and composer, Niccolò Paganini, who rose to fame as a virtuoso in the early 19th Century.

Numa Tempesta is a fascinating, charismatic, businessman at the top of his game. Driven by a ruthless, relentless need to succeed, Numa will stop at nothing to close a deal even if it means bending the law. That's until the law catches up to him and to avoid prison, Numa is sentenced to a year of community service in a homeless shelter. While there, Numa cannot conduct any business but he must close the deal of the century or lose his fortune. It will take Numa every crafty bone in his body to find a solution and he may just find it where he least expects it.

The story of four friends Giulio, Gemma, Paolo, Riccardo, told over forty years, from 1980 to today, from adolescence to adulthood. Their hopes, their disappointments, their successes and failures are the intertwining of a great story of friendship and love through which Italy and the Italians are also told. A large fresco that tells who we are, where we come from and also where they will go and who our children will be. It is the great circle of life that repeats itself with the same dynamics despite the fact that years and even different periods pass in the background.

Francesco Taramelli is a psychoanalyst who is dealing with three patients going through various hurdles in their love lives: Marta is chasing a deaf-mute man who has stolen things from her book shop, Sara is a lesbian who was left by her girlfriend just after she proposed to her, and 18-year-old Emma is seeing a 50-year-old architect called Alessandro, who is already married. Unfortunately, these three patients are Francesco's three beloved daughters.

Director Franco Zeffirelli's beloved version of one of the most well-known love stories in the English language. Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall in love against the wishes of their feuding families. Driven by their passion, the young lovers defy their destiny and elope, only to suffer the ultimate tragedy.

Alessandro, a forty-year-old widower pediatrician, lives with his teenage son, leading a monotonous and insipid existence. After a call from an old friend in Brazil, the man has his tired stability tested.

A university researcher is fired because of the cuts to university. To earn a living he decides to produce drugs recruiting his former colleagues, who despite their skills are living at the margins of society.

Discover Leonardo da Vinci, the man, the painter, the scientist and the inventor, through a unique, engaging and fascinating journey in the mind of Leonardo.

Mirko and Manolo are best friends and live in the suburbs of Rome. They both live in poor conditions with their single parents, are still in school and struggle with occasional odd jobs to make ends meet. Together they share dreams of women, of sex and money, of a better life to come. Then, after killing a man in a hit-and-run one night, they get involved with the local mafia and their lives change dramatically.