The 39 most popular 1990s italian movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Life Is Beautiful
1997 · 1h 56m
country: Italy
A touching story of an Italian book seller of Jewish ancestry who lives in his own little fairy tale. His creative and happy life would come to an abrupt halt when his entire family is deported to a concentration camp during World War II. While locked up he tries to convince his son that the whole thing is just a game.


Provocation
1995 · 1h 27m
country: Italy
Passions run wildly amok at Carlo's country inn as his wife, Amelia, fantasizes about an affair with a guest, while his grandson Gianni spies on him to learn the secrets of love. And when Carlo's sexy cousin Marilinda comes to stay, everybody sits up and takes notice.


Bagnomaria
1999 · 1h 26m
country: Italy
In Pietrasanta all are excited for the annual party of summer end. Here we find four characters: Merigo, a naive guy passionate of bike; Pierre, son of the mayor; Simone, a pestiferous kid; Mario, lifeguard of "Bagnomaria".


The Secret
1990 · 1h 50m
country: Italy
Lucia (Natassja Kinski) is a volatile, exciteable young woman. She forms a romance with Carlo (Stefano Dionisi), who is somewhat callow and is very skittish. Their romance is not an easy one, but they are assisted in coping with its ups and downs by their mutual friendship with Franco (Franco Citti), an older, wiser and more stable man.


Just Like a Cat
1993 · 1h 15m
country: Italy
A couple is looking for distractions: Julia creates relationships with her daughter’s boyfriend Nancy and with her bodyguard Frank, James seeks contact with her friend Baby Ryan, and so on, between maids, secretaries, girls and men of the house.


The Legend of 1900
1998 · 2h 50m
country: Italy
Musician Max Tooney goes to sell his prized Conn trumpet to a music shop, where he plays the instrument one last time. The shopkeeper recognises the song as one on a record matrix he found and asks who the piece is by. Tooney tells the story of an infant found abandoned in the first class dining room of the four-stacker ocean-liner SS Virginian on 1 January 1900. Danny Boodman, a coal-man from the boiler room, names the boy Danny Boodman T. D. Lemon 1900, after himself, the fruit crate the boy was found in, and the year, and raises him as his own.


The Smile of the Fox
1992 · 1h 26m
country: Italy
Mark, a hitman haunted by his past as a corrupt Miami cop and the death of his wife and son, prepares for his next killing. Gradually he becomes fascinated by the beautiful prostitute who lives in the next apartment and they embark on a passionate affair. Their dreams of a life together are complicated by her pimp being a drugs baron; before they can escape he must die, but things are never that simple...


Joseph
1995 · 3h 5m
country: Germany
Joseph, favored son of Jacob and great-grandson of Abraham, is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. Rising to become prime minister of Egypt. Joseph governed the country during a seven year famine, during which his brothers visit Egypt seeking grain, only to encounter their brother, presumed long dead.


Craving Desire
1993 · 1h 37m
country: Italy
Luigi, who is engaged to a rich bourgeois, Cinzia, meets his lovely cousin, Sonia, at the cremation of their grandmother. Six months later, Sonia moves in and enters his life, and gradually succeeds in seducing him. Sonia upsets his life. Now, Cinzia is jealous but he can not resist the seductress.


The Postman
1994 · 1h 54m
country: Italy
Simple Italian postman learns to love poetry while delivering mail to a famous poet; he uses this to woo local beauty Beatrice.


Eleven Days, Eleven Nights 2
1991 · 1h 30m
country: Italy
Sarah Asproon returns to New Orleans to act as executrix of the estate of a millionaire whom she was once the mistress of. She must decide which one of his surviving family members will inherit his fortune. It's not a decision that she's willing to make alone....


The Flesh
1991 · 1h 30m
country: Italy
A piano player meets and falls in love with a beautiful and voluptuous woman who, by some strange procedure, leaves the man unable to move but with a permanent priapism. After some time he becomes sick of it and she relieves his paralysis. Eventually she gets bored and decides to leave, but he can't take it because he loves her…


The Man-Eater
1999 · 1h 20m
country: Italy
This is the story of a Sicilian woman that tries to have avidly as many sexual adventures as possible. She uses different identities and personalities, but she can't stop collecting adventures. One day she meets Valerio, a young student who falls in love with her.


