Paolo Stoppa

Two back-to-back stories that deals with two "taboo" themes, the celibacy of the clergy in the episode of Renato Pozzetto and the homosexuality in the one with Nino Manfredi.

The four old friends meet on the grave of the fifth of them, Perozzi, who died at the end of the first episode. Time has passed but they are still up for adventures and cruel jokes, and while they recall the one they created together with the late friend, new ones are on their way, starting right there at the cemetery.

Aliens send a hypnotic signal through a TV channel, and the signal makes people dance and makes them forget their fears.

In 18th-century Rome, impish aristocrat Onofrio del Grillo amuses himself by playing pranks on all sorts of people — his reactionary family and fellow nobles, the poors, the French occupiers trying to modernize society, and even the Pope himself.

Sasà Jovine (Nino Manfredi) is a self-styled lawyer involved in petty businesses with Neapolitan mobsters (camorristi). When one of his clients, don Michele Miletti (Paolo Stoppa) offers him a huge bribe (mazzetta) to search for his daughter who disappeared mysteriously taking with her some hot documents, Sasà finds himself trapped into a spiral of homicides.

Summer Sunday at a small beach house at the coast of Rome. Many people and stories: women's basketball team, two sports-obsessed soldiers, two men with their girlfriends and the priest with a big secret, an elderly couple with their pregnant granddaughter, and engagemented couple wanting to have sex for the first time.

Parody of real life events of the Roman emperor Nero.

A Grand Slapstick comedy about four buddies serving in the army. Their long-suffering sergeant attempts to whip them into shape but the conflict spirals out of control.

Absurdism’s king of comedy, Luigi Pirandello, adapted a 1915 short story he wrote titled “Signora Frola and Signor Ponza, Her Son-in-Law” into a play two years later. Right You Are (If You Think Are) was presented in dramatic form as a “A Parable in Three Acts.” As in any instructive parable, the characterization is put fully into the service of delivering the lesson and thus creates mysteries about motivation that remain unresolved by the conclusion.

A beautiful girl Rosina lives In Rome. Her husband is strong as a bull and jealous as Shakespeare's Othello. Once the husband of Rosina kills a wealthy aristocrat, who sang the serenade to his wife, and now he is hiding from justice.

Ariberto de Ficulle is a nobleman who came into possession of a small feud by marrying the ugly Matilde Montefiascone.

Based on satirical short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about a vain, egotistical Etienne Gerard, a French brigadier serving during the Napoleonic Wars. He thinks he's the best soldier and lover that ever lived and intends to prove it.

A sexy widow discovers her late husband had a secret apartment where he cheated on her. Now she decides to use the same apartment to explore her own sexuality.

As the railroad builders advance unstoppably through the Arizona desert on their way to the sea, Jill arrives in the small town of Flagstone with the intention of starting a new life.

Ignazio is married to a much younger girl, as she starts being attracted by a handsome young man. The new couple set up several plans to kill the cuckhold, but.. it always seems to work out for lucky Ignazio!

A criminal mastermind sets up a phony film production as part of a plan to smuggle stolen gold.

A dedicated layabout (Jean-Pierre Cassel) bounces from relationship to relationship, moving on only when the prospect of employment presents itself.

Manuel Artiguez, a famous bandit during the Spanish civil war, has lived in French exile for 20 years. When his mother is dying he considers visiting her secretly in his Spanish home town. But his biggest enemy, the Spanish police officer Vinolas, prepared a trap at the hospital as a chance to finally catch Artiguez.

Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...

Thomas Becket, Henry II's longtime advisor, finds his friendship with the debauched king corroding when he is unwillingly appointed as Archbishop of Canterbury in an attempt to gain absolute loyalty from the Church.

As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life.

Two jerks are enlisted in the Italian army during W.W.1 and by pure luck manage to help win an important battle.

Based on a Anton Chekhov short story, this slight tale has some good moments as the drama of a young boy's journey unfolds. The lad comes from peasant stock, and one day his family decides it would be best for him to go live with his uncle in the city. The only problem is that the city is all the way across the Russian steppes, and at this time in history, that arduous journey could only be undertaken by horse and carriage. Reminiscent of the American pioneer wagon trains heading West, the tale lacks any attacks from hostile forces but is filled with charming vignettes. In one part of the journey, the boy comes across some fishermen along a river, harpooning their catch for the day. In another segment, he is entertained when some folk dancers do a lively show. But in general, it is too long and unmomentous a journey to hold attention well for nearly two hours.

