Vanni Corbellini

Modì

The life of Amedeo Modigliani, a painter and a genius.

Film

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.

L' Edera

The Cesaronis

Giulio is a widower, struggling to raise three sons, Marco, Rudi, and Mimmo, as best he can. He lives in Rome's working-class Garbatella neighborhood and runs a wine shop with his two brothers. Lucia, meanwhile, comes from Milan's middle-class background; she's divorced and trying to rebuild her life with her two daughters, Eva and Alice. The two meet by chance and recognize each other: they had a fling as teenagers, many years earlier. Yet first love is never forgotten, and so Giulio and Lucia find themselves together again. Their meeting, however, changes not only the lives of a man and a woman, but also those of two families as different as could be. Two families who find themselves living under the same roof without even having had the time to get to know each other well.

Drowning by Numbers

Cissie Colpitts drowns her cheating husband and, in the ensuing cover-up, enlists the help of lonely coroner Henry Madgett, an old friend with a longstanding weakness for her charms. But when Cissie's daughter and granddaughter—both also named Cissie Colpitts—decide to resort to the same methods for solving conflicts with their own frustrating husbands, the women and their repeated appeals for help begin to wear on Madgett's conscience.

La buona battaglia – Don Pietro Pappagallo

La buona battaglia – Don Pietro Pappagallo is an Italian television miniseries based on the true story of Don Pietro Pappagallo, a Catholic priest and Italian anti-fascist who assisted victims of Nazism and Fascism in Rome during World War II and was arrested and executed in the Ardeatine Caves massacre on March 24, 1944. It was produced by 11 Marzo Cinematografica and Rai Fiction, directed by Gianfranco Albano, written by Stefano Gabrini and Furio Scarpelli, and stars Flavio Insinna as Don Pietro. It was first released in 2006 and is distributed by Radiotelevisione Italiana and RaiTrade.

The Belly of an Architect

Stourley Kracklite, a driven, detail-obsessed architect, travels from America to Rome with his much younger wife, Louisa, to oversee an architectural homage to a personal hero, 18th-century master builder Etienne-Louis Boullée. En route by train, Stourley and Louisa conceive a much-wanted child — but Stourley's obsession with his wife's expanding belly, her perceived infidelity, and his own recurrent bouts of abdominal pain reach epic and dangerous proportions.

Blow to the Heart

The son of a university professor discovers his father's secret life and has to decide what to do about it.

St. Peter

Saint Peter, a reluctant but passionate leader, from the crucifixion of Jesus to his own. The film's first half dramatizes the New Testament's "Acts": early fear, the renewal of Pentecost, Saul's conversion, the decision to baptize pagans, and the Apostles' dispersal. In the second half, an aged Peter goes to Rome to join Paul, arriving on the day of Paul's arrest. Paul's death brings a crisis to Rome's Christians and to Peter; lessons from Jesus's teachings guide his decision to stay. Events within the fictive household of Persius, a Roman aristocrat, capture the upheaval that Christian teachings bring to the Eternal City.