Ermanno Olmi

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The film is the personal story of a protagonist of our times and traces Carlo Martini's actions and thoughts, as he has remained faithful to its vocation and ideals. Through dramatic events (terrorism, Tangentopoli, labor crisis, conflict, loneliness) Carlo Martini interpreted losses and concerns of the people, who saw a free man and a non dogmatic prince of the Gospel Church. Thanks to the authenticity of his testimony he has been a reference point for believers and non-believers, a prophet of hope, a forerunner of Pope Francis.

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A dialogue between director Ermanno Olmi and film critic Federico Pontiggia about Olmi's cinema and poetry.

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Live performance from Oper Leipzig, 26 November 2005.

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Documentary about Italian film director Ermanno Olmi, with emphasis on "The Tree of Wooden Clogs".

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A three-part TV film focusing on the emotional dynamics within young couples.

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Gigliola discovers, during the trial of her boyfriend accused of theft, that she loves him more as a criminal.

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Milan, one winter in the early sixties. Valeria, a free young woman who usually goes from one man to another, falls in love with Giampiero. This time, this is a serious relationship to the point that she contemplates marriage. All the more since she gets pregnant.

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After a big flood some Calabrian children are sent to Milan.

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Summer 1943, Piedmont, Italy. Milton loves Fulvia who plays with his love: she only likes the depth of his thought and the letters he writes to her. One year later, Milton has joined the Resistance and fights beside other partisans. He learns during a conversation that Fulvia was secretly in love with his best friend Giorgio, a partisan like him. Milton decides to go find Giorgio in the Langhe region of Italy with all its misty hills...But Giorgio has just been arrested by the Fascists.

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The film is the personal story of a protagonist of our times and traces Carlo Martini's actions and thoughts, as he has remained faithful to its vocation and ideals. Through dramatic events (terrorism, Tangentopoli, labor crisis, conflict, loneliness) Carlo Martini interpreted losses and concerns of the people, who saw a free man and a non dogmatic prince of the Gospel Church. Thanks to the authenticity of his testimony he has been a reference point for believers and non-believers, a prophet of hope, a forerunner of Pope Francis.

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Three years of filming across Italy, from Mont Blanc to the island of Lampedusa, have resulted in this short film. The aim of this universal event is, first and foremost, to commit wealthy nations to guaranteeing food, water, and dignity to every human being according to a principle of justice that governs coexistence among the peoples of the Earth. Similarly, and just as with food, the peoples who have won the privilege of freedom through the sacrifice of their martyrs should be an example of democracy and civil coexistence.

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World War I, Italian north-eastern front after the 1917 bloody battles on the Altipiano. A group of soldiers face the difficulty of war in a story that unfolds in the space of one night. Events follow one after the other without any kind of pattern: the peaceful mountains suddenly become a place where men die. But every story told in this film is a true story.

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When a group of African immigrants builds a cardboard village between the pews of a church soon to be closed, an elderly priest must choose between his calling and his orders.

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A journey through valleys, living rocks and the culture of the Valtellina hillsides.

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Vittorio stops to help Kate when her car breaks down on a mountain road. When they meet again, Vittorio discovers that Kate has rejoined a circus after a long time away. He begins to learn about the troupe's buried past and Kate's connection to it, while experiencing the magic of the circus.

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Two young women and a young man confront a tech mogul on a train about their new invention.

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An Italian professor seeks refuge in the quiet, peaceful ruins of an old building.

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At a Spanish cloister, a celebrated French general of the Napoleonic Wars recognizes the voice of one of the nuns and recalls how, five years ago, she was the Duchess of Langeais, and he her most persistent suitor.

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In the vast industrial spaces of the Pomodoro Foundation, Jannis Kounellis is preparing the installation for his "One-Act Play." A humble art, made of steel construction elements and animals, sacks of coal and piles of stones, grease, and fire. A small "film-shadowing," a "resonance of images that still linger in the memory as at the end of a beautiful journey."

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A train travels across Italy toward Rome. Onboard is a professor who daydreams a conversation with a love that never was; a family of Albanian refugees who switch trains and steal a ticket; three brash Scottish soccer fans en route to a match; and a complaining widow travelling to a memorial service for her late husband who's accompanied by a community-service volunteer who's assisting her. Interactions among these Europeans turn on class and nationalism, courtesy and decorum, and opportunities for kindness.

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A young man enters a brothel and sees a staged narration of a Chinese folk tale concerning a female pirate.

