The story is set in southern Italy and recounts the tragedy of Canio, the lead clown (or pagliaccio in Italian) in a commedia dell'arte troupe, his wife Nedda, and her lover, Silvio. When Nedda spurns the advances of Tonio, another player in the troupe, he tells Canio about Nedda's betrayal. In a jealous rage Canio murders both Nedda and Silvio. Although Leoncavallo's opera was originally set in the late 1860's, Zeffirelli's production is updated to the period between World War I and World War II.
Italy Italy
Similiar movies
Othello
When a secret marriage is planned between Othello, a Moorish general, and Desdemona, the daughter of Senator Brabantio, her old suitor Roderigo takes it hard. He allies himself with Iago, who has his own grudge against Othello, and the two conspire to bring Othello down. When their first plan, to have him accused of witchcraft, fails, they plant evidence intended to make him believe Desdemona is unfaithful.
A Difficult Life
Silvio refuses to fight for the fascists and joins the resistance with Elena. After the war, his vitriolic newspaper articles cause him to be sentenced to imprisonment.
Lover of the Monster
Anijeska, the Rassimov's heir, moves with her husband, Dr. Alex Nijinski, to her father's mansion. In the basement, the doctor discovers the laboratory in which the late Rassimov carried out horrifying experiments.
Killjoy
A romantic rivalry leads to an innocent woman's murder. Or is it a hoax crime, part of a cunning deception? At City General Hospital, two young doctors engage in a move-and-countermove rivalry over Laury Medford. It may be more than Laury's beauty that motivates the men. Her father is the hospital's chairman of the board. Marrying her would be an inside track to the chief of staff post. Meanwhile, a senior hospital staffer, who is the mother of one of the two doctors, plots to enhance her son's chances, a mysterious outsider who says he knew the dead woman tails the two men, and Laury may be more than she appears. Murder? Hoax? The answer isn't revealed till the final freeze-frame.
Bizet: Carmen
This 2003 performance of Georges Bizet's 19th century opera Carmen was produced and directed by filmmaker and stage director Franco Zeffirelli, best known to many for the Academy Award-winning big-screen adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Shot at the Arena di Verona, the production features Marina Domashenko in the title role and music by the Orchestra of the Arena di Verona under conductor Alain Lombard.
La traviata
This “Traviata” became one of the most succesful of all opera films, especially in France, where 800,000 Parisian cinemagoers flocked to it in the first six week. It was nominated for two Oscars (for production and costume design) and won BAFTAs in those two categories, as well as receiving BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations as 1983’s Best Foreign-Language Film.
Götterdämmerung
The stupendous climax to Wagner’s four-part Ring cycle is brilliantly realized by the Otto Schenk/Günther Schneider-Siemssen production and byJames Levine’s monumental conducting. The Met orchestra, chorus, and an all-star cast make this Götterdämmerung one that truly rises to the occasion. Hildegard Behrens’s Brünnhilde must be experienced to be believed, as does Matti Salminen’s richly sung, domineering Hagen. At the center of the drama is Siegfried Jerusalem as Siegfried, who does not realize he has been drawn into a plot of betrayal until it is too late. Christa Ludwig is magnetic as Waltraute and Ekkehard Wlaschiha is a compelling Alberich.
Rigoletto
This tragic story revolves around the licentious Duke of Mantua, his hunch-backed court jester Rigoletto, and Rigoletto's beautiful daughter Gilda. The opera's original title, La maledizione (The Curse), refers to the curse placed on both the Duke and Rigoletto by a courtier whose daughter had been seduced by the Duke with Rigoletto's encouragement. The curse comes to fruition when Gilda likewise falls in love with the Duke and eventually sacrifices her life to save him from the assassins hired by her father.
Pagliacci
Pagliacci, is a 1948 Italian film based on Ruggero Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci, directed by Mario Costa. The film stars Tito Gobbi and Gina Lollobrigida. It recounts the tragedy of Canio, the lead clown (or pagliaccio in Italian) in a commedia dell'arte troupe, his wife Nedda, and her lover, Silvio. When Nedda spurns the advances of Tonio, another player in the troupe, he tells Canio about Nedda's betrayal. In a jealous rage Canio murders both Nedda and Silvio. The only actor in the cast who also sang his role was the celebrated Italian baritone, Tito Gobbi, but the film is largely very faithful to its source material, presenting the opera nearly complete.
Verdi: Aida
Early recordings of Franco Zeffirelli's 2006 production of Verdi's opera which saw Roberto Alagna's high-profile exit during the second performance. Egypt and Ethiopia are at war. Radames is appointed commander of the Egyptian forces by the King, whose daughter, Amneris, loves Radames. It is in fact Amneris' Ethiopian slave Aida whom Radames loves. Ramades wins the war against the Ethiopians, capturing Aida's father Amonasro in the process. On his return to Egypt he faces a choice between marrying Amneris or betraying his country through his love for Aida.
