Romantic Drama Italian Films: Italy is known for being home to one of the greatest film cultures in the world. From deeply romantic dramas to raunchy sex comedies, Italian filmmakers know how to capture human emotion — especially when it comes to love and desire. If you want some sultry Italian cinema in your life, here are 10 romantic drama Italian films that you should watch.
1Malèna (2000)
Directed by: Giuseppe Tornatore
Starring: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro
A bittersweet tale set in a small Sicilian town during World War II, “Malèna” is about an impossibly beautiful widow who becomes an object of obsession for all the men in town. She’s lonely and judged harshly by other women but worshipped as a goddess by all the boys, including an adolescent named Renato who watches her from a distance with longing eyes. The role could easily have been little more than a bombshell fantasy figure, but Monica Bellucci brings such depth and hurt to Malèna that she becomes something much sadder and more mesmerizing.
2La Dolce Vita (1960)
Directed by: Federico Fellini
Starring: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg
One of the most famous movies ever made about Rome — or anywhere else for that matter — “La Dolce Vita” follows journalist Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) through seven nights and mornings as he floats around parties and restaurants with his girl-of-the-moment (Anouk Aimée), his girlfriend (Yvonne Furneaux), his best friend (Alain Cuny) and various stars of stage and screen who were known even then only by their first names (Ekberg! Mangano! Cardinale!). This is where movie stars bathing in fountains got invented.
3Call Me by Your Name (2017)
Directed by: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Armie Hammer
A French-Italian co-production set in the Italian countryside of the early 1980s but mostly spoken in English, “Call Me by Your Name” is an ephebophile’s dream about a 17-year-old boy named Elio (Timothée Chalamet) who falls in love with his father’s American intern Oliver (Armie Hammer). Indolently paced and dripping with summer sweat, Guadagnino’s film captures the physical longing of being young on vacation and feeling like you have all the time in the world — until you don’t.
4I Am Love (2009)
Directed by: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti
“I Am Love” tells a story as old as marriage itself about a Russian woman named Emma Recchi (Tilda Swinton) who married into a Milanese industrial family and has been trying to fit in ever since. But her carefully controlled existence starts to unravel when she falls into bed with her son’s best friend Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini), whose rustic cooking represents everything her husband Tancredi (Pippo Delbono) has left behind. As directed by Luca Guadagnino, this lushly photographed melodrama is more instinctual than intellectual — it operates on emotions so primal that they can scarcely be put into words.
5Stealing Beauty (1996)
Directed by: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: Liv Tyler, Jeremy Irons
“Stealing Beauty” tells the story of Lucy Harmon (Liv Tyler), a beautiful 19-year-old American girl who travels to Italy after the death of her poet mother to find out who she really is. More than anything else this is a movie about what it’s like to be alive and 19, surrounded by boys who want to sleep with you but don’t really see you — or do they? Tyler’s performance is as sweetly sensual as it is guileless, making “Stealing Beauty” a potent evocation of first sexual awakenings and the fear that they’ll never happen.
6The Dreamers (2003)
Directed by: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: Michael Pitt, Eva Green, Louis Garrel
Not entirely Italian but heavily indebted to Italian cinema and filmed in Paris by an Italian director, “The Dreamers” stars Michael Pitt as an American student named Matthew who takes up with a French brother and sister named Isabelle and Theo (Eva Green and Louis Garrel) during the 1968 Paris student riots. The film was initially slapped with an NC-17 rating not only for its explicit content but also for its intellectualism: If you’re less interested in seeing these three characters naked than hearing them talk about Godard, Truffaut and Langlois while naked, this might be the movie for you.
7The Last Kiss (2001)
Directed by: Gabriele Muccino
Starring: Stefano Accorsi, Giovanna Mezzogiorno
“The Last Kiss” is a contemporary love story which probes the intricacies of personal relationships and betrayal. It chronicles the life of Carlo, a man about to become a father who starts questioning his choices in life and indulging in an extra-marital affair. The film’s frankness toward love, lust and fear of commitment strikes home so deeply that it becomes moving.
8The Great Beauty (2013)
Directed by: Paolo Sorrentino
Starring: Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli
“The Great Beauty” is an aesthetically beautiful movie that captures the decadence of Rome’s social scene. It revolves around Jep Gambardella –a jaded writer– who takes stock of everything he has lost due to his excessive lifestyle. This film combines rich visuals with its examination on beauty and sensuality –thus making it one helluva provocative piece!
9A Bigger Splash (2015)
Directed by: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ralph Fiennes, Dakota Johnson
Set against the backdrop of idyllic Italian island Pantelleria, “A Bigger Splash” is a psychological drama about rock star Marianne Lane and her filmmaker boyfriend Paul on holiday when old friend Harry with daughter Penelope show up uninvited thereby causing tension as well as rekindling desire thus rendering this film thrilling exploration into passion vs jealousy.
10L’Avventura (1960)
Directed by: Michelangelo Antonioni
Starring: Gabriele Ferzetti, Monica Vitti
“L’Avventura”, which was released fifty years ago today but still feels very fresh indeed! In it we follow the love triangle between Sandro, Anna and Claudia, who are best friends but also happen to be lovers. When Anna goes missing during their sailing trip over Mediterranean waters, both Sandro and Claudia start searching for her –a journey that will take them closer than ever before. What sets this film apart is not so much its story or characters (though they too play an important role) as its style: slow pacing coupled with long shots creates eerie atmosphere while leaving room for viewers’ own interpretation of events.
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