10 Romantic Italian Movies

When it comes to movie making, the Italians occupy the top position in rendering touching tales of heartbreak and romance. Many of these movies are now available online from the classics to the latest flicks. Some of the top Italian romantic movies online are as follows:
 

1. La Dolce Vita (1960)
   
   Directed by Federico Fellini, possibly the most prolific Italian movie maker, the movie stars Italian heart throb Marcello Mastroianni and Swedish beauty Anita Ekberg. Marcello is the young playboy journalist who pursues casual relationships while doing meaningless paper work. In the course of a week in his life, Marcello flirts with a famous film actress, has a casual relationship with a bored socialite and mostly ignores his loyal girl friend. In the end he is caught up in a quagmire of self disgust with no means to redeem himself.
    
2. Two Women
   
   Directed by Vittorio De Seca and starring Sophia Loren as the main protagonist with Jean Paul- Belmondo in a supporting role. Sophia Lauren stars as Cesira who along with her 13 year old daughter, Rosetta flee from allied bombing in Rome against the backdrop of the Second World War. They proceed to the village where Cesira was born. During their stay in the village, Cesira does everything to protect her daughter but both are raped by soldiers hiding in a church. This causes Cesira to suffer a nervous breakdown. She now attracts the attention of a young intellectual called as Michele but does not know how to return his affection.
    
3. Paisa
   
   A movie with six story lines in the backdrop of the allied invasion in the period from July 1943 to December 1944. A woman guides an allied patrol to safety and dies protecting a G.I. but the Americans think she killed him. A G.I. is led to a shanty town while chasing a street urchin who has stolen his shoes. A G.I. meets a woman on the day of liberation of Rome. Six months later when they meet again, he is a cynic and she is a prostitute. An American nurse braves a trip into German fire in search of her lover. Three chaplains call on a monastery located North in the Appenines. And in the final vignette, Allied forces try to escape capture in the Po marshland. This broad canvas is directed by the inimitable Roberto Rossellini.
   
   
    
4. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
   
   Directed by Vittorio De Sica and stars Lino Capolicchio and Dominique Sanda. This is story of the Finzi-Continis family- Jewish, aristocratic, wealthy and urbane in Ferrara, Italy in the 1930’s. The adult children Micol and Alberto organize a constant round of sporting and partying with a select group of friends. Now comes along Giorgio, a middle class Jew who falls in love with Micol. She does not reciprocate but plays along with him often teasing him with antics like making love to one of his friends. His love for her cannot draw her out of her garden idyll but soon the politics of the period comes to impinge on the family.
    
5. Divorce, Italian style
   
   Directed by Pietro Germi and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Daniela Rocca. Baron Fefé Cefalù is a nobleman in Sicily in the 1960’s. He is bored of his life with Rosalia and in love with a lovely cousin Angela who lives with them in the same palace. Since divorce is difficult in those times, he plans to murder his wife. He knows the sentence will be light by posing it as a matter of honor, implicating that his wife was having an affair with someone. The rest of the story is how he tries to instigate an affair between his wife and a painter, Carmelo Patane.
    
6. The Bicycle Thief
   
   Directed by Vittorio Seca and starring Lamberto Maggiorani and Enzo Staiola.  In War torn Rome, a poor young father finds a job distributing Rita Hayworth posters only to find that his bicycle stolen on the first day of his job.  The two start on a journey chasing the bicycle thief. The movie has light moments like when the son wants to relieve himself; the father reminds him that there is no time for that.
    
7. City of Women
   
   Federico Fellini directs this movie which stars Marcello Mastroianni and Anna Prucnal. Marcello is in a train when water from a bottle held by a woman falls on his face. He is intrigued by the woman and for a few moments she finds him   attractive too but she soon gets off the train. Marcello follows her and crosses a field to find him in a big hotel surrounded by women. What happens is that he is in the midst of a feminist conference and he wants to escape.
    
8. Eight and a half
   
   Directed by Federico Fellini and stars Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale. A story line bordering on the autobiography of the great master Fellini himself, describing the ups and downs of film making. Guido is a film maker taking a break from directing. He is pressed by former colleagues who want to work with him desperately. He wrestles with new ideas but cannot come up with anything substantial. He begins an inwardly emotional journey reminiscing about the major events of his life and the women he has loved and left.
    
9. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
   
   Directed by Vittorio De Sica and stars Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. It has three different tales of Italian social norms. In Adelina, Carmine Sabaratti and his wife Adelina are a poor couple who survive by Adelina’s selling cigarettes in the black on the street. To avoid the bailiff when he comes to repossess, they come up with a solution but it will have profound impact on the family especially Carmine. In ‘Anna”, Anna Moltini, the bored wife of a successful business man and an upcoming artist Renzo are at the edge of an affair. She feels ignored in her marriage and turns to Renzo but a car accident forces them to rethink on their affair.
    
10. Life is Beautiful
    
    Directed by Roberto Benigni, the leads are played by him and the lovely Nicoletta Braschi. One of the most touching movies in history, winner of several Oscar awards, this movie has captured everyone’s heart. In 1930’s Italy, a carefree Jewish book keeper woos and marries hiss love and has a son. Their happiness is short-lived when they are incarcerated in a concentration camp by the Nazis. But Guido tries to make the experience less traumatic for his son, making him believe that the whole affair is a game and the prize for the winner is a German tank.  But the story has a tragic-comical end.