15 Best Italian Films of The 21st Century

1. I'm Not Scared (2003)
Genres: Crime / Mystery / Drama
Director: Gabriele Salvatores
Cast: Giuseppe Cristiano, Mattia Di Pierro, Adriana Conserva

Plot: While playing outside one day, nine-year-old Michele discovers Filippo, who is chained to the ground at the bottom of a hole. Michele witnesses town baddie Felice nearby and suspects something bad is happening. Michele is unsure whom he should tell about his discovery, eventually spilling the beans to his closest friend.

2. The Best Offer (2013)
Genres: Crime / Mystery / Drama
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Sylvia Hoeks

Plot: In the world of high-end art auctions and antiques, Virgil Oldman is an elderly and esteemed but eccentric genius expert, known and appreciated by the world. Oldman is hired by a solitary young heiress, Ibbetson, to auction off the large collection of art and antiques left to her by her parents. For some reason, Claire always refuses to be seen in person. Robert aids Oldman in restoring and reassembling some odd mechanical parts he finds amongst Claire's belongings, while also giving him advice on how to befriend her and deal with his feelings towards her. Also a friend of Oldman, Billy Whistler helps him to acquire a secret private collection of master paintings.

3. Baarìa (2009)
Genres: Comedy / Drama
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Cast: Francesco Scianna, Margareth Madè, Monica Bellucci

Plot: The film begins in the 1920's, in the Sicilian town of Bagheria (a.k.a. Baaria) where Giuseppe "Peppino" Torrenuova works as a shepherd to financially help his poor family. Over the next 50 years Giuseppe's life, as well as the life of the village, is observed. Giuseppe grows up, joins the Communist Party, marries a local girl (Mannina), has children and forges a political career for himself.

4. Youth (2015)
Genres: Comedy / Drama / Music
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Cast: Michael Caine, Rachel Weisz, Harvey Keitel

Plot: Fred and Mick, two old friends, are on vacation in an elegant hotel at the foot of the Alps. Fred, a composer and conductor, is now retired. Mick, a film director, is still working. They look with curiosity and tenderness on their children's confused lives, Mick's enthusiastic young writers, and the other hotel guests. While Mick scrambles to finish the screenplay for what he imagines will be his last important film, Fred has no intention of resuming his musical career. But someone wants at all costs to hear him conduct again.

 5. Suburra (2015)
Genres: Crime / Romance / Thriller
Director: Stefano Sollima
Cast: Pierfrancesco Favino, Greta Scarano, Giulia Gorietti

Plot: A gangster known as "Samurai" wants to turn the waterfront of Rome into a new Las Vegas. All the local mob bosses have agreed to work for this common goal. But peace is not to last long.

6. The Great Beauty (2013)
Genre: Drama
Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Cast: Toni Servillo, Carlo Verdone, Sabrina Ferilli

Plot: Jep Gambardella has seduced his way through the lavish nightlife of Rome for decades, but after his 65th birthday and a shock from the past, Jep looks past the nightclubs and parties to find a timeless landscape of absurd, exquisite beauty.

7. The Unknown Woman (2006)
Genres: Drama / Mystery / Thriller
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Cast: Kseniya Rappoport, Margherita Buy, Pierfrancesco Favino

Plot: A Ukrainian woman named Irena calculatedly insinuates herself into the lives of a young, affluent Italian family. Stopping at nothing to become the couple's trusted maid and the beloved nanny to their fragile young daughter, Irena risks everything in her quest to uncover the truth about the family. Like an intricately constructed jigsaw puzzle, The Unknown Woman reveals piece by piece the enigma of Irena's past.

8. Perfect Strangers (2016)
Genres: Comedy / Drama
Director: Paolo Genovese
Cast: Giuseppe Battiston, Alba Rohrwacher, Kasia Smutniak

Plot: Seven long-time friends get together for a dinner. When they decide to share with each other the content of every text message, email and phone call they receive, many secrets start to unveil and the equilibrium trembles.

