The cinema of Italy comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Italy is one of the birthplaces of art cinema and the stylistic aspect of film has been one of the most important factors in the history of Italian film. As of 2018, Italian films have won 14 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film as well as 12 Palmes d'Or, one Academy Award for Best Picture and many Golden Lions and Golden Bears.
Mario Merola was an Italian singer and actor, most prominently known for having rejuvenated the traditional popular Neapolitan melodrama known as the sceneggiata.
Poliziotteschi constitute a subgenre of crime and action films that emerged in Italy in the late 1960s and reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s. They are also known as polizieschi all'italiana, Euro-crime, Italo-crime, spaghetti crime films, or simply Italian crime films. Influenced by both 1970s French crime films and gritty 1960s and 1970s American cop films and vigilante films, poliziotteschi films were made amidst an atmosphere of socio-political turmoil in Italy known as Years of Lead and increasing Italian crime rates. The films generally featured graphic and brutal violence, organized crime, car chases, vigilantism, heists, gunfights, and corruption up to the highest levels. The protagonists were generally tough working class loners, willing to act outside a corrupt or overly bureaucratic system.
Rosario "Saro" Urzì was an Italian actor. He is best known for his roles in the films In the Name of the Law (1949), The Railroad Man (1956), Seduced and Abandoned (1964), which earned him a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor, and The Godfather (1972).
The City Stands Trial is a 1952 Italian crime drama film directed by Luigi Zampa and starring Amedeo Nazzari, Silvana Pampanini and Paolo Stoppa. It is based on a revisiting of the Cuocolo murders and the struggle for control of Naples by the Camorra in the early 1900s. It is considered to be Zampa's most accomplished film. It was shot at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome and on location in Naples. It was entered into the 3rd Berlin International Film Festival.
Aldo Bufi Landi was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1947 and 2013.
Pietro De Vico was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 70 films between 1948 and 1991. He was married, from 1937 until his death in 1999, to actress Anna Campori.
Mario Fabbrocino was a powerful Italian crime boss of the Camorra – the Neapolitan mafia.
Guappo is a historical Italian criminal subculture and informal term of address in the Neapolitan language, roughly analogous to or meaning thug, swaggerer, pimp, braggart, or ruffian. While today the word is often used to indicate a member of the Camorra, a Mafia-type organisation in the region of Campania and its capital Naples in Italy, the guapperia predates the modern Camorra and was originally a different and separate criminal subculture that considered itself very much independent of the Camorra.
Dada Gallotti is an Italian actress.
Raimondo Crociani was an Italian film editor and occasional director.
The sceneggiata or sceneggiata napoletana is a form of musical drama typical of Naples. Beginning as a form of musical theatre after World War I, it was also adapted for cinema; sceneggiata films became especially popular in the 1970s, and contributed to the genre becoming more widely known outside Naples. The most famous actors who played dramas were Mario Merola, Mario Trevi, and Nino D'Angelo.
Flatfoot is a 1973 poliziottesco-comedy film directed by Steno. The film starring Bud Spencer obtained a great commercial success, generated three sequels. It is followed by Flatfoot in Hong Kong, Flatfoot in Africa and Flatfoot in Egypt. The title song is performed by Santo & Johnny.
Hunted City is a 1979 Italian poliziottesco film directed by Stelvio Massi. It represents one of the few negative roles for Merola.
Gang War in Naples is a 1972 crime film written and directed by Pasquale Squitieri.
Dolores Palumbo was an Italian stage and film actress.
The New Godfathers is a 1979 Italian poliziottesco film directed by Alfonso Brescia.
Ettore Maria Fizzarotti was an Italian film director and screenwriter.
The Mafia Triangle is a 1981 Italian "poliziottesco" film written and directed by Alfonso Brescia and starring Mario Merola. It is an unofficial remake of Brescia's 1978 film Napoli … serenata calibro 9.
The Mazzarella clan is a Campanian Camorra clan operating in the city of Naples. The clan is historically considered one of the most powerful groups of the Camorra.
