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Learn Italian By Watching Movies Online: 24 free Italian movies

Learn Italian By Watching Movies Online: 24 free Italian movies

Learning Italian by watching movies is one of the most used methods among language learners because with this method you can listen, repeat, write, and also read if the subtitle is available.

So learning Italian by watching movies helps you develop all the different aspects of the language and for that, we will introduce to you the most famous Italian actors and actress and their best movies + link to where you can find these movies. (We couldn’t find three of them, unfortunately).

But before we start let’s see what you need to do to study the Italian language with movies.

The first step is LISTENING: Listening is the most essential part of learning any language because you need to be familiar with the sounds and the pronunciation of the words and get used to the sound of the language so when you listen to natives speaking quickly you will be able to understand what is being said.

The second step is WRITING: Don’t fall into the trap of writing every word you hear otherwise you will take forever to finish one movie However it’s better to focus on important phrases, collocations, and verbs that can be used in everyday situations because by knowing and memorizing them you will be able to speak quickly with confidence and without thinking too much about grammar.

The third step is REPEATING: After you collect the important phrases don’t forget to repeat them at least 33 times daily until they stick to your head also try to add them to your daily use of the language.

The last step is TESTING yourself: After memorizing the phrases very well you really need to test yourself daily about what you have learned and watched. For this method, you can use a notebook to write down all the questions or you can use Anki a very good app dedicated to memorizing.

Now here is your list of Italian actors and their most famous movies and where to find these movies online.

A). Roberto Benigni

Learn Italian By Watching Movies Online

Roberto Benigni is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and director. He gained international recognition for writing, directing, and starring in the Holocaust comedy-drama film Life Is Beautiful for which he received the Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best International Feature Film. Benigni remains the only actor to win the Best Actor Academy Award for a non-English language performance.

1. La vita è bella 1997

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  • Title in English: Life Is Beautiful
  • Type: Comedy, Drama, Romance
  • Director: Roberto Benigni
  • Cast: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Giustino Durano.
  • Rating on IMDb: 8.6/10
  • Duration: 1h 56m
  • Trailer: Here
  • Plot: When an open-minded Jewish waiter and his son become victims of the Holocaust, he uses a perfect mixture of will, humor, and imagination to protect his son from the dangers around their camp.

2. Pinocchio 2002

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  • Title in English: Pinocchio
  • Type: Comedy, Family, Fantasy
  • Director: Roberto Benigni
  • Cast: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Carlo Giuffrè
  • Rating on IMDb: 4.3/10
  • Duration: 1h 48m
  • Trailer: Here
  • Plot: Despite guidance from the blue fairy and the love of his father, a wooden puppet’s curious spirit leads him into one wild adventure after another.

3. La tigre e la neve 2005

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  • Title in English: The Tiger and the Snow
  • Type: Comedy, Drama, Romance
  • Director: Roberto Benigni
  • Cast: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Jean Reno
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.0/10
  • Duration: 1h 50m
  • Trailer: Here
  • Plot: A love-struck Italian poet is stuck in Iraq at the onset of an American invasion.

4. Non ci resta che piangere 1984

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  • Title in English: Nothing Left to do but Cry
  • Type: Comedy, Fantasy
  • Director: Roberto Benigni, Massimo Troisi
  • Cast: Roberto Benigni, Massimo Troisi
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.6/10
  • Duration: 1h 53m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: In the 80’s, two friends mysteriously wake up in the XV century and clumsily try to intermingle with the society of the time.

5. Il piccolo diavolo 1988

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  • Title in English: The Little Devil
  • Type: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
  • Director: Roberto Benigni
  • Cast: Roberto Benigni, Walter Mathau, Stefania sanderlli.
  • Rating on IMDb: 6.9/10
  • Duration: 1h 41m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: During the exorcism, Father Maurice meets a little devil named Giuditta, who refuses to return to hell and decided to discover the world.

6. Johnny Stecchino 1991

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  • Title in English: Johnny Stecchino
  • Type: Comedy, Crime, Romance
  • Director: Roberto Benigni
  • Cast: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Paolo Bonacelli
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.2/10
  • Duration: 1h 42m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: A kindhearted but bumbling idiot who likes to steal bananas is passed off for a snitch hiding from the mob.

7. Il mostro 1994

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  • Title in English: The Monster
  • Type: Comedy, Crime, Mystery
  • Director: Roberto Benigni
  • Cast: Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Michel Blac
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.4/10
  • Duration: 1h 52m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: After a series of bizarre actions, Loris is mistaken for a serial killer. Jessica, a policewoman undercover, will try to induce him to commit murder.

B). Sofia Loren

Learn Italian By Watching Movies Online

Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone known as Sofia Loren, is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest stars of Classical Hollywood cinema and as of 2023,Sofia Loren is one of the last surviving major stars from the era. Loren is also the only remaining person to appear on AFI’s list of the 50 greatest stars of American film history, positioned 21st.

