Sort by Popularity - Most Popular Movies and TV Shows tagged with keyword "italian-history"
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1. Rome (2005–2007)
TV-MA | 60 min | Action, Drama, Romance
A down-to-earth account of the lives of both illustrious and ordinary Romans set in the last days of the Roman Republic.
Stars: Kevin McKidd, Ray Stevenson, Polly Walker, Kerry Condon
Votes: 185,307
2. Medici (2016–2019)
TV-14 | 1,314 min | Biography, Drama, History
A political family drama set in Florence in the early fifteenth century. Cosimo de Medici finds himself at the helm of his banking dynasty when his father, Giovanni, dies suddenly.
Stars: Daniel Sharman, Alessandra Mastronardi, Synnove Karlsen, Sebastian De Souza
Votes: 22,270
3. Da Vinci's Demons (2013–2015)
TV-MA | 60 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
Follows Leonardo Da Vinci during his early days in Florence, as a young artist, inventor and dreamer, trying to change the future.
Stars: Tom Riley, Gregg Chilingirian, Eros Vlahos, Laura Haddock
Votes: 79,192
4. The Borgias (2011–2013)
TV-MA | 50 min | Crime, Drama, History
In the fifteenth century, Pope Alexander VI tries to control all power in Italy with the help of his several sons, through murder, intrigue, war, and marriage alliances.
Stars: Jeremy Irons, François Arnaud, Holliday Grainger, Peter Sullivan
Votes: 53,941
5. Borgia (2011–2014)
TV-MA | 52 min | Biography, Drama, History
Story of the rise and the fall of the Renaissance dynasty.
Stars: Mark Ryder, Isolda Dychauk, Diarmuid Noyes, John Doman
Votes: 7,214
6. 1900 (1976)
Unrated | 317 min | Drama, History
The epic tale of a class struggle in twentieth-century Italy as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends on opposing sides.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Francesca Bertini
Votes: 27,281
7. The Leopard (1963)
PG | 186 min | Drama, History
The Prince of Salina, a noble aristocrat of impeccable integrity, tries to preserve his family and class amid the tumultuous social upheavals of 1860s Sicily.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Burt Lancaster, Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale, Paolo Stoppa
Votes: 28,815
8. Leonardo (2021– )
TV-PG | 409 min | Biography, Drama, History
The series recounts Leonardo da Vinci's extraordinary life through the works that made him famous, through the stories hidden within those works, revealing little by little the inner torment of a man obsessed with attaining perfection.
Stars: Aidan Turner, Matilda De Angelis, Freddie Highmore, Carlos Cuevas
Votes: 4,182
9. Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001)
R | 131 min | Drama, Music, Romance
When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.
Director: John Madden | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Penélope Cruz, John Hurt, Christian Bale
Votes: 35,946 | Gross: $25.54M
10. Lion of the Desert (1980)
PG | 173 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1929, Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini appoints General Rodolfo Graziani as colonial governor to Italian Libya with orders to stamp-out all resistance from Libyan nationalists led by rebel guerrilla leader Omar Mukhtar.
Director: Moustapha Akkad | Stars: Anthony Quinn, Oliver Reed, Rod Steiger, Irene Papas
Votes: 17,371 | Gross: $3.27M
11. The Best of Youth (2003)
R | 374 min | Drama, Romance
An Italian epic that follows the lives of two brothers from the 1960s to the 2000s.
Director: Marco Tullio Giordana | Stars: Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Jasmine Trinca, Adriana Asti
Votes: 23,206 | Gross: $0.27M
12. Miracle at St. Anna (2008)
R | 160 min | Action, Drama, War
Set in 1944 Italy, the story of four black American soldiers who get trapped in a Tuscan village during WWII.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso, Omar Benson Miller
Votes: 19,193 | Gross: $7.92M
13. The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
Approved | 138 min | Biography, Drama, History
The biographical story of Michelangelo's troubles while painting the Sistine Chapel at the urging of Pope Julius II.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento, Harry Andrews
Votes: 8,048
14. Roma (1972)
R | 120 min | Comedy, Drama
A fluid, unconnected and sometimes chaotic procession of scenes detailing the various people and events of life in Italy's capital, most of it based on director Federico Fellini's life.
