Italian movies about happiness

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.

A runaway couple go on an unforgettable journey from Boston to Key West, recapturing their passion for life and their love for each other on a road trip that provides revelation and surprise right up to the very end.

A former narcotics smuggler, now living peaceably in the Calabrian hills, is drawn back into his family’s drug-trade dynasty by his impetuous teenage son.

Two young boys, Valerio and Christian, form a powerful friendship over the summer.

Anna and Piero fighting routine of a long marriage, when Piero loses his memory, Anna reconstructs his way. For its part, the concierge Rocco and his friend Michele play in a group that emulates the Beatles and face opposition from their partners. Finally, Marcello and Paola are a divorced couple who, from time to time, pretend they are still together to avoid problems. They are victims of a relentless war of sexes.

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.

Francis and Claudia are good friends . He is a lawyer, she is veterinary doctor. Among them there are no secrets , until John arrives. Claudia decides to marry him. Francis realizes that friendship between man and women is more complicated.

Ayiva recently left his home in Burkina Faso in search of a way to provide for his sister and his daughter. He takes advantage of his position in an illegal smuggling operation to get himself and his best friend Abas off of the continent. Ayiva adapts to life in Italy, but when tensions with the local community rise, things become increasingly dangerous. Determined to make his new situation work he attempts to weather the storm, but it has its costs.

The story is based on 2014 Mille Miglia and encompasses eighty-five years of the race, from early 1930s to the present day, mixing life, memories, mystery and excitement of its characters who are brought together by the love for cars and separated by long-time secrets. They are fascinated by the presence and the story of a fabulous OM 665 Superba - a car built in Brescia, who won the first edition in 1927 - taken to pieces and forgotten for so many years.

Ciro's body is sinking in the dark waters of the Gulf of Naples. And as it sinks deeper and deeper, memories emerge. The sounds muffled by the water merge with the screams of fleeing people. It is 1980, the earth shakes, the palace collapses, but under the rubble you can hear the cry of a newborn baby still alive. Ten years later, we find that new-born baby as it survives as it can on the streets of Naples, nobody's son. Vivid memories of a criminal education that made him what he is: Ciro Di Marzio, the Immortal. Prequel of the "Gomorra" tv show.

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 true story of Rocco Granata, an Italian coal miner's son who followed his passion for music against his father's wishes and social barriers.

On December 12, 1969, a bomb kills 17 people and injures many more at a major national bank in Milan. Others bombings soon follow, marking the beginning of the Years of Lead. Local anarchists are scapegoated for the massacre by police and the media, but an investigator uncovers a larger subversive project made of far-right fringe groups, corrupt secret services, and other interests that seek to undermine democracy.

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.

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.

A poetic adventure of two children who arrive from a small village in outing to Rome and, in front of an unexpected, decide to escape from their mother

Womanizer father teaches clumsy son the decalogue of seduction: ten foolproof rules to make any woman fall in love. But the results will be not what expected.

Marco encounters his ex-girlfriend Consueloand starts seeing her without telling that he has just married. Antonio is an MP and during his European trip he has a love affair with elegant Olga who has a big secret to hide. Recently-jilted Fabio is mistaken for psychiatrist by a beautiful girl Valentina with whom he falls in love. A divorce lawyer Sandra is romantically attracted to her client's husband Massimo.

A wealthy broker, his loyal butler, and a poor unauthorized seller all see their social positions change in a twist of fate.

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.

Alessandro and Anna meet by chance. Same night, different tables, both on a date where the other person does not show up. Initially Alessandro cannot stand Anna, but things change when he gets to know her.

The story of the kidnapping of 16-year-old John Paul Getty III and the desperate attempt by his devoted mother to convince his billionaire grandfather Jean Paul Getty to pay the ransom.

Checco is 39 and lived his entire life with his parents. He loves his job where he does nothing the all day until something happens that will change his behavior and maybe his life..

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.

A small Sicilian town elects a new, honest major but quickly learns that playing by the rules is not as easy as it seems

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.

Both a journalist and a documentary filmmaker chase the story of a murder and its prime suspect.

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.

Young and in prison for theft, Daphne falls in love with Josh, another inmate. Their love story exists through secret letters and fleeting conversations.