9. Gladiators of Rome (2013)
Genres: Animation / Adventure/ Comedy
Director: Iginio Straffi
Cast: Stefano Alessandroni, Laura Chiatti, Daniela Abbruzzese

Plot: A new hero is born in this hilarious, animated adventure of epic proportions. Timo, a student at the Gladiators' Academy in Rome, has no desire to become a legendary gladiator like his stepfather. That is, until the mesmerizing Lucilla walks into his life. With the help of an unlikely band of sidekicks, Timo is determined to be the gladiator of her dreams and embarks on an action-packed journey to become the Colosseum's first victor.

10. Deadly Code (2013)
Genres: Crime / Drama
Director: Gabriele Salvatores
Cast: John Malkovich, Eleanor Tomlinson, Peter Stormare

Plot: A drama based on a memoir about growing up as a member of the Urka community in the small republic of Transnistria.

11. Twice Born (2012)
Genres: Drama / Romance / War
Director: Sergio Castellitto
Cast: Penélope Cruz, Emile Hirsch, Jane Birkin

Plot: A mother brings her teenage son to Sarajevo, where his father died in the Bosnian conflict years ago.

12. Tale of Tales (2015)
Genres: Drama / Fantasy
Director: Matteo Garrone
Cast: Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones

Plot: The film serves as Garrone's English-language debut and will interweave three separate story strands bookended by brief bits in which Italians Alba Rohrwacher and Massimo Ceccherini will play a street circus family. In one tale Salma Hayek will play a jealous queen who forfeits her husband's life. In another, Vincent Cassel plays a king whose passion is stoked by two mysterious sisters.

13. Gomorrah (2008)
Genre: Crime / Drama
Director: Matteo Garrone
Cast: Gianfelice Imparato, Toni Servillo, Maria Nazionale

Plot: "Gomorra" is a contemporary Neapolitan mob drama that exposes Italy's criminal underbelly by telling five stories of individuals who think they can make their own compact with Camorra, the area's Mafia.

14. Respiro (2002)
Genre: Drama
Director: Emanuele Crialese
Cast: Valeria Golino, Elio Germano, Vincenzo Amato

Plot: Grazia is a mother of three who spends suffocating days packing fish while her husband Pietro is at sea. Her oft-erratic behavior leads Pietro into thinking she may need medical attention, and he prepares to send her off to a psychiatric institute in Milan. Their son Pasquale, the one person who understand his mother the most, vows to do whatever it takes to foil his father's plan.

15. The Ages of Love (2011)
Genres: Comedy / Romance
Director: Giovanni Veronesi
Cast: Robert De Niro, Monica Bellucci, Laura Chiatti.

Plot: Roberto is a young and ambitious lawyer who is going to marry Sara. His whole life is perfectly planned out. During a expropriation which he is in charge of, he meets Micol, a gorgeous and provocative young woman from a small village in Tuscany. This is when things start to get complicated... Fabio, a famous anchorman, has been the perfect husband for twenty five years. At a party one night, he meets Eliana, a femme fatale full of surprises. This one-night stand proves to be more than what he bargained for when she refuses to leave... Adrian is an American art history professor who moved to Rome after his divorce. He is friends with Augusto, the building's concierge, whose ebullient daughter Viola is about to disrupt his peaceful existence and relight his fire...

The Best French Films of The 21st Century

France has always been a trailblazer for European cinema. To begin with, it played a key role in the birth of film with the Lumière brothers’ shorts, while in the ‘20s it became prominent with the French Impressionist Cinema and in the late 50s a new generation of French directors arrived to turn everything upside down, creating the French New Wave.

Since we are talking about French films, we can’t avoid mentioning the wild independent filmmakers or the directors that don’t fit in the bigger picture due to their unique style, such as François Ozon, Alain Resnais, Jean-Jacques Annaud and Jean-Luc Godard, the representatives of Auteurism.

1. The Intouchables (2011)
Genres: Biography / Comedy / Drama
Directors: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano
Cast: François Cluzet, Omar Sy, Audrey Fleurot.