An anthology of four comic moral tales about the hypocrisies surrounding sex in 1960s Italy: frothy young love and office politics in the big city; milk advertisements that begin to haunt an aging prude; a trophy wife enduring her husband's very public affairs; a lucky ticket-holder at a small town fair.

The tale of the famous vendetta, vengeance over the years between two families. For nearly nothing at the start, as always with Sicilians or Corsican people, from the underworld or not...

In Naples, a voice from the skies announces one morning that the final judgment will be at 6 p.m. on that day. What follows is a series of vignettes depicting various people's reactions (or lack thereof) to the announcement.

Vanina Vanini, a bored, spoiled Roman countess, falls in love with a dedicated young patriot who is in Rome to assassinate a traitor to the brotherhood of the Carboneria.

1821 Rome: Ulysses enrolls in the Italian Fascist party because he cannot find any employment. The first task entrusted to him leads Ulysses to the printer Fossati, where he's hired as an apprentice.

Josepha is on the verge eighteen living with her drunken washed up actor uncle. She longs for the companionship of a group of her mo-ped riding peers who dabble in activities on the shady side of a legal dividing line. In order to get the semi-delinquent group to accept her, Josepha runs to the police with a tall tale about the local druggist, Savary. The police are looking for a sex murderer, and Josepha insists Savary is their man. What she does not know, however, can do her considerable damage.

The film shows how Italy's historic national hero Giuseppe Garibaldi (embodied by Renzo Ricci) leads a military campaign known as Expedition of the Thousand in 1860 and conquers Sicily and Naples. When the Bourbon monarchy has left Southern Italy, he supports Victor Emmanuel II of Italy who achieves a lasting unification under the aegis the House of Savoy. Roberto Rossellini has said he was prouder of this film than of any other film he ever made.

The ironic study of a young man's poignant adventures and sensual adventures...based on "Roman Tales" by Alberto Moravia.

In Nazi-occupied Rome, a beautiful bootlegger, to the chagrin of her lover, gives sanctuary to three escaped POWs: an American pilot, a Russian sergeant and a British major.

When a impoverished widow’s family moves to the big city, two of her five sons become romantic rivals with deadly results.

Loreley looks back to the happy times when she became a silent movie star with the huge success of "La Contessa Azzurra", directed by Don Salvatore and produced by Don Peppino, the owner of a Café Chantant.

In Spain, during the Napoleonic rule, the French Governor of Andalusia is besieged by the locals who have countless demands and wishes.

Historical drama depicting the last of the Punic Wars between the Roman Republic and Carthage.

During the period between world wars, vaudeville sketches were popular before film showings.Gastone is one of the characters played by the famous Ettore Petrolini who figures in these sketches.

A gorgeous housekeeper turns the tables on the men in a small Mediterranean coastal town by using their own vicious drinking game.

An ambitious French girl who moved to Italy to be an actress cannot break through and then opts for a normal life.

Intersecting lives on an island holiday: A lawyer anxious he caused a youth's death.An engineer suspecting his wife after being teased by pranksters.A young man falling for a nurse.A Frenchman seeing his wife wooed by a local.

Raffaele, a Neapolitan student, get the news that his beloved grandmother Sabella is dying. He immediately goes to Pollena to be beside her.

In Fontecilla, a Spanish village in decline, the mayor and other illustrious citizens hatch a crazy plan to revitalize tourism.

A newlywed couple win the lottery and the prize is a mink fur which might change their lives forever.

Hyacinth, a former matador who lives miserably with his nephew Pepote, receives a letter reminding him that, as agreed a few days before, he must participate in a bullfight to be held that same afternoon.

Peppino Bardellotti, a widower, lives in Milan with his four daughters and ex sister-in-law Matilde, who urges girls to settle down by marrying a wealthy man.