A Midsummer Night's Dream
1999 · 1h 56m
country: Italy
The lovely Hermia is to wed Demetrius, but she truly cares for Lysander. Hermia's friend, Helena, is in love with Demetrius, while other romantic entanglements abound in the woods, with married fairy rulers Titania and Oberon toying with various lovers and each other.


The Raffle
1991 · 1h 33m
country: Italy
Struggling with a financial crisis, a good-looking widow decides to put herself up for grabs. However, going through with it becomes almost impossible with a new love and the legal system thrown into the mix.


Bambola
1996 · 1h 35m
country: France
Her name is Mina, but she is called Bambola (doll). Upon the death of her mother, she and her homosexual brother, Flavio, open a pizzeria. A man named Ugo loans Bambola the money, but is then killed in a fight with another one of her boyfriends, Settimio. While visiting Settimio in jail, she meets a sadistic man named Furio, and they begin a relationship.


Troublemakers
1994 · 1h 47m
country: Germany
Two brothers who hate themselves are going to spend Christmas with their mother. She tries to get them together.


Beyond the Clouds
1995 · 1h 50m
country: Italy
Four tales, each centered on a woman, journey inward to explore the enigmatic reality of their lives, connecting through a single narrative thread.


Once Upon a Crime
1992 · 1h 34m
country: United States
On their way to Monte Carlo, Monaco, Marilyn and her husband, Neil, meet several other married couples, including Julian and Phoebe, who are traveling with a lost dog they plan to return to its wealthy owner for a large reward. But, when the dog's mistress is murdered, the travelers become the prime suspects, and Inspector Bonnard is determined to track them all down.


Titus
1999 · 2h 42m
country: United Kingdom
Titus Andronicus returns from the wars and sees his sons and daughters taken from him, one by one. Shakespeare's goriest and earliest tragedy.


The Comfort of Strangers
1990 · 1h 47m
country: Italy
An Italian diplomat's son follows and seduces English lovers in Venice.


Cemetery Man
1994 · 1h 44m
country: Italy
Francesco Dellamorte is the groundskeeper at a cemetery where the dead just won’t stay dead—and it’s up to him to deal with those who come back to life with a hunger for human flesh. But Dellamorte’s job soon becomes much more complicated when he falls for an enigmatic young woman whose husband has recently died.


Miracolo italiano
1994 · 1h 44m
country: Italy
7 segments about life in 1990s Italy: two MPs from the opposite sides of the political spectrum spend the night together; during their honeymoon, a woman cheats on her husband with her favorite soap opera star; a married man pretends to be ill to seduce his younger nurse; a family discovers that their son's beautiful fiancée is transgender; an unsatisfied single woman is duped by her celebrity crush for Kevin Costner; two best friends want to have fun; a couple on a tropical holiday is fascinated by their indigenous masseuse.


Ethan Frome
1993 · 1h 39m
country: United Kingdom
Married couple, Ethan and Zeena, are in need an extra hand around the house due to Zeena's debilitated body and constant illness. The young woman who joins them is a beautiful, spirited person. She and Ethan fall in love much to the dismay of Zeena.


Solomon
1997 · 2h 50m
country: Czech Republic
David, now an old man, is still king of Israel. Among his sons, the ambitious Adonijah and the clever Solomon, fierce rivals, since both are prospective heirs to the throne and only one can be.


The Stendhal Syndrome
1996 · 1h 59m
country: Italy
A young policewoman slowly goes insane while tracking down an elusive serial rapist/killer through Italy when she herself becomes a victim of the brutal man's obsession.