Similiar TV Shows
Foyle's War
As WW2 rages around the world, DCS Foyle fights his own war on the home-front as he investigates crimes on the south coast of England. Foyle's War opens in southern England in the year 1940. Later series sees the retired detective working as an MI5 agent operating in the aftermath of the war.
Medici: Masters of Florence
The story of the Medici family of Florence, their ascent from simple merchants to power brokers sparking an economic and cultural revolution. Along the way, they also accrue a long list of powerful enemies.
The Octopus
La Piovra is an acclaimed Italian Television drama miniseries about the Mafia. The story was by Sandro Petraglia. The production was designed by Luigi Perelli. The soundtrack was by Riz Ortolani and later by Ennio Morricone, who went on to compose music for several sequels. All 10 series have been released in Australia on DVD by Aztec International Entertainment, with English subtitles, having been originally aired on the Special Broadcasting Service television channel. It was also broadcast on MHz Networks in the United States. The first three series were shown in the UK on Channel 4. The TV drama was wildly successful in the USSR, where it appeared on state TV in 1986 and in Bulgaria, where is also appeared in the end of the 1980s bg:Октопод, offering to the viewers of both countries thrills and dark drama from beyond the Iron Curtain. La Piovra was also shown in 1987–1988 in communist Albania, where it became a huge hit and remains to date a cult film, whose characters and expressions have permeated culture, language and society.
Acorralada
Acorralada is an American telenovela produced by Venevisión. Univision aired Acorralada from January 2007 to October 2007 on weekday afternoons at 2 pm central. It was rebroadcast in late 2011 through April 2012 on Univision's sister network, Telefutura. It was filmed in Miami, Florida, and lasted about 187 episodes. It is the second long-running telenovela that Venevisión Productions has produced without its former co-producer Fonovideo.
Magic City
Set in 1959 Miami, Florida shortly after the Cuban Revolution, Magic City tells the story of Ike Evans, the owner of Miami's most glamorous hotel, the Miramar Playa. Evans is forced to make an ill-fated deal with Miami mob boss Ben Diamond to ensure the success of his glitzy establishment.
Mussolini: The Untold Story
The rise and fall of Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Recounting his life with his wife, children and mistress, this biography (based on the recollections of Mussolini's eldest son, Vittorio) chronicles Il Duce's tyranny as he plunges Italy into the dark days of World War II.
Murder in Paradise
Murder in Paradise recounts the stories of American couples who go on dream vacations that end in violence. Only one of them comes back alive, and it’s never an accident. From a boxing champ found dead in his hotel room, to a vicious pirate attack on a luxury yacht, to a passionate affair that ends in bloodshed, each episode tells how an idyllic trip in paradise turned deadly.
Anna Karenina
Anna and Kitty. Two lives. One of desperate passion that ends in tragedy, the other, an existence made real through love. Two destinies that interweave, giving rise to two, so very different stories, yet lived in pursuit of the same desire- to find a love that lets them fully be themselves, to live without having to conform to society’s pretenses.
Impossible Engineering
Behind every seemingly impossible marvel of modern engineering is a cast of historic trailblazers who designed new building techniques, took risks on untested materials and revolutionised their field. Each episode details how giant structures, record-beating buildings, war ships and spacecraft are built and work. As the show revels in these modern day creations, it also leaps back in time to recount the stories of the exceptional engineers whose technological advances made it all possible.
Wicked Wicked Games
A scorned woman plots revenge against the man who abandoned her 25 years earlier in order to marry another woman with money to advance his career. The plan is to have her two sons seduce and marry her former lover's two daughters, and in the process destroy the man's life.
Terre humaine
Terre humaine is a French-Canadian soap opera TV series written by Mia Riddez-Morisset which originally aired between September 1978 and March 1984. The series totaled 229 episodes. The show takes place in rural Quebec in the late 1970s where conflicts between generations build scenes for a good novel.
La notte della Repubblica
A TV programme presented by Sergio Zavoli, broadcast by the Italian public TV channel Rai 2, about Italy during the Years of Lead, with movies, interviews with some protagonists of the period and final discussion.
Brigands: The Quest for Gold
In mid-19th-century southern Italy, a woman forced to go on the run transforms from dutiful wife to the ruthless leader of a group of bandits.
Police scientifique
Advances in forensic sciences have led to the resolution of complex cases thanks to microscopic clues. The documentary series Police Scientifique analyses crimes committed in Quebec, which were solved thanks to science and new police techniques. Experts and detectives recount how they reconstituted the circumstances of various murders, by using ballistics, toxicology, chemistry, physics, biology and even entomology. These testimonies come with those of the victim’s loved ones, along with realistic constitutions that put the scale of these tragic events in images.
Otello
Based on Shakespeare's play, Verdi's opera depicts the devastating effects of jealousy, "...the green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds upon". Believing Otello has promoted the fast-rising Cassio over himself, Iago plots to destroy both Cassio and Otello. Iago convinces the jealous Otello that his beautiful wife Desdemona is unfaithful, and that Cassio is her lover. Jealousy is followed by tragedy, then retribution, "Has Heaven no more thunderbolts?"