Antonio La Quaglia becomes the railroader in Piovarolo during 1922 meanwhile the fascism is raising. Later he marries a jewish woman. He has career ambitions but can not reach them.

In Romagna, an Italian district, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the owners of an estate are the professor Edoardo, always lost in reveries, and his wife Maria. They have a son, Robertino, who has a friend: Zvanin. Zvanin is the son of Mingòn and Marianna, two peasants. Dolly is an american cousin and every summer she comes in Romagna. The movie narrates their stories over the years until the post I World War period.

A lecherous governor of Naples in 1680 lusts after the wives of several peasants, particularly after the miller's wife Carmela. The miller himself plans to avenge his honor by seducing the wife of the governor.

Nannina is engaged to a sleazy, unruly boxer who ends up in jail after a fight with a traffic policeman.

These are the years of the Second World War, and Toto is imprisoned in a concentration camp, suffering the harassment of Colonel Hammler, a Nazi cruel and despotic.

A young girl meets by chance an engineer who lives with an unbearable mistress. After abandoning his mistress, the engineer has to leave for Sardinia. He decides to take the girl with him, who has been waiting for this.

Three women share the same apartment and the same goal, to find a wealthy husband and settle down.

A painter's wife becomes ill. A friend comes to comfort him,but he falls in love with her.

The Cheerful Squadron is a 1954 Italian war-comedy film directed by Paolo Moffa and Interpreted by movie stars like Paolo Stoppa, Vittorio De Sica, Alberto Sordi and Silvana Pampanini. Based on the military environment novel The Allegro Squadron by Georges Courteline (1886), this film presents a series of sketches on military life in the late nineteenth century.

A tribute to Naples, this film presents six episodes: a clown exploited by a gangster, a pizza seller losing her husband’s ring, a child's funeral, a gambler beaten by a kid, a prostitute's unusual wedding, and a "wisdom seller" offering advice.

The film covers a hundred years in the lives of the Ricordi family, the Milan publishing house of the title, and the various composers and other historic personalities, whose careers intersected with the growth of the Ricordi house. It beautifully draws the parallel between the great music of the composers, the historic and social upheavals of their times, as well as the "smaller stories" of the successive generations of Ricordi.

The Count of Courvallon, whose gallant exploits have made the headlines, has uncoupled and lives in a pleasant estate in the C te. He has a son, Edouard, and a stylish valet, Antonio. This peaceful life is disrupted by a battalion of penniless girls living in a neighboring villa. Luisella has the nerve to introduce herself to André de Courvallon as his daughter, and immediately her comrades follow suit. The supposed father is not fooled, but his son takes it badly, especially as he has fallen in love with Luisella. Fairy tales always have happy endings.

Italian naval secret agents acquire a British codebook and the Italian counter-espionage agents start tracking enemy agents working undercover in Italy and providing false information.

An Italo-French biopic about one of the most famous women of Belle Époque, Spanish-born dancer and actress, star of Folies-Bèrgere: Carolina Otero.

A middle-aged insurer, after spending a sleepless night because of a quarrel with his wife, goes to the pharmacy to buy a sleeping pill. By mistake, the doctor, instead of giving him a sedative, gives him poison. The man goes out of town to visit a client and, unaware that he is wanted by the police, is more than once about to swallow the pills; but every time an obstacle prevents him from fulfilling his purpose.

Music, ballet, folk dances and mime eliciting the spirit of Naples across the ages are loosely tied together by the comedic wanderings and exploits of the Esposito family.

It is a biopic portraying the life of the composer Franz Schubert.

Three stories, very different in space and time. Lysistrata, a dancer from ancient times, Jeanne d'Arc, medieval warrior and Elisabeth, American war widow who comes on pilgrimage in Italy.

Young sailor Edmond Dantès is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes, finds treasure, and reinvents himself as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo to exact revenge on those who betrayed him.

Marie, a young doctor, settles down on the Ouessant Island. She will be able to win the diffidence of the local population but she will have to fight for her independence after falling in love with an Italian engineer.

A nearsighted clerk gets fired after embarrassing mishaps. He mistakenly takes a gangster's raincoat, finds a gun inside, and is arrested as Public Enemy No. 1. Chaos erupts as both the police and the mob pursue him.