Director: Federico Fellini | Stars: Britta Barnes, Peter Gonzales Falcon, Fiona Florence, Pia De Doses
Votes: 13,800 | Gross: $0.73M
15. The Traitor (2019)
R | 153 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The real life of Tommaso Buscetta, the so-called "boss of the two worlds," the first mafia informant in Sicily in the 1980s.
Director: Marco Bellocchio | Stars: Pierfrancesco Favino, Maria Fernanda Cândido, Fabrizio Ferracane, Fausto Russo Alesi
Votes: 12,965
16. A Bell for Adano (1945)
Approved | 103 min | Drama, War
During WWII, U.S. Army Major Joppolo and his troops are tasked with administering the war damaged Italian town of Adano where the locals decry the loss of the town bell.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Gene Tierney, John Hodiak, William Bendix, Glenn Langan
Votes: 863
17. The First King (2019)
TV-MA | 123 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Romulus and Remus, two shepherds and loyal brothers, end up taking part to a journey that will lead one of them to be the founder of the greatest nation ever seen. However, the fate of the chosen one will pass from killing his own brother.
Director: Matteo Rovere | Stars: Alessandro Borghi, Alessio Lapice, Fabrizio Rongione, Massimiliano Rossi
Votes: 5,932
18. Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972)
PG | 121 min | Biography, Drama, History
Dramatization of events in the life of St. Francis of Assisi from before his conversion experience through his audience with the pope, including his friendship with St. Clare.
Director: Franco Zeffirelli | Stars: Graham Faulkner, Judi Bowker, Leigh Lawson, Kenneth Cranham
Votes: 4,944
19. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)
R | 94 min | Drama, History, War
The story of the Finzi-Continis, a noble family of Ferrara, during the Jewish persecution in Italy's 1930s.
Director: Vittorio De Sica | Stars: Dominique Sanda, Lino Capolicchio, Helmut Berger, Fabio Testi
Votes: 7,670 | Gross: $0.60M
20. Mediterraneo (1991)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Drama, War
In WW2, an Italian Army unit of misfits occupies an isolated non-strategic Greek island for the duration of the war.
Director: Gabriele Salvatores | Stars: Diego Abatantuono, Claudio Bigagli, Giuseppe Cederna, Claudio Bisio
Votes: 16,419 | Gross: $4.53M
21. Purple Sea (2009)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, History, Romance
Nothing - not her father, not the church - can stop unruly Angela from being with her childhood best friend and great love, Sara in a 19th century Italian village.
Director: Donatella Maiorca | Stars: Valeria Solarino, Isabella Ragonese, Ennio Fantastichini, Giselda Volodi
Votes: 1,776
22. Senso (1954)
Not Rated | 123 min | Drama, Romance, War
An Italian Countess is allied with Nationalists during the Italian-Austrian war of unification. However, she risks betraying their cause when she falls in love with an Austrian lieutenant.
Director: Luchino Visconti | Stars: Farley Granger, Alida Valli, Massimo Girotti, Heinz Moog
Votes: 7,518 | Gross: $0.03M
23. Il Divo (2008)
Not Rated | 110 min | Biography, Drama
The story of Italian politician Giulio Andreotti, who has served as Prime Minister of Italy seven times since the restoration of democracy in 1946.
Director: Paolo Sorrentino | Stars: Toni Servillo, Anna Bonaiuto, Giulio Bosetti, Flavio Bucci
Votes: 19,008 | Gross: $0.24M
24. Time to Kill (1989)
R | 110 min | Drama, War
In 1936, when Ethiopia is being invaded by the Italian army, Lieutenant Silvestri sets off for the nearest camp hospital to take care of a toothache. En route he meets a young Ethiopian ... See full summary »
Director: Giuliano Montaldo | Stars: Nicolas Cage, Ricky Tognazzi, Patrice-Flora Praxo, Gianluca Favilla
Votes: 983
25. Esterno notte (2022)
330 min | Crime, Drama, History
The 1978 kidnapping and assassination of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by Red Brigades terrorists
Stars: Fabrizio Gifuni, Margherita Buy, Toni Servillo, Fausto Russo Alesi
Votes: 1,685
26. Il capo dei capi (2007– )
100 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Based on the life of Salvatore Riina ('Totò u Curtu'), a mafioso boss from Corleone, Sicily.