Plot: A rich quadriplegic, living in a mansion in Paris, requires a live-in carer. A young offender turns up for an interview, but he is not really looking to get the job. However, to his surprise, he is hired. The two men then develop a close friendship.

2. La Vie en Rose (2007)
Genres: Biography / Drama / Music
Director: Olivier Dahan
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Gérard Depardieu, Emmanuelle Seigner.

Plot: An un-chronological look at the life of the Little Sparrow, Édith Piaf. Her mother is an alcoholic street singer, her father a circus performer, her paternal grandmother a madam. During childhood she lives with each of them. At 20, she's a street singer discovered by a club owner who's soon murdered, coached by a musician who brings her to concert halls, and then quickly famous. Constant companions are alcohol and heartache.

3. Amelie (2001)
Genres: Comedy / Romance
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Jamel Debbouze.

Plot: Amélie is a shy waitress in a Montmartre café. After returning a long-lost childhood treasure to a former occupant of her apartment, and seeing the effect it has on him, she decides to set out on a mission to make others happy and in the meantime pursues a quirky guy who collects discarded photo booth pictures.

4. Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001)
Genres: Action / Drama / Adventure
Director: Christophe Gans
Cast: Samuel Le Bihan, Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci.

Plot: In 18th century France, the Chevalier de Fronsac and his native American friend Mani are sent by the King to the Gevaudan province to investigate the killings of hundreds by a mysterious beast.

5. Angel-A (2005)
Genres: Comedy / Drama / Fantasy
Director: Luc Besson
Cast: Rie Rasmussen, Jamel Debbouze, Gilbert Melki.

Plot: In Paris, André is a loser: a short disheveled Arab with a U.S. green card and a withered hand he keeps shoved in a pocket. He's a constant liar, spinning tales of Argentine olive oil. He owes lots of money to two thugs who both demand payment by midnight. In despair, he importunes God for forsaking him, and he climbs an abutment to jump off a bridge. Something distracts him - it's a leggy blonde in a short skirt about to leap off the same bridge. She jumps, he leaps and swims to her rescue, and thus begins their two-day odyssey. Can André ever tell the truth, accept himself, and express emotion? And the blonde - what's her history, and did she really need saving?

6. A Very Long Engagement (2004)
Genres: Romance / Drama / Mystery
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Gaspard Ulliel, Marion Cotillard.

Plot: This film is inspiring, to follow what you believe and find your loved ones! A very moving film but very true to life! A story of five soldiers being summoned to No Mans Land and left to die. The film shows how these soldiers fought for their lives and how one particular solider, Manech, and his soon to be wife, played by Audrey Tautou, uncovers the truth to find out about his whereabouts.

7. The Artist (2011)
Genres: Comedy / Drama / Romance
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Cast: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman.

Plot: Outside a movie premiere, enthusiastic fan Peppy Miller literally bumps into the swashbuckling hero of the silent film, George Valentin. The star reacts graciously and Peppy plants a kiss on his cheek as they are surrounded by photographers. The headlines demand: "Who's That Girl?" and Peppy is inspired to audition for a dancing bit-part at the studio. However as Peppy slowly rises through the industry, the introduction of talking-pictures turns Valentin's world upside-down.

8. Coco Before Chanel (2009)
Genres: Biography / Drama
Director: Anne Fontaine
Cast: Audrey Tautou, Benoît Poelvoorde, Alessandro Nivola.

Plot: Several years after leaving the orphanage to which her father never returned for her, Gabrielle finds herself working in a provincial bar. She's both a seamstress for the performers and a singer, earning the nickname Coco from the song she sings nightly with her sister. A liaison with Balsan gives her an entrée into French society and a chance to develop her gift for designing increasingly popular hats. When she falls in love with businessman Capel further opportunities open up, though life becomes ever more complicated.