Ignazio Panizza goes from one failure to the other until he meets a singer, Caterina, provided with an exceptional voice.

A young and shy girl Celestina arrives from her small home village to Rome to become a housemaid. Her inexperience and naivety causes her to change her employers quite frequently. As she is moving from one family to another she makes friends with other Roman maids and falls desperately in love with a handsome plumber Fernando. But Fernando isn't telling Celestina that he is already engaged to another woman.

Energetic priest Don Camillo returns to the town of Brescello for more political and personal duels with Communist mayor Peppone.

A renowned surgeon becomes involved with an attractive circus trapeze artist with the relationship threatening his marriage and family life.

The biographical story of Puccini spans his creative life from early student days to the height of success, including his early flop Madama Butterfly and his incomplete Turandot. Along the way he encounters three women who change his life, including an attractive, beautiful singer whom he drops for a small town girl, and a servant girl who commits suicide over him.

While on vacation in Rome, married American Mary Forbes becomes entangled in an affair with an Italian man, Giovanni Doria. As she prepares to leave Italy, Giovanni confesses his love for her; he doesn't want her to go. Together they wander the railroad station where Mary is to take the train to Paris, then ultimately reunite with her husband and daughter in Philadelphia. Will she throw away her old life for this passionate new romance?

The film follows men from all walks of life, seeking to give meaning to their lives and rediscover their inner peace during a retreat in the “House of Silence”. For three days, they meditate on their lives.

A meek and simple-minded boarding school teacher falls in love with a prostitute and gets the boot from school. He tries to have her change her way of living but she is very hard to convince. When she finally realizes he really loves her it is too late.

Gino Bardi is a centre-forward in a football team which is about to be relegated to the second division. Just before a very important match a girl he has a relationship with proposes him to rig it. He refuses the offer but he actually begins playing like an amateur and the crowd begin to smell something fishy going on.

A daydreaming French composer sees himself as a fine figure dashing through history.

In a village, the pharmacist and the innkeeper have an intense rivalry fuelled by the fact that they were once romantically involved many years before. To spite her rival, the innkeeper arranges to have her nephew set up a second pharmacy to take business away him. Unbeknownst to them a romance is developing between the younger generation of the families.

A number of different segments taken from 19th century Italian stories.

The Passaguai family is living peacefully, but then they go to see the magician Bhorman, starting a series of problem for them.

Turn-of-the-century Naples. Salvatore Ruotolo and his wife are murdered and their bodies are found in different locations. Since the evidence points to a crime by the Neapolitan crime organization, the Camorra, fear and corruption cause serious hindrances to the investigation by police authorities. In charge is a young and courageous judge who, using evidence discovered by chance, tries to reconstruct the story of the double murder. The plot that the judge must unravel is very complicated.

Tino Scotti plays a man who is tricked into trying to kill himself. When all his attempts fail, he is believed to be immortal.

Wrongly accused of his wife's death, a marine officer is forced to resign and sees his life fall apart.

A poor musician hires a courtesan to pose as his wife so he can "give" her to a wealthy count in return for patronage.

A compilation of segments covers the seven deadly sins of greed, wrath, envy, pride, lust, sloth, and gluttony.

The story of 5 girls among 200 who answer a wanted ad for a modest secretarial position, which leads to overcrowding in the building and a tragic accident.

Lyria, a faded beauty who runs a seedy waterfront bar, is madly in love with Bob, a crooked attorney. Bob can't bring himself to confess his love for Minnie, the pretty daughter of Simon, a safe cracker. In order to run away with her, Bob, one of the masterminds of a big-time robbery, betrays his friends. But Lyria, who has found out what is happening, makes Minnie fall into a deadly trap.

Once upon a time a wise and kind old woman discovers a baby in her cabbage patch. She brings up the child and, when she dies, the boy, Totò, enters an orphanage. Totò leaves the orphanage a happy young man, and looks for work in post-war Milan. He ends up with the homeless and organizes them to build a shanty town in a vacant lot. But when greedy developers threaten the community’s land, Totò will need all the help he can get in order to find an impossible way out.

Since the envisaged tour guide for a tourist crowd on the way to Italy is allegedly suddenly prevented, the secretary of the travel agency must unexpectedly step in and accompany the group on the bus.

