Franco Citti

After years spent working as a prostitute in her Italian village, middle-aged Mamma Roma has saved enough money to buy herself a fruit stand so that she can have a respectable middle-class life and reestablish contact with the 16-year-old son she abandoned when he was an infant. But her former pimp threatens to expose her sordid past, and her troubled son seems destined to fall into a life of crime and violence.

Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini · With Anna Magnani, Ettore Garofolo, Franco Citti

A pimp with no other means to provide for himself finds his life spiralling out of control when his prostitute is sent to prison.

Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini · With Franco Citti, Franca Pasut, Silvana Corsini

Set during a retreat of Christian Democrat politicians who practice spiritual exercises together, it is an allegory of corrupted power. Disturbing, claustrophobic settings are the background to a series of mysterious crimes.

Dir. Elio Petri · With Gian Maria Volonté, Marcello Mastroianni, Mariangela Melato

Two dramatic stories. In an undetermined past, a young cannibal (who killed his own father) is condemned to be torn to pieces by some wild beasts. In the second story, Julian, the young son of a post-war German industrialist, is on the way to lie down with his farm's pigs, because he doesn't like human relationships.

Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini · With Pierre Clémenti, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Alberto Lionello

A young Sicilian is swindled twice, but ends up rich; a man poses as a deaf-mute in a convent of curious nuns; a woman must hide her lover when her husband comes home early; a scoundrel fools a priest on his deathbed; three brothers take revenge on their sister's lover; a young girl sleeps on the roof to meet her boyfriend at night; a group of painters wait for inspiration; a crafty priest attempts to seduce his friend's wife; and two friends make a pact to find out what happens after death.

Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini · With Franco Citti, Ninetto Davoli, Jovan Jovanović

The final part of Pasolini's Trilogy of Life series is rich with exotic tales of slaves and kings, potions, betrayals, demons and, most of all, love and lovemaking in all its myriad forms. Mysterious and liberating, this is an exquisitely dreamlike and adult interpretation of the original folk tales.

Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini · With Ninetto Davoli, Franco Citti, Franco Merli

In pre-war Italy, a young couple have a baby boy. The father, however, is jealous of his son - and the scene moves to antiquity, where the baby is taken into the desert to be killed. He is rescued, given the name Oedipus, and brought up by the King and Queen of Corinth as their son. One day an oracle informs Oedipus that he is destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Horrified, he flees Corinth and his supposed parents - only to get into a fight and kill an older man on the road…

Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini · With Franco Citti, Silvana Mangano, Alida Valli

Glimpses of Chaucer penning his famous work are sprinkled through this re-enactment of several of his stories.

Dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini · With Hugh Griffith, Laura Betti, Ninetto Davoli

While touring in Italy, a recently-widowed American opera singer has an incestuous relationship with her 15-year-old son to help him overcome his heroin addiction.

Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci · With Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, Veronica Lazăr