The story of Italian cinema under Fascism, a sophisticated film industry built around the founding of the Cinecittà studios and the successful birth of a domestic star system, populated by very peculiar artists among whom stood out several beautiful, magnetic, special actresses; a dark story of war, drugs, sex, censorship and tragedy.

At the end of the Great War, the wounded Jacques Taillandier is cared for by the beautiful Hélène Marimon and becomes her lover. He hides from her the fact that her husband is a comrade from the trenches, and only reveals the truth when he learns of Marimon's death. Outraged, Hélène drives him away. After many years, Jacques reappears to learn that Hélène had once given him a daughter. Hélène, unwilling to reveal anything to young Dominique, forces the man she loves to leave her country. Dominique not only gets her mother to talk, but also reunites those separated by fate.

A young woman has a perilous affair with a General from the opposing side during the Revolutionary war.

When young Dalia is mistakenly admitted to a mental institution, she is declared sane - but by a truly mad person pretending to be a doctor. The real doctor thinks she is insane - how can she escape this madness?

A renowned surgeon becomes involved with an attractive circus trapeze artist with the relationship threatening his marriage and family life.

A gangster comes back to Rome after many years and meets his old flame and their daughter.

The story of 5 girls among 200 who answer a wanted ad for a modest secretarial position, which leads to overcrowding in the building and a tragic accident.

A secret agent is summoned by the head of a counter espionage organization, to Trieste where he is to unmask a potential enemy operating in Venice.

An elderly lady, who has lost her only son in the war, turns her house into a pension. It is also the custody of a mysterious document that his son entrusted to him, and which is coveted by many people .

A love story along the lines of Romeo and Juliet, set in Calabria: two young lovers belong to two families who have always been enemies of each other.

In Italy, Checco Dal Monte manages a troupe of traveling performers with plenty of heart but minimal talent. At a small town engagement, he encounters the starry-eyed, gorgeous Lily Antonelli, and hires her as a dancer on the show. Vivacious Lily quickly sells out crowds and earns the resentment of Checco's mistress, Melina Amour, but the fledgling performer has far bigger ambitions and soon sets her sights on a higher-profile role.

In the Po Valley during the 19th century, a rich girl engaged to a well-to-do farmer ends up penniless and is forced to work for her fiancé’s relatives. Peasant unrest, carried to extremes by both workers and landowners, leads to violence and tragedy.

An Italian sex worker falls in love with a black American soldier during World War II.

In impoverished post-war Rome, a gang of young thieves is lead by Stefano, the son of an illustrious professor. The police suspects that the criminals are actually university students; inspector Mariani, a young World War II veteran, enrolls and tries to find out more. He falls for a pretty fellow student, Luisa, but she is the sister of the gang leader...

Immediately after the war, bandits attack a truck that is transporting newlyweds Michele and Giovanna and the accountant of an agricultural cooperative charged with bringing four million lire into office.

Among others, Ernesto returns to Turin after the war from a German POW camp; his household destroyed and family deceased, he tries making an honest living.

The meritorious assistance of a US institution, towards the inhabitants of a refugee camp, in the Italian post-war period, among the protagonists a doctor who tries to do everything possible to treat the population in critical health conditions. The doctor will fall in love with a girl particularly affected by the dramatic war period, but the return of the girl's boyfriend from captivity and the subsequent marriage will make the American doctor return to daily reality.

An old woman's poignant reminiscence of her youth in a convent school, the happy moments and the sad, and her tragic love for a Garibaldian.

A young woman teaches commercial writing and makes her students practice by writing letters addressed to an imaginary recipient from Vienna. One day, the love letter the woman writes to this non-existent man is accidentally sent by one of her students –and falls into the hands of a real person.