Sweet Dreams (1981)

Sogni d'oro

1981 | Italy | Nanni Moretti | ★★★★★

Nanni Moretti's wildly inventive, oft hilarious Sweet Dreams is an irreverent, episodic, Woody-Allenesque comedy about the making of a film on Freud, featuring bold imagery, boisterous satire, and shoutily memorable performances.

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"Michele criticizes the film industry and its inhabitants and is particularly embattled with a Neapolitan director making a musical about the 1968 student demonstrations. At the same time, Michele has a creative block to finishing his film titled Freud’s Mother." Mubi

See also:

Stotty's 1980s Favourites

Ecce Bombo (1978)

Ecce bombo

1978 | Italy | Nanni Moretti | ★★★

Acclaimed Italian film-maker Nanni Moretti's sporadically, unpredictably entertaining Ecce Bombo is a nonsequitously plotless and playful but decidedly unpolished Italian comedy, filled with interesting ideas and amusing performances.

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"Michele Apicella is a neurotic young man dealing with family issues that sometimes center around his disillusioned mother. He’s also often flanked by friends, with whom he discusses and reacts to the issues of the day. He tries to find purpose for his life and some sort of adventure." Mubi

I Am Self-Sufficient (1976)

Io sono un autarchico

1976 | Italy | Nanni Moretti | ★★★

Lauded film-maker Nanni Moretti's mildly entertaining first film, I Am Self-Sufficient is a micro-budget Italian comedy shot on Super 8 film, featuring rough-and-ready performances, wild-and-woolly satire, and crude but interesting visuals.

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"Michele Apicella lives in Rome, in an apartment paid for by his father. Abandoned by his wife and his son Andrea, he occupies his time acting in an experimental theater company under the artistic direction of his friend Fabio." TMDb

Salvo (2013)

2013 | Italy | Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza | ★★★

Starring Saleh Bakri and Sara Serraiocco, Fabio Grassadonia & Antonio Piazza's unusual, formally ambitious Salvo is a psychologically unconvincing and vaguely unpleasant if nevertheless mildly effective existential hitman thriller.

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"As a henchman for the Sicilian mob sneaks into a house to eliminate an enemy, he comes across a young blind girl, and something extraordinary happens: Their destinies become linked together forever." Abu Dhabi Film Festival

A Bigger Splash (2015)

2015 | Italy | Luca Guadagnino | ★★★

Luca Guadagnino's generally unconvincing A Bigger Splash is a mildly diverting Italian adaptation of Alain Page's 1968 novel La Piscine, enlivened somewhat by Ralph Fiennes's exuberantly compelling performance and its sun-drenched locales.

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"In A Bigger Splash, rock legend Marianne Lane (Tilda Swinton) is recuperating on the volcanic island of Pantelleria with her partner Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts) when iconoclast record producer and old flame Harry (Ralph Fiennes) unexpectedly arrives with his daughter Penelope (Dakota Johnson) and interrupts their holiday, bringing with him an A-bomb blast of nostalgia from which there can be no rescue. A Bigger Splash is a sensuous portrait of desire, jealousy and rock and roll, under the Mediterranean sun." Fox Searchlight

Phenomena (1985)

1985 | Italy | Dario Argento | ★★★★

Starring Jennifer Connelly and Donald Pleasence, Dario Argento's Phenomena is a stylish and thoroughly entertaining yet utterly ridiculous slasher flick, featuring stilted dialogue, nonsensical plotting, and a brilliantly dementedly brilliantly demented ending.

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"Jennifer Corvino (Jennifer Connelly) daughter of a world-renowned movie star, arrives in the so-called Swiss Transylvania to attend an exclusive girls school. However, a vicious killer is targeting the pupils, and sleepwalker Jennifer finds herself in the assassin's headlights when her nocturnal wanderings cause her to witness the death of a fellow pupil. Aided by paraplegic etymologist John McGregor (Donald Pleasence) and her own uncanny ability to communicate telepathically with insects, Jennifer sets out to track down the killer before she herself becomes the latest victim..." Arrow Video