Il Grande Cinema Series

Roman Holiday was nominated for ten Academy Awards®, and Audrey Hepburn captured an Oscar® for her portrayal of a modern-day princess rebelling against her royal obligations who explores Rome on her own. She meets Gregory Peck, an American newspaperman who, seeking an exclusive story, pretends ignorance of her true identity. But his plan falters as they fall in love. Eddie Albert contributes to the fun as Peck's carefree cameraman pal. Stylishly directed by William Wyler, this romantic comedy ranks as one of the most enjoyable films of all Times.

Featuring: Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert

No movie changed Hollywood more than THE GODFATHER. From the bestselling novel by Mario Puzo to box-office blockbuster, its influential legacy endures to this day. Starring Marlon Brando in his Oscar®-winning performance as the patriarch of the Corleone family, this first installment in the three-movie saga paints a dramatic portrait of the Sicilian clan’s rise and near fall from power in America. Balanced between the Corleone’s commitment to family and the ugly crime business in which they are engaged, it features career-making performances by Al Pacino, James Caan, Talia Shire, Diane Keaton and Robert Duvall. This searing and brilliant masterpiece garnered ten Academy Award® nominations, and won three, including Best Picture. 

Featuring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, John Cazale, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Sterling Hayden, Richard Conte, Talia Shire, Al Lettieri

This brilliant companion piece to the original The Godfather continues the saga of two generations of successive power within the Corleone family. Coppola tells two stories in Part II: the roots and rise of a young Don Vito, played with uncanny ability by Robert De Niro, and the ascension of Michael (Al Pacino) as the new Don. Reassembling many of the talents who helped make The Godfather, Coppola has produced a movie of staggering magnitude and vision, and undeniably the best sequel ever made. Robert De Niro won an Oscar®, the film received six Academy Awards, including Best Picture of 1974.

In this epic historical drama from director Ridley Scott, the death of emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) throws the Roman Empire into chaos. Maximus (Russell Crowe) is one of the Roman army's most capable and trusted generals and a key advisor to the emperor. As Marcus' devious son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) ascends to the throne, Maximus is set to be executed. He escapes, but is captured by slave traders. Renamed Spaniard and forced to become a gladiator, Maximus must battle to the death with other men for the amusement of paying audiences. Determined to avenge himself against the man who took away his freedom and laid waste to his family, Maximus believes that he can use his fame and skill in the ring to avenge the loss of his family and former glory.

Featuring: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Richard Harris, Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi

When the idea of creating a sequel to the beloved Gladiator (2000) emerged, the cast and crew knew they had a battle ahead—pun intended. Balancing respect for the original while expanding the story, Paul Mescal, Ridley Scott, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, and the rest of the team faced a monumental challenge—one that, for some, had been two decades in the making!

Featuring: Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, Joseph Quinn, & more!

Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido Anselmi, a director whose new project is collapsing around him, along with his life. One of the greatest films about film ever made, Federico Fellini’s 8½ (Otto e mezzo) turns one man’s artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema. An early working title for 8½ was The Beautiful Confusion, and Fellini’s masterpiece is exactly that: a shimmering dream, a circus, and a magic act. Also featured is Fellini’s rarely seen first film for television, Fellini: A Director’s Notebook (1969). Produced by Peter Goldfarb, this “imagined documentary” of Fellini on Fellini is a kaleidoscope of unfinished projects, all of which provide a fascinating and candid window into the director’s unique creative process. 

Director Stanley Kubrick tells the tale of Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), the bold gladiator slave and Varinia (Jean Simmons), the woman who believed in his cause. Challenged by the power-hungry General Crassus (Laurence Olivier), Spartacus is forced to face his convictions and the power of Imperial Rome at its glorious height. The inspirational true account of man's eternal struggle for freedom, Spartacus combines history with spectacle to create a moving drama of love and commitment.

One of the most spectacular and talked-about films of the Cannes Film Festival, and Italy's official submission for the 2014 Academy Awards, THE GREAT BEAUTY is Paolo Sorrentino's powerful and evocative tale of hedonism and lost love, and an extraordinary depiction of contemporary Rome -- where life is a performance, and the city its stage.

65-year-old Jep Gambardella (the extraordinary Toni Servillo) is a jaded journalist and wealthy bon vivant whose early promise as a novelist has never been fulfilled, though his infamy remains. He lives in a luxurious apartment overlooking the Colosseum and is a regular of Rome's party circuit for the elite, a never-ending nocturnal parade of decadence that rages through antique palaces, immense villas and opulent terraces around the Eternal City.

The blinding metropolis Jep strolls through by day seems to reflect the futility of his actions and those of his friends, but his worldview begins to shift after a man arrives on his doorstep and informs him of the death of his first love. Both troubled and moved by the revelation, Jep is flooded with memories of the past and ponders the promise of what may remain....

Arguably one of the most striking evocations of a city ever filmed, THE GREAT BEAUTY is a vibrant and breathtaking cinematic feast for the senses that captures Rome in a style reminiscent (and in celebration) of the great Fellini -- in all of its splendour and superficiality, magnificence and malevolence, artifice and significance.

Widely considered to be the most shocking and hallucinatory horror movie in history - and described by Argento as "an escalating experimental nightmare", Suspiria stars Jessica Harper as a young American ballet student who arrives at a prestigious European dance academy and is confronted by a series of bizarre and horrific deaths. Packed with vicious violence, ultra gory effects and dazzling cinematic set pieces, Suspiria is a gruesomely gothic masterpiece of the macabre. 1977 Seda Spettacoli.

This story opens in 1938 in Rome, where Marcello has just taken a job working for Mussollini and is courting a beautiful young woman who will make him even more of a conformist. Marcello is going to Paris on his honeymoon and his bosses have an assignment for him there. Look up an old professor who fled Italy when the fascists came into power. At the border of Italy and France, where Marcello and his bride have to change trains, his bosses give him a gun with a silencer. In a flashback to 1917, we learn why sex and violence are linked in Marcello's mind.