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

We are with Pasolini during the last hours of his life, as he talks with his beloved family and friends, writes, gives a brutally honest interview, shares a meal with Ninetto Davoli, and cruises for the roughest rough trade in his gun-metal gray Alfa Romeo. Over the course of the action, Pasolini’s life and his art (represented by scenes from his films, his novel-in-progress Petrolio, and his projected film Porno-Teo-Kolossal) are constantly refracted and intermingled to the point where they become one.

An ambitious soccer referee ends up handling a crucial match between two small Sardinian teams

A story set in the 90s and in the outskirts of Rome to Ostia. A world where money, luxury cars, night clubs, cocaine and synthetic drugs are easy to run. A world in which Vittorio and Cesare, in their early twenties, act in search of their success.

Romulus and Remus, two shepherds and loyal brothers, end up taking part to a journey that will lead one of them to be the founder of the greatest nation ever seen. However, the fate of the chosen one will pass from killing his own brother.

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.

Marcello, a small and gentle dog groomer, finds himself involved in a dangerous relationship of subjugation with Simone, a former violent boxer who terrorizes the entire neighborhood. In an effort to reaffirm his dignity, Marcello will submit to an unexpected act of vengeance.

Northern Italy, 17th century. In a monastery, a nun accused of witchcraft tries to seduce a young confessor who refuses to yield to his searing temptation.

A retired lawyer becomes friends with a young wife who has just moved in the adjacent apartment with her family.

Elena (Kasia Smutniak) and Antonio (Francesco Arca) seem not to be made for each other. They are too different in terms of character, life choices, worldview, and the way they relate to others. They are total opposites. However, they are overwhelmed by a mutual attraction they're trying hard to avoid; but to which they succumb to. This dramedy on relationships also gets a very credible performance from Paola Miraccione, who plays the tragic, albeit funny, character Egle.

In the suburbs of Rome, two disparate lives with only desire for vengeance and redemption in common find their destinies intertwined. Massimo's mind is plagued with images of his wife's violent death at the hands of a criminal gang involved in the production of snuff films. With every memory of the woman he loved replaced by unforgettable images of her horrific final moments, Massimo sees only one chance to take back his life: find the wealthy individual who commissioned the sickening murder - and make them pay. Barabba, a recently released convict, hopes to keep a promise he made to his father and start a new life with his brother, Spaccio, far from the violent world that they used to inhabit. Discovering that his brother is involved in the snuff gang, Barabba seeks to change things the only way he knows how: through violence and bloodshed.

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.

A look at the controversial riot cops unit, told through the stories of three veteran cops and a young recruit.

Martino's sister, Caterina, can't work anymore for health reasons and he replaces her as cleaner for dr. Guglielmo Gioia, a mental coach. While the doctor leaves, Martino pretends to be his assistant.

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.

Gianni is sixty. He is retired but has not become lazy for all that. In fact he is a helpful fellow who gives a hand to all those who need one: shopping for his wife, walking the pretty neighbor's dog, and so on. Everybody likes Gianni, but is it for the right reasons? Doesn't his wife profit by the situation (she still works so it is only logical that Gianni do all the chores)? Isn't he subject to the excruciating whims of his rich mother?... Sure, everybody LIKES Gianni, but who LOVES him? Agreed, being kind to them, he is the ladies pet, but he does not attract them anymore. That is why, when his macho lawyer friend Alfonso blames him for not having young mistresses "like every other senior Italian male", Gianni, who is beginning to ask himself questions about what it is like to become old, starts chasing dames.

A father, who calls himself "open" and tolerant and fights against any form of discrimination, reveals himself as not so liberal when his son announces the engagement to his partner. Overwhelmed by the news, he regresses into the most fierce opponent of same sex marriage, and tries to undermine his son's happiness with a series of embarrassing situations.

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.

In a Naples suspended between magic and superstition, madness and rationality, a mystery envelops the existence of Adriana (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), overwhelmed by a sudden love and a violent crime.

In the summer of '75 Pier Paolo Pasolini's film, "Salò", is stolen from the lab where he is editing it. This is just the first step of an intricate plan that will bring the great poet to his violent death.

A gangster known as "Samurai" wants to turn the waterfront of Rome into a new Las Vegas. All the local mob bosses have agreed to work for this common goal. But peace is not to last long.