9. Swimming Pool (2003)
Genres: Crime / Drama / Mystery
Director: François Ozon
Cast: Ludivine Sagnier, Charlotte Rampling, Charles Dance.

Plot: Swimming Pool focuses on Sarah, a rigid and conservative, yet successful English mystery writer. Sarah's personal life and new novel take a dramatic twist when she meets her publisher's sexy, free-spirited daughter Julie at his gracious mansion in the French countryside.

10. Anything for Her (2008)
Genres: Crime / Drama / Thriller
Director: Fred Cavayé
Cast: Vincent Lindon, Diane Kruger, Liliane Rovère.

Plot: Lisa and Julien are married and lead a happy uneventful life with their son Oscar. But their life radically changes one morning, when the police comes to arrest Lisa on murder charges. She's sentenced to 20 years of prison. Convinced of his wife's innocence, Julien decides to act. How far will he be willing to go for her?

10 Best Spanish Films

These days, Spanish cinema has become a mature-content and technical configuration kind of cinema worthy of being exposed in any European country or the US. In relation to the esteem other nations such as France or Italy have for Pedro Almodóvar or classic Spanish realisateurs like Luis Buñuel, Luis G. Berlanga or Carlos Saura, it turns Spanish cinema productions into honorable rivals and companions of other cultures.

In fact, Spanish films have won some of the most renowned traditionally established awards. Past successful productions have taken Spanish cinema to an internationalization and modernization level that today is still highly enjoyed, in spite of some problematic pending issues, such as the state’s involvement or the formation of a strong cinematographic industry that is able to handle interests in favor and not against filmmakers.

1. All About My Mother (1999)
Genre: Drama
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Cecilia Roth, Penélope Cruz, Marisa Paredes

Plot: Manuela is a hard-working single mom who has raised her son Esteban by herself since the time he was born. On his 17th birthday they go to the theater and after the show, Esteban tries to get the main actress' autograph but is run down on the street and dies. Manuela is beside herself with grief and decides to return to Barcelona to tell the boy's transgender father Lola, about the death of the son he never knew he had. Manuela meets up a pregnant nun, Rosa. They become fast friends - until tragedy strikes again.

2. Talk to Her (2002)
Genres: Drama / Mystery / Romance
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Javier Cámara, Leonor Watling, Darío Grandinetti

Plot: After a chance encounter at a theater, two men, Benigno and Marco, meet at a private clinic where Benigno works. Lydia, Marco's girlfriend and a bullfighter by profession, has been gored and is in a coma. It so happens that Benigno is looking after another woman in a coma, Alicia, a young ballet student. The lives of the four characters will flow in all directions, past, present and future, dragging all of them towards an unsuspected destiny.

3. Volver (2006)
Genres: Comedy / Crime / Drama / Mystery
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Penélope Cruz, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo

Plot: Raimunda, her daughter Paula and her sister Sole travel from Madrid to the windy and superstitious village of Alcanfor de las Infantas to visit the grave of their mother Irene, who died years ago in a fire with her husband. Then they visit Irene's sister Paula, an old senile aunt that raised Raimunda after the death of her parents that insists to tell them that Irene is alive and living with her; later, they go to the house of her neighbor and friend Agustina, who gives a support to Paula.

4. The Sea Inside (2004)
Genres: Biography / Drama / Romance
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Cast: Javier Bardem, Lola Dueñas, Belén Rueda

Plot: Life story of Spaniard Ramón Sampedro, who fought a 30-year campaign to win the right to end his life with dignity. Film explores Ramón's relationships with two women: Julia, a lawyer who supports his cause, and Rosa, a local woman who wants to convince him that life is worth living. Through the gift of his love, these two women are inspired to accomplish things they never previously thought possible. Despite his wish to die, Ramón taught everyone he encountered the meaning, value and preciousness of life.

