Lino Capolicchio

Charlemagne, le prince à cheval

Charlemagne, le prince à cheval is a 1993 television miniseries about the life of Charlemagne. It consists of five episodes and covers the period from the death of his father, Pepin the Short in AD 768 until Charlemagne's corronation as the first Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day, AD 800. However, there is a minor chronological anachronism: in an earlier episode, we see Widukind, the king of the Saxons surrender and convert to Christianity, which didn't happen until AD 803. This program was directed by Clive Donner and based primarily on the contemporary biography of Charlemagne written by Einhard, who knew Charlemagne personally.

Porzûs

In 1945, at the huts above Porzûs, a hundred partisans from the Garibaldi Brigade and the Gap massacred about twenty partisans from Osoppo. They were commanded by Geko, who later went around saying that the group was accused of treason and collusion with the fascists, all to avoid consequences. But at the end of the war, Storno, who had escaped the massacre, sentenced Geko and his men to life imprisonment in absentia.

Fiorile

The Benedetti family's wealth comes from gold stolen from the French army during the 18th century. When Jean (Michael Vartan), the lieutenant guarding the coins -- and lover of Elisabette Benedetti (Galatea Ranzi) -- is executed for a crime he did not commit, Elisabette curses the family. Bad luck travels from generation to generation. As the latest Benedettis tell their children about their eccentric grandfather, the children worry that the family curse will be passed on.

Dirty Angels

An old pornographic photo and anonymous letters are sent to two men and a woman, who now enjoy a respectable social status, accusing them and questioning things they have done in their lives. Unique and amazing Morricone score

The Count of Monte Cristo

Imprisoned on a trumped-up charge by enemies he cannot identify, Edmond Dantès vows revenge - which takes him twenty-five years to achieve.

Verdi

Giuseppe Verdi was born in 1813 and lived until 1901, his life spanning nearly a century of political turmoil and considerable personal turmoil. This 1982 biographical television miniseries, as seen on PBS's Great Performances, dramatizes the life of this classic Italian composer known for operas including La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Aida and his Requiem.

Calamus

Riccardo, belonging to an upper-middle class family from Puglia, studies religion in a Swiss boarding school. He has an incomplete relationship with his half-sister Stefania, who one day announces his engagement and the next marriage. Riccardo, wearing his cassock below, desperately tries to conquer the now reluctant half-sister.

Lion of the Desert

Resistance leader Omar Mukhtar opposes Italian colonization before World War II. The brutal guerrilla war against Italian General Rodolfo Graziani and the Fascist forces of Benito Mussolini highlights the struggle for Libyan independence and the harsh tactics utilised by the colonisers.

Escalation

1968, London. Luca is living his 'swinging' years away from duties, while his father wants him to take the reins of the family business. He plots to have him kidnapped and placed in a sanitarium, where the young man undergoes electroshock therapy until 'normalised'. Luca is then made to marry a woman who is actually a psychiatrist hired to turn him into a perfect businessman.

The Taming of the Shrew

Italy, 16th century. Petruchio, a choleric, lying and poor rural landowner from Verona, arrives in Padua in search of fortune and a wife, while Baptista, a wealthy merchant, announces that he will not allow Bianca, his youngest daughter, to marry until the temperamental and unruly Katherina, his eldest daughter, does.

Il sequestro Soffiantini

In 1997, a group of bandits kidnaps businessman Giuseppe Soffiantini, keeping him imprisoned for 237 days in their hideout in the mountains of Sardinia.

Painted Screams

A feature length documentary on the 1976 film 'The House with Laughing Windows' by Pupi Avati.

The Last Four Days

In 1945, the dictator of fascist Italy and Hitler's close ally Benito Mussolini faces defeat. In a desperate attempt to avoid capture, he tries to flee the country with his lover Claretta Petacci, but Italian partisans are on their tail.

La famiglia Ricordi

Casa Ricordi was founded in 1808, and over the course of its history, it acquired the copyrights to the works of all the great composers of the era, from Rossini to Bellini, from Donizetti to Verdi, and finally to Puccini.

Jazz band