Loren’s performance as Cesira in the film Two Women won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the first actor to win an Oscar for a non-English-language performance. She holds the record for having earned seven David di Donatello Awards for Best Actress.

She won five special Golden Globes, a BAFTA Award, a Laurel Award, a Grammy Award, the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival, and the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1991, she received the Academy Honorary Award for Lifetime Achievements.

1. La Ciociara 1960

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  • Title in English: Two women
  • Type: Drama, War
  • Director: Vittorio De Sica
  • Cast: Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmon, Raf Vallon, Eleonora Brown.
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.7/10
  • Duration: 1h 41m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: In the Italy of WWII, a widow, and her lonely daughter seek for distance between them and the horrors of war.

2. I Girasoli 1970

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  • Title in English: Sunflower
  • Type: Drama, War
  • Director: Vittorio De Sica
  • Cast: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroia, Lyudmila Saveleva
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.3/10
  • Duration: 1h 47m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: An Italian woman conducts a desperate search for her husband, a soldier considered missing in action in Russia during WWII.

3. Una Giornata Particolare 1977

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  • Title in English: A Special Day
  • Type: Drama
  • Director: Ettore Scola
  • Cast: Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroia, John Vernon.
  • Rating on IMDb: 8.1/10
  • Duration: 1h 46m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: Two neighbors, a persecuted journalist, and a resigned housewife, meet during Hitler’s visit to Italy in May 1938.

4. Il viaggio 1974

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  • Title in English: The Voyage
  • Type: Drama, Romance
  • Director: Vittorio De Sica
  • Cast: Sophia Loren, Richard Burton, Ian Bannen, Barbara Pilavin.
  • Rating on IMDb: 5.9/10
  • Duration: 1h 42m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: The charming Adriana gets sick after her husband’s death. Her brother-in-law takes her on a journey to meet a doctor, while love overwhelms them.

5. Peccato che sia una canaglia 1954

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  • Title in English: Too Bad She’s Bad
  • Type: Comedy, Romance
  • Director: Alessandro Blasetti
  • Cast: Sophia Loren, Vittorio De Sica, Marcello Mastroia.
  • Rating on IMDb: 6.8/10
  • Duration: 1h 35m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: A kind-hearted taxi driver runs into a glamorous girl and falls in love with her, but she turns out to be a cheap thief.

6. Pellegrini d’amore 1954

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  • Title in English: Pilgrim of Love
  • Type: Comedy, Romance
  • Director: Andrea Forzan
  • Cast: Sophia Loren, Enrico Viarisio, Alda Mangini.
  • Rating on IMDb: 4.6/10
  • Duration: 1h 50m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: A mature countess and a pseudo-specialist have rented a villa by the sea and, avoiding police surveillance, run a clandestine gambling den.

7. La baia di Napoli 1960

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  • Title in English: It Started in Naples
  • Type: Comedy, Drama
  • Director: Melville Shavelson
  • Cast: Sophia Loren, Clark Gable, Vittorio De sica
  • Rating on IMDb: 6.3/10
  • Duration: 1h 40m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: Days before his wedding, a Philadelphia lawyer travels to Naples in Southern Italy to settle the estate of his late brother, only to find that he has an Italian nephew who is being cared for by his maternal aunt, a cabaret singer.

8. Boccaccio’70 1962

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  • Title in English: Boccaccio’70
  • Type: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
  • Director: Vittorio De Sica, Fedrico Fellini, Mario Monicelli.
  • Cast: Anita Ekberg, Sophia Loren, Romy Schneider, Maris Solinas.
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.1/10
  • Duration: 3h 25m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: Inspired by Boccaccio’s novellas, each episode focuses on sex, love, and seduction in Italy in the 1960s, an era of economic growth and major cultural change.

9. C’era una volta 1967

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  • Title in English: More Than a Miracle
  • Type: Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
  • Director: Francesco Rosi
  • Cast: Sophia Loren, Omar Sharif
  • Rating on IMDb: 6.0/10
  • Duration: 3h 25m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: In 17th century Italy, a Spanish prince, who’s searching for a bride, falls in love with a beautiful local passant girl.

C). Marcello Mastroianni

Learn Italian By Watching Movies Online

Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni was an Italian film actor, regarded as one of his country’s most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy’s top directors in a career spanning 147 films between 1939 and 1997 and garnered many international honors including 2 BAFTA Awards, 2 Best Actor awards at the Venice and Cannes film festivals, 2 Golden Globes, and 3 Academy Award nominations.

1. La dolce vita 1960

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  • Title in English: La Dolce vita
  • Type: Comedy, Drama
  • Director: Fedrico Fellini
  • Cast: Marcello Mastroia, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Animèe, Yvonne Furneaux
  • Rating on IMDb: 8.0/10
  • Duration: 2h 54m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: A series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering tabloid journalist living in Rome.

2. Ieri oggi e domani 1963

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  • Title in English: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
  • Type: Comedy, Drama
  • Director: Vittorio De sica
  • Cast: Marcello Mastroia, Sophia Loren
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.2/10
  • Duration: 1h 59m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: Stories about three very different women and the men they attract.