A fallen nobleman convinces a Roman coachman that he has found the way to win at Sambo, a Brazilian game of chance. Sent a messenger to Brazil to gamble, the two men go wild and run up debts. When they realize they have won nothing, they initially fall into total despair; however the coachman had played a coupon from the football pools on his own account. He will win and make things right.

A beautiful tavern-keeper finds herself getting caught up in a war between Italy and Turkey.

Diavolo's bandits fight Napoleon's troops and so King Ferdinand IV, the Neapolitan king, makes Fra Diavolo a Colonel. In the meantime the bandit also falls in love with Marietta, the king's illegitimate child.

The historic clock of a small town needs to be repaired but there is no money in the town coffers to pay for it. Don Paolo (Peppino Spadaro), the Priest, raises the money by lottery and thinks the surplus should go to the poor. The Communists and Socialists object because they are afraid the priest will get the credit and they claim it as "the people's money." The democratic mayor (Arturo Brogaglia) can think of no solution other than organizing committees and sub-committees. Finally, Rocchetti (Paola Stoppi), the town mechanic who has no answers for town problems and hates the clergy and politicians alike, comes forward and repairs the clock for the sheer joy of work.

Henri Faust, retiring after 50 years as a professor in a circa-1700 French university, despairs at the ravages of old age ... whereupon Mephistopheles, agent of Lucifer, appears as a virile, handsome young man and exchanges bodies with him to induce Faust to sign a pact to exchange his soul for renewed youth, riches and power. But though the "new" Faust is attracted by the material improvements in his life, he remains wary of signing, while Mephistopheles, now posing as the aged professor whose body he inhabits, must find a way to trick him into signing the pact - and dissuade him from the love of a gypsy girl who prays for his soul - or find himself damned by his own Master...

In ancient Rome a love story blossoms between Fabiola, daughter of a senator, and Rhual, a Gallic gladiator. After Fabiola's father is killed, the Romans blame the Christians and the persecution begins. Rhual confesses to being a Christian, is accused of the murder and sentenced to fight to the death in the arena.

Anna, only daughter of Felice Pastorino, a rich Genoese merchant, falls in love with a young sailor, Eugenio Devoto, with whom she has exchanged only a few words. Pastorino, a kind-hearted man, sincerely loves his daughter but is also very attached to money and would like to marry her to his cousin Alessandro Raffo, a man who is no longer young but wealthy, narrow-minded and materialistic.

Sicily, 17th Century. When his fiancée is kidnapped, a young man sets out to find her.

A young woman is murdered and robbed in broad daylight. A young man is arrested, in possession of some of the jewels of the victim. The passionate protests of his sister arouse the compassion of Za la Mort, who promises to help the girl.

An evil Czarist landowner had mistreated the father and friends of an officer.The officer wreaks vengeance by committing masked coach robberies and insinuates himself into his enemy's castle by pretending to be a French teacher.

Birdaghin is a dancer at La Scala in Milan whose rapid success also quickly goes to her head. Fortunately, everything will be fine.

In Naples, a local composer falls in love with an American tourist.

Elena invites her former husband Roberto to her country house with the aim of winning him back while her sister Monica invites her lover Filippo.

An unscrupulous theatrical agent introduces his latest "discovery" to an elderly baron who becomes infatuated with her.

One of the most famous movie stars of the moment has a problem with his car. The actor is obliged to stop in a provincial hotel, where he finds himself surrounded by his admirers.

Toto (Aldo Fabrizi), a Roman coachman with an old fashioned horse-drawn carriage who objects to the competition from motorised taxis, doesn't want his daughter Nannarella to go out with Roberto, a young taxi driver. But it is Roberto who helps him when he gets into trouble with a former client, Mary Dunchetti (Anna Magnani), an arrogant singer.

An anthology film of several segments about everyday Italian life. This is the first episodic film in the history of Italian cinema during the sound era; it consists of six sketches titled: “The Lost Umbrella,” “The Triumph of Poppea,” “Enjoy Your Meal!,” "Dont call me Dodo!", “My Soccer Ball,” and “Time Off.”