5. The Others (2001)
Genres: Fantasy / Horror / Thriller
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Fionnula Flanagan, Christopher Eccleston

Plot: A woman named Grace retires with her two children to a mansion on Jersey, towards the end of the Second World War, where she's waiting for her husband to come back from battle. The children have a disease which means they cannot be touched by direct sunlight without being hurt in some way. They will live alone there with oppressive, strange and almost religious rules, until she needs to hire a group of servants for them. Their arrival will accidentally begin to break the rules with unexpected consequences.

6. Open Your Eyes (1997)
Genres: Drama / Mystery / Romance / Sci-Fi / Thriller
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Cast: Penélope Cruz, Eduardo Noriega, Najwa Nimri

Plot: The film's intersecting planes of dream and reality have prompted some critics to suggest comparisons to Calderón's play 'Life Is a Dream'. A once handsome playboy, César finds himself in a mental facility and he can't remember why. All he can remember is meeting the love of his life for one day, and then getting into a car accident which left his face horribly disfigured. But the pain of becoming physically undesirable may help him to find the truth.

7. Agora (2009)
Genres: Adventure / Drama / History / Romance
Director: Alejandro Amenábar
Cast: Rachel Weisz, Max Minghella, Oscar Isaac

Plot: Alexandria, 391 AD: Hypatia teaches astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy. Her student Orestes is in love with her, as is Davus, her personal slave. As the city's Christians, led by Ammonius and Cyril, gain political power, the institutions of learning may crumble along with the governance of slavery. Jump ahead 20 years: Orestes, the city's prefect, has an uneasy peace with Christians, led by Cyril. Hypatia has no interest in faith. She's concerned about the movement of celestial bodies and "the brotherhood of all". Although her former slave doesn't see it that way.

8. Secrets of the Heart (1997)
Genre: Drama
Director: Montxo Armendáriz
Cast: Andoni Erburu, Silvia Munt, Charo López

Plot: Javi and his friend Carlos snoop around an old house on the way home from school. According to his brother Juan this is a haunted house and one can hear the voices of the dead. Later he is intrigued with a room which is always closed (the room where his father was found dead). He is so interested in these mysteries that he starts to investigate all the secrets of these dead people and their stories.

9. The Impossible (2012)
Genres: Drama / Thriller
Director: J.A. Bayona
Cast: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland

Plot: A regular family - Maria, Henry and their three kids - travel to Thailand to spend Christmas. They get an upgrade to a villa on the coastline. After settling in and exchanging gifts, they go to the pool, like so many other tourists. A perfect paradise vacation until a distant noise becomes a roar. There is no time to escape from the tsunami; Maria and her eldest are swept one way, Henry and the youngest another. Who will survive, and what will become of them?

10. The Skin I Live In (2011)
Genre: Thriller
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes

Plot: In honor of his late wife who died in a flaming car accident, scientist, Dr. Robert Ledgard, is trying to synthesize the perfect skin which can withstand burns, cuts or any other kind of damage. As he gets closer to perfecting this skin on his flawless patient, the scientific community starts growing skeptical and his past is revealed that shows how his patient is closely linked to tragic events he would like to forget.

Best 10 German Movies

1. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)

Genre: Crime / Drama / Fantasy
Director: Tom Tykwer
Cast: Ben Whishaw, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Alan Rickman

Plot: Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born in the stench of eighteenth century Paris, develops a superior olfactory sense, which he uses to create the world's finest perfumes. His work, however, takes a dark turn as he tries to preserve scents in the search for the ultimate perfume. 

2. Nowhere in Africa (2001)

Genre: Biography / Drama
Director: Caroline Link
Cast: Juliane Kohler, Merab Ninidze, Sidede Onyulo 

Plot: A Jewish family in Germany emigrate short before the Second World War. They move to Kenya to start running a farm, but not all members of the family come to an arrangement with their new life. Shortly after their departure, things are changing in Germany very quickly, and a turning back seems impossible. So everyone has to arrange himself with the new life in a new continent.

3. Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997)

Genre: Action / Crime / Comedy / Drama
Director: Thomas Jahn
Cast: Til Schweiger, Jan Josef Liefers, Moritz Bleibtreu

Plot: Two young men, Martin and Rudi, both suffering from terminal cancer, get to know each other in a hospital room. They drown their desperation in Tequila and decide to take one last trip to the sea. Drunk and still in pajamas they steal the first fancy car they find, a 60's Mercedes convertible. The car happens to belong to a bunch of gangsters, which immediately start to chase it, since it contains more than the pistol Martin finds in the glove box.

4. Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

Genre: Comedy / Drama / Romance
Director: Wolfgang Becker
Cast: Daniel Bruhl, Chulpan Khamatova, Florian Lukas

Plot: East Germany, the year 1989: A young man protests against the regime. His mother watches the police arresting him and suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. Some months later, the GDR does not exist anymore and the mother awakes. Since she has to avoid every excitement, the son tries to set up the GDR again for her in their flat. But the world has changed a lot.

5. Run Lola Run (1998)

Genre: Action / Crime / Thriller
Director: Tom Tykwer
Cast: Franka Potente, Moritz Bleibtreu, Herbert Knaup

Plot: Lola receives a phone call from her boyfriend Manny. He lost 100,000 DM in a subway train that belongs to a very bad guy. Lola has 20 min to raise this amount and meet Manni. Otherwise, he will rob a store to get the money. Three different alternatives may happen depending on some minor event along Lola's run. 

6. Das Experiment (2001)

Genre: Drama / Thriller
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Cast: Moritz Bleibtreu, Christian Berkel, Maren Eggert

Plot: For two weeks 20 male participants are hired to play prisoners and guards. The 'prisoners' are locked up and have to follow seemingly mild rules, and the 'guards' are told simply to retain order without using physical violence. Everybody is free to quit at any time, thereby forfeiting payment. In the beginning the mood between both groups is insecure and rather emphatic. But soon quarrels arise and the wardens employ ever more drastic sanctions to confirm their authority.

7. Metropolis (2001)

Genre: Drama / Sci-Fi
Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Brigitte Helm, Gustav Fröhlich, Rudolf Klein-Rogge

Plot: In the future, the society of Metropolis is divided in two social classes: the workers and the dominant classes. The workers are controlled by their leader Maria, who wants to find a mediator between the upper class lords and the workers. Maria meets Freder, the son of the Lord of Metropolis Johhan and they fall in love for each other. Johhan decides that the workers are no longer necessary for Metropolis, and uses a robot pretending to be Maria to promote a revolution of the working class.

8. The Lives of Others (2006)

Genre: Drama / Thriller
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck 
Cast: Ulrich Muhe, Sebastian Koch, Martina Gedeck

Plot: The film begins in 1984 when secret police agent Wiesler attends a play written by Georg Dreyman, who is considered by many to be the ultimate example of the loyal citizen. Wiesler has a gut feeling that Dreyman can't be as ideal as he seems and believes surveillance is called for. The Minister of Culture agrees but only later does Wiesler learn that the Minister sees Dreyman as a rival and lusts after his partner Christa-Maria. The more time he spends listening in on them, the more he comes to care about them.

9. Downfall (2004)

Genre: Biography / Drama / History / War
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel 
Cast: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Juliane Kohler 

Plot: In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Soviet Armies closing in from the west and south. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his Generals and advisers to fight to the last man. "Downfall" explores these final days of the Reich, where senior German leaders began defecting from their beloved Fuhrer, in an effort to save their own lives, while still others pledge to die with Hitler. 

10. Das Boot (1981)

Genre: Adventure / Drama / War
Director: Wolfgang Petersen 
Cast: Jurgen Prochnow, Herbert Gronemeyer, Klaus Wennemann 

Plot: It is 1942 and the German submarine fleet is heavily engaged in the so-called "Battle of the Atlantic" to harass and destroy British shipping. "Das Boot" is the story of one such U-Boat crew, with the film examining how these submariners maintained their professionalism as soldiers and attempted to accomplish impossible missions, all the while attempting to understand and obey the ideology of the government under which they served.