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In autumn of 1526, the Emperor, Charles V, sends his German landsknechts led by Georg von Frundsberg to march towards Rome. The inferior papal armies, commanded by Giovanni de'Medici, try to chase them in the midst of a harsh winter. Nevertheless, the Imperial armies manage to cross the rivers along their march and get cannons thanks to the maneuvers of its Lords. In a skirmish, Giovanni de'Medici is wounded in the leg by a falconet shot. The attempts to cure him fail and he dies. The Imperial armies assault Rome. The film is beautifully but unassumingly set, and shows the hard conditions in which war is waged and its lack of glory. It ends straightforwardly with the declaration made after the death of Giovanni de'Medici by the commanders of the armies in Europe of not using again fire weapons because of their cruelty.

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An all-enveloping darkness. Suddenly, a child's voice, frightened, questioning, pierces the darkness... The first flickering rays of light begin to sculpt mysterious shapes out of the darkness... Among them, a very old man. He reassures the child, exhorting him to see the wonders of the earth. And it is with this child's eyes that we will witness the creation of the world.

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The story of a general who is about to cut down an old forest for the sake of financial gain, but discovers that the forest is inhabited by invisible spirits.

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In the 18th Century, in Bohemia, a government surveyor meet a priest during a lunch and remained intrigued by him. Years later, in a stony valley, the two men meet again and form a deep friendship.

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Andreas Kartak, a homeless man living under the bridges of Paris, is lent 200 francs by a stranger as long as he promises to repay it to a local church when he can afford to. Kartak is determined to pay back his debt but circumstances, and his alcoholism, forever intervene.

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The Lady (or Signora) of the title is a mysterious matron who lives in a crumbling mansion. Six catering trainees are brought to the castle upon its conversion into a resort hotel. They are ordered to prepare a special meal for the old lady, whom none of them have ever seen for more than an instant. As the caterers grow in wisdom and sophistication, we learn that the lady may very well be an urbane ghost rather than a flesh-and-blood entity.

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An unusual and evocative journey through the city of Milan at the beginning of the 80's, among fashion, art and everyday life.

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Italian maestro Ermanno Olmi tells the tale of the journey of the Magi in this lyrical odyssey. The film focuses on a wise man who interprets his sighting of a comet streaking through the sky as a spiritual message. Joined by two associates, soldiers, villagers and others, the Magi sets out on a journey that tests his beliefs and strength.

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On a turn-of-the-20th-century northern Italian farm, a group of sharecroppers eke out a threadbare existence. A priest advises Batisti and his wife Batistina that their young son Minec should be formally educated, so they sacrifice his help in the fields and send him to school. When Minec's wooden shoe breaks one day, Batisti--in an act of desperation--puts the family's future at risk to replace the clog.

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Laura, a woman of a certain age with full grown children who, by all indications should be leading a great life, but actually, she appears to have none. She comes from a wealthy family. Laura has made herself a lawyer with a nice practice. Her placid existence comes to an abrupt stop when a young motorcyclist suffers an accident almost in front o her. Laura is made to take the youth to the hospital. The incident will change the way she looks at things. Laura becomes obsessed with the young man that was almost killed.

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After World War II an Italian soldier returns to his hometown near the Alps and, unable to find a job, hooks up with a crotchety hermit who scavenges buried shells and bombs for scrap metal.

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A young man shares his fantasies with a young girl who is already on the threshold of disillusion. Will she respond to him?

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A 1971 three-part miniseries about the birth of the Italian Republic, directed by Sandro Bolchi, Vittorio De Sica, and Ermanno Olmi

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A self-assured, middle-aged advertising executive has his life upset by an unforeseen accident.

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A three-part TV film focusing on the emotional dynamics within young couples.

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Gigliola discovers, during the trial of her boyfriend accused of theft, that she loves him more as a criminal.

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Vincenzo reads a Beat poem during the years of the cultural revolution.

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Nino gives flowers to girls passing by.

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Niki tells us about herself and recounts the story of her first kiss.

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Franco and Antonio recount how they met and how their “religious” love for science was born.

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A charming featurette about a teenage boy’s first crush and his adventures on New Year's Eve.

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Based on the diary Pope John XXIII kept between the ages of 14 and 18, his lifelong concern for tolerance, the underprivileged, and world peace is told. Rod Steiger, in the central role, acts as "intermediary" between the Pope and the audience, interpreting John's words, thoughts and actions. Steiger visits the actual places in which John lived, recreating the conditions, environment, and forces that affected his development. Through this unusual technique, we are brought close to an extraordinary man - one who's able to win the love of many people of all faiths.

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