Great Italian Directors Collection

Story of a Love Affair (1950) is the legendary Michelangelo Antonioni's debut feature, a powerful statement on the delusions and violence sparked by a passionate love. This deeply tragic romance already exhibits the astonishing formal control and penetrating insights into the human condition that would later make him famous in films like Il Grido, L'Avventura and Blow-Up.

A wealthy industrialist becomes curious about his trophy wife Paola's (Lucia Bosé) past, and hires a private investigator. The detective discovers that she had fallen desperately in love with the handsome Guido (Massimo Girotti) as a young girl, and may have participated in a crime to win his hand. After years apart, Paola and Guido reunite to deflect the investigation, and rekindle their attraction in the process. As events spiral out of their control, a murder may blaze their only path to freedom.

One of the great first features in movie history, Story of a Love Affair effortlessly weaves lust, class and the repercussions of violence into a crime movie melodrama you will not soon forget. Hide this content.

Four legendary filmmakers direct some of Europe's biggest stars in BOCCACCIO '70, a landmark anthology film. Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), Federico Fellini (8�½), Luchino Visconti (The Leopard) and Vittorio De Sica (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) direct Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider and more through four stories of unashamed eros. Modeled on Boccaccio's Decameron, they are comic moral tales about the hypocrisies surrounding sex in 1960s Italy.

Monicelli's "Renzo e Luciana" (cut out of the original American release) is a frothy tale of young love and office politics in the big city. Fellini's notorious "Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio" features Ekberg as a busty model in a milk advertisement whose image begins to haunt an aging prude. Visconti's "Il Lavoro" stars Romy Schneider as a trophy wife enduring her husband's very public affairs, and De Sica's "La Riffa" raffles off a night with Sophia Loren to a lucky ticket holder during a small town fair.

Bursting with passion and sly satire, Boccaccio '70 is a glittering showcase for some of the greatest talents in movie history. Hide this content.

Nominated for an Academy Award�® for Best Screenplay, Casanova '70 is a raucously funny sex romp starring Marcello Mastroianni at his charismatic peak.

Directed by Italian comedy legend Mario Monicelli (Big Deal on Madonna Street), it finds army officer Andrea (Mastroianni) dealing with a particularly strange case of impotence: his libido only gets aroused in the middle of near-death experiences. So while candle-lit dinners leave him cold, a female lion tamer or a General's wife expand his lust to dangerous proportions. After a visit to a psychoanalyst, he fears his vice will lead to an early grave, so he attempts to live as a celibate with the virginal beauty Gigliola (Virna Lisi), but he is only delaying his inevitable descent back into sin.

Packed with bed-hopping hijinks, a parade of gorgeous actresses, and Mastroianni's hilariously dry wit, Casanova '70 is a colorfully ribald gem from the Golden Age of Italian comedy. Hide this content.