Stars: Claudio Gioè, Daniele Liotti, Salvatore Lazzaro, Simona Cavallari
Votes: 3,806
27. Barbarossa (2009)
R | 139 min | Drama, History, War
German Emperor Barbarossa will stop at nothing to conquer and build his empire. But a young man from Milan, along with his army of 900 men known as the Company of Death, is prepared to challenge the Emperor.
Director: Renzo Martinelli | Stars: Rutger Hauer, Raz Degan, F. Murray Abraham, Christo Jivkov
Votes: 1,432
28. Vincere (2009)
Unrated | 128 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
The story of Mussolini's secret lover, Ida Dalser, and their son Albino.
Director: Marco Bellocchio | Stars: Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Filippo Timi, Fausto Russo Alesi, Michela Cescon
Votes: 5,913 | Gross: $0.62M
29. The Organizer (1963)
Not Rated | 126 min | Drama, History
A former high school teacher turned unionist tries to organize workers laboring with inhuman conditions at a late 19th Century textile factory.
Director: Mario Monicelli | Stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Renato Salvatori, Gabriella Giorgelli, Folco Lulli
Votes: 3,277
30. Mussolini: The Untold Story (1985)
Unrated | 410 min | Biography, Drama, History
The rise and fall of the Italian fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini.
Stars: George C. Scott, Virginia Madsen, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Lee Grant
Votes: 646
31. Romanzo Criminale (2005)
152 min | Crime, Drama
Set in the 1970s, it's the story of three lifelong friends who take control of organized crime in Rome.
Director: Michele Placido | Stars: Kim Rossi Stuart, Anna Mouglalis, Pierfrancesco Favino, Claudio Santamaria
Votes: 9,663
32. The Mattei Affair (1972)
R | 116 min | Biography, Drama, Mystery
An Italian industrialist died in a plane crash. An accident or an assassination?
Director: Francesco Rosi | Stars: Gian Maria Volontè, Luigi Squarzina, Peter Baldwin, Renato Romano
Votes: 2,459
33. L'armata Brancaleone (1966)
120 min | Adventure, Comedy, History
A group of misfits, headed by an incompetent knight named Brancaleone, set out to reach the small town of Aurocastro so that their leader can take possession of the fief.
Director: Mario Monicelli | Stars: Vittorio Gassman, Catherine Spaak, Folco Lulli, Gian Maria Volontè
Votes: 5,273
34. Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy (2012)
129 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A chronicle of the 1969 bombing at a major national bank in Milan and its aftermath.
Director: Marco Tullio Giordana | Stars: Valerio Mastandrea, Pierfrancesco Favino, Michela Cescon, Giorgio Colangeli
Votes: 2,876
35. Kapo (1960)
116 min | Drama, War
A young Jewish girl leads an escape attempt from a concentration camp.
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo | Stars: Susan Strasberg, Laurent Terzieff, Emmanuelle Riva, Didi Perego
Votes: 2,595
36. The Borgias (1981)
50 min | Biography, Drama, History
The ruthless Rodrigo Borgia intends to become Pope and will not let anything stand in his way.
Stars: Oliver Cotton, Maurice O'Connell, Louis Selwyn, Adolfo Celi
Votes: 195
37. The Great War (1959)
Approved | 137 min | Comedy, Drama, War
The Italian Army fought against the Austrians during World War I.
Director: Mario Monicelli | Stars: Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman, Bernard Blier, Folco Lulli
Votes: 4,604
38. Good Morning, Night (2003)
106 min | Drama
The 1978 kidnapping of politician Aldo Moro as seen from the perspective of one of his assailants: a conflicted young woman in the ranks of the Red Brigade.
