All Recommendations
The Kiss
They get ready to kiss, begin to kiss, and kiss in a way that brings down the house every time.
The Lonely Villa
A gang of thieves lure a man out of his home so that they can rob it and threaten his wife and children. The family barricade themselves in an interior room, but the criminals are well-equipped for breaking in. When the father finds out what is happening, he must race against time to get back home.
The Little Train Robbery
In this parody of 1903's "Great Train Robbery", also made by Edwin S. Porter, young bandits rob the passengers of a kiddie train and are chased by police officers.
Anguish
An ophthalmologist's assistant with an unhealthy interest in human eyeballs goes on a killing spree to collect eyeballs for his overbearing mother's collection. Reality soon takes a bizarre turn, both for the characters and the audience.
The Enchanted Drawing
A cartoonist defies reality when he draws objects that become three-dimensional after he lifts them off his sketch pad.
The Capture of Roma
The film recreates the final events leading to Italian unification in September 1870.
The Fan, the Referee and the Footballer
Two soccer stories: Alvaro Presutti is a referee who seems to be the last to know about his wife having an affair with a German soccer star. Amedeo Amedei has to please both his father, a die hard Roma supporter and his future father in law, who supports Lazio.
The Haunted Castle
George Albert Smith's remake of Georges Méliès - Le Manoir du diable (The Haunted Castle) from 1896. This film is lost or never existed. Copies of it online are actually a Méliès film.
Laughing Gas
Although only a dental assistant, Charlie pretends to be the dentist. After receiving too much anesthesia, a patient can't stop laughing, so Charlie knocks him out with a club.
Assunta Spina
Assunta and Michele are in love, but others come between them and jealousy arises. Assunta Spina stands out as an early landmark of naturalistic acting and a blueprint for the Italian Neorealist films to come.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
An early version of the classic, based more on the 1902 stage musical than on the original novel.
The Melomaniac
The leader of a marching band demonstrates an unusual way of writing music.
An Unseen Enemy
The physician's death orphans his two adolescent daughters. Their older brother is able to convert some of the doctor's small estate to cash. But it is late in the day, and with the banks closed he stores the money in his father's household safe. The slatternly housekeeper, aware of the money, enlists a criminal acquaintance to crack the safe. She attempts to get into the adjacent room where the sisters tremble in fear, but finds that the door is locked. The drunken housekeeper menaces them by brandishing a gun through a hole in the wall.
The Countryman and the Cinematograph
A satire on the way that audiences unaccustomed to the cinema didn't know how to react to the moving images on a screen - in this film, an unsophisticated (and stereotypical) country yokel is alternately baffled and terrified, in the latter case by the apparent approach of a steam train.
They Have Escaped
Two troubled youths break out of their halfway house and make their way to one's home.
Mindscape
In this short, an artist creates a painting of the landscape he sees, then finds he can literally climb into the picture to see the fantastic world inside.
Crane World
The portrait of a man and his attempts to make things up with life after losing his job.
The Sealed Room
The Count sets out to make a private room for him and his Countess, built in such a way no one can see, hear, and most importantly, disturb them. But unbeknownst to the Count, his wife has set her eyes on the court minstrel. Based on Edgar Allan Poe's “The Cask of Amontillado” and Honoré de Balzac's “La Grande Breteche”.
The Musicians
An orchestra of working-class musicians rehearses in this short film, honored at the 1960 Venice Film Festival and among the favorite films of director Krzysztof Kieslowski who mentored under this documentary's director.
Spores
Young friends encounter monstrous aliens at an old Russian factory.