Leo is a young man trying to make a living without any success. Through fortuitous circumstances, he is assigned by the director of a big firm to accompany for one night the daughter of the firm's accountant, Titi. Leo pretends then to be the son of a tycoon and takes her to a luxurious restaurant.

The last days of Napoleon on the island of Saint Helena.

During a party a drunken guest falls from the terrace, killing himself. The police inspector in charge of the investigation suspects all the participants in turn, and mysterious stories come to light.

Two half brothers, one a pilot, the other a repairman at the plane factory of their father, are in a disagreement due to the envy of the younger brother, son of the first wife of their father. Then both brothers fall in love with the same woman; this causes more conflict between the two, making worse an already tense situation.

An Italian comedy from 1943.

The owner of a lottery store refuses to pay a large sum won by one of his workers that he hates, because that man received the winning numbers in a dream.

In Barcelona, in 1650, Count Don Cesare di Bazan tries to foil, with the help of an actress, a plot hatched against the king by the French ambassador.

Marquis Eduardo Parascandolo, after having squandered all his possessions for not having cared about his finances, spends his time professing to some young people his philosophy of life.

The famous composer's life and his career. His love story with Isabella Colbran, the soprano who was to become his wife and the singer in all his operas up to the unfortunate day she lost her voice.

The nephew of a wealthy nobleman, convicted for a forged check, is replaced in prison by a poor engineer. From the exchange of people derives a chain of misunderstandings and messes that ends out well.

Cinderella manages to marry the prince and move to the palace, where she is well-liked and loved by everyone. However, her evil stepsisters devise a way to get her kicked out.

A wealthy widow becomes infatuated with an adventurer posing as a poet and, forgetting her responsibilities as a mother and her no longer young age, falls prey to a love frenzy in her family that puts her at odds with her daughter, who has just left boarding school, and her own brother, who is all about scientific research. The girl, who has learned of the alleged poet's less-than-honest intentions, tries every means to drive him away and restore her mother's sentimental balance. For this she pretends to be in love with him who, attracted by her youth and rich dowry, proposes that she elope.

In the kingdom of Kindaor, traitor Sedesmondo kills his brother, the King of Kindaor, and becomes the tyrant of kingdom. He abandons the prince Arminio to beasts in the woods, but lions don't kill him and breed him as one of them.

A good lady, taken by the fear of getting old, gives herself to the frivolities of worldly life.

The noble Pantaleo Di Santa Paola has just died, and the preamble to his will is a confession in which he claims that in his youth he had a relationship with a circus rider that produced twin sons.

The life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

A wealthy young woman falls in love with a radio singer without ever having seen him. She forces her strange family (forgetful father, mother with ideas of grandeur, three sisters with a passion for singing and another who takes care of abandoned children) to go to the EIAR headquarters to be able to meet him.

A modest accountant wins a utility vehicle in a contest and publishes an ad looking for a companion to share expenses on a vacation trip. An attractive young lady answers the ad, but at the meeting place, the girl mistakes the accountant for a millionaire, who of course, leaves with her...

Everything unfolds in Naples seventeenth century, when a mysterious masked swordsman who calls Salvador Rossa becomes champion of the needy and lonely struggle against the cruel tyrant that frightens the country.

Italian filmmaker Carmine Gallone was still in his "operetta" mode when he helmed 1938's Il Sogno di Butterfly (Dream of the Butterfly) Maria Cebotari plays opera diva Rosa Belloni, currently starring in a production of Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The plot thickens when Rosa's backstage life begins to mirror the travails of the character she is portraying. The climax comes when Harry Peters (Fosco Giachetti), the American father of Rosa's illegitimate child, returns after four years with his new wife in tow, leading inexorably to a doleful ending both on- and offstage. Critics complained about the substandard photography in Il Sogno di Butterfly, but this might have been due to poor laboratory work.

The lawyer Giulio Gualandi plans yet another escapade in Viareggio while he is with his wife on holiday in Cervinia.

Lorenzino de 'Medici manipulates Alessandro ruler of Florence to save his beloved Bianca.

Early, proto giallo set in a boarding house for girls.

A young girl learns that she is the daughter of an executed politician and conspires to avenge her father's memory.