Director: Marco Bellocchio | Stars: Maya Sansa, Luigi Lo Cascio, Roberto Herlitzka, Paolo Briguglia
Votes: 4,043 | Gross: $0.01M
39. The Profession of Arms (2001)
Not Rated | 105 min | Drama, History, War
The history of the first victim of modern artillery and its moving agony, amidst conspiracies and betrayals of the powerful. Life and death of Giovanni De' Medici, a young brave captain in ... See full summary »
Director: Ermanno Olmi | Stars: Christo Jivkov, Sergio Grammatico, Dimitar Rachkov, Fabio Giubbani
Votes: 1,908
40. La lunga notte (2024)
History
1943. Anticipando la crisi che sta per travolgere il regime, Dino Grandi, Presidente della Camera dei fasci, cerca di riportare l'Italia nelle mani dei Savoia in un clima di forti tensioni.
Stars: Alessio Boni, Pierpaolo Lovino, Duccio Camerini, Marco Foschi
Votes: 104
41. We Believed (2010)
205 min | History
The stories of three young men who, in the wake of the ferocious repression by the Bourbon reign in 1828, decide to join Giuseppe Mazzini's Young Italy movement.
Director: Mario Martone | Stars: Raffaele Di Florio, Francesca Inaudi, Andrea Bosca, Edoardo Natoli
Votes: 631
42. Massacre in Rome (1973)
PG | 110 min | Drama, History, War
Rome, March 23, 1944: 33 German soldiers are killed by a bomb. Lt. Col. Herbert Kappler is ordered to execute ten times that many Italians.
Director: George P. Cosmatos | Stars: Richard Burton, Marcello Mastroianni, Leo McKern, John Steiner
Votes: 1,487
43. Diaz - Don't Clean Up This Blood (2012)
127 min | Drama
A reenactment of the final days of the 2001 G8 Summit.
Director: Daniele Vicari | Stars: Claudio Santamaria, Jennifer Ulrich, Elio Germano, Davide Iacopini
Votes: 4,058
44. The Last 4 Days (1974)
PG | 91 min | Biography, Drama, History
In 1945, the dictator of fascist Italy and Hitler's close ally Benito Mussolini faces defeat. In a desperate attempt to avoid capture, he tries to flee the country with his lover Claretta Petacci, but Italian partisans are on their tail.
Director: Carlo Lizzani | Stars: Rod Steiger, Franco Nero, Lisa Gastoni, Lino Capolicchio
Votes: 873
45. Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979)
150 min | Drama
A doctor in Fascist Italy is exiled to a remote village for his political views.
Director: Francesco Rosi | Stars: Gian Maria Volontè, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny, Lea Massari
Votes: 2,736 | Gross: $0.07M
46. Mussolini and I (1985)
120 min | Biography, Drama, War
A compelling drama and documentary chronicling the life and death of Il Duce (Bob Hoskins), from his days as a terrorist, to his alliance with Hitler, to the betrayal of his son-in-law, and untimely demise.
Stars: Susan Sarandon, Anthony Hopkins, Bob Hoskins, Annie Girardot
Votes: 453
47. Mameli - Il ragazzo che sognò l'Italia (2024– )
History
Stars: Gualtiero Burzi, Marcus Marcelli, Giorgia Gambuzza, Riccardo de Rinaldis Santorelli
Votes: 74
48. The Silent Enemy (1958)
Not Rated | 112 min | Action, Biography, History
During WW2, Italian Navy divers use underwater chariots to mine the keels of British warships, forcing the British to send underwater demolition expert Lionel Crabbe and his team to counter these enemy actions.
Director: William Fairchild | Stars: Laurence Harvey, Dawn Addams, Michael Craig, John Clements
Votes: 847
49. El Alamein - The Line of Fire (2002)
117 min | Drama, War
War seen through the eyes of Serra, a university student from Palermo who volunteers in 1942 to fight in Africa. He is assigned to the Pavia Division on the southern line in Egypt. Rommel ... See full summary »
Director: Enzo Monteleone | Stars: Paolo Briguglia, Pierfrancesco Favino, Luciano Scarpa, Emilio Solfrizzi
Votes: 2,015
50. The Spider's Stratagem (1970)
100 min | Drama, Mystery
A man returns to the place where his father was murdered and tries to find closure. But he finds himself in a similar predicament as his late father instead.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: Giulio Brogi, Alida Valli, Pippo Campanini, Franco Giovanelli
Votes: 3,146