

User Score
58 votes
“A daring new film experience... made without fear, without taboos!”
Six vignettes explore love and desire in Rome, from prostitution and heartache to unwed motherhood and the male gaze.
Director
Director
Director
Director
Director
Director
Writer
Writer
Writer
Status
Released
Original Language
IT

When Gelsomina, a naïve young woman, is purchased from her impoverished mother by brutish circus strongman Zampanò to be his wife and partner, she loyally endures her husband's coldness and abuse as they travel the Italian countryside performing together. Soon Zampanò must deal with his jealousy and conflicted feelings about Gelsomina when she finds a kindred spirit in Il Matto, the carefree circus fool, and contemplates leaving Zampanò.

(segment "Tentato suicidio")
Tommaso is the youngest son of the Cantones, a large, traditional southern Italian family operating a pasta-making business since the 1960s. On a trip home from Rome, where he studies literature and lives with his boyfriend, Tommaso decides to tell his parents the truth about himself. But when he is finally ready to come out in front of the entire family, his older brother Antonio ruins his plans.