The Italian

Roberto Chiesi is cultural director of the Centro Studi—Archivio Pier Paolo Pasolini at the Cineteca di Bologna and a film critic for the Italian magazines Cineforum and Segnocinema. This piece originally appeared in the Criterion Collection’s 2008 DVD edition of...

Irene Bignardi was the film critic for the Italian daily La repubblica for fifteen years and later the director of the Locarno Film Festival. She is now critic at large for La repubblica and the author of Memorie estorte a...

Sep 24, 2025 — She won the hearts of audiences and costars in The Leopard, 8½, and Fitzcarraldo.

Feb 10, 2025 — Igor Bezinović’s third feature recreates a ludicrous but foreboding chapter in the history of his hometown, Rijeka.

Feb 7, 2025 — The week brings fresh appreciations of Sara Gómez, Frederick Wiseman, Andrei Tarkovsky, Vittorio De Sica, and David Lynch.

Aug 20, 2024 — Delon brought to the films of Melville, Visconti, Deray, and Losey one of the most beautiful faces in all of cinema.

Aug 31, 2023 — With the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes on, the spotlight this fall will be on the directors.

Jun 27, 2023 — With a divided self that reflected the fissures in his country in the wake of World War II, the most courageous and dangerous Italian artist of his generation transcended dogma and resisted affiliations.

Sep 28, 2022 — This melodrama, made by André de Toth in his native Hungary, anticipates the unease of the director’s postwar Hollywood films with an array of radical stylistic choices and jarring visual tensions.

Jul 26, 2022 — The festival selects urgent documentaries, starry portraits, and family dramas.