3. Divorzio all’italiana 1961

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  • Title in English: Divorce Italian Style
  • Type: Comedy, Drama, Romance
  • Director: Pietro Germi
  • Cast: Marcello Mastroia
  • Rating on IMDb: 8.0/10
  • Duration: 1h 45m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: Ferdinando Cefalù, a 37-year-old impoverished Sicilian nobleman, is married to Rosalia, a devoted wife he no longer loves. He is in love with his cousin Angela. Aware that divorce is illegal, Ferdinando fantasizes about doing away with his wife.

4. Matrimonio all’italiana 1964

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  • Title in English: Marriage Italian style
  • Type: Comedy, Drama, Romance
  • Director: Vittorio De sica
  • Cast: Marcello Mastroia, Sophia Loren
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.4/10
  • Duration: 1h 42m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: Wealthy businessman Domenico and penniless prostitute Filumena share a large part of their lives in post-WWII Italy.

5. Dramma della Gelosia 1970

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  • Title in English: The Pizza Triangle
  • Type: Comedy, Drama, Romance
  • Director: Ettore Scola
  • Cast: Marcello Mastroia, Monica Vitti, Giancarlo Giannini.
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.1/10
  • Duration: 1h 39m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: A three-way love affair in the Rome of the early seventies.

D. Anna Magnani

Learn Italian By Watching Movies Online

Anna Maria Magnani was an Italian actress. She was known for her explosive and earthly, realistic portrayals of characters. She was referred to as “La lupa”, the “perennial toast of Rome” and a “living she-wolf symbol” of the cinema. In the realm of Italian cinema, she was “passionate, fearless, and exciting” an actress whom film historian Barry Monush calls “the volcanic earth mother of all Italian cinema.” Playwright Tennessee Williams became an admirer of her acting and wrote The Rose Tatto (1955) specifically for her to star in, a role for which she receives an Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Italian and first non-English speaking woman to win an Oscar.

She achieved international attention in Rossellini’s Rome, Open City 1945, which is seen as launching the Italian neorealism movement in cinema.

As an actress, she became recognized for her dynamic and forceful portrayals of ” earthy lower-class women” in such films as L’amore 1948, Bellissima 1951, The Rose Tatto 1955, The Fugitive Kind 1960, and Mamma Roma 1962.

1. Bellissima1951

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  • Title in English: Beautiful
  • Type: Drama
  • Director: Luchino Visconti
  • Cast: Anna Magnani, Walter Chiari, Gastone Renzellli
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.7/10
  • Duration: 1h 48m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: A woman from the lower class desperately tries to get her daughter into the movies.

2. Roma città aperta 1945

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  • Title in English: Rome, Open City
  • Type: Drama, Thriller, War
  • Director: Roberto Rossellini
  • Cast: Anna Magnani, Aldo Favrizi
  • Rating on IMDb: 8.0/10
  • Duration: 1h 43m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: During the Nazi occupation of Rome in 1944, the Resistance leader, Giorgio Manfredi, is chased by the Nazis as he seeks refuge and a way to escape.

3. Il Segreto di Santa Vittoria

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  • Title in English: The Secret of Santa Vittoria
  • Type: Comedy, Drama, War
  • Director: Stanley Kramer
  • Cast: Anna Magnani, Anthony Quinn, Virna Lisi, Hardy Kruger.
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.3/10
  • Duration: 2h 19m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: During WWII in Italy, a wine-producing village hides a million bottles from the Germans.

4. Nella Città l’inferno 1959

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  • Title in English: ..and the Wild Wild Women
  • Type: Drama
  • Director: Renato Castellani
  • Cast: Anna Magnani, Giulietta Masina, Cristina Gaioni, Anita Durante
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.2/10
  • Duration: 1h 35m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: A harsh study about the grim realities of life in a female prison environment. The story concerns a young girl sent to prison who experiences the entire prison subculture.

5. La Fuggitiva 1941

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  • Title in English: La Fuggitiva
  • Type: Drama
  • Director: Piero Ballerini
  • Cast: Anna Mgnani, Jole Voleri, Clelia Matania, Anna Carena
  • Rating on IMDb: 5.8/10
  • Duration: 1h 21m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: In the absence of the biological mother, too busy pursuing her theatrical career, we see the glorification of the maternal surrogate, a woman who is a paragon of sacrifice and self-abnegation.

6. Tre donne – 1943: un incontro. 1971

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  • Title in English: Tre donne – 1943: un incotro.
  • Type: Drama
  • Director: Alfredo Giannetti.
  • Cast: Anna Magnani, Enrico Maria Saler
  • Rating on IMDb: 7.6/10
  • Duration: 1h 54m
  • Watch: Here
  • Plot: In Rome, 1943, occupied by the Germans, Lieutenant Stelvio Parmegiani, a deserter from the Italian army, hides in a hotel and meets nurse Jolanda Morigi. She offers him at her home, and in a short time, they begin a relationship.

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