Name your Top 5 favorite Italian Film Genres

The Saloon
1

We all love SWs, thats why we are on this board, but what other types of Italian film genre’s do you like? Perhaps you happen to enjoy Giallo’s even more than you like Spaghetti Westerns?

Italians have done it all in the world of film:
Euro-Crime/Poliziottesch, Peplum/Sword and Sandal, Giallo, Arthouse/Drama, Sex Comedies, Gothic Horror, Macaroni Combat, Women in Prison, Erotic, Zombie films, Jungle, Sci-Fi etc…

Name your top 5 film genre’s from this country and give a few reasons or examples why.

2
  1. Arthouse/Drama (reason: Antonioni and Bertolucci)
  2. Spaghetti Western (reason: three Sergios, Petroni and some other “hidden gems”)
  3. Comedy/Satire (reason: Fellini and Petri)
  4. Giallo (reason: Argento, but also some other talented directors)
  5. Poliziotteschi (reason: mostly Castellari)

I added my own category - Comedy/Satire - hope you don’t mind, but Italian comedies and satires are fascinating.

3

Too hard for me as I like 'em all. All I can say is that I love Italian Crime and Spaghetti westerns the most.

4

My list is in no particular order. It’s just depends on what you’re looking for at the moment: a good fun or something intelligent and demanding.

5

Well I confess I’m a big fan of Italian Cinema, but I my favourite period (not genre) are those post war movies from the Neorealism movement, are some of the best pieces of cinema ever, De Sica, Rosselini and so on

6

My top two aswell.

7

Spaghetti Western
Poliziotteschi
Action/Post Apocalyptic
Horror/Zombie (Demons, Suspiria, City of the Living Dead, Burial Ground, etc)
Giallo

8

Westerns
Crime

then Peplum…

then Horror, and Women In Prison lately

9

I love them as well, but I can’t include this genre yet, as I haven’t seen many examples of the genre. I love Bicycle Thieves by De Sica is one of the best flicks I’ve seen. Must check his other efforts out.

10
  1. Spaghetti Western (by far)
  2. Gothic Horror (Kill Baby Kill, Black Sunday, Black Sabbath, Nightmare Castle)
  3. Conventional and supernatural horror (Three mothers trilogy, City of the Living Dead, I Vampiri)
  4. Giallo (Phenomena, House of Laughing windows, The Psychic)
  5. Sword and Sandal (Steve Reeves, Hercules in the Haunted World)
11
  1. Spaghetti western
  4. Macaroni Combat
  5. Giallo & Polizoteschi
12
  1. spaghetti western
  5. postapocalyptic

haven’t seen much of other genres, but i’m openminded …

13
  1. Spaghetti western
  2. Giallo
  3. Poliziotteschi
  4. Macaroni combat
  5. Zombie films
14
  1. Spaghetti western
  2. Giallo
  3. Polizoteschi
  4. Horror
  5. Action/Post-apocalypse
15
  1. Spaghetti western (obviously)
  2. Giallo (Great genre which keeps surprising me again and again.)
  3. Art-House/drama (Antonioni’s Blow Up, Bertolucci’s Il Conformista, Fellini’s Amarcord to name few…)
  4. Polizoteschi (Fernando Di Leo, Umberto Lenzi)
  5. Erotica (mainly just because of Tinto Brass)
16

Yes, these are phenomenal, all of them are my all time favs… :slight_smile:

17

True, but I didn’t see that as ‘genre cinema’

18
  1. Spaghetti Western - it’s probably the most underrated film genre there is, considering how many great and intriguing films it produced.
  2. Arthouse - Italy is up there with France for the best art movies. Visconti, Bertolucci, Antonioni, De Sica, etc, etc have all helped shape cinema.
  3. Giallo - is a genre that not only influenced American Slasher films but “carved” an identity for itself with elegant, convoluted films and a mix of sleaze and style.
  4. Horror- the films of Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci show just how extraordinarily vibrant and imaginative horror films could be and really managed to differentiate themselves from other national brands of horror pictures very well.
  5. Polizoteschi - this is a genre I need to explore a lot more but what I have seen of it, I’ve been very impressed, with Fernando Di Leo’s Il Boss a particular high-light.
19

But one can call it a genre. The similarities between these films in their style and themes are not far from those in other genres.

20

Properly excluding Auteurs, Neorealism, Commedia all’italiana and cinema of denunciation these are my preferences:

  1. Spaghetti Western
  2. Giallo
  3. Italian Crime (including “Poliziottesco”)
  4. Horror
  5. Sex (and Trash) Comedies on a par with Erotic

But I need to explore more these genres: Macaroni Combat, Peplum/Sword and Sandal, Spy, Sci-Fi, Action/Post Apocalyptic, Lacrima-movies.