300 years of a remarkable musical instrument. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin has traveled through Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake. In Montreal, Samuel L Jackson plays an appraiser going over its complex history.

A struggling musician living in New York starts working at an Italian restaurant and falls in love with two women.

In Pasquale Pozzessere's debut, a woman just out of prison falls in love with a man who saw steaing form a collection box in a church. Some critics saw a dry style next to Pasolini's as the director shows the two desperate individuals effort to build a sort of precarious family. In the end you could almost feel there's still a slender thread of hope for them to hang on

Greek Sea, World War II. An Italian ship leaves a handful of soldiers in a little island; their mission is to spot enemy ships and to hold the island in case of attack. The village of the island seems abandoned and there isn't a single enemy in sight, so the soldiers begin to relax a little. Things change when their ship is hit and destroyed by the enemy, and the soldiers find themselves abandoned there.

The annual film festival in Venice is, of course, an ideal place to make a film (how come no-one has thought of it before). Everything is there in Pupi Avati's Festival: the famous hotels Des Bain and Excelsior on the Lido, the shimmering sandy beach which captivated Visconti. The film was made last spring and exploits the presence of passing film stars such as Jack Nicholson. We see the hysterical press conferences, where journalists and experts ask intelligent questions-without listening to the answers.

In the 15th century, in a poor Italian village, the monks of a modest convent take up an abandoned baby. Unfortunately, for all their efforts, they prove unable to trace his parents. So they set up providing tender loving care to the little boy. Marcellino lives a happy life among the men of God but, as he grows up, he misses his mother more and more.

Anthology of urban stories form seven Italian directors.

At the end of the 18th century, a couple of libertine Tuscan aristocrats welcome in their villa (and into their bedroom) an handsome young revolutionary, hoping to rekindle their marriage.

The story of a young Calabrian widow who initially reclusive, must come to terms with her loss and live her life.