Chinese Kamasutra
1993 · 1h 25m
country: Italy
Joan Parker, an American scholar of Chinese lore, recently took on a job at a Chinese library. When she stumbles upon a volume of the Kamasutra, her sexual fantasies are unleashed, but she remains cold towards the advances of her fellow librarian. There seems to be a connection to a haunted house she passes by on her way home, and the strange man keeps watching her from a barred window above. Unknowingly, she stumbles into the clutches of the Kamasutra cult, and through a series of trials and orgies discovers her sexuality...and her true nature as a reincarnation of an unhappy lover


Esther
1999 · 1h 27m
country: Czech Republic
Esther, the beautiful queen of Persia, intervenes to save the Jewish people from a bloody massacre.


The Monster
1994 · 1h 52m
country: Italy
A vicious serial sex killer is on the loose, and landscape gardener and shop-window outfitter Loris is the prime suspect, thanks to his unfortunate habit of getting caught in compromising situations (for which there is always a totally innocent explanation that the police fail to spot). Undercover policewoman Jessica is assigned by eccentric police psychologist Taccone to follow Loris.


P.O. Box Tinto Brass
1995 · 1h 21m
country: Italy
A successful erotic film producer from Rome regularly receives letters from female fans seeking his advice on how to spice up their sex lives. Thanks to his years of experience in both the film business and the sex industry, he has all sorts of tips at the ready and, in an emergency, is happy to make a house call himself to demonstrate his qualities in person.


Jeremiah
1998 · 1h 31m
country: Germany
The young Jeremiah grows up in a priest's family in the village of Anathoth, near Jerusalem. God appears to Jeremiah in different human guises on several occasions, and makes it clear that he has been selected to announce God's message to the people of Jerusalem.


Husbands and Lovers
1991 · 1h 30m
country: Italy
Stefan finds that he can no longer tolerate the arrangement of his cheating wife ... he, the husband, gets her during the week and her lover gets her on the weekends. At the same time the wife finds herself increasingly drawn to the violence of her lover versus the adoration of her husband.


A Great Love
1995 · 1h 22m
country: Italy
Two couples meet at a spa when they realize their respective suites share a bathroom.


Saint Tropez, Saint Tropez
1992 · 1h 38m
country: Italy
Four stories intertwine during summer at Saint-Tropez: a couple tries to recapture their spark; a girl falls for a male stripper she met at a night club; a famous pianist tries to prevent his ex-wife from re-marrying; an unsuspecting suicidal man gives a gorgeous female Mafia hitman a run for her money.


Two Evil Eyes
1990 · 2h
country: Italy
A duo of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations about a greedy wife's attempt to embezzle her dying husband's fortune, and a sleazy reporter's adoption of a strange black cat.


Meridian
1990 · 1h 25m
country: United States
After her father’s death, Catherine returns to her family’s gothic castle in Italy and gets caught in the web of a mysterious love triangle.


Jacob
1994 · 1h 34m
country: Austria
Isaac's son Jacob deprives his brother Esau of his birthright and has to flee for his life. He finds shelter with his uncle Laban, but is himself deceived. Finally, Jacob has to face both his uncle and brother.


Games of Desire
1991 · 1h 20m
country: Italy
Florentine is a young, beautiful and passionate woman with a desire for love. Feeling abandoned by her husband's impotency, she searches for outside affection and seduction within brief, but often passionate encounters. During this web of desire she encounters Dorothy. Unknown to Florentine she is her husband's accomplice. In this twisted, frenzied fantasy her husband Jake becomes excited and aroused by the seduction of his wife. With his secret darkrooms and two-way mirrors he begins to desire his wife once more. Florentine, with the help of their adopted son, discovers his world of distorted fantasy. Amazed, but realising that Jake still loves her, she must act.


Lucky Luke
1991 · 1h 32m
country: Italy
Lucky Luke becomes the Sheriff of Daisy Town and runs out all the criminals. Then the Dalton brothers arrive and try to get the Indians to break the peace treaty and attack the town.
The 1990s were the independent film decade, when Sundance and Miramax pushed low-budget American filmmaking into the mainstream. It's also when Hong Kong action, Japanese animation, and Iranian art cinema found large Western audiences.
Italian cinema runs from the neorealists working in bombed-out postwar streets to Fellini's spectacle, the Spaghetti Western, and the lurid giallo thrillers that shaped modern horror. Few national cinemas have exported this many distinct genres.